Thank you, Carol, for that link. It is instructive to hear the rest of the soundbyte: "...for treating her citizens as less than human... as long as she tries to act like she is God and like she is supreme." The entire sermon is a critique of the Bush Administration's policies, based on a biblical exegesis. "God doesn't change," he says, "but governments do." And he speaks very favorably about Bill Clinton.

I preach two or three times a month in my Unitarian Universalist congregation. Sometimes I've taken strong stands on social issues - including an especially hard-hitting sermon on human rights not long ago, as well as sermons on racism, equal marriage rights and pacifism. Over the years I've said many things from the pulpit, some of which were well crafted, and some of which were probably less so. I'm sure I have said things that were poorly expressed or that represent thinking that has since shifted.

I have never written a sermon with the thought that a phrase or a half-sentence could be lifted out and meant to represent who I am as a minister or person - much less who my parishioners are.   

The sermon, whether in church, temple or mosque, is the one of the last bastions of nuanced thought, of oratory that cannot and should not be boiled down to fifteen second soundbytes. If ministers and rabbis now need to preach like politicians speak - because we know that anything we say might show up years later to be used against us - we will have lost the ability to be prophetic, to challenge social structures, to do the best of what religion can do. If we cannot risk making mistakes from time to time, even in the pulpit, then religion loses its authenticity and its power.

In my tradition we have something called a free pulpit. It boils down to this: As the Minister of my fellowship, I can preach whatever I deem to be true, without fear or reservation. The members of the congregation are free to disagree with me (and they often do). Together we engage in a creative conversation and together, we all grow and move toward a greater truth. Isn't that worth preserving?

Dan