three and unitarian universalists. i put them in the middle ground simply because of something like cups , because they can be- they are so diverse in their beliefs, that sometimes they can be liberal to the point of, legitimizing as it is said in terms of the convention a coven. the coven, we met kate cogen way back sometime in the mythic or ritual dimension, a coven of unitarian universalists pagans. and so that open mindedness can create attention with a dominant society. as certain kinds of fundamentalists christian groups because of intensity of belief can create tension. one example you can-- be the second largest established protestant denomination in the united states, is the southern baptism. you might remember a while back where they came out with one of their conventions statements that women-- i forget exactly what it was but women should be-- should serve their husbands. now a statement like that, as we're struggling as we have so often in this class to rid ourselves of patriarchal attitudes, that pushes i

and non-conventionality and a pin from the unitarian it's got all the symbols >> this is from the rockford unitarian universalist church and the top is the cross of christianity and then the crescent and star of islam and then the olm of the hinduism. and then the star of david for judaism and then the yang and yin of daoism and then the wheel with the eight poled path of buddhism. >> and in the center? >> the eternal flame of the search for truth which is the symbol of unitarian universalism. >> now i'm going to get pinned? >> you are going to get pinned. [laughter] >> because you are a professor of religious studies. >> and i can wear this? >> and you can wear this because it's got all of them on it. >> see it's a neutral pin. [laughter] [applause] >> there you are see and that's the end of the lecture. >> thank you. [laughter] >> roll in quickly. just couple of more things. but, thank you helen, there is a couple of reasons we wanted to do that; first off, we needed to hear some thing about the unitarian universalists, but also how interesting helen's reaction i think that, when we're l

benjamin franklin was a unitarian. and in philadelphia, benjamin franklin discovered these ideas we're talking about now and he put the first lightning rod on the unitarian-- now, you knew-- you know who the unitarians are? they can play cards on saturday night. they can even drink liquor, okay? they can wear all the lipstick they want. they're thinking about the cosmos goes beyond those little concerns, right? but people thought that if any building gotta get hit, honey, it ought to be the-- and guess what? never, the unitarian church didn't get belted. and one by one the churches started to put lightning rods 'cause what's the primary purpose of a lightning rod, gang? some people think is to attract lightning. what did you see here is to prevent lightning. if you got a lightning rod in this church, what you do is you leak off this charge that builds up as fast as it builds on, so you won't have a positive down here and the negative. they leak up, you see? and what happened, the lightning hit over here, you say, hit t

oh yes, the dang just-- dangerous cult of unitarianism, their rules are so loose that their tle sacred fixes are the old testament, the new testament and free to be you and me. (applause) so ladies and gentlemen, a miracle has occurred for mitt. because with god all things are deletable. >> a meeting with mitt romney seems to have changed evangelist billy graham view of mormons, he removed references to mormonism as a cult after meeting with him. >> romney took some time in north carolina to visit billy graham. graham told romney that will do, quote, all i can to help romney win the white house. >> though in fairness the 93-year-old graham has said the same thing to his coatrack. so a tip of my hat to the reverend billy graham for disencultfewing more mondayism. folk, i agree, billy graham's web site definition of cult says they are those belief systems that do not adhere solely to the 66 books of the bible as the inspired word of god. and add their special revelations to the bible. well, folk, the book of mormon isn't a special revelation. it is jesus fan fiction. right after jesus co

leader for the catholic church do not like the fact of same-sex marriages but union nip tarns -- unitariansmbrace. that the question everyone as to answer is what they believe. this has brought in heavy hitters of all fair. the faith community is split with members of the same faith interpreting things differently. >> there was a time hour ancestors were denied fairness and quality under the law. >> if you love jesus and you want to uphold the word of god, you must vote against this law -- question six. you must stand up for your faith. >> we're definitely not trying to feet god. there are a lot who are still deeply rooted in their faith. they understand question six has nothing to do what happens in church. it's about gay and lesbian couples being treated fairly and equally. >> we should be able it give rights and been fits for gay and lesbian couples. that's fine. we need it make sure that the core stays intact. we already understand what the metrics are right now. it's not good. we don't need a further degradation of families. they don't value that institution. >> reporter: so what does

person can sing next to a white person, asian person, next to a christian, ewe tear yan, agnostic -- unitarianagnostic -- that we are all more alike than unalike. >> i love that vision. i want that to spread out that we are more alike than different. music is one of those things that bring us together. often i heard the old quote that music is the language of the soul. it opens us up in a deep, deep way. opens our heart. >> it is the best vehicle for deep conversation, actually. >> how do people get into the choir. do they audition? >> yes. >> how does that work? >> we have an audition in february, with roughly eight to ten spots every year. >> only eight to ten? these are very coveted spots. >> yes. >> this is all volunteer work? >> it is all volunteer. >> we rehearse every monday and sing about 22 times a year. that is without the small group. the ensemble adds another 15 times. >> that is wonderful. i know you are doing charity work with a coat drive. tell us about that? >> at our holiday concert we are having a coat drive. you can bring as many coats as you can, for our homeless shelter fo

going on, the finnish christmas bazaar between the hours of 11:00 and 3:00, right there, at the unitarian church. 50 degrees, temperatures in the low 50s for the most part. plenty of sunshine. get out and enjoy that one. next couple of days, here you go. 53 on sunday. a lot of clouds potentially on monday. at least early. a high of only 52. then we start to get our temperatures going back in the right direction. highs in the 50s on tuesday. mid to upper 50s on wednesday. and possibly near 60 just in time for thanksgiving. of course, that's when everyone wants to see partly sunny skies. looks like next week will be a little warmer than what we saw over the past couple of details. finnish christmas bazaar, they always bring us cookies every year. they made us this beautiful, beautiful gingerbread house. >> it smells delicious. it's fresh gingerbread. >> you're our chief suspect, doug. >> they donated $500 in our name for nbc 4 to the children's hospital. >> fantastic. wonderful. we hope people will follow your google map and head on out there. >> there's that tree. see? >> thanks, doug. >>>

nontheist believing in the absence or rejection of god is in the house, and the first hindu and only unitarianist. joining me now is democratic congressman keith ellison of minnesota. representative, always good to see you here. >> thank you. glad to be on. >> you know, as many know you were the first muslim elected to congress yet islam in america goes back more than a century. >> yes. >> that could be said of many of the religions i was just mentioning here. why do you think this is the era that people like this are finally being elected? >> well, i think it is because people are participating, people are engaged in our democratic process. america is more open and tolerant than it ever has been in its history and i think that folks want to be part of this great american experiment. i mean, america started out great for religion. it said congress shall make no law establishing religion nor bridge the free exercise thereof. also it said there is no religious test to hold office. and now we're seeing, reaping the fruits of that, those promises and it's really a great thing. >> un, we can't help

priestly was one of the cofounders of the unitarian church in england and he had, his single most powerful effect on jefferson's religious views of anyone. jefferson was a huge, we would now say priestly fan boy and was incredibly moved by priestly. because he was such a maverick he ended up getting run out of england in the birmingham riots and comes to the united states as really our first great kind of intellectual exile, coming for the kind of intellectual freedom. then gets into, gets bound up in, kind of has a falling out with adams. gets bound up in all these controversies in the united states and, ends up being this single most mentioned figure in the adams-jefferson letters. he is mentioned 10 times as many times as franklin is, for instance, in the famous correspondence between adams and jefferson. he is kind of like this unsung, this missing founding father who shows up in all these kind of key points in our history that not enough people know about. so i wanted to kind of celebrate his life in that book. >> host: well, steven johnson, very quickly, three quick quotes from, the

there has to be a much more cooperative, unitarian type of system. i wish he were talking in more that context, and i wish congressional leaders would be willing to sit down. the positive thing is that it looks right now like people are more anxious to work this out. host: let's go to brandy station, virginia, jeff, a republican. go ahead. you are on a secretary glickman. caller: i have listened to the secretary saying things that i believe differ with what america is all about. many of the problems is individuals like yourself who have been a part of government. you have become like many of them, millionaires, to fold, threefold. for you to say folks should pay more of their fair share i think is code words that i hear the president and many others use. part of the problem is you do not want the real fair share, which is everybody pays the same thing. i am individual who was raised to be independent, to do the things that are necessary to become a worthy citizen of this country. when you talk about millionaires or billionaires', the 40% that the pre

viruses, we'd like to talk about them having a unitarian genomic sequence by thibodeau. it's a whole population with a bell curve and you're just sampling right down the middle. but within that huge population, there's a fitness for all sorts of different if i ventured so if it moves him here to there, and this requires a slightly different property, then those genomes that are present within a population will begin to set a new set point describes the middle. so you're going to think about the viruses as a whole swarm of what we call quasi-species. and viruses as they reproduce their nuclei acid, every time they make, say a thousand, that one error, so .1% error rate. and if you multiply that over minutes and hours, there's a lot of opportunity for different fitness environments. and in addition, flu viruses as captain dan was saying, have the ability out on to mutate in that way, but also they can exchange genome segments. if you've got an animal infected with two different flu viruses, it can swap out genome segments, and very rapidly develop a whole new landscape. an

priestly was one of the cofounders of the unitarian church in england and he had, his single most powerful effect on jefferson's religious views of anyone. jefferson was a huge, we would now say priestly fan boy and was incredibly moved by priestly. because he was such a maverick he ended up getting run out of england in the birmingham riots and comes to the united states as really our first great kind of intellectual exile, coming for the kind of intellectual freedom. then gets into, gets bound up in, kind of has a falling out with adams. gets bound up in all these controversies in the united states and, ends up being this single most mentioned figure in the adams-jefferson letters. he is mentioned 10 times as many times as franklin is, for instance, in the famous correspondence between adams and jefferson. he is kind of like this unsung, this missing founding father who shows up in all these kind of key points in our history that not enough people know about. so i wanted to kind of celebrate his life in that book. >> host: well, steven johnson, very quickly, three quick quotes from, the