Luckily, I was not asked to give a sermon! However, Pastor Irene asked me earlier in the week to say some words about what my church (Wasatch Presbyterian Church, PC-USA, Salt Lake City) means to my family. By the way, as my recent book points out (hint, hint, if you want to buy a copy): “…I hold my belief in the importance of denominations very, very loosely.”
In other words, I don’t care if a church is Protestant mainline, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, whatever! As long as the congregation in the church 1) supports science to improve the quality of existence of our species and for the planet and 2) supports people regardless of race, income, religion, sexual orientation, and all the other beautiful aspects of human complexity, then I’m fine with it.
This may sound strange, but I hate talking at church. As part of my academic job, I have given hundreds of lectures ranging from small group talks with less than 10 people to American Academy of Pediatric talks with almost a thousand people in the audience. Such talks about clinical medicine never bother me. I find it very strange that I get nervous when I get up to speak at any church. I’ve had some issues with anti-science churches in the past that I have attended which probably has given me a bit of anxiety in the church setting. Wasatch Presbyterian is not perfect (and no church is), but it is pro-science and pro-humanity.
Anyway, I start my talk at around 22 min, 22 sec and end at around 25 min, 7 sec if you want to listen to it. Here is the link.
picture of where I attend church
Phi-The-Sci: Equilateral Musings 