Sermons in Liberal Religion

Rev. Meredith Garmon

"Liberal" comes from the same root as "liberty"--thus liberal religion is religion that is free. Being open-minded, it is free of dogmatism; being democratic in its polity, it is free of authoritarian hierarchy. Liberal religion does not imply liberal politics: people may find a home in liberal religion whether their politics are left, right, or center. Liberal religion holds that revelation is never sealed; truth is never complete. Our understanding is, and should be, continually evolving. No assertion can ever be permanently exempt from revision. Religious understanding, like empirical knowledge, is a self-adjusting enterprise that can put any claim in jeopardy (though not all at once). We do not stand upon a foundation of certainty, but swim within a rising tide of growing knowledge. The way that we make spiritual and religious sense of our world, our selves, and our lives shifts and grows as all our understandings shift and grow. Liberal religion insists that our relations rest on