Went to feed John's cat today and decided, spurr of the moment, to head over to Foothills Unitarian on the way back, since I was just in time for the first sermon. I stopped going sometime last year after the activism got to be too much for me (guilt's useful, but only in certain quantities). Today, however, the sermon was particularly interesting. The subject was blasphemy in all of its aspects - from the inquisition to political blasphemy to social and academic blasphemy, anything that questions views that people hold sacred to themselves. Though the minister hinted at it, he didn't mention the sort of patriotic blasphemy that some Americans get so wound up in. I'd write something up about how some people take patriotism to near religious extremes, but I'd probably get accused of blasphemy :