Democratic Women’s Club to host March 26 speaker
Lóre Stevens
The club will host Stevens, minister of Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, at 5:30 p.m. at the Scarboro Community Center, 148 Carver Ave., Oak Ridge.
Stevens will explore religion as the organized community aspect of spirituality and the sense of connection that leads people to act with compassion, nonviolence and determination for the well-being of others.
She said religion has been used throughout history as a tool for power and control, including today, when Christianity — which challenges its adherents to love their neighbors and enemies — has been used to justify xenophobia and cruelty.
Stevens also will discuss how democracy in the United States was founded on the principle of separation of church and state, and how that principle is sometimes misunderstood.
Stevens, who is of Mexican descent, grew up in Powell.
She holds a master’s degree in gender studies from Eastern Michigan University and a master of divinity from Harvard University.
She has received the UU History & Heritage Society’s Research Prize for UU Leaders and the Dana Greeley Sermon Award. She also was a finalist for the Harvard Divinity School Billings Preaching Prize.
Pizza will be available for $5 per person at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.
