Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of the influence continuum.

And this is a very special interview, I think, very unique because I have a Unitarian Universalist

Minister on who has actually been excommunicated from the world's most

liberal religion.

And I want to introduce him, Reverend Dr. Todd F. Eckloff, who is a native of San Francisco,

California, where he was born, has been a minister of the Unitarian

Universalist Church of Spokane, Washington since 2011, where he's appreciated for his mind-altering

sermons, compassionate soul, and social activism. He's been widely appreciated for his environmental and gay rights activism, in addition to engaging

in areas of criminal justice reform, restorative justice, the peace movement, as well as

immigration and racial justice.

So he has written the gadfly papers, three inconvenient essays by one pesky minister, which is fascinating, and then a gadfly affair, a 21st century heretics Excommunication from America's most liberal religion.

And may I call you Todd, Reverend Doctor?

Please do.

So I just want to say a little bit more about your history and your background, if you don't mind.

You started in the ministries an ordained Southern Baptist minister, but left a while in seminary as a young man's explaining,

I simply outgrew it. Then you went into a 16-year career in TV news and corporate video production, during which

time you became a Unitarian Universalist in 1988 and re-entered the ministry in 1999, where

you began serving the Clifton Unitarian Church in Louisville, Kentucky until 2011.

So you have two undergraduate degrees, one in philosophy, another in communications,

a Masters of Art in Religious Studies, and a Doctor of Ministry.

You're also a member of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association.

I can go on and on, but I think my listeners have the gist, and I want to hear more about your journey

...