ON BEING GOOD A Meditation on Why & How James Ishmael Ford The other day I wrote a brief reflection in defense of atheists. I noted that the high profile of the New Atheists aside, and the misleading concentration of nontheists within both Unitarian Universalist and Buddhists in my circles making nontheists seem more numerous than they are, in reality atheists are a beleaguered minority. They suffer all sorts of insult and injury for their world view and having the... Read more

Dear all, My goodness. 2014. This past year I turned sixty-five. I’m rather surprised at how that has hung in my consciousness. In some ways just a convenience. On the other hand by all our social conventions I am now officially old. And. Dying. Of course we’re all dying. From the moment we draw that first precious breath, there will be a last one. So, the question hangs out there. “What will you do with your one wild & precious... Read more

There’s a recent essay making the rounds in my part of the Facebook world, where the author reveals that atheists are educated elites who can afford to indulge their belief, or, probably its more accurate to say non-belief, and are absolute jerks for saying out loud what a lot of people fear might be true: there is no God. Their unpleasant character is taken as evidence of something. What that something is, appears obvious to me. According to a Pew... Read more

I just learned recently retired San Francisco Zen Center abbot Steve Myogen Stucky died about two hours ago. The echoes of the bell at the San Francisco Zen Center, which rang one hundred, eight times at the moment of his death are still reverberating… As I write these words his community is preparing his body. He asked to be cremated wearing an okesa sewn by his friends. I didn’t know Steve well. But, I did know him. And I really,... Read more

In the Episcopal Church’s Liturgical calendar today is the feast of the remarkable Frances Joseph-Gaudet. Their collect for her is a prayer of thanks for “Frances Joseph-Gaudet(‘s) work for prison reform and the education of her people: Grant that we, encouraged by the example of her life, may work for those who are denied the fullness of life by reasons of incarceration and lack of access to education…” Would that there were more like the blessed Frances. Amen. Read more

Roebuck “Pops” Staples would have been ninety-nine years old today. Read more

A bunch of years ago when I was serving a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Arizona the Sunday following Christmas was close enough I thought that I’d preach on Boxing Day. My friend Kellie Walker who was also our music director asked what exactly was Boxing Day? I said beyond some English thing, I didn’t have a clue. She gave me that look and said, “James, what if it turns out its the day the English celebrate forcing the Chinese to... Read more

The Journey of the Maji T. S. Eliot ‘A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet. Then the camel men cursing and grumbling and... Read more

A CONVERSION OF THE HEART Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol & the Spirit of Liberal Religion A Christmas Eve Meditation 24 December 2013 James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island The other day my favorite pagan blogger Jason Pitzl-Waters observed on his Facebook page, “All I’m saying is that a lot of folks gonna get visited by three ghosts next week.” Three ghosts, four, you get the idea. But, I do think the one Jason didn’t count, or, the... Read more

Today is Christmas Eve. This evening I gird my loins and together with colleagues and friends go to lead two Christmas evening worship services. At five a roiling lovely thing with our children. At nine it gets serious, and hauntingly powerful. And as a Unitarian Universalist minister who when trying to express my stance in life usually reaches for words like nontheist (think atheist without the angst), humanist (think whatever else might be true, our attention needs always to return... Read more