TIME TO END THE PAYDAY SCAM Here’s the problem. Rhode Island Payday loans carry 260% annual interest rates. Ours is the only state in New England that continues to allow this practice. What these loans are in fact are traps for the working people of our state, ensnaring them in a downward cycle of indebtedness, draining millions of dollars a year from individuals and, of course, our communities. Let’s be frank about this. People used to go to hell for... Read more

EXODUS FOR NONBELIEVERS 23 March 2012 James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text And Moses looked and witnessed the bush burned with fire, but was not consumed. Moses thought to himself, “I will turn aside and watch this miracle.” And then a voice called out from the flames and said, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses replied, “Here I am.” And the voice said, “Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground.” And then the divine... Read more

Meredith Garmon at his always thoughtful blog Lake Chalice is doing a series on “spiritual activists.” The current piece is on Thomas Merton, one of my heroes. What is particularly charming is that Meredith excerpts from Merton what I simply have to call his account of his kensho. Kensho, seeing into the matter, resolving the matter, awakening… No religion binds us. We are all constantly being invited into awakening… Here blessed Thomas tells us what it looks like… “In Louisville,... Read more

I’m asked how I write sermons week after week. Twenty years now, and counting… Well, as Red Smith said of writing, but it works for sermonizing, “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” Well, sort of… The deal is to be as open as possible, bleed your heart, but in fact not to bleed all over the listener. Reveal the nitty gritty, bon’t obscure the message. If the call is to share some good news,... Read more

I’ve long admired Rachel Maddow for her intelligence, her ability to stand firmly with a position while remaining essentially fair minded. In last night’s devastating analysis of the problem with Governor Romney she does not avert her eyes from this hard issue, but enumerates what anyone considering the governor as a potential president of the United States needs to think about. Read more

William Shatner turns eighty-one today. Why do I feel old? Read more

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Some Thoughts About Race, Class, Unitarian Universalism and Zen Buddhist Sanghas James Ishmael Ford When I was thirteen my father went to prison. It wasn’t the first time he saw the inside of a jail, but the first time I knew about it. It was just for a year. He’d been the manager of a liquor store. A friend of his said, “I just need to borrow the money ‘till Monday.” As I said, he went away for a year.... Read more

The following by Zen teacher and social justice activist Alan Senauke on some of the issues regarding race and racism within our emerging Western Buddhist communities is an important resource for anyone who cares about the subject. It is available in Alan’s book Bodhisattva’s Embrace, which I commend to anyone looking for both authentic Dharma and an engaged heart. Reprinted here with permission. On Race & Buddhism Alan Senauke Zen Master Dogen wrote “Gourd with its tendrils is entwined with... Read more

STOPPING THE WAR A Meditation on the Way of Peace 18 March 2012 James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are. To follow a path with heart, we must understand the whole process of making war within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. War’s roots are in ignorance. Without understanding we can easily become frightened by life’s fleeting changes, the inevitable losses,... Read more