David Brooks is every liberal’s favorite public conservative. I know I find him always thoughtful and often offering a corrective that I need to hear. He has now written on the subject of the murderous rampage this past Saturday. I also saw a fragment of him on the PBS NewHour last night before taking off to our Monday evening Zen meditation group where he challenged the issue of correlation and causality between rampant hate speech, particularly from right wing talk... Read more

When tragedy strikes, in all the confusion its often hard to sort out what happened. And of course in most cases not one thing happens, but many. I first caught a hint of one of those stories driving back from dropping Jan off at the train. Just a fragment of a story. I looked it up. Apparently when Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard, supporters of Representative Giffords at the meet and greet, first heard the shots they thought they were firecrackers.... Read more

TREMBLING BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD A Meditation on the Attempted Assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the Necessity of Speaking Truth in Violent Times 9 January 2011 A Sermon James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text The Sunday after Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, my husband’s family attended their Presbyterian church.  They went with heavy hearts, expecting the pastor to help make sense of the tragedy.  The minister rose to preach.  The congregation... Read more

The Battle of New Orleans was fought on this day in 1815… Of course the war had already ended. But that didn’t matter… The major consequence of this battle was that it led in large part to the election of Andrew Jackson as president of the United States. A complex and deeply shadowed figure… And whether something like this would have happened whether he was president or not, Jackson took active charge of Indian removal, and the Trail of Tears,... Read more

Well, it’s back to sermon writing after two weeks off from the job. Well, not off from “the” job, ministry. But, the last two worship services did not include my holding forth from the great pulpit. I have a good title. I know where it needs to go. Even did a little advance reading… And now I’m launched into the process. Which is to avoid putting words to paper, well, pixels to screen, for as long as possible. I’m fascinated... Read more

Rhode Island State Representative Arthur Handy has announced that he will be submitting legislation today calling for marriage equality in our state. It will be his ninth try. This time the tide appears to be flowing with him. Two days ago in his inaugural address Governor Lincoln Chaffee also called for marriage equality. I sit on the steering committee for the Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality in Rhode Island. We are confident this is the year. Representative Handy will probably... Read more

’tis like rising from the dead. like the seven seals have been broken open. Read more

The recent events at the Zen Studies Society, including Eido Shimano’s public apology for his actions, his resignation as abbot, followed by a letter to the NY Times that while not published, was widely shared, denying he resigned because of any sexual misconduct and the subsequent uproar from the Western Zen world including the Zen teacher mahasangha has set me to thinking about the question of sexual boundaries, ethics, codes and enforcement within our emerging Western Zen mahasanga. The allegations... Read more

With a cold that won’t go away… Back at work soon. Promise! Read more

Last night not long after eight I tumbled into a deep sleep. A little after seven in the morning I dragged myself out of bed, made my bleary way downstairs to make a cup of coffee. The cold that’s been raging through my body dominated my crossing the new year… Of course, as the early tenth century Zen master, living through the worst of times, was able to declare, “Everyday is a good day.” Okay, maybe Yunmen’s good day isn’t... Read more