James Luther Adams was born on this day in 1901. It is very easy to argue Adams is the last significant Unitarian Universalist theologian. Hopefully more will follow. And, yes, people have been contributing to the literature. I like to think of myself as part of that gang. But significant. That’s the word. And that’s Adams. Chris Walton, editor of the UU World, wrote of Adams: “When James Luther Adams, a young Unitarian minister and newly appointed professor of theology... Read more

Yesterday I was interviewed by the local BGLTQQI oriented magazine about our involvement in justice issues regarding the community. I realized I am a terrible interview. I tend to think and talk by digression. Fortunately the interviewer seemed sympathetic enough and I doubt anything horrible will come out of it. And. Among the digressions when I showed her our historic Meeting House, I found myself pulled, once again, to the Civil War plaque. It names those who served and those... Read more

Last February auntie, Jan and I were in New York City. Among other things we took in a couple of Broadway shows. One was a new production of the Miracle Worker. Really liked it. But I found myself annoyed at one small plot point. In it the redoubtable (and she really, really was) Annie Sullivan figures out how to communicate with deafblind Helen Keller. She worked a miracle. But the tools she used were in fact already in her head.... Read more

Just read Zen teacher Dosho Port’s post on the rich and the poor as a Dharma issue. I think he’s pointing to a major issue for our times. And, I agree, it is a spiritual problem. It is how our very culture wishes to deny the real problems which endanger it… Which, if you haven’t figured it out are endlessly arising greed, hatred and abiding certainties. Our American romance with capitalism and its perverse ideology of greed is good and... Read more

This morning I’m off to the funeral for a ministerial colleague. Died pretty young. I feel the aches of arthritis, look into the mirror and see more gray… Time quickly passes by… Life and death Now separate Now one thing Now each separate and one fall away The great dance itself… Read more

RACE MATTERS A Meditation on the Arc of History James Ishmael Ford 7 November 2010 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.  And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”  Theodore Parker, in his 1853... Read more

This film is a pretty good overview of the Japanese approach to Zen. Here you get a sense of Soto and Rinzai. There are many other schools of Zen, of course, for instance here or here or here.  I suggest watching might be a good way to use an hour. thank you, Glenda, for the pointer! Read more

Roy Rogers was born on this day in 1911. Being a liberal arts major I’m never quite sure about the math, but I believe this means if he hadn’t died in 1998, he’d be 99 today… For those too young to recall, he was a fixture of my generation’s childhood. I really wanted to be Roy when I grew up. But, somewhere along the line, other things happened. And I became me. In fact I’m pretty happy how things turned... Read more

On this day in 1970 in Los Angeles a thirteen-year old child was discovered to have been kept locked in a room for the entirety of her life, mostly tied sitting on a potty chair. She never escaped the consequences of the brutal treatment, and particularly the social isolation of those first thirteen years. Beyond the immediate sadness of her situation, I find I need to pause. Those who think we are autonomous creatures would do well to read her... Read more

WESTERN BUDDHIST TEACHERS FOR A FREE BURMAc/o Clear View Project1933 Russell Street, Berkeley, CA [email protected] / 510.845.2215 1 November 2010The White House1600 Pennsylvania AveWashington, DC  20500 Dear President Obama,As you know, the upcoming elections in Burma, scheduled for November 7th cannot be legitimate without participation of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD is boycotting this sham process because the Burmese military regime has designed electoral laws that insure that a rigged and non-representative election will transpire precluding the... Read more