I’m working on a sermon on theft, and well one thing led to another, and I ended up listening to Woody Guthrie’s “Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd.” Now, I’m inclined to think Pretty Boy was a sociopath. But for Guthrie he becomes a stand in for those who suffered at the hands of the rich. And stand up to the system. In that spirit I recall in my childhood how my grandmother, a native of Missouri, would tell me the... Read more
I see today is the anniversary of the death of Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Pope John XXIII (the second one, not the first…) A good man, no doubt. The pope of my childhood, the one protestants liked. Here’s a little tidbit from Bishop Fulton Sheen. (Whom I once met. But that’s another story) Go here for a lovely clip on John’s actions during the war. It doesn’t mention how he actually forged baptismal documents to help thousands of Jews escape. I... Read more
Yes, I’ve read the bill. It stinks. We must respond with love to the fear that drives the debate about immigration.By James Ishmael Ford 6.1.10 Unitarian Universalist ministers gathered in Arizona May 29 and 30 to march with approximately 50,000 opponents of the state’s strict new anti-immigration law. 500 Unitarian Universalists joined the march May 29, many wearing “Standing on the Side of Love” T-shirts or carrying signs and banners with the slogan. (©Standing on the Side of Love/UUA)... Read more
WHAT PART OF ILLEGAL DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? A Meditation on America’s Immigration Debate and the Ocean of Longing 30 May 2010 A Sermon delivered at Bell Street Chapel in Providence, Rhode Island by James Ishmael Ford Text Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. Emma Lazarus. I think about that golden door.... Read more
It is quite early in Phoenix. I’ve been working on my sermon for Sunday. Soon, I’ll finish packing my bags, check out of the hotel, they’ve said I may leave my bags there, and then go off to the demonstration. I really think Arizona’s SB 1070 something wicked. It plays upon fears, some real, most imagined about the undocumented among us. And out of that fear does some bad things to the illegal immigrants, to our law enforcement officers, and... Read more
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