President Obama’s August 31, 2013 speech suggests that his administration wants to attack the Assad regime for two reasons: to protect national security and to deter the future use of chemical weapons, both by the Assad regime and in future conflicts. Is United States military action an effective way to achieve the second of the Obama’s administration’s two stated goals? No...
I will be preaching at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson on September 29th. If you’re in the area I hope you can join me.
I particularly like my prayer from yesterday’s service so I thought I would share it. God,the holy,the divine,the spirit of life,whirling, changing, transmuting danceof energy and matter,all that is,eternal illusion,whatever it is,however we name it,be it the atheist’s balancing equationsor the mystics interrupting visions,let us be present to it,let us feel its presence,now,this...
preached at First Parish in Milton, Unitarian Universalist, July 7, 2013 This past week has been, more than anything, devoted to picking wild black raspberries. There are two large patches of them near my apartment. Each day I spend at least an hour filling a quart sized plastic yogurt container with the dark purple seedy fruit. It is a laborious process. It requires careful attention. I wear...
This summer I am leading worship and providing pastoral care for the First Parish in Milton, Unitarian Universalist, for the month of July. In my sermons I will explore Unitarian Universalism as a religion of presence. Over the next four weeks each of the services will touch on a different question. This week I will ask: What does it mean to be present to the moment? Next week: How can we be...
More than twenty years ago, I snuck out of my parents house and went to my first rave in Detroit. The venue was an abandoned school on Woodward. DWynn was spinning and I was hooked as soon as I heard Cajmere’s track “Percolator.” A couple of years later, in the autumn of my freshman year of college, I met up with ed luna and, shortly thereafter, the rest of ele_mental (Titonton Duvante, Todd...
I spent the end of May and the first week of June in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago and then travelling through Catalonia with my wife. I hope to take time to write up some reflections about my trip, particularly my time on the Camino and my visits with the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist trade union the Confederación General del Trabajo, next month. In the meantime, here’s a poem that I...
I am preaching six times this summer. If you are in the area consider stopping by and coming up and saying hi. Here’s my schedule: June 30, Preaching at First Parish in Concord, MAJuly 7, Preaching at First Parish Milton, Unitarian Universalist, in Milton, MAJuly 14, Preaching at First Parish Milton, Unitarian Universalist, in Milton, MAJuly 21, Preaching at First Parish Milton, Unitarian...
The May 2013 Workers Power column, “Expanding Your Congregation of Fellow Workers,” is now on-line. Since I actually wrote it myself, I have included the full text below. Expanding Your Congregation of Fellow Workers If you have been active in the IWW for a while, you have probably come across a pamphlet called “Rusty’s Rules of Order”— the pamphlet that serves as a guide to running...
The April 2013 Workers Power column, “Taking Creative Action,” is available on-line here.