Paying it forward — mutual aid keeps violence at bay in Morro Bay
Faced with increasing violence, a coastal community in California turns to mutual aid to meet needs and make everyone safer.
Identity Crisis Ukraine
We all want to know who we are, where we came from. This is evident in all the interest in Ancestry.com and DNA tests. Even though we who were born in the United States can say we are Americans, our…
Persist to Exist
As I was visiting his church last week, a recently widowed man realized that the woman who had cared for his wife was someone I knew, and might see later that day. He asked me to share with her some…
Time for a Peace Dividend?
Two numbers leapt off the page of the New York Times: 170,000 and 2,000,000,000,000. The first is the number of lives lost in two decades of fighting in Afghanistan and the second is the dollars it cost(1) (or perhaps we…
In Our Diversity
I recently had a brief conversation with Jennifer Adams, CEO of Lumina Alliance (formerly RISE SLO + Stand Strong). She talked about all of the ways that Lumina Alliance serves individuals and families in our community, and works for a…
Maimonides’ Golden Ladder
With so many necessary appeals coming from so many worthy causes, agencies, and organizations, this time of year, I find myself reflecting on Maimonides’ Golden Ladder. Moses Ben Maimon was a Jewish Talmudist, physician, and philosopher of the Middle Ages,…
John Cobb’s Meeting with PFJ and Central Coast EcoCiv Members on January 12, 2022
Where does one start? Dr. John Cobb at age 96 is probably the world’s preeminent process philosopher, a pioneering eco-theologian, author of over 50 books, and the co-founder and still guiding light of The Center for Process Studies, Pando Populus,…
What Arc – Which Universe?
Unitarian Minister and Abolitionist Theodore Parker said it, Civil Rights leader and American prophet Martin Luther King, Jr., affirmed it, but sometimes I’m just not so sure: The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice Try proclaiming…
There Is No Us and Them
I am a “cradle” Methodist which means I started attending Sunday School as soon as I could walk and sit on a chair. I attended Sunday School all though elementary school, high school and college. In addition, during high school, I…
About That Flag in Your Sanctuary
As of this writing, the Supreme Court is seemingly poised to reverse or severely restrict Roe v. Wade and the question of a woman’s access to an abortion will revert to the states. Nearly half of the states (or more…