Mark's Blog

Our country pauses today to honor the memory and challenge of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  We remember him as a prophet for civil rights who, throughout his public ministry, dared to bend the arc of history toward justice. But it didn’t start out that way.  As...

Like most of us, my first reaction upon hearing of a six-year-old boy shooting his teacher with a gun at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was outrage.  How can a six-year-old get a gun?  How does he know how to use it?  How is he supervised?  How...

As we turn the corner into a new year, many of us are drawing up some resolutions.  Most resolutions tend to be either about exercise or diet, which may get some traction – for awhile, but usually end up losing out to the strain of three more months of winter. What is...

In 2009 journalist Bill Bishop wrote a compelling book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. He makes the case that over the past several decades people have been living, working, worshipping, recreating, and vacationing in...

When we get scared, we seek protection.  And so many of us are scared – of increasing violence, of a precarious democracy, of growing polarization, of progressing climate change.  And on and on – a veritable cascade of fear.   One mode of protection for many, at least...

The people who walked in darkness… This past week I met many people who regularly walk in darkness.  I attended a two-day Gun violence prevention summit in Washington DC.  There were some two hundred of us from all over the country – advocates, policy shapers,...

With a gentle smile and a calm demeanor, the Japanese Zen priest spoke to his largely Western sitting group – in English:  “Westerners seem to bring an extra challenge when engaged in meditation.  When the dust appears – as it inevitably does in the form of...

America is awash in guns.  With a little over 4 percent of the world’s population, Americans own 42 percent of the world’s guns.  Gun purchases across the country have skyrocketed.  Restrictions on the carrying and permitting of firearms have eased in many states;...

We are framed by stories.  Our values, horizons and purpose are shaped by the stories that we have heard, read and absorbed.  Some of those stories are constructed – and refracted, to reinforce prejudices and resentments.  While we don’t yet know for sure if the...