The Path Ministry

 This is the body of an email I sent to the mayor of Portland:  You don’t know what it’s like out here. I am disabled and homeless. I am fortunate in that I sleep in a shelter, giving me access to resources, such as a laptop and a place to plug it in, that my unsheltered friends do not have. I am also an ordained minister and street preacher. As part of my pastoral work, I counsel and listen to other people living in shelters or on the streets. Since November, I have interviewed 170 people in this dangerous and tenuous position. What I have learned may surprise you. I’d like to tell you some of the realities of being homeless. I will address the ruling in Grants Pass vs Johnson that made it illegal to sleep in public, how this means the authorities can do anything they want to you, share with you the truth about the drug problem, and put a human face on the crisis that you need to see. Because I believe that every complaint should come with an answer, I will also offer a s...

  A rhetorical analysis of “I Just Wanna Go Home” by Bryce Dole              Over a quarter of homeless people are senior citizens. This article addresses that problem, providing facts and statistics as well as personal stories and proposed solutions. As a homeless person nearing 55, I must admit my own biases when it comes to the housing gap in Portland. I see a lot of elderly people in the shelter where I live, some of them in wheelchairs or using walkers. One is 72, and she has been homeless for five years. Another is 74 and came from Iowa. She became homeless because her husband passed away and he was the sole breadwinner in the household. Now she shares a bunk with her son, who is also over 55. Another woman I spoke to, aged 56, was kicked out of her home by her ex-boyfriend. Because she wasn’t fleeing from domestic violence, her options for shelter were limited. These women illustrate the struggle that the article directly addresses. ...

 In this paper, I will offer the three sociological perspectives on the problem of homelessness: Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionalism. I will examine these three perspectives for whatever valid points they may hold. (Note that I do not use the euphemism “unhoused.” This is because those of us living in shelters are, technically, housed, but still homeless. None of us in the shelter where I sleep refer to ourselves as “unhoused.” We are homeless, and no euphemism will change the reality of it.) I have been homeless since November of 2025, living in a shelter and surviving on food stamps and what little I get from financial aid. This gives me the opportunity to see the problem of homelessness more clearly than those who have never experienced it.             First, Functionalism. Extreme poverty and the resulting homelessness disrupt the stability of society by taxing resources, money that could be used...

  Being homeless is a constant uphill struggle. Everyone close your eyes. We’re going to take a walk through downtown Portland.  We’ve all seen the tents on sidewalks and people wrapped in blankets sleeping in doorways.  I have been homeless since November. Since then, I have conducted informal interviews with other homeless people. What I’ve learned may surprise you.  I am going to share with you some of the realities of being homeless: it’s illegal to sleep in public, the authorities can do anything they want to you, and the truth about the drug problem among the homeless. Roshan Abraham, writing for the advocacy organization Shelterforce, tells us that the ruling in the case of Grant’s Pass versus Johnson makes it illegal to sleep in public.   (Abraham)    Sleep is a biological necessity, so where are we supposed to sleep? Mos t long-term shelters require a referral from a caseworker, and most homeless people aren’t even in the system and don’t have...

  We've all seen tents pitched on sidewalks and people sleeping in doorways wrapped in blankets. People with nowhere else to go. The ones who aren't on the bottom rung of the ladder; they can't even reach that. One bad month, and you could be joining them, unless you have enough money set aside to cover six month's worth of expenses. A sudden illness or injury leading to a huge medical bill, your car breaking down and costing you half your monthly income, a divorce or death of a spouse, and it would be you in that tent. There are a lot of preconcieved notions about homeless people, mostly because nobody is talking to, and most importantly, listening to them. I want to challenge those notions by sharing what I have learned through my own informal interviews with other unhoused individuals. First of all, everyone assumes that,  because so many homeless people are on drugs, that they are homeless because of the drugs. However, out of all 130 of those I spoke with, not a si...

 Okay, you guys, all of you need to sit down, shut up, and listen to me. This message is for all of you. I've had enough with the way you are behaving. You're more divided than ever right now, but all you want to do is point fingers. You are all harboring fear in your hearts and hate for your fellow man. All of you. Tell me you refuse to fear the Other and make the effort to understand them instead, and you are the few who are truly "woke." Tell me you hold no hatred for another and you have done the work to address the hate and answer it with familiarity. Only when we face our fears and answer them can we be truly free of hatred. In this way, as well as others, you have failed me. You have chosen to ignore my lessons and my message. Here's how: If I were to come back, looking the way I do and living the way I live, I'd be thrown into a concentration camp before I could open my mouth. I was a brown homeless immigrant, you guys, telling people to be nice, which...

 I’ve written before about “trying to help,” specifically about the homeless population. To sum up the previous essay: Trying is a cockroach- and bedbug infested flophouse for five dollars or a voucher. Trying is making it illegal to be homeless, so they get arrested, lose all their belongings, get thrown in jail for a few days, then tossed back onto the streets with nowhere to go. What’s the point of that? Now I’ve seen “helping.” There is an outfit called Urban Alchemy here in Portland that helps you get into a tiny home and then into real housing. They approached our little group and asked if we’d like to be in their system. I spoke with one of them briefly just to get an idea of what they do. They’re helping, well and truly. I also got to witness something called the “free store” giving out clothes, hot food, water, even cigarettes and joints, on a first-come first-served basis, but the crowd I saw was relatively small. (I asked my friend Rose about this, and she says there...

 We’re all a little too easily offended anymore. Here’s an example: I had a conversation with somebody who sometimes needs a mobility device to get around. They were complaining because people keep offering to help them with things, stating that “I’m not your infantilization kink!” is an appropriate response when this happens. In other words, this person gets so angry at people who are at least making an Effort to be Compassionate that they will loudly, publicly shame them for doing so. This does nothing whatsoever but tell the person that being nice isn’t worth it and disabled people are jerks. Then, when they see an old lady crawling down the sidewalk, dragging a wheelchair and trying to control a German Shepherd at the same time, they can just step over her because they don’t want to “infantilize” her by offering to help. You choose to be offended. You choose your reaction when you do get offended. It’s not on them, it’s on you. The hundredth person who offers to hold the do...

 I’ve been expressing a lot of anger lately about the current state of affairs in America. I fear for the future, and we all know that anger is based on fear, so I’m angry. However. The Path teaches Compassion, which is similar to freeing a raccoon from a trap. The animal doesn’t understand your intentions; it is afraid of you. To be Compassionate means dodging the claws and tending to the wounds. It’s easy to be kind to those of your tribe, isn’t it? Whenever anyone gets killed, one side cheers and the other side weeps. No difference in the level of Compassion there. We cannot be kind or empathetic towards our tribal rivals. It may be hard to believe, but billionaires are miserable. Look at their faces. Neither Musk nor 47 can even smile properly. Musk can’t even play his own video games; he hires people to play for him so he can brag about his high-level characters and equipment. How sad is that? What a lot of people don’t know is that there is what’s called a diminishi...

You all know how I feel about xianity as a whole. I’m not a big fan of the mythology or the ones who believe in it. However, there are xians, and quite a few of them, who actually do what their jesus character told them to do as it comes to charity. They are instructed to give in secret instead of announcing their generosity to be admired by other people, so they do. I got this information from a few posts that popped up on my Facebook feed. (I get a lot of religious content.) There really are xian ministries who teach their adherents to actually care about other people and help those who may be struggling. I think this is something to admire no matter what mythology one adheres to. So let’s take a moment to be glad these churches exist. They may be few, but even a few is enough to be grateful for.  

 People have been "trying" to help the homeless for decades. There was even a War on Poverty, but that didn't seem to get very far. Let me tell you what "trying" looks like: Trying is packed shelters with no transition to stable housing. Trying is a five-dollar-a-night, bedbug- and cockroach-infested flop house.  Trying is leaving homeless veterans to fend for themselves. Trying is walking past tents all over the downtown sidewalks. That's trying. Now, why don't we actually do something, since trying isn't working? I know the problem is money. So why not provide some kind of incentive for developers to create some low-income housing? Something that balances out the money they get for more expensive apartments that would sit empty, anyway, since nobody can afford them. Also, a note about "anti-homeless architecture." It is used to refer to those arms in the middle of bus benches and bolts imbedded in the concrete around doorways to make it u...

  Wheels Upon Wheels The Wheel of the Virtues and the Wheel of Ka. The wheel of the seasons, the wheel of years. The wheels that measure the globe of Earth, horizontally and vertically. The wheel of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The cycle of the phases of the moon can be expressed with a circle. The cycles of life and death and rebirth. Then there are the cycles of the Chinese and Solar Zodiac signs. Even the pattern of a single rotation of Earth describes a wheel. Everywhere you look, there are wheels or circles or cycles. What does all of this mean? The most likely explanation is that I am stoned and seeing patterns in the Universe that I cannot see while I am sober. Does this invalidate the whole thing? I do not think so; now that I see it, I cannot stop seeing it. Just an interesting thought. 

  Marcus Aurelius says: “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” There is literally no downside to being a good person, or at least trying your best to be a good person. You do not lose anything. In fact, you gain a great deal, including Serenity and Enlightenment. When you know you do your best to be kind, to be benevolent, to be a good friend to many but an enemy to none, you feel a sort of peace that somebody who carries anger and resentment in their heart will not know. This is where Patience comes in. We must remember that everyone we meet or interact with may be dealing with pain we know nothing about. This also turns Pascal’s Wager on its head. ...

The word "religion" comes from the Latin "religare" which means "to tie fast." The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek words "philo" meaning "love" and "sophia" which means "wisdom." And wisdom, as we know, leads to Enlightenment. A good friend of mine described the Path as a "Humanist Spiritual Philosophy" after reading both the Book of the Path and 40 Years in the Desert. I can live with that.  If that is what he got from it, then my work here is done.  The first thing anyone who is interested in the ideas presented in the Book of the Path should know is this: The Path is non-dogmatic by design. You are free -nay, encouraged- to pick it to pieces so you can figure out what ideas you agree with. The most important suggestion, of course, is to try your best not to be an asshole. Once you have that down, you have half the Path in the bag. Obviously, nobody can be one hundred percent good all the...

  Sometimes, I like to challenge myself to write about a specific topic. I was pondering the phrase “No time like the present” one morning, and started wondering if it could be applied to practicing the values of the Path. When I presented this idea to Courtney, she offered a slightly different wording: “No present like the time” and kind of blew my mind. I would like to examine both phrases and how they fit with the ideas found in Path doctrine. The phrase “No time like the present” comes from Proverbs Exemplified by John Trusler, a compiler of proverbs, who goes on to say: “…a thousand unforeseen circumstances may interrupt you at a future time.” I take it as an exercise in Mindfulness; of being here, now. When you have a task to complete or work to be done, best to begin as soon as you are ready, in case you run into obstacles you could not have predicted. If you procrastinate and do it at the last minute (which I confess to doing sometimes when writing sermons), all sorts of ...

  Topic: The War on Drugs In America, the war on drugs was lost before it even began; they tried to keep people from drinking during Prohibition, which -as we all know- did not work. The simple fact is that people are going to get high, legal or otherwise. Also, most of the social harm done by illicit substances is because they are illegal, not because of the substances themselves. Used Mindfully, almost every street drug can be used for either medicinal or spiritual purposes. Most drugs are derived from plants. Cocaine comes from the coca plant, heroin and other opiates come from poppies, and of course mushrooms and cannabis are consumed in their raw, unprocessed state. LSD is actually made from a chemical derived from fungus that grows on rye bread. So most of these drugs are made using a plant that evolved alongside humanity. Cannabis is non-toxic because it is intended to be consumed. That is how it propagates: Seeds eaten by animals and then deposited with a nice little do...

 Here is a list of all the things that the Path does not care about: What you wear. The other consenting adults you have sex with. How long your hair/beard is. If you get an abortion. Who or what you choose to worship, if at all. Who you pray to, or if you pray. How great you think it is.  Which bits of it you agree with. Here is a list of things that the Path does care about: How kind you are. If you are willing to grow and seek Enlightenment. Providing practical advice on how to be a better person. That's pretty much it. I feel like being kind is enough of an emotional burden (if you're doing it right), and seeking Enlightenment is a full-time job. As discussed before, your treatment of your mortal vessel is of no consequence to the practice of the Path. There is a prayer, about being open to blessings with a grateful heart, but it is kind of addressed to the Universe rather than some creepy all-seeing father figure, and anyway it is more of an optional extra than a mandator...

  Topic: Sex (Core Tenet #5) (Full disclosure: I have taken a vow of celibacy, for personal rather than spiritual reasons. I have not been in any kind of sexual relationship in five years, and the last one I was in was highly toxic.) Most monotheistic belief systems are obsessed with sex. Specifically, forbidding certain sexual acts. In some cases, everything but the missionary position (after dark, with the lights out and trying not to look at each other) is prohibited. Some religions don’t let you have sex until you’re married, at which point you’re expected to go at it like bunnies to breed up the next generation of obedient little sheep. According to Core Tenet #5, the Path teaches us that we are free to have sex with as many other people as we want. We don’t have to be married, our partners can be any sex or gender, and we aren’t limited to one at a time. This is because your body belongs to you, and the Path is more interested in the development and eventual Enlightenme...

  Topic: Caring What Others Think Much like “Never back down,” which we have discussed previously, there is another popular sentiment that bears close examination: That you should always do your own thing and not to care what anyone thinks about it. Now, if what you are doing is truly benevolent, but maybe a little bit weird, like building models of human organs out of toothpicks, that is one thing. But if your “thing” is smothering babies or kicking puppies, maybe you ought to care what people think about it. Caring what others think is how we can distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Humans are social animals, and we establish behavioral guidelines as a group. We have to care about what our society thinks of us, to make sure we are not hurting anyone. Of course, some people just kind of suck and you should not care much about what they think of you. So it is a delicate Balance, and you have to be judicious about whose opinions you value. It is also impo...

  Topic: Life After Mama I am going to get a little real, here. Kind of raw. This sermon might even make both of us cry. But I want to talk about what happens when your Mom is no longer just a phone call away. Way back in the day, when I was between husbands and spent a whole lot of time with my sister, we did not have Google on a mobile device. What we had was our mother’s phone number. Any question, about anything, and we would call Mom. Need directions to the nearest gas station and is it open? Mom. Wondering what that one book is called about the horse and something about a lightning storm? Mom. Later on, I would call my mother for sewing tips, moral advice, and how long to cook something. She was the first person I shared any kind of good news with, because she was always sincerely excited and proud of me. I liked to call her on her birthday and Mother’s Day, and our phone conversations grew longer with each passing year. Mama passed away August 25, 2023, but I still fin...