Two brilliant authors of children’s literature once pondered how honest they could be when talking with children. Should they always tell children the truth, or should they seek to protect the children’s innocence? Today we’re asking similar questions about books, classroom conversations, and the media. Does it matter what we say – and how we say it – even to each other?
The Rev. Dr. Gilbert (Budd) Friend-Jones (he/his/him) was ordained into the Congregational ministry in 1971. He served churches in Minnesota, Maine, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, and Florida, including most recently the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota. The author of two books, his sermons are included in five of the nine volumes of The Library of Distinctive Sermons. Budd has led Jews, Muslims and Christians on interfaith pilgrimages in Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar and Turkey, and has preached and taught seminars in Russia, South India, Turkey and the UK. The Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters named him “Humanitarian of the Year”. The St. Paul Pioneer Dispatch and KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities jointly named him a “Person Who Makes a Difference” against racism. The Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta awarded him its “Building Bridges Award”. A native of West Virginia, Budd earned a doctorate at Howard University Divinity School, an M. Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary, and his undergraduate degree at Frostburg State University. Budd met his wife, Gretchen, an artist, in a coffee house in 1967. More than fifty years later he followed her when her real estate job was transferred to Sarasota.