I think we tend to miss the point of the teaching story misnamed “The Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37).

Almost always our focus is on the people who passed by the “man who fell among thieves” and the one who stopped, instead of on the framing questions by which Jesus signaled the living spirit of the story.

A lawyer asks Jesus how to attain eternal life. When Jesus challenges him to find…

npym-it-discuss content may be forwarded by any subscriber.  I'm sharing a recent memo (by me) here to give a snapshot of a regional body of Beanite branch Friends taking care of IT / business.

From: kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2016 12:26:43 -0700

Subject: update on Regional Directory design (future plans)

To: npym-it-discuss <npym-it-discuss@googlegroups.com>…

Given I'd "glommed on" to Wittgenstein, as my thesis advisor Richard Rorty might have put it, as a user of the verb "to glom," I found myself wandering over to the Religion Department half the time.

Victor Prellar was there, in Religion.  He'd been an Anglican priest in one chapter, I think it was, and now he was sharing Wittgenstein with higher level students.  Princeton includes a small grad school, although it prides itself on its focus on undergrads.  I was invited, as an…

A "refugee" is "someone seeking refuge" which quickly expands to us all in meditation or prayer. 

Whole communities came to the New World on those dangerous watercraft, seeking liberty, freedom from persecution, the right to be left alone.  Relationships were continued, at a village level.

Thinking of refugee camps as full of solitary individuals, each needing a desk job and a bus pass, a separate singleton existence, is of course unrealistic. 

Extended families often do…

I realized somewhat acutely, in some recent discussions here on Q2, that we're sometimes miles apart in our use of terms, without even realizing it sometimes.

In looking over archival copies of what dad and his team put together, for Libya, looking ahead some twenty or more years, I'm impressed by a confidant 1960s, a time of going to the moon. 

Urban planning was something to get a degree in, a new discipline in the US. I was born while dad was finishing up his PhD studies at…

I find myself working with a George Fox tract, "To All That Would Know the Way to the Kingdom" (p 15 GF Works, volume 4).

Parked in the very first paragraph we find three (3) direct citations of scripture:  John 3:3-8, Revelation 1:9 & Colossians 1:13. Here's something that jumps out at me: he introduces the gospel passage with "Christ saith" but Revelation with "John the divine said" and Colossians with "the apostle said". "Said" is universal past tense of "to say" but "saith"…

I was driving on Highway 10 southeast of Stevens Point, Wisconsin heading towards Minocqua for a family reunion when a sign said we were crossing the river named Tomorrow. Because the river is old and serpentine, we crossed the Tomorrow three times in the course of just a few miles.   I couldn’t ignore the metaphor or thought: I kissed the future and crossed the river named Tomorrow, three times today.

 It did…

I don't know about other cities, but Portland-based Oregonians have a penchant for referring to their own fair city, by its three-letter international airport code: PDX. 

You'll see that everywhere, as a part of the branding, right up there with Portlandia -- the statue, not the TV show, though why not share that word, make it more multi-media?…

If you want someone to believe you, don’t confuse them with the facts.  Instead, help them to feel good about themselves and tell them a short but impactful story.  That’s what Christopher Graves said in an article he wrote in the Harvard Business Review…

Man at his coming into the world hath a light from Christ, him by whom the world was made, which is more than conscience; but he that hates the light abides in darkness, and so is not like to receive the spirit, but is reproved with it (The Great Mystery, p.342).

Though everyone who comes into the world has a light from Christ, not all love it, because loving it entails suffering, a dying to the self, the inward crucifixion. Not loving the light has tragic consequences, both…

by Jody Jenkins

How far would you go for your beliefs?

It’s a question more pertinent than ever in today’s globalized world brimming with moral issues easily accessible with the swipe of a fingertip on any smartphone. In a virtual age where tapping a “donate” button equates to activism, how do we decide which causes are really worth risking everything for?

That’s the underlying challenge of …

Donald Trump is many things to many people, most of them rotten to the core. Thinking people rightly see him as a threat to Democracy and basic decency. But you don't have to go to college or be highly educated to see the threat present in his ascent. I see an electorate that is underwhelmed and even discouraged by the major party candidates, but when it comes…

There are four distinct structural arrangements utilized by unprogrammed Quaker meetings.  Meetings tend to gravitate to one of these, or may use a hybrid structure taken from one or more of these. Here’s my assessment of them.  Which structure does your meeting use, and how does it work for your community of Friends?

Laissez-faire Arrangement

This is where a spiritual core Presence is not a priority at the meeting.  Friends are there basically as individuals to…

New Foundation workers and supporters gathered at Ellis and Rebecca Hein's property near Casper, Wyoming, for an annual gathering in Seventh month, 7th through 10th. Seven people attended, two of them new to our gathering. Those attending were Kevin Anderson, Casper; Patricia Dallmann, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Rhonda Fuller, Lansing, Michigan; Ellis Hein, Casper; Rebecca Hein, Casper; Rae Lawrence, Milton-Freewater, Oregon; and Ron Sirkel, Lees Summit, Missouri. On the first evening of…