Don't know if Jacob Stone's statement in "On Authority, A New Apologia"(Friends Journal, June/July 2013) is mountain or molehill(cf. "The Busy Body" blog) for Quakerism. As for Stone, he writes, "This is the heart of my dilemma: I want to know WHY something is holy." Allow me, Friends, to add two cents to the collection plate of possible reaction/response.

Pascal warned that what we make natural we destroy. Quakerism is religion, not science, because we refuse to give ourselves over…

ESR Professor of Peace and Justice Studies Lonnie Valentine brings us this report from the 6th International Conference on Conflict Resolution Education, held June 12 – 17, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio:

After playing soccer for many years, I have what I would call a trick knee. If I run on it for any period of time, it swells. Then I'm left with stiffness and pain for the rest of  the day. But if I don't get extended walking time each day, I'm awakened in the night with something like restless-leg syndrome.

Needless to say, this summer's extended hell(heat and humidity) has not helped me get extended walking time. Sure, there's always walking, rather than taking the car, to short…

So, lately I've been having troubling dreams.  Most of them involve past self-destructive behaviors and a lifestyle that I've chosen to leave behind.  Usually, upon awakening and starting my morning routine, I forget about the dreams.  Yesterday, however, the dreams triggered specific memories of people, places and things.  As I entered into a yoga posture during a yoga class, memories would be especially vivid and disconcerting.  Try as I might…

For all the mention, if not talk, of the mystical connection that Friends experience in worship, it's a practical curiosity(known today as "drama") that seems to motivate us.

Once heard, if not suggested, as a "concern", the matter is ripe for discussion, even prolonged scrutiny. It will be needed to consult and hear from all those with any idea or feeling for the issues at hand. Then, it may move from a particular hindrance(molehill) to a generalized dilemma(mountain). Finally, it…

I have been reading the book "The Holy Trinity and the law of Three" by Cynthia Bourgeault, a book the computers at Amazon.com said I should read apparently based on the books I have purchased from them in the past.  Not being  familiar with the "law of three" and having my own thoughts on the Holy Trinity I decided to press the button and buy the book.  Imagine my surprise to find the law of three is the basis for Quaker process.  At this point I want to make it clear that the author…

Ever wonder why the communes of the 1660's and 1960's, with the co-op movement ever since, offered a better experience of community than most of our churches these days? Or why more and more little leagues are playing "winless" games? Could it be that the 'reality of the market', with its private possessing and incessant competition, does not fit the 'need of the human being' for sharing and caring?

Gerrard Winstanley vied for the hearts and minds of the same seekers who ultimately…

An Open Response to an Open Letter from a Quaker-Pagan

Dear Friend Cat:

I feel moved to respond to the first part of your open letter to ‘My Christian Quaker Friends’.  I thought of waiting for Part 2 to be posted; and perhaps that would be the wiser course.  Perhaps some of my concerns will be addressed therein.  Having said that, I still feel called to make a few observations.

First, I want to share my background so there is an understanding…

The last couple of days, I've been decompressing and analyzing as I'm sure many others have been doing themselves. As someone who follows the natural rhythms of the media I have observed that the presentation of news most often resembles a drought. Reporters and columnists both know they must solicit information to fill out a narrative. It takes work to compile multiple perspectives into a written piece that the public will want to read.

However, as has been true in…

I believe in ghosts(manes) as human spirits that will not rest before their final wish/justice is procured. I also believe that Quakerism has tried to appease the manes of Mani, I.e., divide flesh from spirit.

Haunted by a Ranter past, we have largely disowned the incarnational benefits of "the Word made flesh". This despite our lengthy use of "weighty Friend" to signal a flesh-and-blood measure of wisdom and grace. Apparently, the shades of a house divided have turned what was…

Since I've been living up on the East Coast, I've noticed a decided difference in the way Quakers prioritize their focus and time. Within Monthly Meetings of a certain region, Quaker history is often deified. This is true in Philadelphia and also in other locations where Friends have long been present. But this isn't the case everywhere. The Deep South…

Leave it to Plato to lay the exalted foundation for America's idealization of concepts such as Freedom and Democracy. Yet, how much exploitation and little-reported crime has been perpetrated in the name of  Freedom? How much devastation via presumption has been inflicted to establish Democracy as a foreign policy objective?

Then came Aristotle and Hegel to help counter this top-heavy approach to civilization. 

Observation of a postulated theory, as Thesis, with the results of…

Have seen the expression "sea change" in the news lately, and am wondering if it applies to Friends adrift. Perhaps it helps to get our bearings by recalling those, called Latitudinarians, who rejected both the High Church and Puritan factions in England. In addition, England's Greenwich becomes Swarthmoor Hall, as the longitudinal focus for the prime meridian, or standard, of Quaker mooring.

So, can we equate our eclectic propensity in Universalist Quakerism with the ecliptic poles…

     A revolutionist is one who refuses to allow the complacency of society to rule them...
                   ... and instead, sets a white hot fire in the river of apathy.