Archive for November, 2007

Why can’t we be Friends?

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

A hilarious video explaining why (historically speaking) “Quakers Rock!”

It’s a good mix of earnest effort and teenage humor. They’ve got the Quaker Oats gag in there (several times) but they manage to get past that. They even have some of our Friends in it.
And if you like that one, you might like the one […]

Religion in England today, and historically

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Tony Blair’s expected conversion to Catholicism brings a helpful background piece in the New York Times. Blair, we may recall, served until recently as Prime Minister in Britain. He would be the first Catholic to have served in such a capacity, since … well, uh, probably since Nicolas Heath served Bloody Mary as Lord Chancellor […]

William Gibson doesn’t write Sci-Fi these days

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

Markos Moulitsas at the Daily Kos points to an interview with William Gibson — one of my favorite writers, too.
I think for anyone who was conscious in the ’70s, this is so totally true:
Q. You made your name as a science-fiction writer, but in your last two novels you’ve moved squarely into the present. Have […]

Quaker refugees arrive from Norway

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

An article in the New York Times today, about the closing of Norway’s consulate in Minneapolis:
The flood of immigrants from Norway began in the middle 1800s. At first, there were Quakers who arrived as religious refugees. But more came for economic reasons: A population explosion had hit Norway, followed by food shortages. The cold, wide-open, […]

Friends and th eBible

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

In the six weeks since I first mentioned the eBible web 2.0 resource, I’ve been adding bookmarks to bible verses there, with brief comments.
I tagged verses that mean the most to me, relating to Quaker faith and practice, particularly in the historical context. After marking a handful that I’ve noted for myself over the […]

Quakers and rule of law

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Johan Maurer’s weekly missive comes close, this week, to concerns that this blog carries. It’s well worth a read.
Johan and his wife Judy have recently moved to Moscow, joining the Quaker community there in part as a service under the care of Northwestern Yearly Meeting, with the blessing of FUM. From his column it seems […]

Gaper delay

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

With Michael Mukasey interviewing to take the job of U.S. Attorney General, the topic of “torture” has moved into the spotlight. I’ve been reading Andrew Sullivan over the past few years, who’s been examining the details and implications of torture for awhile, and I’ve offered some of my own comments here (a b c d […]


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