Okay. it’s out-of-the-closet time. For the past several weeks, I have been listening to — are you ready? Opera. OPERA, for the love of pete. On my XM satellite radio, there’s a Metropolitan Opera channel, that plays it nonstop, 24/7, no commercials. I’ve known this for a long time, but was only recently drawn to … Continue reading What On Earth Is Happening To Me?? (Opera!)
Friend Kevin Roberts has a lengthy blog post, entitled “Not One Of Us,” arguing that Friends should be against abortion. I’ve responded with some detailed comments, and there is a conversation developing. This striking Saturday Evening Post cover was his illustration: Interested folks will need to scroll down through some comments to find my contributions … Continue reading Am I In Trouble On Abortion??
I think it’s been ten years since this oppressive rule was imposed. And finally, this past year, somehow the complaints began to register. And when the Advance program for the 2010 Gathering arrived in the mail this past week (one of the liberal Quaker signs of spring), the alert reader noticed a certain lacuna in the traditional daily schedule diagram: there was no more greyed out patch over Wednesday afternoon, bearing the cheery instruction to “Take a Nap!”
This is how Quaker committees typically backtrack: with as little admission of error as possible. Perhaps no one will notice, and everyone will go take a nap anyway.
But one notices. A quick email exchange with the relevant officials confirmed that it was not a misprint.
Yet the Sabbath, one was told, had not been given up; it had been merely, er, modified.