In late January, a post here described the struggle between the Evangelical Friends Church Southwest (EFCSW) and the small Friends Community Church of Midway City, in Orange County near Los Angeles. EFCSW’s Board of Elders decided to close the Midway City church, and fire its pastor, Joe Pfeiffer. The Elders acted after several homeless people … Continue reading Quaker David & Goliath, Cont.: Now David Makes his Case
A headline from the Greensboro NC News & Record: With its campus closed, Guilford College furloughs more than 130 employees Furloughs were ordered in all campus areas except among professors, who are teaching classes remotely through May. John Newsom. News & Record April 3, 2020 GREENSBORO — Its campus empty through the rest of the … Continue reading Quaker Colleges & another Corona Crisis
Washington Post: “Health: Trump is breaking every rule in the CDC’s 450-page playbook for health crisis After disastrous communications during the 2001 anthrax attacks — when white powder in envelopes sparked widespread panic — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a 450-page manual outlining how U.S. leaders should talk to the public during … Continue reading Going Viral: Notes on the plague – March 14, 2020:
[Note: This post includes strong language.] Few Quakers I’ve run into are as certain of the divinely-mandated quality of their vocation as Sharon Smith, aka “The Intruder.” Last July 4, after she was confirmed as Clerk of the SAYMA Uplifting Racial Justice Committee, capping a three-year struggle, she put this with stark certainty in a … Continue reading SAYMA: “Born for this”? Or Standing in the Way?
My onetime colleague Joe Klein gets this right: I too was among many angry youth (even worse, an angry young Quaker) who despised Establishment Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968. I remember hearing Dr. King’s close aide Andrew Young pleading with an angry college crowd to vote for Hubert Humphrey. Young made two memorable points: “Some … Continue reading Remembering the 1968 Election: Politics, Snakes & Snakes