Category Archives: Hard-Core Quaker

Novelist Jessamyn West, Her Friendly Un-Persuasion, Christmas & “Returning Thanks”

Author and novelist Jessamyn West (1902-1984), was raised and shaped by a long line of Quakers. Rooted in Indiana, they wound up evangelical and Holiness-centered, as well as cousins to Richard Nixon, in southern California. West is best remembered for her classic The Friendly Persuasion (book and movie). Her family left their southern Indiana Quaker … Continue reading Novelist Jessamyn West, Her Friendly Un-Persuasion, Christmas & “Returning Thanks” →

ESR Upheaval: Dean Resigns, Is Abruptly Banned

Matt Hisrich, who was in his second year as Dean of Earlham School of Religion in Richmond Indiana, was abruptly banned from campus on Wednesday December 16 2020. His Earlham email was revoked that morning, and he was directed to vacate the campus by 3 PM. Co-workers hurriedly gathered that afternoon to bid him a … Continue reading ESR Upheaval: Dean Resigns, Is Abruptly Banned →

The Good news And The Other (Paranoid) News

Readers likely already know much of what I consider Wednesday’s good news: Covid vaccine treatments have started; “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg was tapped to be Transportation Secretary in Joe Biden’s cabinet; there are no more throw-out-the-[Democrats’]-voting-results lawsuits bouncing off the big doors at the Supreme Court; and only five more weeks til Inauguration Day. There’s a … Continue reading The Good news And The Other (Paranoid) News →

Solving the Mystery of “Murder at Quaker Lake”

In mid-2014, a blast of church schism fever blew into the three-century old North Carolina Quaker community like a line of summer tornadoes. At its annual conference, a purge was suddenly demanded to “purify” their ranks of meetings deemed theologically “liberal” or friendly to LGBTQ persons. The same wave had already shattered Quaker groups in … Continue reading Solving the Mystery of “Murder at Quaker Lake” →

Hugging the Extremes: Carolina Quakers & the 2020 Election

[Trigger Warning: Quaker jargon ahead] I’m just finishing a book about the demise of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, which came about in 2017 after the group’s 320 years of existence. [Watch for a book announcement soon.] That long, unQuakerly process was covered in detail in this blog as it unfolded, and the story will not … Continue reading Hugging the Extremes: Carolina Quakers & the 2020 Election →