Category Archives: Hard-Core Quaker

Ambushed & Sandbagged At North Carolina Yearly Meeting

Wait — a section that was deleted from the Faith and Practice 48 years ago was to be magically reinserted on the spot?

Yeah. That would, among other things, get around the clear policy statement in the F&P that

“Such changes should be made cautiously and with an ample opportunity for prayerful deliberation.”

The F&P goes on to detail an elaborate, five-step process for considering proposed changes, which would take close to a year even in the best of times.

But not that Saturday. More details about that bit of, um, legerdemain will come in future posts. It only lasted half an hour or so. It certainly made hash of the F&P itself and that ever-romantic phrase, “Quaker process”; when the Clerk asked for approval, the shouts were loud, and the several vocal dissents were disregarded.

Done.

Soon I staggered out and headed home, pondering that the meeting I attend, and a few others, have suddenly had the targets hung on our backs again, maybe bigger than ever. Besides the damning text in the handout-now-policy, we were verbally referred to, more than once, as the few “stumbling blocks,” the main obstacles between NCYM and “peace and stability.”

(Oh. Is THAT what the sermon and hymn were about?)

Well, maybe I am an old fool. But the morning’s ice water splash cleaned my glasses, and I’m pretty sure I can now read the handwriting on the wall.

Say Hello to the “Atlantic Friends Mission”– Baptism, Anyone?

Say Hello to the “Atlantic Friends Mission”– Baptism, Anyone? Late last week, the other shoe dropped in the exodus from North Carolina Yearly Meeting-FUM. Three of the meetings that most loudly demanded a purge of all NCYM meetings they did not approve of, and which then left NCYM when that purge did not happen, have … Continue reading Say Hello to the “Atlantic Friends Mission”– Baptism, Anyone? →

Breaking: Shattered! Big Idaho Friends Church Quits Northwest YM

We know this will come as a shock to many, however, maybe some of you knew this was coming. This was a very difficult decision for us to make that involved months of conversation and prayer. We came to full consensus at an Anthem Friends family meeting a few weeks ago and immediately notified the NWYM elders. We know that many will jump to conclusions with regards to why we have made this decision. Many will probably assume this has to do with the homosexuality issue. We want to clarify for everybody that this is not a homosexuality issue for us, this is an authority of scripture/interpretation of scripture/orthodoxy issue for us. We have come to find over the years that Anthem Friends (formerly Hayden Lake Friends Church) see things very differently than the NWYM. Instead of being a group that sticks around and continues to be frustrated or have the leadership of the YM frustrated with us, we honestly believe the Lord has used all that has shaken down over the last few years to show us that we don’t fit. In some regards we do wish that the group that has challenged the NWYM’s F&P over the past 5 years would have made this decision years ago. Instead of them trying to change F&P and challenge the convictions of many in the YM, we believe there would have been more integrity in them acknowledging that they saw things differently and would have chosen to leave on their own. This is the crossroads we have come to.

Many of you know that Anthem Friends Church (formerly Hayden Lake Friends Church) has never been extremely devoted to Quaker practices and principles. Over the past 50 years of our Church’s existence we have followed Quaker practices very loosely. We do not feel inclined to give our lives to Quakerism…we want to be about Jesus. We do not mean this negatively but we just don’t feel a conviction to uphold Quaker principles as much as we do to uphold the Word of God and to make much of Jesus.

“Shattering” Quakerism In the Northwest – Continued

CEF: If eight meetings appealed the WHF expulsion, plus 230 individual Friends more who signed an unofficial appeal letter, what does this suggest about the state of thought and debate in NWYM on matters of sexuality generally, and LGBT inclusion in particular?

ANGELL: If you had asked this question two to five years ago, the answer would have to have been that the overwhelming majority of NWYM members opposed full inclusion of LGBT persons in their community, so the protests of individual Friends and individual meetings to the contrary would have availed little.

But you didn’t ask the question back then, at least to me; you’re asking it now. And the situation seems incredibly fluid. That eight meetings appealed the WHF expulsion, and 230 individual Friends also signed a letter of protest, suggests a growing groundswell of support for LGBT Friends within NWYM. I would predict that the groundswell will not be arrested soon.

A Hidden Piece of (Quaker) Women’s History: Leadership in The Ku Klux Klan

Historian Leonard Moore’s analysis of the 1920s KKK membership list for Wayne County, Indiana — home of the city of Richmond, numerous Quakers, and the Quaker Earlham College — offers a startling (to modern Friends) disclosure:

The religious affiliations . . . also closely approximated the city’s Protestant spectrum . . . . The large, traditionally evangelical denominations (Methodist, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, and Presbyterian) were strongly represented, but so too were the equally consequential German (Lutheran and United Brethren) and Quaker churches.

That is, Indiana Quakers were just as likely to join the 1920s Indiana Klan as any other churches; and many did.

And Daisy Douglass Barr was their star. She served as pastor in at least two prominent Friends churches, and preached in many more, over many years.
Daisy Douglass Barr in a 1922 newsclip (her maiden name was spelled Douglass, not Douglas, as here.)
She also used her notoriety and her Klan office to make money. The profit came mainly from selling Klan women’s robes and other paraphernalia. When the Indiana Klan could boast several hundred thousand members, and draw tens of thousands to its (white) family-friendly mass rallies, the paraphernalia business was good; nay, it was a goldmine.