Come to the Sunny Side Daniel Trotter was a weighty Friend of his day, who often observed solemnly that “There is nothing but trouble this side of the grave.” One day at a Friend’s funeral, he stood to speak by the freshly dug mound, just as a curious sailor poked his head into the … Continue reading Quaker Humor, Allegedly
In 1848 Quaker farmer Jonathan Roberts moved his family south from New Jersey to a new farm in northern VA in 1848. He arrived with high hopes and even higher ideals. The new spread adjoined George Washington’s Mt. Vernon plantation, already a historic site for the still-young nation. Yet with its distinguished lineage, the property … Continue reading The “Quaker Scout”: Highlighting A Very Relevant Piece of Quaker History
NOTE: Kennedy v. Bremerton is the short name for this case, but it would be better dubbed the “Blow Another Big Hole In the Freedom from Religion & the First Amendment!” Case. As the respected SCOTUS blog noted, Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the school … Continue reading God Save Us from the Supreme Court Theocrats!
Playing the Lottery Winter 1969, Boston. I was driving a cab at night, while attending Harvard Divinity School. I had run through some scholarship and loan money, and needed cash; Christmas and all that. But I also thought it would be a “good experience” for a wannabe writer. When I turned my cab onto St. … Continue reading Another Quaker Holiday Story: Playing the Lottery
[NOTE: This review does not mention that amid the spreading devastation of the English Civil War, which in 1649 led to the execution of the defeated Charles I, a new radical religious group, derisively called Quakers, was coming into being. The earliest Friends were at least in sympathy with Cromwell’s anti-monarchical “Commonwealth,” and not a … Continue reading Quakerism was born in a terrible civil war. Could it survive another one?