Category Archives: Quakers

Exclusive: A Quaker Was Noticed By the Florida Klan in 1951. It Didn’t Go Well. (But It Could Have Been Much Worse.)

Florida, 1949: Where Woke Went And Didn’t Die By Stephen W. Angell We don’t know the exact date, or the place, when Richard Bradshaw (“Brad”) Angell (1918-2010) had his encounter with the Klan. All the participants are dead, and the story has been passed on orally. But we know the time and season: 1951, likely … Continue reading Exclusive: A Quaker Was Noticed By the Florida Klan in 1951. It Didn’t Go Well. (But It Could Have Been Much Worse.) →

Sex, Jesus, Woodbrooke, & Finland: Memories & Epiphanies . . .

The collapse of the Woodbrooke Quaker center (err, “centre”) in October 2023 was a big deal, but a shock cushioned for most American Friends by the Atlantic. .Recently there was a notice online that someone is compiling entries for a projected book of memories by staff, students, and other participants . I wish the … Continue reading Sex, Jesus, Woodbrooke, & Finland: Memories & Epiphanies . . . →

Elias Hicks: It’s All His Fault (Until ChatBot Came Along)

There’s a story about an earnest young Quaker grad student and a wise and wizened elder scholar. One day they were working in one of the best Friends archives, and — “I’m having trouble making sense of this old Quaker journal,” said the graduate student to the venerable Quaker historian. “The Friend who wrote it … Continue reading Elias Hicks: It’s All His Fault (Until ChatBot Came Along) →

ChatBot Quakerism, Part 3 (of 3): Not Ready To Be the Super-Clerk Just Yet

This past week, this blog held two conversations with a ChatBot, the vanguard of supposedly all-knowing software which some believe is destined to soon take over our world and make many crucial functions (including blogging) unnecessary antiques.

AI Quakerism, Part Two: ChatBot Delivers Solutions for Our Five Biggest Problems. (Or Does It?)

Yesterday, we asked ChatBot to identify the five biggest issues facing Quakers today, and posted the query and the full text of its reply. Then, as promised, we followed up by asking ChatBot (CB for short) to sketch out practical solutions to these problems, again based on its familiarity with the presumably vast resources of … Continue reading AI Quakerism, Part Two: ChatBot Delivers Solutions for Our Five Biggest Problems. (Or Does It?) →