Category Archives: Scandals

FUM, John Muhanji, Uganda & “KILL The GAYS Laws: A Few Questions

October is Visitation &  Board meeting month for Friends  United Meeting (FUM). Besides board members from  FUM’s shrinking but scattered territories, notable Friends will be gathering in and around its home turf of Richmond Indiana.

Among the most notable of these visitors is Kenyan Friend  John Muhanji, who heads FUM’s African ministries. Besides official sessions, he’ll be visiting several Friends meetings & churches in the Midwest during the next few weeks.

No doubt the official agendas in these sessions will be full, and discussions lively. But if FUM’s record is any guide, some issues may have a hard time getting heard.

One in particular (unless I miss my guess), despite the fact it’s been in the news, on my mind, and even the pope has talked about it. But neither the pope nor I will be in Indiana this month.

So maybe some reader will pass along the following questions, not only in Indiana but to any other FUM-connected meeting or concerned Quakers:

 

Also . . .

Also, about the gospel being preached . . .

One for all those with financial responsibilities:

Others are asking too:

In Closing: For John Muhanji & FUM:

Two Unforgettable Recollections of Senator Dianne Feinstein

Fate played a cruel, unwanted hand in Diane Feinstein’s political rise:

On Nov. 27, 1978, at the end of her tether, Ms. Feinstein [then a member of the San Francisco city Board of Supervisors] told City Hall reporters that she intended to quit political life. Two hours later, shots exploded down the hall from her office. She ran toward the gunfire and, moments later, knelt beside a dying mayor. Mr. Moscone and Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor, who was shot in another office, had been killed by Dan White, a disgruntled former supervisor, who was quickly captured and eventually imprisoned.

The Board of Supervisors selected Feinstein to succeed the slain Moscone and from the mayoralty, Feinstein won a U. S. Senate seat in 1992. Continue reading Two Unforgettable Recollections of Senator Dianne Feinstein

Quote of the Week: What to Think About When We’re Not Thinking About the Weather

From: A Federal Judge Asks: Does the Supreme Court Realize How Bad It Smells?

New York Times — July 14, 2023

I joined the federal bench in 1984, some years before any of the justices currently on the Supreme Court. Throughout my career, I have been bound and guided by a written code of conduct, backed by a committee of colleagues I can call on for advice. In fact, I checked with a member of that committee before writing this essay.

Continue reading Quote of the Week: What to Think About When We’re Not Thinking About the Weather