A Friendly Letter

Why Is North Carolina Yearly Meeting Like The Flint River?

So this proposal might be an interesting opener for broader discussion, but just a beginning. If the YM wants to set concrete standards of conduct (e.g., don’t steal YM money; don’t sexually abuse or harass others, especially children; respect your fiduciary duties), there are likely numerous specific infractions that could be agreed on.

But those who think they could now achieve a purge of meetings which have non-fundamentalist views about the Bible, social issues and other matters by tacking on these preliminary steps, will likely run into some stiff opposition, as they have before, pushing the purge idea from the YM floor.

Tom Fox Memorial Book Is Available Again

On November 25, 2005, Tom Fox was kidnaped in Baghdad, Iraq, along with three comrades. All four were members of a Christian Peacemakers Team, working to exhibit a spirit of peace and reconciliation in a land riven by war and terror.

His three colleagues were freed by British and U.S. troops on March 23, 2006. But almost two weeks earlier, on March 10, Tom’s body was found in a garbage dump in the city; he had been murdered.

Robert Frost’s Ghost Laments

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a pollster near,
To ask him one more time today
Which one he favors for this year.

He gives his harness bells a SNAP,
To see the woods fill up with CRAP.
Godawful noise across the land
From blowhard Chump & Bushie Clap

My Recurring Quaker Nightmare — Every January 27th

Yes, January 27 is Mozart’s birthday. He would have been (and IS, in a real way) 250-plus years old today, give or take.

And the nightmare scenario just recounted haunts me because it brings home how drastically poorer my own life would be, had the musician by some miscarriage undergone the kind of conversion it imagines.

How much difference has it made? There was an underground comic strip back in the Sixties about several disreputable characters called the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. These fellows had a saying, that “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.”

For me, tho I enjoyed the Brothers in their time, a truer motto would be, MOZART will get you through times of no money better than MONEY will get you through times of no Mozart!”

And let the church say, “AMEN!”

Northwest YM Leaders Kick The LGBT Expulsion Can Down the Road

Here is the message that has been sent out by Northwest Yearly Meeting leaders on January 22, 2016; it does not seem to have been made widely public yet:

“Regretfully, we are not able to come to unity to overturn or affirm the elders’ decision to release West Hills. Therefore, we’ve postponed the effective date of West Hills’ release at least until yearly meeting sessions.

At that time, the Board of Elders will report to the Yearly Meeting its summary of the state of the church, allowing time for prayerful consideration of issues raised by the report and by any attached judgments or interpretations offered by the Board of Elders.”