Call for Justice Barrett to Recuse from LGBTQ Case

The US supreme court justice’s history with the People of Praise raises questions about her impartiality in upcoming case.

Former members of Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group, the People of Praise, are calling on the US supreme court justice to recuse herself from an upcoming case involving gay rights, saying Barrett’s continued affiliation with the Christian group means she has participated in discriminatory policies against LGBTQ+ people.

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William Penn Is Making a comeback — And Quakers Aren’t Going to Like It

[Note: the headline above needs some clarification: actually it’s liberal Quakers who aren’t likely to welcome Penn’s comeback; many others may cheer. More on that below.]

May I have your attention, liberal Quakers? The effort among some of you to expunge William Penn from our Friendly pantheon because he owned slaves has in many  ways been a big success: his name has been scrubbed from the rooms, building & events you frequent; his writings downplayed or ignored, and the search for replacement paragons, and even a replacement history, is underway.

But if one were to look beyond the increasingly narrowed liberal horizon, one might catch sight of a novel phenomenon: beyond it, especially in (of all places) the former Quaker stronghold of Pennsylvania: William Penn is being exhumed, dusted off, and readied for a comeback. Continue reading William Penn Is Making a comeback — And Quakers Aren’t Going to Like It

Heads Up: Willian Penn Followup Coming Soon

Was William Penn Punished Enough? (Partial List)

Jailed:

  •  Cork Ireland, Sept. 1668, for attending meeting.
  •  Tower of London, Nov or Dec-1668 – 8 months; accused (but not tried) of blasphemy, wrote No Cross, No Crown.
  •  Again in August 1670, for preaching, tried with Quaker William Mead in Mead-Bushell case: established the right of juries to reach their own verdict free of judicial pressure.

Continue reading Heads Up: Willian Penn Followup Coming Soon

Staughton Lynd, Remarkable Independent Quaker Radical, Historian and Quaker Activist Turned Labor Lawyer, Dies at 92

The activist and historian Staughton Lynd in 2019. “At age 16 and 17, I wanted to find a way to change the world,” he said in 2010. “Just as I do at age 79.”Credit…Dustin Franz for The New York Times

After being blacklisted from academia for his antiwar activity, he became an organizer among steel workers in the industrial Midwest.

New York Times — November 20, 2022

Staughton Lynd, a historian and lawyer who over a long and varied career organized schools for Black children in Mississippi, led antiwar protests in Washington and fought for labor rights in the industrial Midwest, died on Thursday in the town of Warren, in northeast Ohio. He was 92.

Continue reading Staughton Lynd, Remarkable Independent Quaker Radical, Historian and Quaker Activist Turned Labor Lawyer, Dies at 92