Quaker Ranter
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Read about curated and contextualized newsletter of Quaker discussions by Martin Kelley at Quaker Ranter.
Quaker Ranter
2w ago
The newest Friends Journal issue is out, looking at how we use money. It’s perhaps not the sexiest topic but it speaks to what we value as a body of believers. Are we focused on our internal group or on the world outside our walls? Sometimes the discussions around money are tedious and our decisions ..read more
Quaker Ranter
1M ago
New Friends Journal article on some of the Quaker groups leaving Twitter/X this week, following Friends World Committee’s Monday announcement. There’s been a little pushback, on X and Reddit, along the lines that Quakers should be represented everywhere. Our article quotes Alistair McIntosh, who posted on X: I prefer it when Quakers bring an alternative presence ..read more
Quaker Ranter
1M ago
Neiman Lab is a great group that studies journalism and they’ve come out with a “Predictions for Journalism, 2025″ list. Whitney Phillips has a great entry, “Religious-sounding language will be everywhere in 2025” that looks at the current vocabulary being promoted by so-called Christian Nationalists: this language often centers, instead, on hatred of an amalgamated ..read more
Quaker Ranter
1M ago
Graham Taylor with a well-cited article on the proto-socialism of early Friends. There’s a bit of anachronistic thinking going on here, which he admits to. But it’s also the case that a lot of Quaker history is viewed through the lens of later Quakers and often ignores what was happening outside of Quakerism at the ..read more
Quaker Ranter
1M ago
December’s Friends Journal is online and looks at “Spiritual Optimism vs. Spiritual Pessimism.” I wrote the opening column this month and explained why I wanted to see Quakers tackle this. It seems to me that hope and pessimism are attitudes that transcend typical religious and political divisions. Pick a topic or dissect a social group ..read more
Quaker Ranter
2M ago
There’s a great story, almost certainly a tall tale, about Pennsylvania’s lone witch trial, in which the accused, a Swedish woman who couldn’t speak English, confirmed she flew on brooms. William Penn himself, presiding, replied “Well I know of no law against that!” and dismissed the case. The November issue of Friends Journal has a ..read more
Quaker Ranter
2M ago
It’s been a long battle to see what might replace Twitter for a lot of us. One option of course is X, Musk’s rebrand but it’s seen the biggest collapse of social media since Friendster. Threads looked promising but it’s Facebook and its algorithms favor clickbait and punish links, especially political ones. Bluesky seems to ..read more
Quaker Ranter
2M ago
I very occasionally do a book review for the magazine. My colleague Gail thought I might be interested in this biography of the longest-serving editor of our British counterpart, The Friend, so I reviewed A Friend in Deed: The Life of Henry Stanley Newman. The part of Henry Stanley Newman’s life that I found most fascinating ..read more
Quaker Ranter
2M ago
Trump is back. He won cleanly and quickly this time, reportedly finally winning the popular vote. I think a lot of this is the global backlash against incumbency following the dislocations and inflation of Covid but it’s also yet another data point in the twenty-first century rise of strongmen. The future is pretty clear. Trump ..read more
Quaker Ranter
2M ago
Cropwell Meeting had a nice program on miracles last weekend. Diane is locally famous for natives past a certain age because of her ubiquitous presence in Philly TV back in the day. She gave a great talk. Everyone was hushed and attentive throughout, with gasps Olof astonishment at some of the profiles ..read more