Primitive Christianity Revived, Again
June 26, 2013
In two dramatic decisions this week, the Supreme Court declared laws unconstitutional. By a 5-4 majority, the Court set aside section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. And by an identical margin, though with only one vote changing sides, it voided DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as only a union between one man and one woman.
There is sadness and anger on the political left about the first, and sadness and anger on the political right about the…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 6th mo. 26, 2013 at 2:59pm — 5 Comments
June 7, 2013
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has just released a large, detailed survey exploring public opinion about homosexuality and gay marriage. Included in the survey (Part 3) are a number of questions that explore whether respondents see homosexuality as sinful, and they asked respondents their religious identity, too. The Pew Center has asked these…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 6th mo. 7, 2013 at 10:00am — 6 Comments
May 30, 2013
On Earlham's website now is the Baccalaureate Speech given earlier this month by Biology Professor Bob Rosenberg, and it is very much worth reading. Each year at the college, the graduating seniors choose a member of the faculty to deliver the baccalaureate address. (That is, there is no outside speaker parachuted in for the occasion.) These addresses are consistently wonderful, and many of them are…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 30, 2013 at 11:00am — No Comments
May 27, 2013
A high school girl in a band uniform singing the National Anthem, old Corvettes and Thunderbirds, men in uniforms from various services and decades, motorcycles, a bagpipe corps, the wife of the Governor, decorated floats, families along Main Street in lawn chairs, and everywhere flags: these are the makings of a Memorial Day Parade. Here in Maine, Topsham and Brunswick have a big one each year. My son marches as a member of his Cub Scout Pack. This year he…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 27, 2013 at 12:00pm — No Comments
May 22, 2013
In response to a recent blog post on the seepage of the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy into Quakerism, a Friend asked for examples. Here is one.
In this month’s “Communicator,” the yearly meeting’s newsletter, Indiana Yearly Meeting’s Superintendent, Doug…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 22, 2013 at 11:00am — 10 Comments
Added by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 20, 2013 at 6:43am — 3 Comments
May 16, 2013
Worth reading this week is a blog post by Rachel Held Evans entitled Is God’s Presence Limited to the Scripture?
The question is on her mind (her answer is no) because of a blog post by Tim Challies, a prominent evangelical, on The Boundaries of Evangelicalism.…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 16, 2013 at 9:30am — 20 Comments
May 13, 2103
For a very long while the Bible was clearly an unfinished work. I believe it is still.
The books in the Hebrew Testament were written over several centuries, probably most before 500 BCE. The set of books we have today were in final form by about 100 BCE – that is a few decades before Jesus’s birth. The books in the New Testament were mostly written in…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 13, 2013 at 8:40am — No Comments
This is the third in a series of posts about the Bible in which I want to say how and why I find the Bible essential for my spiritual life. (The first is here. The second is here.) I hope these musings may be useful to others. The reflections in these posts about the Bible draw on material I presented at the…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 6, 2013 at 12:00pm — 5 Comments
May 3, 2013
I have been rummaging again in the Friends Journal archive. Access to back issues is a terrific benefit of a subscription. In the June 15, 1968 issue (page 296) I found this gem, “‘Amo’ or ‘Credo’?” by L. Willard Reynolds, then a pastor in Nebraska Yearly Meeting (FUM). His piece–could have been written today–follows.
+++
Robert Frost, in an…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 5th mo. 3, 2013 at 9:00am — 4 Comments
April 29, 2013
This is the second in a series of posts about the Bible in which I want to say how and why I find the Bible essential for my spiritual life. (The first is here.) I hope these musings may be useful to others. The reflections in these posts about the Bible draw on material I presented at the Midyear gathering of Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative, and on reflections that Friends at that…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 4th mo. 29, 2013 at 10:01am — No Comments
April 25, 2013
I had the great good fortune to be a presenter at Iowa Yearly Meeting's Midyear Gathering this year at Bear Creek Meetinghouse near Earlham, Iowa. I spoke on "The Bible in Our Midst." On her blog, LizOpp provides a lovely summary of what we talked about. Jeff Kisling took a great photo of those gathered. …
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 4th mo. 25, 2013 at 11:30am — No Comments
April 23, 2013
This is the first in what I am imagining as a series of posts about the Bible in which I want to say how and why I find the Bible essential for my spiritual life. I hope these musings may be useful to others. I know the Bible has come more to divide Friends than hold us together, but I believe it could be useful in our finding greater unity among Friends. The reflections in…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 4th mo. 23, 2013 at 11:09am — 2 Comments
April 22, 2013
Over and over, CNN and ABC, CBS, NBC (I am repelled from Fox) show me the face of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: the slightly sad, uncreased face of a man-boy, crowned by an appealing mop of hair. These channel-constructors of reality endlessly replay the events, lionize and scorn, and hint darkly at things that ought to have been done or ought now to be done in the name of safety.
I believe he did something terrible, but honestly I still want to hug him, still want to…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 4th mo. 22, 2013 at 11:30am — 1 Comment
April 3, 2013
“Supreme Court Debates Same-Sex Marriage – Should We?” This was the title of a recent blog post by Micah Bales that has stayed on my mind. In it, he says he strongly supports moves towards legalization of same-sex marriage and yet harbors reservations.
Concerning his reservations, he says, “I recoil from the rights language that so many advocates of gay equality have…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 4th mo. 3, 2013 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments
March 28, 2013
A month ago, I featured here three paragraphs from a 1959 Friends Journal article by Howard Brinton entitled “The Place of Quakerism in Modern Christian Thought.” The three paragraphs concerned Brinton’s view of fundamentalism among Friends.
The blog post drew…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 3rd mo. 28, 2013 at 2:00pm — 7 Comments
March 25, 2013
This is the fifth of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 3rd mo. 25, 2013 at 12:27pm — 1 Comment
March 22, 2013
Fourth of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.
John Punshon begins his…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 3rd mo. 22, 2013 at 11:27am — 2 Comments
March 21, 2013
Third of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.
John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope is unabashedly an argument. Those who are uncomfortable with arguments may not warm to this book,…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 3rd mo. 21, 2013 at 10:14am — No Comments
March 19, 2013
Second of a series of posts on John Punshon’s Reasons for Hope: The Future of the Friends Church. Part 1 is here.
In no way does John Punshon attempt to give a proper history of Quakers in the U.S. over the past two centuries, but he does see Quakerism – indeed any denomination – as being a dynamic movement that constantly has to adjust in response to new…
ContinueAdded by Doug Bennett on 3rd mo. 19, 2013 at 11:00pm — No Comments
© 2023 Created by QuakerQuaker. Powered by