We’ve been sharing our most-read articles of 2016 on Facebook and Twitter. Here is the full list.
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#5 Framing the Light
Jean Schnell, August.
Some of our upcoming themed issues get a buzz long before we have any content. Whenever we told people that we were doing an issue on “Quaker Spaces,” they would get excited about the pictures of New England meetinghouses that photographer Jean Schnell was posting to Facebook. We fell in love with them immediately. They capture an understated beauty at both meetinghouses old and new. Bonus: Video author interview with Jean.
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#4 Why Quakers Stopped Voting
Paul Buckley, October.
Did you know there was an presidential election in the U.S. this year? It’s true. From the start of the primary races, Quakers were divided over policies and personalities and more than one online discussion thread blew up after someone declared that anyone who didn’t like their preferred candidate wasn’t really Quaker. Historian and longtime Friends Journal contributor Paul Buckley gives us a timely reminder that debate on the proper role of Friends in the U.S. political system has a long history and cautions us that “realities inspiring our actions in the eighteenth century are alive today.”
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#3: Affirming Ivy
Laura Noel, May.
Policies around transgender access to bathrooms and housing have become frequent flash points in the nation’s culture wars. What happens at a Quaker boarding school? Loving discernment and affirmation. Laura Noel tells the story of how Pennsylvania’s George School became the first school in the country to draft a policy on transgender students.
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#2: The Third Reconstruction
William J Barber II, September.
When we watched Rev. Barber’s speech to the American Friends Service Committee on their YouTube channel earlier in the year we thought it would be a great anchor to a un-themed issue scheduled for the fall. He tells a powerful story of the seesaw nature of American racial justice and warns us that America is not a healed post-racial paradise. Our current “Third Reconstruction” of democratic institutions around racial justice is fragile. As the summer came, unprecedented Quaker attendance at the White Privilege Conference and racial turmoil at FGC Gathering turned September’s issue into one the most prophetic of the year.
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#1: A Gospel of Quaker Sexuality
Kody Gabriel Hersh, May.
No mere clickbait at number one: The most-read article is also the most carefully written and distilled. Kody Gabriel Hersh retells biblical stories, examines quirky Quaker culture, and ends by reminding us all that we are loved. In between, Kody touches on sexuality, the missing ingredients in our peace testimony, body positivity, conscious parenting, and the shape of marriage. There something to inspire and challenge most every Friend in this and it’s well worth a re-read as we prepare for 2017. Bonus QuakerSpeak video: How Jesus Affirms My Queerness.
Honorable Mentions
The next five most-read articles are:
- Our staff roundup, Quakers Respond to Orlando Shooting
- Paula Palmer’s Quaker Indian Boarding Schools
- Ron McDonald’s This Age of Insecurity
- Peter Moretzsohn’s Are You a Friend?
- David M. Gross’s How Quaker War Tax Resistance Came and Went, Twice
Catch up on past years’ lists!
Top articles of 2015:
- #5 Baltimore, the Time Is Now by Sarah Bur.
- #4 Reflections on Selma by Gail Whiffen.
- #3 What Quakers and Catholics Might Learn from One Another by John Pitts Corry.
- #2 Realizing Wholeness: Reflections from a Gay Palestinian Quaker by Sa’ed Atshan.
- #1 Beyond Goodness Sex by Su Penn.
Top articles of 2014:
- #5 Dear Friend/Good White Person by Regina Renee.
- #4 Sustainable Simplification Shuns “Shoulds” and Sacrifice by Chuck Hosking.
- #3 A Quaker Argument against Gun Control by Matthew Van Meter.
- #2 My Experience as an African American Quaker by Avis Wanda McClinton.
- #1 White Narcissism by Ron McDonald.
Top articles of 2013:
- #5: Bum-Rush the Internet interview with Jon Watts.
- #4: Categorically Not the Testimonies by Eric Moon.
- #3: Are Quakers Christian, Non-Christian, or Both? by Anthony Manousos.
- #2: Quakerism Left Me by Betsy Blake.
- #1: We Think He Might Be a Boy by Su Penn.
Top articles of 2012:
- #5: The Safety of Silence by Lindsey Mead Russell.
- #4: Eight Questions on Convergent Friends, an interview with Robin Mohr.
- #3: Quakers Are Way Cooler Than You Think by Emma Churchman.
- #2: Homosexuality: A Plea to Read the Bible Together by Douglas C Bennett.
- #1: When Quaker Process Fails by John M. Coleman.
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