It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two most widely read new articles this year were about George Fox, widely recognized as the founder of the Religious Society of Friends—after all, 2024 marked the 400th anniversary of his birth. But Friends had contemporary concerns as well, which spoke to issues at the center of our spiritual lives and our relationships with one another.
5. True to Your Word
An anonymous Friend told us that many Quakers are living in faithful polyamorous marriages, and that we should all learn to acknowledge they can be as faithful in their way as partners in monogamous couples. “Quietly carving out space for ethically non-monogamous marriages harms no one,” they said, “nor does it force any marriage to be open. Rather, this small mental shift embraces more of the joyful diversity found within the Religious Society of Friends.”
4. White Supremacy Culture in My Clerking
“I recently served as clerk of the board of trustees at a Friends school. It was a turbulent time for the school, and board meetings were often contentious,” Michael Levi recounted. “I offer the following account as a personal case study in identifying and wrestling with racial harm in a specific Quaker practice.”
3. Dear God, Help Me Here
Staff writer Sharlee DiMenichi spoke to several Quakers with experience working as chaplains in hospitals or hospices, as well as those who offer palliative care for dying patients, about prayer and healing. “The most important thing,” one hospice worker reflected, “is coming from your heart and being in your own spiritual alignment and letting God work through you.”
2. The Radical Original Vision of George Fox
“The spiritual discoveries and direct experiences of the first Quakers were so radical that their fellow Christians called them blasphemers and heretic,” Marcelle Martin reminded us—and George Fox was in the center of the storm, “proclaiming the possibility of being restored to the original state in which humanity had been created, in the image and likeness of God, with a perfect, divine nature.”
1. George Fox Was a Racist
“George Fox was racist, and he perpetuated the notion of slavery,” Johanna Jackson and Naveed Moeed wrote, a stark contrast to the celebratory tone surrounding much of the attention paid to Fox this summer. “Friends reading this article may try to argue a way out of this, but the evidence is clear and we should embrace it.… What we are asked to do as Quakers is understand what it means to have leaders in our faith who are deeply flawed.”
Banner images: Jono Erasmus; David Pereiras; Robert Spence
Catch up on past years’ lists!
Top Articles of 2023
- #5. Three Common Fallacies of Quaker Leadership by Andy Stanton-Henry.
- #4. Speaking Up for Palestinian Rights Now by Steve Chase.
- #3. A Visit to the Hector Meetinghouse by Chester Freeman.
- #2. From Atheist to Friends by John Marsh.
- #1. Young Adults Want What Early Friends Had by Olivia Chalkley.
Top Articles of 2022
- #5. The Art of Quaker Quilts by Vicki Winslow.
- #4. Quakers Must Take a Stand on Abortion by Erick Williams.
- #3. Safe Meetings Don’t Avoid Conflict by Donald W. McCormick.
- #2. The Peace Testimony and Ukraine by Bryan Garman.
- #1. Flawed Quaker Heroes by Kathleen Bell.
Top Articles of 2021
- #5. A Quaker Call to Abolition and Creation by Lucy Duncan.
- #4. Pistachios and Cats by Lynn Gazis.
- #3. When Quakers Were the Karens by Elizabeth Cazden.
- #2. The Mystical Experience by Donald W. McCormick.
- #1. Are There White People in the Bible? by Tim Gee.
Top Articles of 2020
- #5. A Quaker Antiracist Reading List
- #4. Quaker Meetings Respond to Coronavirus by Katie Breslin.
- #3. Recognizing Racism, Seeking Truth by Inga Erickson.
- #2. Careful Discernment or Spiritual Timidity? by Kat Griffith.
- #1. The Middle-Class Capture of Quakerism and Quaker Process by Donald W. McCormick.
Top Articles of 2019
- #5 Selling Out to Niceness by Ann Jerome.
- #4 Building White Racial Stamina by Liz Oppenheimer.
- #3 A Quaker School’s Response to Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Erik Hanson.
- #2 We Are Not John Woolman by Gabbreell James.
- # 1 Slavery in the Quaker World by Katharine Gerbner.
Top Articles of 2018
- #5 Are We Really Christian? by Margaret Namubuya Amudavi.
- #4 What People Really Want from Church and Quaker Meeting by Donald W. McCormick.
- #3 Simple Living Beyond the Thrift Store by Philip Harnden.
- #2 Can Quakerism Survive? by Donald W. McCormick.
- # 1 Civility Can Be Dangerous by Lucy Duncan.
Top Articles of 2017:
- #5 Mystical Experience, the Bedrock of Quaker Faith by Robert Atchley.
- #4 Weeping to Joy by Betsy Blake.
- #3: A Mysticism for Our Time by Roger Owens.
- #2: It Breaks My Heart by Kate Pruitt.
- #1: A Quaker Approach to Living with Dying by Katherine Jaramillo.
Top articles of 2016:
- #5 Framing the Light by Jean Schnell.
- #4 Why Quakers Stopped Voting by Paul Buckley.
- #3 Affirming Ivy by Laura Noel.
- #2 The Third Reconstruction by William J Barber II.
- #1 A Gospel of Quaker Sexuality by Kody Gabriel Hersh.
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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