Political queries from an almost-Quaker

November 6, 2018

Tim­o­thy Tay­lor on rad­i­cal objectivity:

But near what feels like an espe­cial­ly divi­sive elec­tion day, it seems worth pos­ing his insights as a chal­lenge for all of our par­ti­san beliefs. While I am not a mem­ber of the Reli­gious Soci­ety of Friends, I attend­ed a col­lege with Quak­er roots and mar­ried a 22nd-generation Quak­er. The Quak­ers have a term called a “query,” which refers to a ques­tion – some­times a chal­leng­ing or point­ed ques­tion– that is meant to be used as a basis for addi­tion­al reflection. 

His list isn’t real­ly in the style of clas­sic Quak­er queries (sur­prise). It’s the mod­ern style of lead­ing ques­tions that get called queries. Too often this form ends up being a rather trans­par­ent attempt to impose a kind of polit­i­cal ortho­doxy but Tay­lor’s ques­tions feel refresh­ing­ly chal­leng­ing and use­ful for what­ev­er side or non-side one takes in pol­i­tics. Hat­tip to Doug Ben­nett for the link.

http://​con​versableecon​o​mist​.blogspot​.com/​2​0​1​8​/​1​1​/​c​l​i​f​f​o​r​d​-​g​e​e​r​t​z​-​a​n​d​-​r​a​d​i​c​a​l​-​o​b​j​e​c​t​i​v​i​t​y​.​h​tml

Friend Jocelyn Bell Burnell gets Breakthrough Prize

September 7, 2018

Famous­ly over­looked for a Nobel, the Quak­er sci­en­tist has won an award that she will put toward diver­si­fy­ing future researchers:

She’s being giv­en the award for her “fun­da­men­tal con­tri­bu­tions to the dis­cov­ery of pul­sars, and a life­time of inspir­ing lead­er­ship in the sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty,” accord­ing to a state­ment from the prize board. Bell Bur­nell told the BBC she plans to give all of her prize mon­ey to women, eth­nic minori­ties and refugee stu­dents aim­ing to become physics researchers. 

You can read more about Bell Bur­nell on her Quak­ers in the World page.

https://​www​.usato​day​.com/​s​t​o​r​y​/​n​e​w​s​/​n​a​t​i​o​n​-​n​o​w​/​2​0​1​8​/​0​9​/​0​7​/​j​o​c​e​l​y​n​-​b​e​l​l​-​b​u​r​n​e​l​l​s​-​1​9​6​7​-​n​o​b​e​l​-​p​u​l​s​a​r​s​-​b​r​e​a​k​t​h​r​o​u​g​h​-​p​r​i​z​e​-​s​c​i​e​n​c​e​/​1​2​2​0​9​3​6​0​02/

Tip of the hat to Doug Ben­nett for the sug­ges­tion and links.

Interviewing Doug Bennett

May 29, 2012

If all goes smooth­ly on the tech­ni­cal front, tomor­row I’ll be inter­view­ing Doug Ben­nett for Friends Jour­nal. In this mon­th’s fea­ture arti­cle, he argues that the Quak­er con­tro­ver­sies over homo­sex­u­al­i­ty could be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring us clos­er togeth­er. Reply below with a ques­tion for Doug (<20 words) and we might use it for the interview!

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