I've committed a lot of writings to the public domain, or circulated various pieces more privately, and sometimes people might think I speak for Quakers. In the meantime, I don't want to bias that discussion by taking over-advantage of my birthright status. Annual Session I've been embarrassed by Quakers lately, plus felt increasingly alienated from the process whereby Quakers hatch, season, and present their minutes to the larger world. These statements are entirely predictable, are found elsewhere in the literature, outside of the Quaker tradition, and therefore, in my opinion, offer nothing new or uniquely Quaker to the ongoing struggles. Were we a new to the planet, like a newborn baby, I'd find these little activist burps endearing, but Friends have been operating on Planet Earth since the 1600s, and if this is the best we can do in the realm of social change and making a difference, then I'm simply aghast at our collective incompetence.
Causation is no simple matter in the real world.
Humans live and die by the same rules as stars and moons. So I guess at this point in time I want to distance myself from the branch of Quakerism into which I was myself hatched in 1958. In conclusion, I want to say that I deeply admire and respect many Friends with whom I have interactions, both close to home and distant. I'm not writing this letter in a spirit of disavowal, trying to explain why Quakerism is not for me. Rather, I have my own brand of Quakerism, which I've defined for myself, and I'm not wanting to insist that it be called that by others.