Saturday, August 01, 2009

Who would have guessed, the Quakers

Not a lot of people know this about me, but for an entire term (three months) I attended a Quaker college. To answer you first question, yes, the did sell Quaker oats at the school bookstore (in snack bar form). To answer your second question, because I was looking for a small private Christian school and my parents wouldn't let me go to Azusa Pacific in California.

This was in the news yesterday.
...many British Quakers feel it is wrong to exclude a religious commitment from civil partnerships and want the right to marriage extended to same-sex couples too.

The Quakers has welcomed same-sex unions for more than two decades, allowing local groups to celebrate same-sex commitments through special acts of worship.

So to all those people out there shouting about how marriage equality will infringe on their religious freedoms, take a look at the timber in your eye (that's a biblical reference) and see that YOU are the one trampling on someone else's religious freedoms.

Well, I guess I can stop feeling embarrassed (maybe not quite yet) about my formative years. Now I'm wondering if the college I went to will reconsider that ban on being seen at gay bars? Probably not since they still have that ban on smoking, drinking and dancing in public. But it's a start.

7 comments:

jason said...

very cool of them. I think I'm going to eat some oatmeal just because.

A Lewis said...

Oh boy, had I only been living here in the area when you were at GF....I'd have shown you a good time.

Michael Guy said...

Yeah! GO QUAKERS!!!

My adventures said...

I was going to make a reference to the Kevin Bacon movie I'm totally blanking on at the moment. And, damn, there went the joke too.

Rachel V. Olivier said...

I always knew those Quakers were cool! Thanks for letting me know how cool.

KT said...

This doesn't surprise me too much, but then again my grandmother (the one you met) is both a Quaker and a member of P-FLAG so it makes sense.

(I'm not Christian but I quite like the quakers. A faith that seems to be a little more based on a PERSONAL relationship with god instead of a guy up front reading out what you should believe makes so much more sense to me, and I guess would lead to a more open mind.)

Margaret said...

I had NO idea you had gone to George Fox. That's where my niece and Travis, the "bridesman" from her wedding, did their graduate work. They're pretty close-minded still in that it was basically a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with Travis and his relationship with his husband.