Bill Rushby wrote:I ordered a copy last week. The title is catchy, and seems to have many people thinking! The logic doesn't need to be perfect or just what the doctor ordered, to provoke thought and discussion. Christ-centered Friends have a long history of exercising something like what I imagine *The Benedict Option* to be but, let's admit it, Friends have a harder time functioning as a nonconformed community than many Anabaptists do. Part of the reason is much smaller numbers in modern times.
i wonder, if there had been no U.S. Civil War, would Quakers have held up better in history?
idle speculation! but, still, i wonder.
'cause, what i imagine happening was .. Quaker communities broke up, many leaving their communities to move north, away from slave states .. so, "for the right reasons." but, once they left, they lost their groups, married outside their communities, lost their numbers (?)
from the little i've found in my family, and reading of others, this seems to be what resulted.
Quakers were an important group to begin in U.S. history, they were important in the Civil War, then .. numbers declined (?)
however, i think, early sensibilities continue, even if not recognized for origin.
imho, we are all products of more than we consciously recognize.