Can you believe?

13 August 2026

Rejoice and be glad...

“Sermon on the Plain” Jesus Mafa series, Cameroon [François Vidil], Vanderbilt University. Source.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. [Matthew 5:11-12]

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. [Exodus 20:16]

It’s no longer Republican vs. Democrat.
It’s not even common sense vs. crazy.
It’s America-loving vs. America-hating COMMUNISTS, and today’s Democrat [sic] Party has shown us who they really are.
Democrats want to destroy America. Republicans LOVE America and will FIGHT to keep the United States the greatest country in the history of the world. [Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives]

I cannot necessarily advise you to rejoice and be glad in this season of rhetorical venom now dominating all forms of media. Nor can anyone guarantee that today's insults and falsehoods won't lead tomorrow to actual persecution. For some, it already has. But even if you understandably want to retreat from this noise and take some time for peace and quiet, you're entitled to rejoice. You're in good company. "In the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

The interpretation I've often heard of Matthew 5:11-12 is that it refers to the persecution that Christians experience when they testify publicly to their faith. There are places in the world where skeptical publics or oppressive governments make public faith hazardous. But by and large the USA is not one of those, although performative victimhood may claim otherwise.

Here's the more likely situation: Sometimes it's Christians who are doing the insulting and false witnessing.

Howard Carter ("The Jesus Guide to Happiness, part 8"):

... This beatitude runs contra to the predominant way in which we think of people who are blessed, or happy in our society. We are a society that values comfort and ease, getting ahead and being liked, we want the worlds high five not to be slapped down. We would see the absence of persecution and opposition and oppression, not its presence, as a sign of being blessed. Being maligned or imprisoned or disadvantaged for doing the right thing or believing in Jesus does not readily sound like something to rejoice over, party down about, it seems far from being blessed.

Jamie Arpin-Ricci asks the obvious question "why would we be persecuted? Why should our faithful commitment to build a kingdom characterized by humility, mercy, peace, reconciliation and justice cause people to hate us and harm us?" It’s a good question isn’t it? His response is that "the sad truth is this: Injustice is a profitable venture.. the power structures of the world, be they political, economic, military or even religious have a long history of establishing their power base through the casual neglect or blatant exploitation of others, all too often the poor as we become a people characterized by making justice in the world, calling other to join us, we actively threaten those very systems and powers of injustice."

It may be sadly ironic that Christian politicians such as Mike Johnson, Russell Vought, and Pete Hegseth join with the forces of persecution against Christians who prioritize the Sermon on the Mount, but let's not waste time feeling smug and superior, or in sharpening our own verbal swords. Here's Jamie Arpin-Ricci ("Pope Trump? Politics and the Normalization of Contempt"):

What's especially important to recognize is that this approach is not exclusive to Trump or those who support him. While the right has unquestionably taken this further than most, everyone is prone to this tendency. It is a pattern anyone can fall into, particularly when emotions are high, the stakes feel existential, and, perhaps above all, we believe we have the moral high ground. Even after I posted about this dynamic recently, one of the first responses agreed with me, then when on to call Trump a "piece of crap." The irony wasn’t lost on me.

This isn't about tone-policing or respectability politics in the face of injustice. Anger has its place, and naming harm is essential. If someone is functioning in ways that reflect fascism, then calling them a fascist is not out of line. But the impulse to strip people of dignity, even those causing harm, mirrors the same logic used by those we oppose: that some people simple deserve it. That logic underwrites every form of systemic oppression. When we adopt it, even against oppressors, we reinforce the very dynamics we claim to resist.

Look at it this way: when we normalize contempt and dehumanizing language, we are implicitly saying that such behaviour is acceptable when you are "in the right". However, since everyone believes that of themselves, it simply reinforces the pattern. Here’s the catch: the marginalized and oppressed always pay the highest price in these dynamics, so by contributing to the normalization of this behaviour, we contribute to the very harm of those we are seeking to protect.

In case we miss the point, this Scripture is in the same sermon in which Jesus says, (verses 43 and 44, context),

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you....

How can we love our political and spiritual opponents and thereby experience the joy and gladness Jesus promises? There is a blessing, even a joy, to be gained in practicing restraint, in resisting the temptation to give someone the what-for, and instead persistently, prayerfully, intelligently focusing our resistance on the specifics of correcting biblical malpractice and the specifics of advocating justice in season and out of season, and thereby defending the precious reputation of the Gospel.

Repentance may be unlikely, but it's not impossible, and we are not the ones to block it.

More commentaries on Matthew 5:1-12: Amy G. Oden. Osvaldo Vena. Jillian Nelson. Elaine Wainwright. Andrew McGowan.

How people in seven countries see the US. (Yougov survey.)

Why Trump-supporting Christians are driving Gen Z away from church. (Premier Christian magazine.)

Live Laugh Love on the road: some of the places Kristin Du Mez will be visiting on her book tour.

Poetry from Nancy Thomas: "Things that defile."

"Clothes Line (Wrap It Up)." I've heard the Nightcats perform this song live several times, and I've also posted it here several times. This is the most recent version, I think:

06 August 2026

Hiroshima-Nagasaki shorts

(left) Urakami Cathedral cross, Nagasaki, on display at Wilmington College's Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection until 2019 (my photo); (right) graphic from Wilmington College's Peace Resource Center (source).

Last week's post considered some of the political and spiritual difficulties World War II posed for Quaker colleges in the USA. Among the specifics of that story was the welcome that those colleges extended to a group of Japanese American students whose families had been forced into relocation camps by the notorious Executive Order 9066.

Thanks to an article posted today on the Web site of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "The political implications of Hiroshima’s scarred 'maidens'," by Alex Wellerstein, I've been thinking about other Quaker involvements with Japanese and Japanese Americans—and the nuclear bombings—originating in that war.

First in chronological order were American Quakers who had special ties to Japan before the war, and who became advocates for the incarcerated Japanese and Japanese American families in wartime. The case I knew best was Herbert Nicholson, whose nephew Ed Nicholson used to tell us stories about his uncle.

(Ed died in 2018, and his wife of 63 years, Chris Nicholson, just died this past July 29. Aside from many other ties between the Nicholsons and Judy and me, they were great encouragers of our service in Russia.)

Another Quaker advocate for incarcerated Japanese people and their families was Floyd Schmoe of University Friends Meeting in Seattle. After the war ended, he expressed his concern for war-torn Japan and the consequences of the atomic weapons by beginning a project called Houses for Hiroshima. Of all the people mentioned in these stories, Floyd was the only one I met personally, thanks to my work with Friends World Committee in the 1980's.

The "Hiroshima 'maidens'" story mentioned above, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, also had a Quaker connection. During the young women's stay in the USA for plastic surgery, they were accommodated by Quaker families, and spent time at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. More details in this Wikipedia article.

Those years—the 1950's—were a peak time for hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean, which led to a series of protests against those tests, the weapons being tested, and the radioactive pollution resulting from the tests. Barbara Reynolds and her husband Earle were among those who sailed into the test zones in protest. She later established the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection at Wilmington College in Ohio, USA, part of the college's Peace Resource Center. Judy and I got to know and appreciate the work of this center during the years we lived in Wilmington.

One of the remarkable exhibits in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Memorial Collection was a charred cross from the ruins of the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki. In 2019, as described in this Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists post, the director of the Peace Resource Center, Tanya Maus, accompanied the cross on its journey home to Nagasaki.

There is a gap in this very brief summary: the experiences of Japanese Quakers themselves during the war. The only Japanese Quaker meeting I've personally attended, the one in Osaka, was founded after the war. I have family ties to Japan—my mother was born and raised in Kobe—but, sadly, those ties don't connect with Quakers. My mother, having survived the war and eventually moving to Germany and then the USA, never spoke to me about her war years. Her primary political concern in my childhood years was the threat of Communism.

I'd love to have more examples of connections among these themes—Quakers, Japan and Japanese people, and World War II. Please share additions and corrections.

God bless the memory of those who risked everything for peace and justice in those brutal years.

I mentioned our own short visit to Hiroshima here.

Nagasaki shorts.

Why I got sour on Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemorative events. (I'm not necessarily proud of it....)

David Harrington Watt and Marian Ronan in Friends Journal: "The work continues: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the struggle against nuclear weapons."

A Wikipedia summary of the debate for and against the use of atomic bombs in World War II.

Nuclear History: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the stories we must never forget—an online presentation by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Tuesday, August 18, 10:15 a.m. U.S. Central Time via YouTube.

Ezra Klein talks with Jasmin Sun about the peculiar challenges of campaigning for and against AI-related data centers.

Kathryn James: "Why is Anthropic Destroying Books?" (And why is it considered legal?)

From Friends Peace Teams: "Peace and War in Lviv, Ukraine." "...The nervous system adapts...."

More blues from Denmark: Delta Blues Band, "Yonders Wall."

30 July 2026

Quaker colleges in the USA during World War II

This article by Friends House Moscow staff member Sergei Grushko originally appeared on the Web site quakers.ru. Translated and reposted here by permission.

"I feel bound to recommend that policy which will enable us to do positive good rather than merely to refrain from evil."

— John Nason, wartime president of Swarthmore College.

Soldiers and students sit on the steps
of Swarthmore's Parrish Hall. Source.

World War II presented a severe challenge for American colleges. But perhaps no group faced a more difficult dilemma than the institutions of higher education founded by Quakers. How could they reconcile a centuries-old witness to peace with the need to survive? Different colleges came up with different answers. And this experience gives rise to reflections on how the Quaker commitment to peace was maintained in the face of total militarization and war hysteria.

With the United States' entry into the war in December 1941, male students began leaving campuses en masse—some students enrolled in military service voluntarily, while others were conscripted. Private colleges, already struggling with funding—Quaker colleges among them—found themselves facing threats of closure.

The numbers speak for themselves. By the spring of 1943, only 296 students remained at Earlham College (the Quaker college in Indiana)—97 boys and 199 girls. The college had lost nearly 48% of its male students. By October of that year, the total enrollment had dropped to 267, of whom only 64 were men. At Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania), during the same period, only 527 students were enrolled (down from 700 in 1940), 143 of whom were boys. The decline in male enrollment was catastrophic.

The school administrations were faced with the question of how to preserve their educational institutions. The U.S. government offered higher education a solution: participation in the V-12 program for training junior officers for the Navy, which would provide the colleges with a steady supply of military students as well as government funding. For Quaker colleges, this response was dangerously tempting.

The Quaker witness to peace was one of the cornerstones of the identity of these educational institutions. Swarthmore's founders believed that "the disposition to introduce military drill into the course of instruction in our public schools … is especially objectionable to Friends." The college's co-founder, Benjamin Hallowell, had himself been a conscientious objector.

However, by the 1940s, the Quaker identity of some colleges had weakened significantly. Swarthmore had officially given up its affiliation with the Society of Friends as early as 1909*, and by the start of the war, Quakers constituted a small minority among the student body. The number of actual conscientious objectors in the 1940s was minimal.

* For retired faculty to receive payments from the pension fund organized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, colleges had to comply with its rules. The fund in its early years did not provide pensions to faculty from institutions "controlled or owned by religious organizations." This was primarily why Swarthmore had to end its formal Quaker affiliation.

Swarthmore President John Nason, himself a Quaker, chose a path that could be called ministry through presence. He reasoned that if the college didn't embrace the military, it might not survive as an institution. And if it disappeared, who would train the future peacekeepers, scientists, and doctors who would restore peace after the war? "I feel bound to recommend that policy which will enable us to do positive good rather than merely to refrain from evil," Nason declared.

Nason didn't see this as a contradiction to Quaker values. He sought to find new expression for these values in the changed circumstances. He ensured that the military presence on campus didn't turn the college into a barracks. And he succeeded. By the end of 1943, Swarthmore had 297 naval officers, 234 female students, and 155 civilian men enrolled. In addition, 49 Chinese naval officers arrived to study English. Each of them, in addition to military disciplines, took a full academic course. It was during these years that Swarthmore took two important steps toward social justice. It admitted its first African-American students, Dorothea Kopczynski and Gloria Clement. And it accepted Japanese-American students, who had been interned in camps by the government. Nason personally chaired the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council. The college used the military presence to protect its existence while remaining a place that valued human dignity.

Earlham College took a different path. In 1942, its president, William Dennis, declared to Indiana Yearly Meeting, "A Quaker college as such should not participate directly in the war effort…." And he remained true to his word. Military personnel were not allowed on campus. But the search for ways to collaborate with the government continued. Dennis proposed establishing a military police training unit on campus. He envisioned the military police not as an offensive force, but as a structure for maintaining order. However, the board of trustees rejected this proposal, deeming it incompatible with Quaker principles. This episode illustrates how even within a single Quaker community, there can be different understandings of the line between unacceptable compromise and acceptable service.

The failure to establish a military police unit strengthened the resolve of Earlham’s president to pursue an alternative direction. The college joined the Civilian Public Service (CPS) program, an alternative for conscientious objectors. It was a conscious choice: to help the country not with weapons, but with knowledge that would be useful after the war. But even here, difficulties arose. The program was underfunded, Congress reduced support, and by 1943, it effectively ceased to exist. Dennis turned to alumni, to Quakers, to those who believed in the college's mission. He asked for help. The response was overwhelming. A Free Will Fund campaign raised over $10,000—three times more than any similar campaign before it. Alumni wrote: "I was so grateful that Earlham College had remained true to Quaker principles in not taking a military unit onto the campus, that it was my intention as soon as possible to respond with a contribution to the Free Will Fund." "I am so proud of Earlham for the stand she has taken." The college also admitted 12 students of Japanese descent.

Representatives of seven Quaker educational institutions—including Haverford, Guilford, Friends University, William Penn, and Wilmington—met in September 1942 and decided to organize an alternative Civilian Public Service Reserve Force program to train conscientious objectors rather than soldiers. This initiative, proposed by historic peace churches (Quakers, Mennonites, and the Church of the Brethren ), would allow pacifist students to continue their education instead of being sent to Civilian Social Service camps. However, the government limited the program's total quota to 260 places for all participating colleges, of which Quaker colleges received only 100–120.

In the postwar years, the schools that had made their varying decisions continued to reflect on their choices. At Swarthmore, the debate continued. In 1950, prominent alumnus Thomas McCabe declared, "I was never more proud of Swarthmore than in the early days of the war when this Quaker institution, in spite of its traditional stand against war, offered all of its facilities voluntarily to our Government in time of need." William Richards (Class of 1948), who was imprisoned from 1942 to 1946 for resisting the draft, strongly disagreed: "A Quaker college has no place in aiding a war. Swarthmore should have taken a stand for peace and not sold its birthright for a mess of pottage." This debate reflects the deep tension between different understandings of the Quaker peace witness: from strict abstention from any participation in military action to active service to peace, even if it requires compromise.

Today, Swarthmore, Earlham, Haverford, and other Quaker colleges are proud of their Quaker heritage and are considered Quaker in spirit, although Quakers constitute a small minority of their student bodies. Their experience during World War II demonstrates that Quaker identity is not monolithic—it can be expressed differently in different institutional and historical contexts. The ability to remain faithful to the witness of peace, regardless of how it is practiced, is a characteristic feature of the Quaker tradition, allowing it to remain vibrant in diverse contexts. Fidelity to principle does not require uniformity.

Sergei Grushko lists these resources he consulted in writing his article:

LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES IN THE TUMULTUOUS 1940S: INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY AND THE CHALLENGES OF WAR AND PEACE. A Dissertation in Higher Education by Jordan R. Humphrey etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/2963 (the most significant resource);
Swarthmore at War (part 1 - swarthmorephoenix.com/2010/02/19/swarthmore-at-war-part-1/ . part 2 - swarthmorephoenix.com/2010/03/01/swarthmore-at-war-part-2/ );
Founded by Friends: The Quaker Heritage of Fifteen American Colleges and Universities - historyb332.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2015/01/founded-by-friends_20150212132902.pdf :
... and Wikipedia.

For some additional interesting information concerning the internment of Japanese Americans and Quaker advocacy and hospitality for Japanese Americans during the displacement camp era, see

The testimony of Gordon Hirabayashi;
Japanese-American Internment (AFSC);
Earlham College and Japanese Americans.

A more recent case of U.S. Quaker colleges vs conscription: the Solomon Amendment (1982) prohibiting federal financial aid to nonregistering students.

Looking for summer reading? Kristin Du Mez has some suggestions.

Jemar Tisby on The Pastor No One Can Correct. "Douglas Wilson can hold paedocommunion, dominionism, household voting, and his long apologetic for the Confederacy, because he answers to almost no one."

Jeremy Morris on a certain leader's "magical thinking." (By the way, I wrote a post about Russia, Ukraine, and avos' three and a half years ago.)

Ursula K. Le Guin's house here in Portland, Oregon, is added to the National Register of Historic Places. (Should also be on some intergalactic registry....)

Three Danish bluesmen cover "Dust My Broom": H.P. Lange, Troels Jensen, Hugo Rasmussen.

23 July 2026

The tax covenant and resistance

We talk about democracy and Christianity—and we try out a new firebomb. We talk about peace and we move thousands more men and weapons into Vietnam. This country has gone mad. But I will not go mad with it. I will not pay for organized murder.
— Joan Baez (April 1965, source.)

The tax covenant

The tax covenant: idealism and reality

In my last post on the tax covenant ("Idealism and reality") I expressed some of the disillusionment that results when our taxes and federal budgets are misspent and misdirected. When should we consider the covenant broken (held together only by government coercion) and what should we do in response?

There is one specific controversy around U.S. federal income tax and expenditures that has a long history: the war budget, and related dilemmas for conscientious objectors to that budget. The current U.S. administration is pushing Congress to approve a military budget of US$ 1.5 trillion, plus supplemental funds of US$ 67.1 billion for costs relating to the current unauthorized war on Iran. This seems like a good moment to review our covenant.

Quakers and war tax resistance have a long history together. For a brief account of that history, I recommend Wallace Collett's chapter, "Pay Thy Taxes as long as Thou Canst" (pages 170-181) in Leonard Kenworthy's Friends Face the World, available in PDF form here.

I remember a bit of this history myself. I was on the staff of Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, when Gordon Brown, the section's executive secretary, and Cincinnati businessman Wallace Collett worked together to set up a structure for Friends to consider war taxes across our diversities of geography and theology. This was the Friends Committee on War Tax Concerns, whose work resulted in a manual edited by Linda Coffin, A Handbook on Military Taxes and Conscience, and a supplemental manual for employers. I wrote more about these memories here.

For a sample of the Mennonite experience with tax dilemmas, here's a link to Titus Peachey's paper, Silence and Courage: Income Taxes, War and Mennonites 1940-1993.

Some context: even in less turbulent times, the U.S. war budget is around 50% of the annual federal discretionary budget, and if related debt service and the Veterans Administration are added in, then the proportion exceeds 60%.

As you consider your own faith in relation to paying these taxes:

Setting aside this particular era's scandals and causes for disillusionment, do you feel unease about helping fund the war budget? Is there a positive and persuasive comparison between refusing military service as a conscientious objector (instead choosing alternative service) and refusing to pay related taxes?
If you have been a conscientious payer of federal taxes to this point, do you feel that the government still honors the tax covenant it has with you and other taxpayers? Aside from force of coercion, is the covenant broken? (This assumes that the "covenant" analogy seems valid to begin with. For example, some libertarians argue that all taxes represent theft, a position I don't share.)
If you feel drawn to the tax resistance position, is this a dilemma that you can take to your meeting or church? (My experience at First Friends Meeting, Richmond, Indiana, was summarized in this post. We asked the church to advise us on the legitimacy of our resistance in discipleship context, and, if so, which proportion of the total federal budget we should choose not to pay—the current military budget, or a calculation including costs of past wars. We were serious about being in submission to the discernment of the community.)
To avoid benefiting financially from war tax resistance, would it help your decision-making to know that there are ways to direct that money to good purposes, and that there is a community that can help if/when your unpaid taxes are confiscated or penalties assessed? Check here for information and experiences related to redirecting taxes and sharing the burden of penalties.

My purpose here is not to encourage illegal or risky decisions, but in the face of unprecedented levels of corruption, misdirection, and general abuse of our taxes, I'm just suggesting that we have choices that are consistent with Christian faith as understood by Quakers, other peace churches, and well beyond.

The War Resisters League, the oldest secular pacifist organization in the USA, offers a helpful compilation of testimonies, practical help, and appropriate cautions: War Tax Resistance: A Guide for Withholding Your Support from the Military.

For more information and links to many partner organizations, secular and faith-based, visit the Web site of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.

As always, I'm eager to know additional sources of information and advice that you've found useful, and experiences that you've had in dealing with these ethical issues.

Rosa Packard's story of coming to a tax resistance position. Nadine Hoover's advocacy. Gordon Browne's story. The text of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act, which was for years annually introduced by John Lewis.

Post number six in Phil Gulley's series "Why War Is Not the Answer." This time: "At its heart, war is the enemy of democracy."

Micah Bales gives Romans 8:12-25 a close reading.

Having read through this passage of Romans together, we get a picture of our existence as a part of a grand cosmic drama of struggle and transformation. Simply put, the universe is vast beyond our comprehension, and yet our lives are incredibly important – central to God’s plan for the cosmos.

The city of Muncie, Indiana, says goodbye to Dr. John Peterson, a healer and musician whose skill and care touched thousands, including me. In this MuncieArts video from last November, "Doc" tells his own story. Here he is at the keyboard for "My Girl," clipped from Robert Mugge's documentary Giving Up the Ghosts: Closing Time at Doc's Music Hall.

Michael Marsh's series of posts on "Living With a Tender Heart" includes this post on "re-imaging news" in the midst of its constant flow.

The first "official" reviews of Live Laugh Love are out, and author Kristin Du Mez is justifiably pleased. (My review is here.)

John 20:22-23: Binding sin, loosing sin, and modern Quaker practice. Brian Drayton asks where are the anchors for our Quaker communities' discernments and judgments.

Blues and taxes ... Robert Cray ("1040 Blues"), J.B. Lenoir ("Eisenhower Blues"), Watermelon Slim ("Tax Man Blues") and (just for good measure) Lightnin' Hopkins ("It's a Sin to Be Rich, It's a Low-Down Shame to Be Poor"). All audio-only with graphics.

16 July 2026

"Dwell in that which is pure..."

Sources: Poetry and Passion, Barclay Press (2026); The Power of the Lord, Friends United Meeting (1989; cover is from the epub version, 2023).

In August 2022, our old friends Ben and Jody Richmond visited Judy and me in Maine. Ben brought with him several pages of an exciting project: a sampling of George Fox's epistles that he was in the process of laying out in verse form. Two years later, a full-length manuscript emerged, and last month it became available to you and me.

Canby (b/w) and Ben

Ben explains that it all started when he began using George Fox's epistles as devotional reading.

At first, I had no idea of publishing anything. I used Canby Jones' Power of the Lord Is Over All and treated it like Hodgkin's A Day-Book of Counsel and Comfort, plowing through, one epistle per day. I started by copying out a sentence or two that was striking to me, then journal-style writing my response.

As I was doing this, I began to wonder what was behind Canby's ellipses. Using the Digital Quaker Archive for the base text, I began to try reconsidering repetitions as progressive parallels rather than redundancies. We see this in the Psalms all the time. This eventually led me to experiment with formatting selections from the epistles as poetry. Some of the first fruits of which I brought ... to see how Judy and you would react.

In Poetry and Passion, I have the entire text of Epistle 50, with the exception of a parenthetical expression, "as aforesaid" which Canby and I both delete. Here is my text, with Canby's deletions struck through:

All Friends,

[I]

Dwell in that which is pure,
and wait for the power of God
to preserve you in that which is pure,
up to God.

And know the seed of God in one another,
that the knowledge which is after the flesh may die;
~~and know the power of God in one another~~.

Let your faith stand in that
which throws out the earthly nature,
and the loftiness of man;

which overturns the worldly wisdom
and the carnal knowledge,
which is brutish and devilish.

[II]

Dwell in that which is pure,
that ye may be able to discern,
and savour, and comprehend
that which is not pure;

and wait in that which is pure,
~~to have your minds guided thereby~~,
which will let you see God,

and show you your evil thoughts,
and judge them; and is a cross
to your evil desires, wills, and lusts.

[III]

I say, dwell in that which is pure,
which will guide you to God;
but if ye lust, . . . then the pure is veiled,

and the light mind speaks at random,
with a drunken spirit,
and not from the mouth of the Lord.

And there lodgeth the dreamer,
and the lying spirit, and the false prophet,
and that which is like the truth but is not the truth;

but dwelling in the truth,
this will be discovered.

And wait upon God in that which is pure,
for the receiving of that which comes from God,
which is living, which nourisheth up
to everlasting life.

So God Almighty be with you!

[Again, Ben:] The poetic formatting allows progressions of thought to be made plain. For instance, see these early lines --

And know the seed of God in one another,
that the knowledge which is after the flesh may die;
and know the power of God in one another.

Knowing the seed of God in one another leads to the death of "the flesh" which leads to knowing the power of God in one another. The third line in that triplet is a development of the first. But what does it mean???? I'm guessing that it's related to overturning "carnal knowledge" which is "brutish and devilish." Fox's language is provocative, not to say provoking.

Note also the move from individual waiting for the power in the first stanza to knowing the power corporately in the second stanza. Is this community awareness of the power of God in one another part of our contemporary experience????

And, of course, the three-fold "dwell in that which is pure" leads to a progression of its own which I mention in the "Introductory Note."

Both Ben and I are great admirers of T. Canby Jones and his work on Fox's epistles. Canby put countless hours into making sure we had the most comprehensive collection to date of those epistles in book form, introduced with Canby's own scholarship and wit. Canby himself noted the lyrical quality of Fox's letters. From his introduction:

In the early 1970's, I spent more time meditating on Fox's letters. As mentioned in my preface, on a retreat with the Friends of Berkeley, California, Friends Church, I felt led to read aloud and share many of Fox's Letters. Their response was so joyously electric that I determined I must bring out a newly edited complete edition of Fox's Letters as my next major project. Another reason for my concern to do this arises from the fact that since 1831 no edition of Fox's complete Letters has appeared in print. There have been five editions of Selections from Fox's Epistles in the intervening years but no complete edition.
One of the most impressive things about George Fox's Letters is his use of striking and unusual words and phrases. His writing style is full of organic and down-to-earth images. Others are pure poetry. Some passages are inspiring litanies of praise. In some, his words of censure are as unique as they are severe.
Here is a poetic example. In Letter 56 (1653), Fox calls us to bring our "minds out of the earth ... towards God, where the pure babe is born in the virgin mind." Have you heard spiritual birth described in such terms?

Canby's gift to us was to provide Fox's words with a balanced approach of completeness and clarity, in a documentary format. He knew the pulsing power underneath those dense paragraphs. Ben's reformatting makes that pulse and cadence vividly available.

Other features of the book are also very helpful. Paul Anderson's preface provides additional historical and theological context. Ben includes a chronology of Fox's life. Each of Fox's letters has an introductory note and a related biblical passage. The epistles themselves are sorted by themes, but at the end of the book there is an index of epistles in numerical/chronological order. (You may be among those who love Fox's epistle "Sing and rejoice, ye children of the day and of the light," and it's right here, on page 171.)

Source.

One more thing. Since I just mentioned Paul Anderson, another linkage comes to mind. Paul recently published Margaret Fell's 'Women's Speaking Justified' in Modern English with his thoughtful commentary. George Fox wrote an epistle on a related theme (page 131 in Poetry and Passion):

To All Women's Meetings (Epistle 291, 1672)

Introductory Note

The equality of women and men was among the first testimonies of Friends, and was demonstrated in the prominent and controversial leadership roles of women such as Elizabeth Hooton, Margaret Fell, Mary Fisher, Mary Dyer, and many others whose prophetic preaching some found scandalous, but had a major part in spreading the everlasting gospel. In this epistle, addressed To all the women's meetings, that are believers in the truth, Fox asserts the equality of women and men in leadership and encourages “your women's meetings.” (See also, Epistle 320.) The foundational theological idea is that Christ restores men and women to the state of Adam and Eve, who were equal “help-meets” before the fall.
Note: Five years prior to this, in 1667, Margaret Fell, then a prisoner in Lancaster Castle prison, wrote the seminal tract, “Women’s Speaking Justified.” Fox and Fell married each other in 1669.

Scripture: And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him an help meet for him.

Genesis 2:18 (KJV)

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27 (KJV)

Epistle

Friends,—
Keep your women's meetings in the power of God... and keep the gospel order.

For man and woman were helps-meet in the image of God, and in righteousness and holiness, in the dominion, before they fell; but after the fall in the transgression, the man was to rule over his wife; but in the restoration by Christ, into the image of God, and his righteousness and holiness again, in that they are helps-meet, man and woman, as they were before the fall....

And women are to take up the cross daily,
and follow Christ daily,
as well as the men;
and so to be taught of him their prophet,
and fed of him their shepherd,
and counselled of him their counsellor,
and sanctified by him
who offered up himself once for all....

Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, were the first preachers of Christ's resurrection to the disciples, and the disciples could not believe their message and testimony that they had from Jesus, as some now-a-days cannot; but they received the command, and being sent preached it.

So is every woman and man to do, that sees him risen, and has the command and message; daughters shall prophesy as well as sons.

So they are to be obedient, that have the spirit poured upon them. Women are to prophesy; and prophecy is not to be quenched. They that have the testimony of Jesus, are commanded to keep it, whether men or women....

So women are to keep in the government of Christ, and to be obeyers of Christ; and women are to keep the comely order of the gospel, as well as men, and to see that all that have received Christ Jesus, that they walk in Christ Jesus... of the increase of whose government there is no end.

So the foundation of our women's meetings is Christ, to all them that be heirs of him, and of his government... and therefore, I say, take your possessions of it, and walk as becomes the gospel; and keep the comely order of it, and in it keep your meetings....

So ... both men and women, be helps-meet in the image of God, in the righteousness and holiness in the restoration.... And so see that nothing be lacking amongst you, then all will be well.
Postscript.—

And the elder women in the truth
were not only called elders, but mothers.

Now a mother in the church of Christ,
and a mother in Israel,
   is one that gives suck,
   and nourishes, and feeds,
   and washes, and rules,

and is a teacher, in the church, and in the Israel of God,
   and an admonisher,
   an instructer, an exhorter.

So, all that are come to that office,
   growth, and stature,
   be diligent;

for a mother in Israel, or in the church of Christ,
is beyond all the mothers in Egypt, and in Sodom,
   and the mother of harlots, mystery Babylon,
   who had power over tongues, nations, and people,
   with the cup of her fornication.

But the mothers in spiritual Israel, and church of Christ,
   has the cup of salvation,
   and the breasts of consolation,
   which are full of the milk of the word,
   to suckle all the young ones,
   and to nourish, and instruct,
   admonish, and exhort,
   and rebuke all the contrary;

   and to refresh and cherish
   every tender one....

More about T. Canby Jones. Canby in Wikipedia.

climate.us "launches independent website for trusted climate information" preserving and extending the earlier government Web site canceled by the current U.S. administration.

Tricia Gates Brown on what a rescued bird taught her.

Jack Jenkins on how Matthew 25 lands in Washington, DC, and how it becomes a political litmus test.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection calls upon Ukraine to uphold the right to conscientious objection—including the case of Friend Yuri Sheliazhenko—and to stop the detention and torture of objectors.

Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, "Ten Years Ago."

09 July 2026

The tax covenant—idealism and reality

St. Matthew, the tax collector.
Source.

I remember Walter Mondale's acceptance speech as the Democratic party candidate to challenge U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the 1984 general election—particularly these lines:

By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two‑thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.

The idealism in these few sentences (about the need to reduce the deficit by increasing revenue, and the pointed willingness to be candid) did not serve Mondale well in his losing campaign. But I admired the thought.

In my blog post last year on the tax covenant, I summed up the ideal of righteous taxation this way: Ideally, by paying taxes, we citizens are simply upholding a covenant we have with each other.

We have made promises to each other—"to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" (preamble to the U.S. Constitution), setting up a government for these purposes and assigning that government, through our legislature, the practical tasks needed to fulfill those promises.

We know that these tasks cost money, so our legislators make a list of those costs and institute sources of revenue, including taxes. That's the covenant: to decide on the tasks needed for the "general Welfare," from which we all benefit, directly or indirectly, and to pay our fair share for those tasks.

Now we all know it's not really that simple. The best machines can get sand in the gears, and no human organization is completely free from inefficiencies and waste. Worse than that, when you have big streams of money going by, there'll usually be some people with buckets, trying to catch some along the way. That's why we have audits and inspectors general, but even in the best systems, we know that we won't achieve total perfection in getting the revenue to its promise-fulfilling destinations. Even so, by and large, the tax covenant can still hold. During Bill Clinton's presidency, the federal government ran a surplus four times, taking four small bites each year out of the federal debt.

The reason I'm so stubborn about preaching up this covenant is that for generations, populist politicians have been trading on the unpopularity of taxes. (Just think of how unpopular tax collectors were during New Testament times, although it didn't help that, in those times, the tax collectors themselves took a cut from the revenue.) It's convenient for those politicians to overlook the link between revenue and the legitimate expenditures approved by the people's representatives. I want that link to be strong and evident.

Then along comes a figure of such monumental disregard for common decency and legal norms, along with an animal magnetism for which J.D. Vance's ten-year-old epithet of "cultural heroin" is not too strong. It turns out that this personality can drug even legislators to the point of impotence. He has now gained the U.S. presidency a second time, despite the Founding Fathers' warnings against the rise of demagogues who rise by "flattering the prejudices of the people."

I'm guessing that, if you're read this far, you are probably not a follower of this figure and his MAGA movement. But how does all this specifically endanger the tax covenant?

We are (or should be!) willing to pay for the expenditures that our elected legislators have approved, and for the means to reduce wastage and corruption in the process. (If we don't like what they've approved or how the money is spent, we should be ready to replace those legislators and/or strengthen the safeguards.) But what should we do when the money is redirected or expropriated by the most powerful man in the system?

What if millions and billions of our tax money are being misspent to:

replace a congressionally-mandated bipartisan 250th birthday celebration for the country with a celebration centered on the president, partly using money diverted from the bipartisan events?
demolish the East Wing of the White House, deceptively promising that private contributions will finance the replacement?
repair and refurbish the National Mall's Reflecting Pool through a no-bid contract, announcing grandiose goals for the project at a fraction of the still-increasing cost?
pay for operations at the U.S. southern border, including stretches of the border wall, with money intended for military housing and schools?
pay his own properties to house his security details for his numerous golf holidays?
upgrade a gift airplane from another country (a gift already of dubious legality), to bring that airplane up to Air Force One standards? (At least $400 million, perhaps much more.)
begin a war of choice with Iran?

Few of these acts, taken singly, are unique to the present administration, but the scale is unprecedented. Among the rest of us, it's the cynicism generated by not knowing where our tax money is actually going that worries me. And aside from such direct defiance of legislative decisions, we see an apparent utter lack of concern for the transfers of wealth from the 99% to the 1% resulting from the "Big Beautiful Bill" and the lack of attention to the national debt.

Finally, there are all the instances of corruption, self-dealing, and conflicts of interest that come across our news channels, perhaps beyond our ability to keep track. But it's worth paying attention, if only to keep referring back from today's swamp to the cleansing vision of that most basic American covenant: a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. For that ideal, I'll stubbornly continue to resist the cheap wisdom of cynicism.

Brian Baugus on a biblical view of taxation.

Rosa DeLauro on Trump's record of corruption.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington lists some of the president's conflicts of interest.

My own thoughts on hope and cynicism.

Nancy Thomas: The Lord's Prayer for Ukraine.

Kristin Du Mez on the Moscow, Idaho, pastor whose influence reaches the Pentagon.

Cape Verde's goalkeeper Vozinha: Amy Young's World Cup parable.

God Bless the Grass: The Lamb’s War as Endless Revolution, a presentation by C. Wess Daniels, available online on August 10, 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Michael K. Marsh on Abraham, Isaac, and sacrificing our certitude.

Canadian content! The Whitehorse version of "Baby What You Want Me to Do?"