Towards a Quaker View of Sex

Memo Barnes, 29 January 1961

Description:

Barnes sent memo re: his draft of a section on heterosexuality. He also proposed statements emphasizing that the study is the creation of the whole committee and that is not sanctioned by the Religious Society of Friends.

Source:

Keith Wedmore Papers

Text

To Members of the Committee.

It was my job to write a section on heterosexuality. I've had very little time to give to it and I've had simply to throw together a number of scraps that may or may
not be what is wanted. They may overlap on to Duncan's section on the Quaker approach but we can perhaps sort this out on Sunday. I have seen Richard's section on
heterosexual deviations and it seems to me to state or imply a great deal of what is normal in physical heterosexual contacts. There seems therefore relatively little of that for me to describe.

I would suggest that our pamphlet should open with a statement to this effect:

"The contents of this pamphlet are the considered and corporate responsibility of this committee. It is requested that individual members should not be approached by representatives of the Press for any interpretation or answering of questions. There will certainly be much discussion and many questions put to us, but we feel that every question must be consider by the whole committee before any answers are made public in the Press.

"Further, although this pamphlet is the work of a Quaker Committee, it has not been submitted for approval to the Society of Friends as a whole, and must not be taken to commit Quakers in general to its findings.

K.C.B.