112 20 2504 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/051330d70a9034e40058f864dd7a6096.jpg 656d15f9fc9e62d573a0e39ecff62c8d https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e18bcd35c835b49d5cd55fb507182857.jpg a61b586b4ef7a46988099b296eb225f2 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5725ac905e61db5f477d1bd97cb6ad50.jpg e038306a78bc79c4970189d2fe418148 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/af9924a297fa65aac8d593c7d8b98fbe.jpg 5b67be9a0a6d3eaf93e994f63f9496ca https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e2e652c7a3bc1fca4b101ce4245d05b5.jpg 28176c27e3e614f6014a174470d34ba6 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend July 12, 1963 Meeting for Sufferings No Statement--and No Conference Full Discussion Ends Negatively Meeting for Sufferings spent a full morning last Friday considering whether to issue a statement giving guidance on sexual conduct, and whether to hold a conference on the recent pamphlet, Towards a Quaker View of Sex, or at any rate on the subjects with which the pamphlet deals. In both cases it was decided not to. At its last assembly (in May) the Meeting had been asked by Western Quarterly Meeting to issue "a short, simple statement in the name of the Society, presenting affirmatively what in our experience we have found to be good in socially responsible behaviour". In the interval Hugh Doncaster had been working on a draft, taking into consideration the comments of four other Friends appointed to confer with him.* The results, which had been circulated to members beforehand, was a document of some 2,000 words, for the actual form and working of which, Hugh Doncaster emphasised, he alone must be held responsible. although "much that is of value in it comes directly from" the other four. No instruction had been given in May as to whom this statement should be directed, but as it turned out it was directed "to young Friends in the later teens". The draft was headed: BOY FRIENDS AND GIRL FRIENDS CHASTITY OR INTERCOURSE? Its preamble explained that here was an attempt to help people find what is right for them in the circumstances in which they are, for there is little value in trying to impose from outside a code which is unacceptable. At the same time, patterns of behaviour which have been found to be good over many generations are likely to be based on good foundations. The preamble went on to suggest an outline of what was the Christian ideal. This general statement was then expanded into a submission of nine good reasons why sexual intercourse was best avoided by the unmarried--including sexual intercourse by those intending to marry. A final paragraph, before summing it up, emphasised that the question to ask is not," What do conventional standards require? "or even in abstract terms, "What is right?" but the far deeper and more exacting one, "What, in view of all the facts, does love require?" A Beginning and not an End? Hugh Doncaster recalled that the Meeting in May had wished that a statement, if to be made, should be a "complement" to Towards a Quaker View of Sex, and not a comment upon or answer to it; and this had been very much in mind. The draft was an attempt to take up the positive message of the pamphlet and develop it a little further. It proposed to say to young people that here was some factual information that should be available to them, "considering what love requires of them". Jean Storrow, one of the Friends who had been consulted about t he draft, considered it "a beginning, and not an end", and, as a beginning, excellent. But a teenager to whom she had shown it had said: "Yes, it's very good, but it's somebody standing there giving us good advice." It would have been better in this statement to have put to young people some questions to which they, knowing their own situation as no one else could, could be trusted to find the right answers for themselves. She welcomed the emphasis in the statement on loving and caring for one another as the key to the problem; indeed it was the key to all human relationships. And it seemed a good time for some sort of statement. Towards a Quaker View of Sex had set the stage; now they did want to go further and address themselves to some specific task. Nevertheless they might do well to consider whether they were rushing it a bit. "Healthy to Disagree" Anna Bidder (one of the eleven members of the group which had produced Towards a Quaker View of Sex) said that her reaction to this draft was very much the same as that which (she could not but gather) had been the reaction of a number of Friends to the pamphlet. There was much valuable material here, and "some absolutely splendid phrases"--"but the thing as a whole fills me with horror". The first impact of this reaction in herself--to find that "I simply don't agree"--had terrified her. But "gradually it came to me that it is right and healthy to be able to disagree with each other in the Society, and to be led together into light and truth. It is our genius to reach unity through pretty fundamental disagreements". The unity which lay behind both the pamphlet and the draft was the solid conviction that monogamous, loyal and loving marriage was one of the great contributions of Christianity to the world, and anything they said about sexual relationships was always directed towards helping people to a marriage that was just that. If, continued Anna Bidder, they were to offer advice to teenagers, it must be in the spirit of: "We in our experience and in our generation have found that this and this is so. You may agree or disagree, but you will remember that this is our honest personal statement." But she hoped that they would not say that patterns of behavior which have been found to be food over many generations are likely to be based on good foundations. She should have thought that the whole history of the Society had shown Friends again and again taking a stand against that attitude in the Christian Church. Friends took their stand on their own experience, on what God gave them to do and to say. She would not dare to say that any pattern of sexual behaviour which some or many had found right was to be claimed right for everybody. People were made in such different patterns and, as the statement had rightly said, God forbid that they should judge. Nor should they allow young people to think that the only thing that really mattered was whether intercourse took place before or after marriage; nor, further, that a marriage could not be well founded if casual adventures had taken place beforehand. It was not only the careless or light-minded who entered into sexual relations without marriage. Many others than themselves--and she had known and honoured some of them--felt that adventures without marriage were permissible, who would be shocked at any other view but that in marriage one should be anything other than faithful. "We must be honest with our young people and admit that a very wide range of sexual behaviour is not incompatible with goodness." She did not believe that for years to come the Society would be ready to issue an official statement on this matter. Meanwhile it was all to the good that documents of a tentative nature should be circulated. But it would not be right in so short a time to issue a statement in the name of the Society. No statement in that sense could be made without first having been though the channels of all the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, and without having been the fruit of long study, search and prayer. Reginald A. Smith could not be happy about the draft. He had begun thinking it very fine, both as to phrase and substance; and was disappointed that it just did not stand up to further consideration. "Essentially it is not a Christan appeal but an appeal to bourgeois prudence, and I have no more use for bourgeois prudence than have the authors of the pamphlet whose title I cannot bring myself to pronounce." It was perfectly true, the world being what it was, that they had to be extremely careful and responsible as to bringing a child into the world. But that was not the fundamental and eternal reason why completely monogamous marriage was the one sexual relationship really worthy of their calling in Christ. The reasons for that lay much deeper than most of what was said in the draft, and they must get down to them. Much as he admired the exercise and thought of the draft, it was not one which ought to be put out on behalf of the Society. Polonius Gustav Fischer gravely doubted whether the statement was either necessary or advisable. "In Hamlet there is only one character I thoroughly dislike--Polonius. I cannot imagine the youth of 1963 listening to Polonius, If I were a girl and found a boy who could read through these nine reasons I would not marry him." Elsie Wright thanked Hugh Doncaster and his co-workers, but the statement should not be published as a Quaker document. "It would be a mistake to issue anything that might tie us down." It was not final; it had defects of expression, perhaps; but it was helpful and reasonable, and young people should have the chance of reading it. She hoped it would be "published as a pamphlet and not issued as a fiat from the Society". Helen Neatby found no objection in the sentence from the statement which Anna Bidder had criticised. The finest human values remain permanent from days of old to the present. "Although their expression may change it doesn't change as much as one would expect." The statement, rightly understood, was profoundly true. Speaking as an Elder, and presenting, he believed a very large body of opinion among Friends, Wilfrid Allott thought they should approach with great care a proposal to issue a statement which purported to supplement or add to a pamphlet that had already given hurt and that had made some feel pushed outside the fellowship. By this move they would seem to be adopting the pamphlet. Both statements gave less weight to history than to psychology--a mere child among the departments of knowledge. The issue of the statement would cause more division in the Meetings for Worship. "We have a long way to go before we can get a view of sex which the Society can adopt without splitting it down the middle." "Just What We Want" Marie Best hoped that, whether or not published as a Quaker statement, it would be made available by some means to young people and to those whose responsibility it was to guide them. The draft had received a whole-hearted welcome from friends or hers, with responsibilities of this sort, to whom she had shown it. "This is just what we want", they said. Robert Illing, one of those who has just those responsibilities, fully concurred with this. Walter Stone, too, felt that there was great need for a statement along these lines. Carl Marcussen said that it was beside the point to criticise the statement as not necessarily being "for all time". A very large number of Friends considered it just the type of statement that was needed for this moment. Wilfred Demain had not a great of use for the statement; he feared that it was in fact a "reaction" in a critical sense from Towards a Quaker View of Sex. The glossy magazines were full of advice as good as this. What had Friend parents been doing all these years if it was necessary to reinforce their responsibility with this statement? Muriel Putz said they had to decide whether they wished it to be published, and, if so, by whom. She had been impressed by Anna Bidder's point that a statement issued by the Society as a whole should have been the fruit of long study, search and prayer and been considered in all the Meetings. But there were alternative methods of publication. They could ask Hugh Doncaster and the Home Service Committee to see whether a pamphlet could be issued under the aegis of the latter, without necessarily involving Meeting for Sufferings. The statement would then (as in the case of Towards a Quaker View of Sex) become a personal statement on behalf of those who had prepared it. Young People Know Nancy Richardson's work takes her into many groups of young people and into discussions there on this very subject. "Although I am very grateful for this statement", she said, "I am afraid it is nothing like enough." The young people she was thinking of would already know everything that was said in it; and the same could be said of young Friends. Young people had in fact a great deal of information, some correct, some incorrect, but they were wandering in a sea of theory. She agreed with Jean Storrow that if they were going to appeal to young people they must appeal on the basis of loving and caring for each other. "The only attack we can make to modern young people is: 'If you love, if you care, you do not want to hurt.'" This caring side of the Christian message was the one side of it which did get under the skin of young people. In the statement there was not quite enough on the caring side. She was surprised how many older Friends had welcomed the statement as if it was something new. Excellent material of this kind was issued by the moral welcome organisations, the National Marriage Guidance Council and other bodies. There was no lack of information; but there were far too few people willing and qualified to talk to young people; far too many parents who said: "I can't help them; can I give them something to read?" Here were cues for further steps they could take; not the issue of a statement. She hoped they would say to the compilers: "Thank you very much; you have made us think. But may we put it back and think again?" The clerk (Doris I. Eddington)* said that it was clear that the document was not one which Friends wished to be issued by the Society. But the drawing of a minute was deferred until the second item (below) had been dealt with. Conference? This second question was whether to hold a conference of Friends on the pamphlet, Towards a Quaker View of Sex, or on the whole subject, or both. In May three members of the group which had prepared the pamphlet, three members of the Marriage and Parenthood Committee, and three members of the Friends' Temperance and Moral Welfare Union, were asked to look into this. They now reported that an open conference would not be helpful at this time, but that later a representative conference might be useful. Meanwhile Elders and Overseers and others with a special interest might be called together locally to discuss problems of sexual morality, and for this they should be offered what central help was available. Reginald A. Smith (who was one of the nine Friend) said that the minute might be viewed in the light of three possible verdicts on Towards a Quaker View of Sex. These were, in Reginald Smith's words: (1) "that the pamphlet is a great revelation to the Society and the world;" (2) "its authors' view that, after five years' gestation, it must be good"; or (3) "that the pamphlet has got in it poisons so virulent that it is essential that we should do our utmost to render them nugatory." He made it very clear that the last was his own view. Anna Bidder said the committee had felt that an open conference would be more useful after small group discussions had taken place. Eric Baker said it was clear that Friends up and down the country wished to discuss the subject thoroughly. He suggested that (1) Arrangement for local discussion should be made through Quarterly Meetings. They should be asked to arrange for a group of Friends, in a Quarterly Meeting or larger local region, to discuss this topic, and he hoped that the discussion would not be restricted to Elders and Overseers. (2) Preparatory material, including the pamphlet, Hugh Doncaster's draft and other material raising wider questions should be provided to help in the discussion. (3) A small committee should be set up to provide material and keep in touch with the gathering. Sidney Arnold did not feel that Meeting for Sufferings should take on itself to start throughout the Quarterly Meetings a discussion on one aspect of life--sexual relations. He was aware of the importance of the subject and agreed most thoroughly with Hugh Doncaster's draft. But he thought that, partly because of diffidence and fear of hurting people, there were overlooking the one simple question that was deeply troubling many Friends because the Society, through one of its Committees, had issued a pamphlet "that contains poison". Many of the things that had arisen, for example the initiative of his own (Western) Quarterly Meeting towards the issue of a statement, had been occasioned by deep concern as to the effect of the pamphlet upon young people. That simple question was "How are we to lessen the harm and danger that this pamphlet has brought upon our young people?" Hugh Mellor, John Dennisthonre, Horace Bamford, and Doris Gourlay were among those expressing growing doubt about a general, or any, directive for local discussion. The last-name suggested instead a small, centrally nominated, group. Wyn Sweatman, with considerable emphasis, cried: "I hope we drop the whole question of sex in our meetings. Please let us do nothing at all. Let us go out and breathe some clean air over the holidays. Just leave the whole thing alone. We have really been rather foolish. A shocking waste of time. All this sickening discussion about sex." The Meeting decided to take no further action at present; either about the statement; the conference; local discussions; or a centrally nominated group. John Harvey felt that they could not separate without expressing warmest thanks to Hugh Doncaster for his able efforts, and their commiseration with him in the disappointment at so slender an outcome of all his work. (Our report of this lengthy Meeting's attention to other subjects must be left until next week) ___________________ *Doris Eddington has now fully resumed her duties as Clerk after her illness. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meeting for Sufferings 5 July 1963 Description An account of the resource As reported in <em>The Friend</em>, dissension and unrest over TQVOS appeared to be heightened in the next Meeting for Sufferings. Still the body could not reach consensus to adopt either proposal from the previous meeting--to publish a statement or to hold a conference. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, July 12, 1963, pp. 809-13 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/beedccc87e0859bbbd34ba460386fb5a.jpg 1112d77fa0f81eb3078bfe2476ddcd84 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ec642954b05c243307a904f1097738fd.jpg dfd9fc91f3f312066393bd032d183c07 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/aea4d4597c4844867b1e7e0972edce44.jpg f4c3510423d20a8381f3f2c4f01b0fb1 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2b0f31bea6d96279ac2dce2442becd24.jpg d791b8412c21028713476cbe30ec4106 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/0e2088957c7c6ccd744b5ac421ad118b.jpg 076942d085051fba5c6091aa91e2a5e4 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend May 10, 1963 An Elgar-ian Meeting for Sufferings One theory about the Enigma Variations is that Elgar called them so because the theme they are based on is never stated; that is has to be reconstructed by deduction from the heard variations, itself being unheard; a silent chief guest at the feast. If so, Meeting for Sufferings last Friday was rather like the Enigma Variations. Its agenda was dominated, under several separate headings, by a recent rather celebrated pamphlet. But this dominaton was mostly invisible, indirect, and carefully not alluded to. Speakers largely engaged in discussing matters closely allied to the contacts and manner of publication of the pamphlet were manfully doing their best most of the time to behave as if there was no connection at all. The only flaw in this Enigma analogy was that the pamphlet kept popping up, by inadvertence if not by design. It even got into a report on the Yearly Meeting Fund accounts, when the Accountant (Leslie Todd) speculated that "the Society's bestseller may have had something to do with" a reduction of the annual deficit on the Friends Book Centre by £200. And, as the long morning wore into a long afternoon, the references got less and less oblique. By this civilised device the Meeting managed to compose quite a comprehensive set of variations on "Towards a Quaker View of Sex". And it seems possible that a conference on the subject is looking ahead for a larger body of Friends than the Meeting itself. "A Short, SImple Statement" A large part of he morning was focused on a minute of the Western Quarterly Meeting. After recalling the origin of the concern in the Worcester and Shropshire Monthly Meeting, this minute went on (with a buried significance in the very first words): Much that has recently been published about the relationship between men and women in an attempt to get away from a legalistic and conventional attitude. It has also tended to deal with the abnormal. There is bewilderment among young people as to the standards they should observe in their behaviour towards one another and this Meeting would welcome the issue of a short, simple statement in the name of the Society presenting affirmatively what in our experience we have found to be good in socially responsible behaviour. We should hope that such a statement would have the widest publicity. Hugh Doncaster hoped that this minute would be considered in some isolation from other statements and on its own merits. The concern thus expressed went back for him a good many years--indeed to the time of the first Young Friends' National Conference held after the last war. Asked to speak there on personal relationships between men and women, he had been drawn into many private conversations, mostly with Young Friends, at the time and at similar occasions later, and into many more about his pamphlet, Personal Relationships Between Men and Women, had been published by the Home Service Committee in 1950. Time after time a Young Friend would say: "But why aren't these facts made more widely known to us?" Facts were felt to be needed, as a basis for right judgment. Articles, correspondence and other material in The Friend a year ago; the Reith Lectures of G.M. Carstairs (where "charity" and "chastity" appeared to be rather curiously presented as incompatibles); and more recently the publication of Towards a Quaker View of Sex, had afforded the opportunity for renewed discussion, which had disclosed the diversity of Friends' approach. Yet, except at the extreme either ends of the spectrum, there was a good deal of common ground. All would agree that it was important to maintain a living conception of personality and individuality, and not to let that become hardened into a set of general regulations. All were agreed that they should be sympathetic and understanding, that they should "meet people where they are", and that they should beware of judging situations that they themselves had never been in. All this had been said, fully and fruitfully. What had not been said was that, if one coming new to these problems of personal relationships was to behave responsibly, he or she needed to know certain facts about human relationships, and what had been found good in the past and in the present. Hugh Doncaster recalled that, at an informal gathering of young people which he had chaired for a free discussion of personal relationships, as time went on it became clear that no one present wanted to advocate pre-marital intercourse. The meeting said to itself: "We all seem to agree with this. But why?" Only one reason could be found among them--the risk attaching at present to contraceptive methods. So the meeting turned to him for further help, and he gave three or four reasons. At once they came back at him with: "Yes, of course. But why isn't this said?" He believed there was a clear case for a short simple statement, affirming that Friends were not wanting to sit in harsh judgment on anybody, but that it was their experience to have found a certain pattern of conduct to be ideal--a pattern which did not include either extramarital or premarital intercourse. In and after the Quarterly Meeting discussion two Friends had disclosed cases of young girls who believed they were "the only virgins in the class" at school and who were deeply perplexed to know the reason they could give for the stand they were taking. Allowing for a considerable element of bluffing in the confessions of young people among themselves, the fact was that a good deal of adolescent intercourse was going on. Friends had a reponsibility to give guidance, not in the sense of an edit, but by telling what experience they had found to be ideal. So his suggestion was, not for a long, careful, detailed consideration of all issues, but something simpler and more urgent; something that could be produced quite soon--with a draft, perhaps, to the next Meeting for Sufferings in July. A Diverse Discussion In the careful and prolonged consideration that followed the advisability of issuing such a statement was seriously examined. While it was clear that many Friends would welcome a statement in the name of the Society, there were also many who felt strong hesitation. Among those supporting the publication of a statement was Jean Storrow, Education Secretary of the Ipswich Marriage Guidance Council. She felt that the best way of getting facts known by young people was in discussion, but there were not enough people to go round to do this. Mary Pickard, welcoming the proposal, also pointed out the valuable Home Service Committee pamphlets, Christians and Sex: A Quaker Comment, by Harold Loukes* and regretted that so far this had not been more widely used. Majorie Fox, speaking out of her experience of a long and happy marriage, shared the concern for a statement. Ruth Wilson recalled Friends to material already available and hope it would be looked at again. Charles Deakin recognised the difficulties but hoped that a statement would get out. Mary Wilkinson asked Friends to realise at what an early age young people nowadays had to meet these problems; many of them were not very clever and needed something very simple. Several Friends stressed the urgency of the matter. Joan Pargeter agreed with publication, but they had to guard against the idea that life was cut and dried. No set of rules was applicable; all they could hope to do was to give a spiritual perspective. Bessie Blackburn said that the issue of a statement was not a simple matter, and it could not be produced quickly, since the issues needed to be studied honestly. Gustav Fischer was very hesitant about a statement, as it could not be produced in isolation from the wider issues involved. Maisie Birmingham considered the present as probably the worst possible moment for putting out a statement. Whatever they might intend, it would be interpreted as a contradiction of Towards a Quaker View of Sex. She hoped Friends would not rush into producing it. Several Friends supported this view. Robert Illing said that Towards a Quaker View of Sex had brought respect for the Society, and he had received many comments from students on its value. He would welcome a statement for private use, but doubted the wisdom of issuing it publicly. Phyllis Taunton Wood agreed that the pamphlet had received a warm welcome from other Christians. Marjorie Lee was not clear as to what sort of people they wanted to address. Scott Bayliss hoped that the statement would be be primarily for Friends, while Beti Jones stressed the importance of the manner of publication of a statement, as vitally affecting the way in which it would be read and interpreted. Eric Baker hoped that if they were to contemplate such a statement they would not give any colour for suggesting that they were being run away with by newspaper headlines, but should base their decision on the sober comments of statisticians and a recognition of the real complexity of the matter. He hoped that no Friend parents were waiting for the Society to tell them what to think, but were strenuously working it out for themselves. And he also hoped they were not going to confine their attention to extra-marital and premarital intercourse, for relations of this kind did not just happen, but happened for a reason for which they must search. If they were to state, it must be the fruit of considered thought, taking all things into account. There must be no short cut. "However much you dogmatise, a dogma is not in itself an answer to a real spiritual complexity." The Acting Clerk (Stephen C. Morland) believed that the Meeting was in favour of the quick production of a statement, while recognising the need also for prolonged thought and study. The Meeting finally agreed to the suggestion of Richenda Scott and Wilfrid Littleboy that Hugh Doncaster should nominate some Friends who could confer with him on the draft of a statement. These are: Mary Wilkinson, Jean Storrow, Ruth Wilson, Maisie Birmingham and Joseph Sayers. The draft will be presented to the July meeting, when its text and question of whether, and how, to publish it will be further considered. A Yearly Meeting Conference? Just before lunch the Meeting got on to a minuted from the Friends' Temperance and Moral Welfare Union, which read as follows: We have again considered the pamphlet, Towards a Quaker View of Sex, and its possible effects on our Society and people outside. Some of our members are deeply perturbed by the conclusions put forward in it, even though they are described as "tentative". Even among those of us who feel the pamphlet as a whole is a valuable contribution there are doubts about one or another aspect of the way its subjects are treated. Misunderstanding has arisen and still exists. We all desire to avoid needless division among us for lack of mutual understanding. We feel that a conference should be called, and not by any one section of Friends or special-interest group, so that in a background of worship we may discuss the issues with frankness and the fullest tenderness for each other's concerns, and come as near as possible to a broadly united position on the subjects with which the pamphlet deals. Speaking briefly to it, Cecil Heath, chairman of the Union, emphasised the Union's hope that Meeting for Sufferings would call such a conference, and that from it an authoritative statement would issue. Discussion was resumed after lunch, when it became known that a minute on rather wider lines had been received from Westmorland Quarterly Meeting. Headed with the title of the pamphlet, Towards a Quaker View of Sex, the minute read on: While we recognise the gravity of the problem and the honesty of the authors in their approach, we have felt that the problems of sex should be seen, not as an isolated phenomenon, but as part of the general revolt of young men and women against so much else in our social and moral codes. We are conscious of the great increase in drinking and smoking, in petty pilfering, in violence and crime, of the way in which young people are exposed to constant temptation by the incessant pressure of advertisements, by having too much money, by bad examples of violence in films and television, by the fundamental feeling of insecurity. We feel certain that the Society of Friends, both for its own sake and for the sake of society at large, should not let the matter rest at this point, since the essay has certainly given rise to grave misunderstanding outside he Society and grave uneasiness inside it. We hope that some definite step may be taken by the Society of Friends to make it clear to the public generally that Friends maintain a high moral standard and personal integrity, and their belief in marriage as a sacred relationships which should not be broken, and re-affirm our faith that young men and women have still the inner power to respond to the highest ideals of Christianity. We suggest that Meeting for Sufferings appoint a small group to consider the important major factors which have led to the strong trend among the young today to reject the social and ethical code of their parents and elders and the Christian teaching on many moral and spiritual problems. "The Hurt" Reginald A. Smith, Secretary of the Union, said: "I appeal to Friends generally to realise how much restraint is being exercised by those who feel very deeply and strongly indeed in reaction to this pamphlet. I feel we are entitled to ask that the supporters of the pamphlet shall exercise similar restraint." He had been exceedingly doubtful, in discussions in his committee, whether a conference of this kind could be useful, as he found it hard to see how Friends could get through it without deep division--such as there had been signs of that morning. However, under continuing exercise he had come to feel that a thorough exploration, guided with great care by Friends of special concern and perhaps special knowledge, would be the most hopeful way of achieving unity without laying themselves open to the indictment that they had too "lightly healed the hurt" and cried "peace, peace, where there is no peace". One of the things that opponents of the pamphlet found hard to accept was that they were uncharitable, lacking in compassion, or "innocents in a wicked world". A tremendous amount needed to be done on the level both of the deep realities to which the pamphlet had tried to give expression, and of the even greater and higher realities of which the Society, in present and past generations, had had widespread experience. "It must be a deep exercise", he said, "if we are to bring unity out of the disruptive tendencies of the modern world, of which some of us think this pamphlet is the latest example." Saving Face? Ruth Wilson favoured, not a conference, but a group of no more than ten or twelve to meet the authors of the pamphlet and try to get some concrete alterations to it. Gustav Fischer, on the other hand, believed in holding a conference--but a conference aimed at seeking not unity but the truth. Edgar Dunstan and another Friend supported Ruth Wilson. Anne Millington asked: "Are we saving our face or seeking good?" Many people outside the Society had been encouraged by the pamphlet; the greatest misunderstanding of it had arisen among Friends who had misread it. They should read and study it more carefully, and should also read other work specially written on the subject, such as Kenneth Barnes's He and She and Harold Loukes's Christians and Sex: A Quaker Comment. Otto Peetz gave qualified support to a conference. He would be uneasy if its aim were to tear the pamphlet to bits; much easier if it were to try to clear their minds as a group on the truth. Rightly planned, it could be a useful exercise in group thinking. While realising that neither in a tiny group nor in a conference could they reach out to the truth they needed or find the answers, Muriel Putz thought that they might say "yes" to a conference representative of every Meeting in the country, out of which a continuing committee could be appointed, in further search of some more agreed consensus of thinking of the whole Yearling Meeting. Robert Illing said that the conference should be of Friends in touch with young people, or its pronouncements would be of no value whatever. It was agreed to ask three members of the group which produced Towards a Quaker View of Sex, three members of the Marriage and Parenthood Committee, and three members of the Friends' Temperance and Moral Welfare Union, to confer on the possible scope and terms of reference of such a conference. This will be brought to the July meeting, when the whole question of holding it will be re-examined. Publication Policy At an earlier stage this spring the publication of Towards a Quaker View of Sex, and controversy arising as to its manner of publication, had led the Home Service Committee to review its publication policy. This review continues; but the Committee came to the Meeting to ask if it would appoint two or three members experienced in matters of publication to join the Committee's discussions. The Nominations Committee is to bring in some names. (Our report of this very long Meeting will be concluded next week. Among matters still to be reported are the Meeting's decision to send a latter of appreciation to the Pope on his encyclical.) ______________ *published last year at 1s. 9d. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Meeting for Sufferings 3 May 1963 Description An account of the resource The Meeting for Sufferings (executive committee of the London Yearly Meeting) heard expressions of distress about the TQVOS study during its bimonthly meeting on May 3. Proposals to issue an official statement with more moral certitude and to hold a conference for a wider discussion on sexual morality were to be considered at the next meeting. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of <em>The Friend</em>, May 10, 1963, pp. 420-23. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/de0346cdf6ed40ddd7d7238205bf0aef.jpg 83b7c061907856d17346fe4695834f23 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/418f87cedd34dfcd20ae2b5a9d5d4447.jpg a5050852240e5984ee1803fcf212e17f https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e4d929fdd8423456f5659af1328b8dc4.jpg 13eb41f71496bbeb25dc2ca619e796b2 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/58cc834b89db225dc07df346258b7407.jpg 63ef5298d0836392974cb11d1ca5322d https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2c8c5c478b67e7b499b422f2c2d710c6.jpg 77ec16eea52f3d0cd5894aee087886ad https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/fef85681bc31f0c5f3571ab2d8af92a4.jpg d83c381a3bb249393092cbff7cc91125 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend May 27, 1960 Letters to the Editor Towards a Quaker View of Sex It is most gratifying that a concerned group of qualified Friends should face up to delicate and difficult sexual problems--usually the taboo in religious circles--and issue such an enlightened and courageous statement as appears in your last number. The treatment and punishment meted out to male homosexuals (who are often unable to change their natures any more than the colour of their hair), leading to suicide, blackmail and social ostracism, seem absolutely barbaric, especially when prostitution, adultery, and lesbianism are not regarded as criminal. Moreover, people who are more attracted to their own than the opposite sex are often people of the highest intelligence and moral character and innocent of perverted sexual practices. It is to be hoped that the recommendations of the Wolfenden Report will eventually be implemented. In the meantime it is encouraging to find that the "hush-hush" policy is gradually giving place to a reasoned public ventilation of the problem, and that the Homosexual Law Reform Society--sponsored by over 100 leading people, including the Archbishop of York and a number of Bishops--is doing a valuable service in educating public opinion. Arthur Hadley 40 Oak Hills Gardens Woodford Green, Essex. I am very glad to see in The Friend (May 20) an article on one of the problems of sex, and hope this will be but a beginning. Friends have outspoken views on many social questions, but on sex they at least as reticent as members of any other Church. Indeed the Quaker testimony to the equality of man and woman before God encourages the fallacy that there is "no essential difference" between them, and therefore emotional difficulties cannot arise in relationships between them. Was this attitude sufficient preparation for young people in days of a strong tradition and a closely knit community of Friends? Or is it a twentieth-century invention? In any case, it is not good enough in the condition of today. Advice on conduct and standards can be freely obtained from popular newspapers, magazines and books, but, though often honest enough, they lack the necessary religious basis. We need a frank recognition that emotional problems do arise in the lifelong process of growing up, and an interfusion of Quaker ideals with an understanding of human nature in order to help their solution. Another point. In nearly twenty years of reading THE FRIEND, I remember no article at all on the ethics of birth-control. No doubt individuals needing personal guidance may obtain it from the Marriage and Parenthood Committee, but this is a question for us all, married or single, as citizens of our country and of the world. After immediate issues of peace and war, it is the most vital question of all for inhabitants of this limited planet. This week the Church of Scotland General Assembly is to receive a report and issue an official statement on the subject. If someone asks what Friends' views are, are we to reply: "We never discuss it?" Moreoever, the main--Roman Catholic--opposition to birth-control claims to rest on reverence for life and the holy purposes of marriage. Surely Friends before anyone should look at this claim squarely and honestly, and base a judgment on surer grounds than expediency, however pressing the practical needs of the world situation? There are but two examples of questions which call on Friends to lay aside their unnatural restraint, and treat them as frankly and straightforwardly as they would any other social or human problem. Alison M. Douglas 6 Woodlinn Avenue Glasgow S.4 _________________________________________ Letters to the Editor June 3, 1960 Towards a Quaker View of Sex The report of a Quaker group, "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" in THE FRIEND of May 20 focuses a strong and disturbing tendency in the Society towards humanism. The article is academic, devoid of any vestige of the Christian Gospel and contains no indication that any help has been given to the "young Friends in one of our Universities". It says: "In our discussion of all these problems we could not always follow what has traditionally been regarded as Christian judgment. We have asked ourselves anew what we really think is right or wrong." Paul, in his letter ot the Christians in Rome, condemns the pagan society in which he lived, one of its marks being that men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with me and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. Is this a part of the Christian judgment that the group could not follow? What what is the competence of a Christian group which does not know what is morally right or wrong? Indeed, in committal to Christ right and wrong is included in a higher quality of life: "Do you know know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you had from God? So glorify God in your body." We are told that masturbation is now known to occur almost universally during adolescence. Masturbation is self-abuse and therefore sin against the temple of the Holy Spirit. All Friends, and Friends' Schools, have a responsibility to instruct adolescents on the physical changes through which they are passing and to seek to win them to obedience to Christ: for it is only through his power that we can, like Paul, say: "I pummel my body and subdue it." The article refers indiscriminately to the world at large and to Friends, i.e., the Christian fellowship. All thoughtful, responsible persons are, of course, concerned with their fellow human beings. The Christian Church's responsibility to deal with homosexuality and the many other vices which beset unredeemed mankind is to communicate the Gospel--the power of God unto salvation. Friends have a special contribution to give to the universal Church, but there is nothing distinctively Quaker about our life in Christ, and only he can illuminate us, cleanse and empower us to live in the Spirit and not in the passions of the body. William Creed Lightfoot Lane, Heswall, Wirral, Cheshire. ________________________________________ Letters to the Editor June 17, 1960 Towards a Quaker View of Sex We thank God that some Friends are filled with a tender concern for those who have succumbed to sexual problems. We whole-heartedly agree with the views they express and welcome their unprejudiced spirit of inquiry. We were sorry to see William Creed's letter (June 3) on the subject. Elsie and Angus Earn.... 13 Sandringham Avenue, Newcastle-upon-Tyne William Creed reveals one of his difficulties by using the phrase "homosexuality and the many other vices which beset unredeemed mankind". The physical expression of love between males, in the form known as "gross indecency," is at present a criminal offence in the country, and it may also be a grievous sin. Homosexuality is but a sexual act, but love between two people of the same sex--which is neither a crime nor a sin. There are many thousands of clean-living men more attracted to those of their own sex than to women. Thinking of such people, ones comes to realise the injustice of the present law and the prevailing social attitude towards the "non-practising" homosexual, forcing him to disguise his feelings for fear or being blackmailed or falsely accused. Does the Gospel of Christ demand that men should live in fear and loneliness? What was meant by the description of one of Jesus's followers as "the disciple whom Jesus loved", if it was not a special relationship that existed between them, differing from the love which Jesus had towards all men and women? Right at the centre of the Gospel of Christ is exactly where I should expect to find an example of the "true love of comrades." William K. Robinson 28 Kingswood Court Brewey Road Walden Surrey. __________________________________________ Letters to the Editor June 24, 1960 Towards a Quaker View of Sex Al parents and teachers need to be aware that to tell a child, or an adolescent, given practising masturbation that this is "self-abuse and therefore sin against the temple of the Holy Spirit", as William Creed (June 3) suggests, might if he were to believe you, cause psychological harm far greater than ever masturbation is likely to do. Masturbation is neither moral nor immoral. It is the sexual act of a solitary and isolated being; what evil there is in it lies in the situation of being isolated and unable to form a satisfactory relationship. With regard to young people, this situation is, to some extent, unavoidable. Unable to form a satisfactory heterosexual relationship safely until long after they are physically mature, who can wonder that masturbation is "know to occur almost universally during adolescence"? Those practising it habitually--more particularly, adults--need drawing into loving friendship, and need reassuring that others care for them in the deepest sense of the word. This seems to me the essential Christian attitude, to be applied to all, including those who sexual activities are not, as the law stands at present, socially acceptable. Where no younger and weaker personality is harmed, and where there is not public scandal, it is not for us or for the law to condemn. Christ did not do so, whatever St. Paul might have felt himself called upon to do. Phyllis Bush 17 Paddock Way Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letters to The Friend 1960 Description An account of the resource In the weeks that follow the group's May 20 article in <em>The Friend</em>, a number of letters to the editors are published which reflect a great diversity of perspective on the group's concern. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, May 27, 1960, pp. 732-33; June 3, 1960, p. 772 ; June 17, 1960, p. 868; June 24, 1960, pp. 897-98 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f0bd535c9fb88d08e31d890dfc987ccf.jpg e8877301e00ba4f58f39f40ad8b8022e https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/be2e4c2226545c33baae1524a0643c36.jpg 7d5d21eab9214096d7801248764fff05 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend June 24, 1960 Towards a Quaker View of Sex--II A Friend writes: "We have no music...we are not cheap...but..." Was this advertisement for a restaurant in a political weekly also applicable to the Society of Friends? This thought was one of many thrown up at a conference at Hampstead Meeting House on June 11 called by the group of Friends who signed the article in The Friend of May 20 on "Towards a Quaker View of Sex". Anna Bidder took the chair, and representatives were present from the Home Service and Marriage and Parenthood Committees, the Friends Guild of Social Workers, Hampstead Monthly Meeting Elders, a group of Friends at Tunbridge Wells and the Homosexual Law Reform Society, the Joint Secretary of which is a Friend.* Other concerned Friends were also present, including a number of psychiatrists. Anna Bidder first described why the group responsible for calling the conference had begun to meet some three years ago, and how over the years it had been led to attempt a fundamental reassessment of Christian morality on sexual matters. Three other members of the group then spoke from their individual standpoints. Alfred Torrie, with thirty years' experience as a psychiatrist behind him, asked what the Quaker answer was to both the homosexual who views his conduct with disgust and loathing, and to those others, differently constituted, who are unwilling to seek help. He stressed the normality of the homosexual phase through which most of us pass, but also disclosed how much uncharted ignorance there was about the subject. Doctors seldom saw the homosexual in the early stages: when he sought medical help he usually was in deep trouble. Knowledge and compassion were both needed. In the homosexual, as in all men, below his self-disgust was the living Christ. That was the Quaker faith. Duncan Fairn followed with some account of his experiences of the morbid side of the problem from seeing men in prison over the last twenty years or so. He described the impact of the law and its differentiation between the conduct of men and women, and referred to the interest arouse by the Report of the Wolfenden Committee. Although members of the group had begun by having a concern for those in acute need, they had been led to seek an understand of sex in life as a whole. It has been said, humorously, that "sex has come to say", and what the group was trying to do was to work out a valid philosophy of sex with the help of their Quaker insights. The last group member to speak was Keith Wedmore, a barrister who spoke for the younger generation. Experience at a university and in the Army had disclosed for him the wide gap between conventional beliefs and practice. He had been forced to ask himself whether our morality was true, right and practicable. With Alfred Torrie he stressed the homosexual and heterosexual components of our nature. It seemed to him important to understand that it was not so much homosexuality itself which was a problem as the lack of heterosexuality. Was it possible that St. Paul was not the last word on sexual morals? In the group they had come to see that personal relationships were of prime importance. "Personal relationships matter for ever and ever." The conference devoted the afternoon session to criticism of a draft outline for a pamphlet designed to help Friends to know the facts about sexual development in general, and to understand some of the special problems of homosexuality. The discussion was opened by Richard Fox, and the criticisms and suggestions were remitted to the convening group as a guide in the final preparation of the document, which it is hoped will be published. Kenneth Barnes brought the conference to a close by emphasising that the work of the group on "Homosexuality and Other Problems of Sex" over the years had been a profound religious exercise, and that they had tried to make themselves available to the Spirit's leading. There had been a deep sharing of experience. Again and again they had found conventional judgments, when ruthlessly examined, to fall short of their understanding of truth. They believed that there was not sexual experience which could be condemned outright without knowledge of its inner quality. Christ's words to the woman in adultery abode for ever: "Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more." _____________ *Venetia Newall Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Report on Hampstead Conference Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of <em>The Friend</em>, June 24, 1960, pp. 892-3. Description An account of the resource The Friend published an account of the June 11 conference at Hampstead Meeting House in its June 24 issue. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9582b3995ebe29eb6e86959418d3eb59.jpg 6fc7cf740fd99ad3dddb9353c2e4bca3 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/78fe18ae7ca0ec2b380bdc9e7d2db2a8.jpg 2519194a11f6b7d257253c103282fd60 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/cd44db435eb03e76064bdc7b6c928611.jpg a79ea64b13965061013b3519d5b5a429 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e4d6c6c4b3ff0ce9deb7a88e65e56136.jpg 67a8fae8bece0fea99e6ee36c54e397c Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend April 12, 1963 "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" Its Editor Replies to Comments Alastair Heron was a member of the group of Friends who produced the essay, TOWARDS A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX, and he acted as their editor for this purpose. The essay was published for the group by the Friends Home Service Committee on February 18 (price 3s. 6d.) Here Alastair Heron replies on behalf of the group to come of the comments--favourable and otherwise--that have been made on the essay since publication. It may be helpful to start by saying a few words on the problem of publication which faced the group of Friends who concern over a period of more than five years led to the appearance of Towards a Quaker View of Sex. When we started work we were embarked on a search, and there was no intention of writing for publication: the need for this was not realised until about three years ago. Early in 1962 we considered publishing our material through ordinary channels as a book, but were advised that our manuscript would need to be doubled in length for this to be possible. In the reconsideration that followed it was decided to address ourselves mainly to Friends; we therefore reverted to an approach (already made at an earlier stage) to the Literature Committee of the Friends Home Service Committee. Following its usual practice, the Committee submitted the manuscript to three Friends for their judgment. Each of these, having read it independently, recommended it for publication, and it was decided to publish it, but in publishing it to insert a clear indication that it was in no way an "official" document, but was being published "for the group". The text of this insertion, published on the flyleaf of the pamphlet, was as follows: The Literature Committee of the Friends Home Service Committee has been glad to publish Towards a Quaker View of Sex for the group of Friends which prepared it, as a contribution to thought on an important subject. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Friends Home Service Committee, or of the Religious Society of Friends. Many Friends have been distressed by the publicity resulting from the appearance of the essay and from the BBC television programme, "Meeting Point". It is perhaps not widely realised by Friends that unless a "press release" with an approved "hand-out" is made available--with review copies--in advance of publication, an undignified scramble to score a "scoop" may result. This would have placed an even greater burden on the office at Friends House, and on individual members of the group, that results from adherence to the now generally accepted procedure. The initiative for the television discussion came from the Religious Broadcasting Department of the BBC, which has been aware that our work was under way, and had from time to time inquired when it would reach publication. The group believes that it was right to respond to this initiative; it was intended that the essay should appear a week or so before the broadcast, but unfortunately it proved impossible to produce the manuscript early enough. ON the whole the level of Press comment was high and restrained in treatment. Only one national daily broke the rules and commented in advance of publication, and it was the Sunday edition of the same paper that a week or so later carried a feature article containing the only serious misrepresentation of material from the essay. While almost all papers inevitably selected passages for quotation, there were few examples of that calculated "tearing from the context" which can be so damaging. As a result, the correspondence columns reflected a reasonably wide range of the opinion that received expression before those writing had been able to study the essay. The television discussion was favourably reviewed in The Listener, the critic having clearly appreciated the basic attitude of the Friends taking part. In contrast, the references to Quakers in "That Was the Week That Was" were included among other examples of lack of good taste regretted by the television critic of The Guardian. The response of specialist periodicals such as The Lancet and The Times Educational Supplement has been one of appreciation: the review in the latter ends by saying that the essay "might make admirable materials for Sixth-form groups". Such a general judgment finds specific support from a variety of schools, exemplified by a letter from a housemaster who speaks of his gratitude for "something of this kind which I can confidently give boys to read if they ask for help in working out their ideas on sexual morality." The essay has found sympathetic ears in most sections of the Church, including certainly the Roman Catholic, and it has also attracted criticism from most sections. The Church Times and The Universe were severely critical, but distinguished Anglicans have welcomed the essay warmly, and a Roman Catholic has written: "You may be surprised to find how many Catholics support your views, or most of them." An Anglo-Catholic priest alludes to the allegory of a recent Swarthmore Lecture when he ends his letter by saying: "It may be that courageous thinking such as is shown in the report will help to break down the walls of the 'Castle' and bring its inhabitants together with hose of the 'Field' into that unity which is the Will of our common Lord." I must now turn to the comments of Friends, both those published in The Friend and the others which have reached me by letter. It would seem that many early comments came from those who had not yet read the essay. Those from most Friends who have obviously done so are appreciative and encouraging, although some also make it clear that not all our conclusions are acceptable. What many of these Friends seem to have most valued is what one described as the "spirit of seeking", another as "a deep desire to seek the will of God". Others feel that publication of the essay has "opened out new vistas" or "opened up basic questions"; one writer wonders how truth can be served these days except by a prolonged study on the part of people under concern which leads to publication, that others may then in open discussion take the searching further. Another Friends writes: "The publication of the essay is an example of what Christians in general and Friends in particular ought to be doing." Adverse criticisms of the essay can for convenience be divided into three broad categories: one relating to what is felt to be an undue emphasis on person-to-person relationships to the detriment of wider social responsibilities; the second to our rejection of "the traditional approach of the organised Christian Church ot morality"; and the third to instances of ambiguity or of vagueness. On this last point, John Ounsted (who reviewed the essay for The Friend on February 15) regards as the principal weakness of the essay "a lack of clear statement both in detail and of the overall implications of the work". It is certainly true that we have devoted a good deal of attention to personal relationships, but I feel sure that this has been deliberate. The current emphasis is on "the group", "society" and other impersonal collectives terms: one Attender saw as the most important premise of our essay "that the fulfilment of our nature as distinctively human beings is through relationships that are personal". The sexual problems with which we have been concerned find their focus at a personal level, and it is at this level that problems must be cased and solutions found. In thus coming to terms with the facts, we returned frequently in our thinking to the wider implications in family life and in society. "However private an act, it is never without its impact on society, and we must never behave as though society--which includes our other friends--did not exist." (p. 40) What we reject about the traditional approach of the Christian Church to morality is, first, the assumption that God's will is known in detail, permanently and for general application under all circumstances; and second, the danger to a religious view of life that can and does arise when a rigid moral code, widely questioned by sincere and responsible people, is identified with the faith itself. This obliged us to re-examine the whole basis on which decisions are reached as to what is "sin", what is "right" and what is "wrong", in sexual behaviour. In an ecumenical view of the Church, in which its branches can b e seen as having valuable special emphases, that of the Society of Friends is frequently identified as being on the continuing revelation by the Holy Spirit of God's purpose in ways appropriate to the changing condition of man. We felt--and feel--confident that most Friends and most of our fellow-Christians would understand and share our concern that individuals should be encouraged to seek afresh God's way at this time in man's history. It does not follow that the result will be different: it is the way in which it is reached that must be ever fresh. "We cannot accept as true a statement that is given us merely because it is given with the authority of tradition or of a Church. We have to make that truth our own--if it is a truth--through diligent search and a rigorous discipline of thought and feeling" (p. 41). There is no doubt whatever that we were guilty of ambiguity in the passages (on pp. 20 and 39-40) which refer to the so-called "triangular situation". It is open to any reader of these passages to interpret them in terms of an "adulterous" relationship being good and even beneficial to all three persons concerned. For my own part, as editor, I greatly regret that this possibility--obvious to me now--simply did not occur to me. This said, may I no go on to make it clear that we stand firmly by our conviction that many marriages encounter situations--sometimes more than once, as evidenced by a courageous letter to The Observer (February 24)--of a "triangular" nature, and survive triumphantly. To stress this, by way of antidote to the universal assumption that marriages to be happy and successful must depend upon the imperviousness of both partners to the attractiveness of others, is not intended to condone, still less to advocate, a light-hearted attitude towards extra-marital intercourse. This we should have made explicit, and did not. The section on Page 20 also combines references to two very different types of triangular situation, with a consequent confusion in the minds of many readers. We are sorry for all this and intend giving fresh thought to this question. Both John Ounsted and Robin Hodgkin (The Friend, March 22) are disturbed--with other correspondents--that we do not come down squarely in support of "vows of chastity or loyalty" being maintained at all costs under all circumstances. Here we seem to have failed signally in communicating the most painful and humbling outcomes of our five years' exercise. We were led--perhaps "driven" is more accurate--to abandon the security of our own rigid acceptance of such codes of behaviour, in order to understand the situation of others for whom those codes have no sanction.--"We would ask those who cannot easily foll;ow our thoughts to recognise what has driven us...to our insistent questioning. It is the awareness that the traditional code, in itself, does not come from the heart; for the great majority of men and women it has no roots in feeling or true conviction. We have been seeking a morality that will indeed have its roots in the depths of our being and in our awareness of the true needs of our fellows" (pp. 41-42). That quotation is followed immediately by the passage which John Ounsted describes as perhaps representing "the final positive message" of the essay: "The challenge to each of us is clear: accustom yourself to seeking God's will and to the experience of his love and power, become used in your daily life to the simple but tremendous spiritual fact that what God asks he enables, provided only and always that we will to do his will." John Ounsted continues by saying: "In other words: 'All you've got to do is to be a saint and you'll find your sexual actions are not sinful, as neither are your others.'" To this we would reply by saying quite simply that we share the belief of countless of our fellow-Christians that the proper goal of a disciple is just that--to be "perfect". Nobody can find his way through these problems unless he is always trying to be and to do the best he knows. For the convinced Christian this is to seek God's will and to carry it out by his strength. With any lesser goal we may be deluded into believing that we are doing well enough so long as we don't break the rules. For those who cannot claim a Christian belief, the goal is the same but harder to achieve. Unless those to whom we speak have this high goal, we have nothing to say which will have meaning to them; but the conventional moral code will have no meaning to them either. I should like to close by expressing our gratitude to all those who helped us during our work by giving enormously of their own experience; to those who since the publication of this essay have recognised that we did what we felt laid on us to do; and perhaps especially to those who have recognised the very great significance of the word "Towards" in the title. We offer our findings to the Society as a basis for corporate research, under guidance, by what a Friend has called "the larger and more representative group". We do not ask for hasty judgment: we have taken nearly six years to produce what one periodical described as "preliminary gropings". The essay itself has many defects in style and in clarify of expression. The questionings we have expressed thus imperfectly must themselves be seen as provisional, as but a staging point from which Friends and others may move towards a better understanding of how God would have us deal with "this glorious gift." Alastair Heron. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Heron Responds for Group Description An account of the resource Alastair Heron writes a lengthy response on behalf of the working group to the criticisms that have been voiced by Friends and other commentators. This is published in <em>The Friend</em> on April 12th. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, April 12, 1963, pp. 420-23. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a030cf44e3b46e7436a3c9d2c1dc2238.pdf e344f7d8d22a475fdbac500e1e60c6e6 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Australian Friend A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal. The Organ of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia April 20, 1963 "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" E.B.P.--Now that we've both read this booklet, what do you think about it? E.J.P.--I think it is a very valuable and honest little bookl certainly a tremendous lot of through has gone into it. It must be read from cover to cover so that no sentence is taken out of its context, and that nothing of the writer's spiritual message is missed. For a small book the coverage is very thorough. E.B.P.--Yes, it describes normal sexual development, homosexuality (at length), counseling and sources of professional help (in England) and sex deviations. E..P.--The title is perhaps unfortunate and it is easy to see why some Quakers (particularly older ones), do not want to be associated with what the authors call "a new morality." E.B.P.--The authors are eleven Friends mostly professional people with some direct or indirect concern with advice for young people. They were set off on this quest by young Quaker students asking for help in homosexual difficulties who found little help from the Society. They met monthly for five years before producing this book. Although published by the Friends Home Service Committee it is not an official document of the Society and has been received with some criticism that it gives the appearance of being an official publication, and that Friends had no opportunity of reading it before it was published and gained much publicity in the press and on T.V. E.J.P.--From time to time human problems arise and must be viewed from a new angle; this time these Friends are having a look at the Christian Churches' attitude to sex in view of the problems of today. Is Christianity outmoded in its treatment of problems having a sexual aspect? Is its claim to know exactly what is right and what is wrong acceptable nowadays? As I see it there is bound to be an enormous amount of unhappiness, secrecy, hypocrisy and repression resulting from the centuries in which the Church has regarded sex as fundamentally sinful. E.B.P.--The most controversial aspect of the book seems to be that in recognising the existence of widespread pre-marital relationships and the existence of homosexuality in many persons, the authors are so understanding and tolerant that they almost seem to condone these things. In fact they do say in some cases that these practices may not be a bad thing. E.J.P--Yes, I can't say that I can go along with all they say either. Sex is after all the most easily abused of God's gifts. We are told that we are in the middle of a fast moving period of transition. It may be difficult to see what is needed to help persons involved. This book could be a pointer to a new attitude to these human problems. E.B.P.--I think that the whole tone of this book is very much in line with Quaker tradition in that it tends to discard the outward rules and to look to the spirit within. It really calls for a disciplined outpouring of love which will in its intensity and fullness of life render the prohibitions and silences of the traditional code unnecessary. It recalls St. Augustine's words, "Love God, and do as you like" describing this as a statement of the greatest freedom, but also of the deepest obligation. It further points out that God is not primarily a maker of rules, but a creator. E.J.P.--That is all very well for persons of high principle and strong wills, but there must be some rules of conduct generally accepted for the great majority of people. No one can deny the compassion, tolerance and sincerity written here and we can only hope that it opens a few eyes and sets people thinking. E.B.P.--The book says little about celibacy, and of course does not deal with a whole lot of aspects of sex which come to mind. However it is a brave attempt and we hope that all Friends will read and discuss it. It will almost certainly widen their understanding ("Towards a Quaker View of Sex," an essay by a group of Friends, edited by Alastair Heron. 73 pp. Friends Home Service Committee, London. 3/6 Stg.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Australian Friend Description An account of the resource A dialogue review in<em> The Australian Friend</em> (April 20, 1963) lauds the intentions and spirit of the authors while differing on some conclusions., Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/60c3dcf4710706b7fe4bb00fd5657947.pdf 05452d3ea34b5b0c687d0747bdc2c613 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Friends Journal April 15, 1963 British Friends Consider Sex Problems A review of TOWARDS A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX, edited by Alastair Heron and published by a group of Friends by Friends Home Service Committee, London Yearly Meeting. 75 pages (Available from Friends Book Store, 302 Arch Street, Philadelphia 2, Pa. 75 cents.) The pamphlet is not an official statement of the Society of Friends but merely express the opinions of the authors. Readers of The Friends of London will not be surprised that the Home Service Committee of London Yearly Meeting has published a controversial pamphlet on sex and morality. This is a subject which has been discussed quite openly in the pages of the English Quaker weekly, with a variety of points of view being presented in articles and letters to the editor. The Home Service Committee itself published just last year "Christians and Sex--A Quaker Comment," by Harold Loukes, presenting the more traditional Christian view. British Friends are to be commended for getting discussion of this subject out into the open. American Friends should do the same. As the writers of Towards a Quaker View of Sex point out, the traditional Christian code regarding sex is being challenged at all levels of our society and, even where adhered to, may be followed more in form than in spirit. Whether we like it or not, sex is greatly emphasized in our society and we cannot assume that Quaker men and women are immune to the influences around them. Christians in England are faced also with the fact that in their country only ten per cent of the population regularly attend church, thereby reducing the church's opportunity to interpret its beliefs and social codes. It is important to know the origins of Towards a Quaker View of Sex and to understand its general orientation. The group of concerned and professionally distinguished Friends responsible for its preparation began meeting in 1957 to consider "through thought and prayer" what the Quaker faith could say to homosexuals. They soon found that the study of homosexuality and its moral problems could not be divorced from a survey of the whole field of sexual behavior and the rightness of the traditional Christian moral code. It is this willingness to look at the church's code--to try to understand its assets and liabilities--that is stirring controversy both in England and in the United States. The excellent chapter on homosexuality calls for a truly Christian view toward the homosexual; it is closely related to the next chapter, "A New Morality Needed," which places this particular problem in the larger context of sex and morality as a whole. The authors have deep misgivings, based on actual professional experiences both within and outside the Society of Friends, about the traditional approach of the organized Christian church to morality, "with its supposition that it knows precisely what is right and wrong, that this distinction can be made in terms of an external pattern of behavior, and that the greatest good will come only through universal adherence to that pattern." They feel that the "still repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual...has invested a normal function with guilt, mystery and ignorance...and has devalued the sexual currency to the levels of sensation and pornography." In calling for a much deeper morality "that kind of conduct and inner discipline through which the sexual energy of men and women can bring health of mind and spirit" and "a release of love, warmth and generosity into the world," the group reminds Friends of their traditional approach to all questions of conduct. "The Society of Friends...places particular emphasis on our individual and personal responsibility. ...Man is intended to be a moral being. That is not to say that he should accept a formal morality, an observance of mores, but that his actions should come under searching scrutiny in the light that comes from the Gospels and the working of God within us." The questioning of the group arises form an "awareness that the traditional code, in itself, does not come from the heart; for the great majority of men and women it has no roots in feeling or true conviction. We have been seeking a morality that will indeed have its roots in the depths of our being and in the awareness of the true needs of our fellows. ...What may outwardly fall in line with principle may not inwardly be good... The essentials of Christianity are simple but demanding. Christianity is concerned with relationship: the relationship of man with man and man with God... A personal relationship is a loving relationship in its most meaningful sense--the sense implied by 'Thou shalt love God...and love thy neighbor as thyself.'" I have quoted at random and at some length because United Press International issued from London a misleading news release, quoting parts of the pamphlet out of context. The release said it was "normal for 'young men and women with high standards of general conduct and integrity to have one or two love affairs, involving intercourse' before they marry." The quote from the pamphlet was correct, but the authors used the word "common" rather than "normal" (which implies approval), and the sentence was part of a statement of facts regarding British society in general. Again, UPI quoted the following, "Sexuality, looked at dispassionately, is neither good nor evil--it is a fact of nature," but the press release failed to quote the next sentence: "But, looking at it as Christians we have felt impelled to state without reservation that it is a glorious gift of God." At no point in the pamphlet are young Friends being urged, as in the Daily Mail cartoon reprinted in Newsweek, to sow a "few Quaker oats." In evaluating Towards a Quaker View of Sex it is useful to have on hand Harold Loukes' Christians and Sex--A Quaker Comment, because he deals in an understanding manner with some of the same questions raised by the authors of the present essay. For example, he acknowledges the negative and crippling aspects of the traditional moral code as often applied, and he would agree that at the point of counseling there must be the deepest love and understanding. Nevertheless, he flatly advocates adherence to the traditional Christian code as providing, in its full meaning, the soundest basis for the abundant life and for the following of God's will. He, like the group calling for a new morality, emphasizes the need to preserve marriage and family life. Harold Loukes believes that the traditional code need not be simply an external morality. In its finest dimensions it is an inner morality. "Sex...is the servant of the total personal relationships." With a few exceptions the authors of Towards a Quaker View of Sex appear to be involved in one way or another in professional counseling. Valuable and valid as their conclusions and questions may be, the pamphlet has the bias of those who have studied primarily the problems of the relatively abnormal and unhappy person in contrast to the experiences of the relatively normal and happy one. This is a fault found in most psychological studies. The presentation would be more readable as a whole if the group or the editor had reduced the material, placed basic assumptions together rather than in several chapters, and had omitted the appendices. As it is, in addition to being a call for a new and deeper morality, the pamphlet is almost a catalogue on sexual behavior and terminology. I think the principal message would have had greater impact if the pamphlet were less weighed down with professional jargon and descriptions. The work's overriding merit is that it asks searching questions and draws courageous tentative conclusions. It does not pretend to provide all of the answers. If it simulates creative discussion on sex and morality in Quaker circles, it will have served its purpose. In the world of John Robinson's farewell to pilgrims setting off for the New World, quoted in the pamphlet: "The Lord has yet more light and truth to show forth." Lawrence McK. Miller, Jr. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource U.S. Friends Journal Review Description An account of the resource A largely favorable review was published in the <em>Friends Journal</em> in the U.S. on April 15, 1963. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/70212012d5e27cf774288bc508ce4381.jpg a0cd581bc671ba3233155b6a21f63ffc https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e44f68555f6d38a2df985f5972fd18e5.jpg c8714a3153510b0458d3ed9205d90a3e Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Guardian Manchester February 21 Letters to the Editor "A Quaker view of sex" Sir--We wish to say that we think the members of the Society of Friends who recently gave national publicity to their essay, "Towards a Quaker View of Sex," are muddled and mistaken. Their error does not lie in advocating greater compassion and deeper understanding in human relationships. But they are profoundly mistaken in suggesting, as they did in Sunday's television programme, that Christians should dispense with clear religious statements about morality,..the ideal of pre-marital chastity..with binding vows of marriage and fidelity. "Love," it was said, "cannot be confined to patterns." Perhaps not, but it easily deteriorates without them. The traditional patter can evolve and change without losing its ...authority and it remains relevant to an imperfect Christian society. We doubt the wisdom of kicking away the ladder (in spite of its steepness and narrowness) before we have grown wings.___Yours, etc. Robin and Elizabeth Hodgkin Abbotsholme School, Rocester, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire __________________________ The Observer March 3, 1963 Quaker Meetings Sir,--As an active Quaker, I would like to pay tribute to your very fair comment last Sunday on the controversy over the statement on sex and morality. As Quakers, some of us are finding ourselves in an unaccustomed and not very welcome limelight as a result of Press and B.B.C. publicity. People tend to half-read the report and regard us as representing something lax and immoral. Comments such as yours and in certain of the daily papers do a great deal to put the matter in correct perspective. When, however, Pendennis says that "Quakers will break their silence..." to discuss the new pamphlet, he seems to suggest that we normally have a kind of monastic vow of silence in our Meeting Houses. Quakers do, of course, meet in silent worship, but the silence is "broken" regularly as various Friends feel the call to stand up and minister or pray vocally. A completely silent meeting for worship is not unknown, but comparatively rare. While (in Middlesbrough at least) the new statement has certainly been a topic for after-worship discussion, I do not imagine that in our "400 Meeting Houses up and down the country" the pattern of worship has differed from the normal. Sydney E. Dexter Middlsbrough No authority Sir.--Booklets published by the Friends' Home Service Committee contain the views of individual Friends on a variety of subjects and are mainly used for study and discussion within the Society of Friends itself. They are not in any sense authoritative statements. A fundamental belief of Quakers is the ability of each individual; to communicate with and receive guidance directly from God. They therefore have no bishops or priests or the like who are accorded special authority to speak on behalf of the Society as a whole. The beliefs of the humblest Friend as to be accorded as much respect as those of "leading" Friends (as your writer calls them); and the procedure of the Society is in fact to send all matters of importance which are raised down to each Particular Meeting (local... [only fragments of the rest of the letter] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letters to Editor Description An account of the resource Letters by Quakers published in different newspapers reflect the diverse response by members of the Society. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in the Personal Papers of Anna Bidder, Lucy Cavendish College Archive https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/6c1d832703ce65eff4e349178e1eedd2.jpg 2171abf4f34df26a06469a071a6fb80c https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1828d0fb3b830b36d2121017ce3acdcb.pdf d2d60b5773809d2165a3642c091c0706 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/6f7ffff62f63d0e65b2c210266177e91.pdf 74ddb43bd51cbe0e8f751aea55ed1ebf https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3cf46a6d62ad4da4078249163e764bfe.pdf ac268d7e5b8904d071dd1ad157ced47e Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Friends Home Service Committee Friends House Euston Road London N.W.1 20th February, 1963 TO: Members of the Executive & Finance Committee and the Working Group on Extension Matters. Dear Friend, After consultation with the Deputy Chairman of General Committee and the Chairman of the Executive Committee it has been decided to call a special meeting of the above two committees on Thursday, February 28th, at 5 p.m., in Room 37 at Friends House, to consider what responsibility we may have to help those embers of the Society who are perturbed by the publication of the essay, "Towards a Quaker View of Sex", and by the publicity it has aroused. The Chairman of the Literature Committee and the Chairman of the group of Friends responsible for the publication of the essay have also been invited to attend. As some Friends may have other previous engagements immediately before the meeting tea will be served at 5 p.m. We are sorry for this short notice, but we hope that as many members of the groups as possible will be able to attend. In case you have not seen the essay a copy is enclosed. Yours sincerely, George H. Gorman General Secretary The Friend March 8, 1963 Publications Procedure to Be Re-Examined The following minute was received from the executive Committee of the Friends Home Service Committee: "The Executive Committee of the Home Service Committee has met with a number of Friends connected with its literature and extension work and with the chairman of the group that prepared the essay Towards a Quaker View of Sex in an an endeavor to see whether anything helpful might be said to Meeting for Sufferings in face of the criticism levelled against the essay and the unhappiness which many Friends are feeling. We recognize that the publication of the essay under the imprint of this Committee gives rise to misunderstanding, but it has for many years been our practice to publish papers written by concerned Friends or groups of Friends and it was, therefore, natural for this particular group to approach the Committee. We on our part were glad, recognizing the depth of their concern, to undertake the publication and we feel that publication on any other basis would not have prevented confusion in the public mind. The clear statement that the essay does not embody the official view of the Society has been generally accepted in Press comments as well as in the television broadcast. We recognize also that the timing of the broadcast, which was initiated by the BBC, was unfortunate and that distress was caused to many Friends by its taking place before the essay was published. In light of this experience the Committee proposes to re-examine its policy in regard to its publications and the questions of publicity which arise in relation to them and will report to Meeting for Sufferings in due course if so desired. Meanwhile, we hope that Friends will read the essay carefully, recognising that it is the outcome of prayerful con- ___________________________ CENTRAL OFFICES OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS FRIENDS HOUSE, EUSTON ROAD, LONDON, N.W. 1 To member of Meeting for Sufferings and Elders who regularly attend At a Meeting for Sufferings held in London 1st March 1963 Minute 6: "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" The attached Minute is received from the Home Service Committee, and Derek Crosfield has spoken to it. The Home Service Committee has from time to time issued pamphlets on subjects of interest to Friends and enquirers, and has not in general submitted these before publication to a representative body of Friends. The essay "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" is the work of a serious, informed and responsible group of Friends working under sincere concern; its publication by the Home Service Committee and the use of the word "Quaker" in the title have given the impression to many that the views of the group are the views of the Society. The publication has attracted immense publicity, some frivolous but much serious, including warm commendation and strong criticism. Many Friends have been deeply distressed by the publication in this way of so controversial an essay without adequate consultation, and by the resulting publicity. We accept the offer of the Home Service Committee to reconsider their procedure in sponsoring publications and to report to us at a later meeting. Stephen C. Morland Clerk this time Stephen Thorne (signature) Recording Clerk Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource FHSC Responds to Criticism Description An account of the resource Gorman responded quickly to criticism by calling a special meeting of the Friends Home Service Committee executive committee that released a statement (minute) that was received by the Meeting for Sufferings. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, March 8, 1963, p. 271; and HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1913314c9dfcc635e31044a9cba12e15.jpg 7a318257c6d6763409b22db07e6a4ace Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend March 22, 1963 Radio Comment on "Towards a Quaker View" Listeners to "Christian Outlook" on the BBC's Network 3 on March 14 will have heard the understanding and discriminating review given there of TOWARDS A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX (Friends Home Service Committee, 3s. 6d.) The speaker was the Rev. Dr. Derrick S. Bailey, of Wells Cathedral, himself a well-known writer on sexual relationships. The review included a full summary of the contents of the essay. Dr. Bailey added his opinion that here was a pioneer contribution to Christian thinking; that if read as a whole and in a spirit of good will it could not fail to illuminate; that with one exception (the passage on "triangular relationships"--a momen of real confusion, he thought) accusations in the Press and elsewhere of "muddled thinking" appeared to be unfounded; and that there was no justification for the cry that here was condonation of a lowering of standards. On the contrary, the essay commended a personal search for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in place of legalistic system of tests of conformity to external rules. And if this might appear to some to legislate inadequeately for a largely non-Christian public, and to take too little account of considerations of public policy, it must be borne in mind that the essay addressed itself primarily to Christians, and more specifically to members of the Society of Friends. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource D.S. Bailey Radio Commentary Description An account of the resource The March 22 issue of <em>The Friend</em> reported a favorable review of TQVOS on BBC radio by Dr. Derrick Sherwin Bailey, who had published the ground-breaking <em>Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition</em> in 1955. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, March 22, 1963, p. 336. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/b4d2c0e4ad4303d2a2fe3119548be121.jpg 90bd8f41a01d1d1f0804ed51c6cf54a9 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/427b9c1cb54a2364ca25211f5106a1f8.jpg a4bcffab9f508e8c27b91cb55ea263e9 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend February 22, 1963 "Towards a Quaker View on Television" For this viewer, one of the most striking things about "Meeting Point" on BBC Television last Sunday night, when Towards a Quaker View of Sex was discussed, was the attitude of the unnamed consultant psychiatrist who appeard in the programme with Kenneth Barnes and Anna Bidder under the chairmanship of Paul Ferris of The Observer. To some extent the course of the discussion was predictable. It ws to be expected--and faith--enough that Paul Ferris should select some of the more controversial points of the essay and invite Anna Bidder and Kenneth Barnes to justify to expand them. On behalf, as it were, of orthodox morality, he asked the awkward (and occasionally irritating) questions that are best designed to draw out the "victims" in such programmes. It was to be expecte4d, too, that Kenneth Barnes and Anna Bidder would stick firmly and fearlessly to their views and expound them soberly and well. The unknown quantity was the unnamed psychiatrist; and many Friends must have been gratified, and some others perhaps reassured, to hear him speak highly of the essay. That a group, however unofficial, of any religious body should produce such a document had clearly impressed him. "Most encouraging" and "extremely valuable" were among the words he applied to it. Kenneth Barnes explained at the beginning of the programme that he and Anna Bidder were speaking for themselves and could not commit the Society. Many listeners presumably would disagree strongly with some or much of what was said, but every thoughtful viewer must, one feels sure, have been impressed by the forthrightness and thoughtful sincerity of our Friends who said it. The broadcast will have increased, not diminished, in many home the respect in which the society is held. C.H. The essay had a good press, in the sense that it was given a great deal of space in the newspaperes. The authors must indeed have been encouraged by the attention given to it by the more responsible papers. The Observer last Sunday gave rather more than a column to an account which, after quotations from the report, included a brief interview with Anna Bidder and quoted the reaction of a number of Churchmen. The Rev. John Huxtable, Principal of New College, London, was quoted as saying that he thought the eesay "too muddle-headed to do any real good" and that "most Quakers I know are likely to be pretty scandalised by it." The pamphlet was welcomed by the Archdeacon of London, the Ven. George Appleton, although he felt that the section dealing with the "triangular situation" was ambiguous. The Sunday Times gave a column summary to the repirt, but spoiled some fair and objective treatment by publication of a little article entitled "The Two Voices of the Quakers" which, though perhaps intended to be complimentary, gave a somewhat curious impression of Quakerism and Friends' ways of conducting business. Friends will, no doubt, have realised that it was based upon a reporter's misunderstanding of a conversation by telephone with George Gorman (in which it was made quite clear that the essay would not be the subject of discussion at the forthcoming Yearly Meeting). Many of the ideas and expressions in the article were obviously not those that an experienced Friend would hold or use of the Society. The Guardian last Monday gave about 500 words to the essay; The Times rather less. The Daily Mail, in addition to a half column summary, made the pamphlet the subject of its front-page column of "Comment". The comment was not profound. The following day the Mail had a cartoon by Emmwood, and an article by Monica Furlong, "Why I'm on the Side of the Quakers," in which the pamphlet was strongly defended. Almost without exception these reports contained an explanation that the essay was the work of an unofficial group of Friends and not an official statement of the Society. This accorded with a prefatory note in the pamphlet itself, which states: The Literature Committee of the Friends Home Service Committee has been glad to publish Towards a Quaker View of Sex for the group of Friends which prepared it, as a contribution to thought on an important subject. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Friends Home Service Committee or of the Religious Society of Friends." Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Friend 22 Feb 1963 Description An account of the resource <em>The Friend</em> published this commentary on the appearance of Barnes and Bidder on BBC television and on the first reviews by major newspapers. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of<em> The Friend</em>, February 22, 1963, pp. 215-16. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/7427f4e9865c43bb232a93f85d422db3.jpg e59ca73f1dbbc77d60e9b2271ec9988b https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d2186534da76857d7ef44a2ebe7d0b5e.jpg 130241c3609b16d97132e81ff0d53fba Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Beverley House Shipton Road York 22nd March, 1963 Keith Wedmore, Stoneleigh, Sheerwater Avenue, West Byfleet, Surrey Dear Keith Wedmore, TOWARDS A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX Many thanks for your kind letter of the 12th instant. The parcel of copies of the booklet arrived safely and they have been suitably distributed to the J.R.S. Trustees and others. Some time was spent on this at a Trust meeting held last Saturday and without exception members of the Trust were glad that this work ad been done and had been put into print. I cannot say that there were no reservations, but such as there were were much more to do with procedure than content and none was serious. There was some discussion as to "what next." A good deal of ground has been covered or, it could be said, uncovered and whilst it was rather questioned whether the same group would wish to take various aspects of the study further or deeper, there was the hope here that somebody might. Do you happen to know the mind of the group on this and whether there are in fact either plans or hopes of a follow-up or supplementary study. In the event, I think that this Trust would be glad to give a hand were some further modest help needed. With all good wishes. Yours sincerely, Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rowntree Trust letter Description An account of the resource The Joseph Rowntree Trust, which provided funding for the TQVOS group, sent a letter to Wedmore that expressed appreciation for copies of the booklet that were given to all of the Trustees and noted their positive response. The Trust expressed interest in supporting further work. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Keith Wedmore Papers https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3eee77e0c889e3ba089925c775c953f0.pdf ef479f75ca23e6014f8f8c519e96dea2 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Towards a Quaker View of Sex, 1964 Description An account of the resource The first revised edition (1964) of the TQVOS pamphlet https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5e9606b9beefab80b1c2f708af57091d.pdf 9f4f835b242979606ca6add7225742f7 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Dialogue January, 1964 Sex is an explosive subject whenever it is discussed. It is particularly explosive for college students. This report attempts to analyze sexual morality objectively and understandingly. Whiel many think about sex, rarely do they individually attempt to analyze it in moral terms. There is a morality to human actions and we must attempt to discover what it is for sex. To stimulate this search, we reprint this report which will challenge the beliefs of many. We want to change; we do want thought. But, be careful of rationalization. Sex is a psychological drive so strong as to easily lead to self-deception, which either rejects it or succumbs to it. Anyone who will use this article as an excuse for sexual license is a fool who ignores an opportunity to attempt to realistically come to terms with himself and perverts the search for insight and understanding into a tool of his own whim. The Editors These exerpts are taken from a report published by the British Society of Friends which represented solely the views of the individual members of The Friends who prepared this statement. [This article contains lengthy excerpts from Towards a Quaker View of Sex.] DIALOGUE January, 1964 Vol. Iv., No. 1 DIALOGUE Dialogue is a journal of significant discussion pledged to stimulate a free clash of opinion. By reflecting thought of all persuasions, we are seeking to challenge the intellect and motivate active social concern. editor-in-chief: Brian Olmstead managing editor: Adam J. Sorkin associatge editors: Judith L. Bourne, Richard Greenblatt, Chris Kinder, Stephen LeRoy, Fred M. Rosen, Nancy Rosen art editor: Amy Vladeck cover design: Peter Salwen first wood cut: Joel Perlman second wood cut: Forrest German advisor: William Rogers Dialogue is published by the education are of the Cornell United Religious Work. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors nor does any comment necessarily represent that position of CURW. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Excerpts in Dialogue journal Jan 1964 Description An account of the resource The journal Dialogue, published by Cornell United Religious Work, published significant excerpts from the study in its January 1964 issue. These excepts focused on sexual practice and morality; homosexuality largely ignored, Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/74904ee639b2127d5cc74e3bd8c88b7b.pdf 5cba4cf5b23b6be05c9b8f5fccc57e49 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Mrs. Harrop Freeman 108 Needham Place, Ithaca, New York January 18, 1964 Dear Friends: We thought that you might be interested in what the CURW (Cornell United Religious Work--the inter-faith organization at Cornell University) has done with "The Quaker View of Sex," and the comment from the daily paper published by the students. The Friends Meeting here has also have a discussion group which has considered the pamphlet. We do a great deal of pre-marriage and marriage counseling ourselves and have found the pamphlet most helpful in encouraging young people (and older ones as well) to think out a code of moral and spiritual approach to the subject of sex. Cordially, Harrop & Ruth Freeman Cornell Daily Sun 1/17/64 Dialogue Toward a New Morality by R.V. Denenberg ",,,In subscribing to a moral code, some of which is no longer accepts, society merits the charge of hypocrisy..." With this assumption a group of British Friends set off "Toward a Quaker View of Sex," in the current Dialogue's featured article. The issue, as the Quakers discuss it, is far from the "explosive subject" that the magazine's editors proclaim it to be. It is, rather, an eminently thoughtful and disarmingly frank consideration of the ethical, religious and psychological weakness of what we have some to call "conventional morality." The very currency of that term suggests that we are already way ahead of the Friends in assuming a detached a relativistic attitude toward an ossified sexual code, but underlying so much of the au courant criticism is a marked scorn for the religious bases of sexual mores. The significant of the Friend's essay is that is represents the search of profoundly religious men of new standards, standards which would embody Christian ideals, rather than hollow, lip-served precepts. They express their attitude with words whose tone conveys the gentleness and compassion of the Quaker faith: "It is the awareness that the traditional code, in itself, does not come from the heart; for the great majority of men and women it has no roots in feeling or true conviction. We have been seeking a morality that will indeed have its roots in the depths of our being and in our awareness of the true needs of our fellows." They find society plagued by sexual difficulties for which "a distorted Christianity must bear some of the blame," and hence they are led to an empiricism which asks if homosexuality is really unnatural or pre-marital intercourse always sinful. In the process they develop a humane and undogmatic concept of sin which takes exploitation of one person by another as its criterion. They founder, however, in attempting a universal morality to replace the conventional one. Trying to avoid advocating license, they stipulate that some "external morality" is necessary to govern sexual relationships, but after their stress upon individual needs, the insistance up an essentially social code to regulate private relationships which do not affect the community in any extend seems strangely out of keeping. A reading of their essay, nevertheless, remains a moving and challenging experience. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Freeman letter & Cornell Daily Sun article Description An account of the resource Ruth Freeman, from Cornell United Religious Work, sent a brief letter with a copy of an article from the <em>Cornell Daily Sun</em> as well as a copy of a review in their <em>Dialogue</em> magazine (see below). Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c50e668bd324af6aae151a747db7a64b.pdf cac25dfb0d2a1363862ee938996b8637 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Sermon of the Month First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles Stephen H. Fritchman, Minister The Quakers Break the Taboo on Sex A Book Review Sermon of TOWARD A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX Edited by Alastair Heron Delivered September 29, 1963 by Stephen H. Fritchman Dr. Spock has an article in this month's REDBOOK Magazine on "How My Thinking Has Changed". Anyone hearing my first sermons in the year 1920 in Craryville, New York and now listening to what I shall say this morning might suggest that I too write an article on "How My Thinking Has Changed." One footnote to this sermon is in order. There is nothing original in today's address, however startling some of the content may be. I have been reading and thinking about the Sexual Revolution of the Twentieth Century for many years, and have discussed various aspects of it in addresses on marriage, the family, and our inter-personal relations, although I did not always label the contents with the three letter word. I am told that a few years ago, when I used the word "sex" in a morning sermon, one woman rose up and departed, and has only now, many years later, started to resume attendance at services. I trust her thinking has changed along with Dr. Spock's, since I intend to use the word sex fairly often again this morning, and if this fact disturbs anyone, this might be a good time for him or her to go over to Channing Hall for a premature cup of coffee. Let me also, at this moment, offer my thanks and give the proper credits to the Rev. John Morgan, our Minister in Toronto; to the editors of LOOK Magazine for their September 24th issue which is mentioned in today's Order of Service, and to the British Quakers for their recent booklets, Toward a Quaker View of Sex. Several copies of this hard-to-get book are now on our book table, but probably will not be by one o'clock today. This excellent publication is indeed the Quaker view of sex expressed by an esteemed group of British Quakers--anthropologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and teachers, but it is not the view of sex of the Quaker girls I dated in greater Philadelphia in the early nineteen-twenties, not of their fathers, nor of their grandfathers. All of which is to say that the Twentieth Century has seen many revolutions: political and economic in Russia, China and Cuba; racial, as in the United States and Africa today, and sexual as everyone I know about--Asia, Africa, Europe, South American, and most familiarly, the United States and Canada. Since I have found sex to be far more controversial than politics in this church over the years, allow me to say to first-time visitors that in a Unitarian church the views of the pulpit are not necessarily those of the congregation, nor are all of the views quoted necessarily shared by the speaker as his own. This ought to be obvious, but I find it needs to be said fairly often, since I sometimes learn that I have been quoted as supporting a large number of things that I don't support, such as taking LSD for kicks, or simultaneous polygamy, or playing the slot machines at Las Vegas or believing that the Los Angeles Dodgers have a supernatural guarantee of winning the World Series. There have been quite a number of Unitarian sermons around the continent in recent months on the subject of the Twentieth Century sexual revolution, some of them extremely well done. The reason is clear. The long, long silence about matters dealing with relations between the sexes has been broken, even in church. The price of silence during a revolutionary period has been found too high, in terms of human welfare. The Rev. John Mordan, one of the most unequivocating ministers in our denomination, said it well, "A careful silence about 'sex' is still maintained between many adults and teen-agers. Those adults who publicly break the silence with unconventional opinions, whether teachers or commentators, risk attracting the wrath of the especially fearful. But surely teen-agers deserve better from adults than private panic and censorship." A brilliant writer for MacLean's Magazine in Canada, Pierre Breton, whose column I quoted to our College Center group of this church last June as expressing the moral issues of the changing sex ethic, was dropped from the magazine's staff because of reader protest. He had been neither flippant nor sensational, simply honest and outspoken. The pinched nerve of conscience created a loud explosion, and MacLean's let him go. Silence again took over. The subject of sexual mores simply cannot be discussed in a vacuum, separate from other human problems. Let me, therefore, call your attention for a moment to the special issue of LOOK magazine for September 24, on "Morality USA" by Robert Moskin, LOOK's senior editor. Allow me to quote several sentences of this essay by Mr. Moskin: "Each of us must make difficult moral decisions. We are witnessing the end of the old morality. In our world of jet travel, nuclear power and fragmented families, conditions are changing so fast that the established moral guide-lines have been yanked from our hands. No single authority rules our conduct. No church lays down the moral law for all. No tribal customs or taboos define the limits of our immoralities. We are free to be prejudiced or promiscuous, to cheat or to chisel. We are left floundering in a money-motivated, sex-obsessed, big-city dominated society. We must figure out for ourselves how to apply the traditional moral principles to the problems of our time." "Out of today's moral confusion will come either a society of license and brutality, or, if we are wise and lucky, a new moral code based on the realities of a new world." Two examples amongst many in Mr. Moskin's articles illustrates for me the reality of the new moral challenge. He quotes Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's phrasing of the dilemma "Thou shalt not kill, but a general says we can kill 400 million people." His second illustration refers to the space marathon to the moon. He asks, "Should we race the Russians to the moon, or spend the same talent and money fighting cancer and mental illness? The space race compares less to Columbus' voyages than to the vainglorious building of the pyramids. To race the Russians to the moon and to let our old people live on almost nothing is immoral. The astronauts become the new gladiators." (I might way that President Kennedy's proposal at the United Nations to have the Russians and Americans pool their efforts in this lunar space venture does not necessarily alter the immorality of the enterprise, as sick and hungry Americans and sick and hungry Russians would probably agree." It is, however, on the subject of the sexual revolution that I found Mr. Moskin especially cogent. Listen to his opening words on this subject," American society no longer is accepting the Christian morality of sexual life--that sex should not be outside of marriage. Divorce is completely accepted; freedom of sexual intercourse between young men and women is fully accepted." Professor Lester Kirkendall of Oregon State College is quoted by Mr. Moskin, "There is much more youthful discussion of sex because the young people are trying to work out for themselves a new sexual code. There is much more pre-marital sexual experience, but our young people are not sex-obsessed. Our culture is." I certainly would agreed with Dr. Kirkendall from my talks with students at Grinnell College, at Reed College, and from our own Los Angeles schools and colleges. Many of them come from liberal homes where, they tell me, silence on sex ethics is monumental, and they do not exempt the churches from this blackout of helpful guidance and discussion. They are more serious than many of their elders about sexual matters, far more honest about their practices, and very eager to create a self-imposed discipline of ethos of sex that will produce a durable as well as a happy marriage. One divorce out of every four marriages does not assure these young people that all wisdom lies with the older generation. "The greatest change in sexual morality," Dr. Kirkendall points out, "is with young women. Many parents who do not always seem to know it are pushing their daughters into earlier sexual activity. Then they are appalled when those daughters get into difficulties. It is a distorted society morally that gives sixteen-year-olds automobiles to drive, provides them with opportunities to go out with the opposite sex, but does not teach them anything about sex or contraception. By the time they are in their teens they move very close to a full physical relationship. Many a girl feels extremely pressured to demonstrate that she has the kind of attractiveness that is going to satisfy a boy. Mrs. Katherine Oettinger, Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, says, "We are often too lax about situations where experimentation goes on--the business of early dating, allowing youngsters so much freedom, sometimes promoting a boyfriend at all costs. The youngsters who are unsophisticated have babies and are punished. The number of illegitimate births has tripled since 1940." Dr. Milten Senn at Yale's Child Study Center reports that gifts of twelve and thirteen, from all kinds of families, are dropping out of school because of pregnancies. Premarital pregnancy is now involved in 85% of all marriages in which the partners are high school students. As Dr. Kirkendall has noted, "Parents go along with Twentieth Century attitudes until the girl gets pregnant, then Nineteenth Century morality comes into play," and he then states, regarding college students, "A college should not make a rule that chastity should be the rule, because then you have to think if an act has or has not been performed, in order to determine whether a student is virtuous or not. Rather than being concerned whether an act has been performed, I should like to be concerned that we use all our powers and capacities with responsible concern for others." It is this last phrase of Dr. Kirkendall which I should like to stress. "This," he emphasizes, "is not permissiveness, because relationships have rules." He then states, "I'm more fearful about our inability to handle our aggressive and hostile impulses that our sexual impulses. You can use sex i n a hostile way just as you use a bludgeon." He adds, with telling force, "Our moral confusion over sex is not limited to the young. As long as the adults focus on the youth they don't have to look at themselves. Sex is essentially an adult problem. When a person uses sex in marriage to punish, control or manipulate, this becomes immorality too." I agree fully with the marriage experts who find that the crux of the sex problems in marriage is one of communication, or its absence. Sex all to often is used in exploitation of the partner. Partly as a result of this adult failure in sexual communication our last census reports almost two million divorced women in this country and thirteen million children who belong to broken homes. We certainly shall not achieve a satisfying sexual morality in our new age of science and the growing equality of men and women until we face directly the need for true communication between men and women, and face the costliness of sexual exploitation. We certainly will not find a mature sexual morality through silence between partners, or between parents and the children. Meeting the sadness, frustration and anger of many children of miserable inadequate marriages is about the hardest experience I have to accept in my ministry. Little wonder these children grow up resolved to find another pattern than the one they have seen or heard at firsthand. There is a prevailing ignorance about sex needs, habits and practices in our present-day world, in spite of a multi-million-dollar exploitation of sex by commercial advertising, and an enormous amount of conversation on the subject, with knowing references to Ovid, Rabelais, and Dr. Kinsey. My colleagues, Rev. A. Phillip Hewett of Vancouver, British Columbia, recently preached a sermon, Sexual Conduct: A Quaker Assessment in which he declared: "A member of this congregation made headlines a few days ago by pointing out that in spite of our obsession with sex there is an appalling degree of ignorance on this subject. That too is part of our inheritance in this particular culture. So also are the veiled allusions and misunderstanding which deny any attempt to cope intelligently with these matters. You will have read in the newspapers a report, no doubt grossly distorted as newspaper reports usually area, of what Dean McCrae is alleged to have said about the preoccupation of the girl students at the University of British Columbia. From the comments on this statement it is quite obvious that in the minds of some people a preoccupation with sex means a continuous orgy of sexual promiscuity. Such confusions have their comic side, like that of the man who was filling our a form with name, address, age, etc., and when he came to 'sex' he wrote 'occasionally.'" One of the most unexpected sources of insight, in my studies, was a little book issued recently by the British Quakers, entitled "Toward a Quaker View of Sex. I wish to say only enough today to read it in its entirety. The Unitarians and Universalists would do well to prepare as frank and as realistic a publication themselves. The origins of the Quaker study were the problems raised by young Quaker students faced with homosexual difficulties, who came to older Quakers for help and guidance. It was soon apparent that the Society of Friends, the actual name of the religious movement, had very little to say to people in sexual difficulties--homosexual or heterosexual. A group of Quakers from their own schools, some in social work, some in psychiatry, some in marriage and parent organizations, decided to make study in order to know what could effectively say, especially to homosexuals, who found society condemned their feelings and who also found themselves victimized, blackmailed, and sometimes imprisoned. But the advising group soon found that the study of homosexuality and its moral problems could not be divorced from a survey of the whole field of sexual activity. Hence the final character of the book. As the introduction states, "We realized there was much needless suffering and human failure which we would like to relieve, and that in subscribing to a moral code, some of which we no longer accept, society merits the charge of hypocrisy, and its authority is thereby weakened. The insincerity of the sexual moral code may well be a cause of the widespread contempt of the younger generation for society's rules and prohibitions generally." The editors then tell us, in this same British understatement and unimpassioned prose (which has great merit in discussing often-avoided problems) that these appear to be the developments we are faced with today, "1. A great increase in adolescent sexual intimacy. 2. An increase in transient pre-marital intimacies generally. It is fairly common in both young men and women, with high standards of general conduct and integrity, to have one or two love affairs, involving intercourse, before they find he person they will ultimately marry." (I would insert here that there is not a Unitarian minister in this country who does not know this to be true.) The Quaker study continues, "3. It is even more common for those who intend to marry to have sexual intercourse before the ceremony. This is true, probably, of the majority of young people in all classes of society, including those who often have a deep sense of responsibility. 4. The incidence of extra-marital intercourse is great, but it is not possible to estimate whether there is an increase. There are many instances which do not lead to divorce or obvious harm, and which are kept secret." The editors then add, "The central concept of sexual morality in Christian countries in the integrity of the family. Most people, religious or otherwise, in our own or other countries, would agree that the family as a social unit should be safeguarded, and sexual practices that threaten its stability be vigorously discouraged." Immediately after setting this Christian Quaker goal the writers of the pamphlet state what I have seen in no church publication during my entire ministry, and the honest and humility of the Quakers once again impress me. They say, "Over long periods of history, illegitimate children in Christian countries have been shockingly treated compared with their counterparts in a polygamous African community. A Christian pattern has evolved which is most cruel to those outside its pattern. Christian parents have subjected their children to barbarous punishments and created conditions which were defensive, restricted and inhibited, and not in any way a source for 'the abundant life.' Sexual problems are infinitely more common than is realized, and the isolation of the individual, arising from society's repressive outlook toward the sexually troubled, is more apparent than real. This still repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has brought serious difficulties to students of human behavior." The editors then points out what you and I in this country also know to be true, that "a repressive outlook has invested a normal function of men with guilt, mystery and ignorance. It has devalued the sexual currency to the level of sensationalism and pornography. When one considers the universality of the sexual drive, it is appalling how little understand there is of its origins, manifestations and possibilities for human happiness. Sexual behavior and moral outlook have much more to do with upbringing and prevailing cultural beliefs than most people realize. Only now are adults, as well as students in our schools, learning about other human communities of the past and present." The sacrosanct character of our professed sexual mores is now being weighed by thoughtful people who have studies some anthropology and literature previously hidden or unknown. Western man in the Twentieth Century has a great deal to learn from other cultures about challenging and employing the sexual drives of human nature. It took me at least thirty years to identify the astigmatisms of St. Paul and St. Augustine on the sex e3thic, to say nothing of the rigidity and intolerance of the ancient Hebrews. The fact that the Jews were often advanced in their ethical insights does not mean that they always were. Our Quaker friends then say what some Unitarians are now saying, "Marriage is to be taken seriously, but not always in grim earnest; its problems take perspective from fun, adventure and fulfillment, and joy and sorrow are mingled together. For some there is a monogamy so entire that no other love ever touches it; but others fall in love time and again, and most learn to make rickes of their affections without destroying their marriages or their friends. Let us thank God for what we share, which enables us to understand, and for the infinite variety in which each marriage stands alone." The above statement has disturbed some Quakers, and others, but it has the virtue of candor and of facing the facts that exist, and it is an effort to stress communication between the sexes without harsh moral judgements which end all understanding. The Quakers, in this book of theirs and in much general practice, show little enthusiasm for the ancient Christian habit of laying down strict rules of moral conduct and then being unhumanly intolerant of all who break those rules. Those who wrote this book go further. They say that sexuality looked at dispassionately is neither good not edit; it is a fact of nature. They emphasize that we need to avoid the judgemental attitude so common this area of sex, and to do a little more understanding. The Quakers seek to explore the true meaning of having a loving relationship, in or out of wedlock. They stress the need for warmth and intimacy, for open-heartedness and overwhelming generosity of hand and spirit. Loving involves a commitment to the other person, involving that person's life. We must go beyond the sociability of modern life to commitment and concern. We need to understand human energy, creative powers, and the need for sharing. Such attitudes will project young and old from crass exploitation and what I would call "Profumism", or the marketing impulse in sexual relations--whether or not money changes hands. If some would say that the Quakers are simply blessing "free love" and promiscuity, they know the human psyche very little. I might say here what my colleague, Rev. John Morgan of Toronto, said in his recent sermon, "I have long since concluded that in our society there is probably very little free love. It is a very hard thing for people to love freely in this culture--there is always a price, psychological and social." The Rev. Morgan's development of his ideas proved enlightening to me and I hope you will find them so. "We are not in the Garden of Eden. We are a complex race of people with the imprint of a long history in our spirits. Sexual actions stir us far below the level of consciousness, and may do more than we know to shape our future. There is an almost overwhelming urge throughout society towards the trivializing of sexual actions and the separating of them from the rest of life. A young doctor whose whole working life is given to a preparation for the most responsible of careers may think it all right to propose 'going to bed' to a nurse he has only just met and whose surname is unknown to him. We think it probable that to use one's capacity for loving in a relationship that is personally so tenuous is to reduce ultimately one's capacity for any depth of feeling or commitment, for in many such liaisons there is a deliberate intention to steer clear of being involved, to have fun without commitment. "We have been unable to avoid the continued challenge of this question: 'When is it right to have sexual intercourse, if it is not to be wholly confined to marriage?' Every counsellor will have to face it. He may himself believe that it should be confined to marriage; if so, he must say so quietly and humbly while entering with understanding into the problem of his questioner who is less sure that one rule meets all cases. Counsellors--and parents--do well to hesitate before passing judgement... "When as a group we face the question as to when it is right for intercourse to take place, we find it easier to feel sure when it should not take place. First we feel impelled to say something like this: that it should not happen until the partners have come to know each other so well that the sexual contact becomes a consummation, a deeply meaningful total expression of a friendship in which each has accepted the other's reality and shared the other's interests. Could we may also that at least in spirit each should be committed to the other--should be open to the other in heart and mind? This would mean that each cared deeply about what might happen to the other and would do everything possible to meet the other's needs and lessen any suffering that had to be faced. It would mean a willingness to accept responsibility and some fore-knowledge of what responsibility implied." The Quaker develop the limitations of any religion or church that casts people out for their failure to meet the requirements of the moral code, or who are deviants from norms in things sexual. It is the lack of love in early years in the family and beyond it that mutilates and destroys so many lives. We know that this lack if mentally destructive as well. Many of the aberrations we deplore in other people's sexual behavior are of our making, and we never know it! The Quaker booklet goes on to discuss at some length the meaning of normal sexual development, the realities of adolescence, the phenomenon of masturbation, the very problems of the single man and woman, the sexual difficulties and opportunities of married life in later years, and the particular issues confronting the homosexual. The information about homosexuality in other cultures, past and present, learned from the anthopologist, is present without special pleading but with genuine sympathy. The sexual needs of children are discussed with a simplicity I have not encountered outside of technical studies and textbooks. The Oedipus and the Electra situations are defined in a way that the average reader can understand without a course in Greek literature or through advanced psychoanalysis. Let this suffice for a brief sermon review. What are we to conclude? Permit me to say, as we come to the end of our discussion, that there is need for far more discussion of these problems in our own churches than has been realized. Parents, teachers, ministers, doctors, young people as well as older members and friends, have contributed to the atmosphere of silence, and to the false assumption that we already possess an agreed-upon sexual morality in our country, or even in the liberal church. It is not so! And by our failure to discuss these matters we have failed to help parents and their children. We have failed to help young men and women who are having real problems in their marriages. One reason why our trustees set up our Counseling Service last year was a recognition of this fact. And the Service is being used. I strongly suspect that none of us has a perfect score in our handling of sexual ethics. If this is so, we should not expect a perfect score from our teen-agers or our college youth. We are fallibly human beings trying, I hope, to do our best in a revolutionary situation; trying to retain the best of the past, and to shape a morality that does justice to human nature and to our capacities to achieve the good life. It surely not come by silence, or by ignoring difficult issues. We need courage, not hospitality. We need wisdom which comes through listening to shoe we respect, and above all we must learn that there is never just one right answer. From that knowledge we can hope for some progress--in our own lives and those of our children. (Copies of Towards a Quaker View of Sex are available from the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, 2936 West Eighth Street, Los Angeles 5, California @ $.85.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sermon at First Unitarian Los Angeles Description An account of the resource Stephen Fritchman, minister at First Unitarian Church Los Angeles, presented this sermon review on September 29, 1963. Fritchman focused on the sexual practice and morality concerns and said little about homosexuality. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in Keith Wedmore Papers https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c74269f7b59588b59875b2b335ac94bf.jpg e9cd807bcb7bf8f382f7b42e068fe495 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/af6da2ec07afad3d7180fc32b22c55a3.jpg 093c9cfb1b3c4536436cc2e8715a3115 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/09742e4c4a3987d799aa635c2ea6beea.jpg 66912531eb2820ad8d7e39b28f3b1e2f https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f03a353ad52229b5722d73157bfec6ea.jpg ddc2776fb881c1587137755b746f9aa6 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/4597fffb49e6c6cc43eb560aff8b4e57.jpg 0d35458af81d8861157862e67b701859 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Christianity & Crisis, October 14, 1963 pp. 175-79 A Look at the Quaker Report: On Taking Sex Seriously by Tom F. Driver Headlines were made in England last winter by the publication of a 75-page pamphlet titled "Towards a Quaker View of Sex" (Friends Book Store, 302 Arch St., Philadelphia 4, Pa., $.75) Of all the revolutions through which nowadays we are passing, the revolution in sexual mores is one that receives the least thought. I do not mean that it gets the least attention but that the attention it gets is least informed by objective and radical thinking. The Quaker pamphlet deserves the critic's praise and the public's reading because it is one of the few recent documents written by Christians that attempts to look at sex dispassionately and at human beings compassionately. The group that prepared the statement proceeded on the honest Quaker assumption that Christian ethics must be founded primarily upon conscience, not primarily upon law sacred or secular, and they have spoken conscientiously. As a result, their conclusions are very liberal with respect to the letter of the law. A society that finds much of its sexual pleasure in breaking the received code cannot help, therefore, giving headlines to a statement by Christians that puts the ultimacy of that code in question. The pamphlet is not an official statement of the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain. It is the result of a six-year study carried out by 11 individuals, six of them elders in the Society. Their discussions began in response to problems of homosexuality "brought by young Quaker students...who came to older Friends for help and guidance." The group discovered that one type of sexual problem could not be clearly seen apart from other types: "a few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle could not be identified without the whole picture." Thus the pamphlet includes an "Introduction and Basic Assumptions" and chapters on "Normal Sexual Development," "Homosexuality" (both male and female), a call for a "New Morality" and "A Word of Counsel to Counselors." There are also appendices, a glossary and a book list. The reader looking for surprises may find them. For instance, we read the following about triangular heterosexual relations: This is too often thought of as a wholy destructive and irresponsible relationship...Not sufficient recognition can and often does not arise in which all three persons behave responsibly...It is worth noting that in the two-woman/one-man situation, the very happiness of the marriage may attract a young girl or a sensitive and responsible woman...By the same token, it could surely help a nervous youngster to call in love with a happily married woman. (p. 20) On homosexuality the group supports the recommendation of the 1957 Wolfenden Report that such acts between consenting adults is private should no longer be a criminal offense. It follows the Bishop of Woolwich in his 1962 appeal for reform of "our utterly medieval treatment of homosexuals," which called a peculiarly odious piece of English hypocrisy." The group adds: Surely it is the nature and quality of a relationship that matters: one must not judge it by its outward appearance but by its inner worth. Homosexual affectation can be as selfless as heterosexual affection, and therefore we cannot see that it is in some way morally worse." (p. 36) In its section on a needed "new morality," the group writes: Nothing that has come to light in the course of our studies has altered the conviction that came to us when we began to examine the actual experiences of people--the conviction that love cannot be confined to a pattern. The waywardness of love is part of its nature, and this is both its glory and its tragedy. If love did not tend to leap every barrier, if it could be tamed, it would not be the tremendous creative power we know it so be and want it to be. (p. 39) The utterances of the group on particular problems, such as those cited, are courageous and debatable. What interests me, however, is the basic assumption that gave rise to them. This assumption is that the cardinal ethical virtue of responsibility can be made the norm for regulating and judging sexual behavior. Sexual acts are thus to be evaluated by whether they express and encourage the responsible behavior of the whole person, negatively by whether they involve exploitation. Using this as its criterion, the group finds no reason to condemn premarital, extramarital or homosexual relations as such. Sexuality, regarded objectively, is "neither good nor evil." The Christian sees it as "a glorious gift of God," which can indeed be misused; but misuse is not synonymous with infringement of the moral code, not even when that code is called Christian and seems to have biblical sanction. "It seemed to us that morals, like the Sabbath, were made for man, not man for morals..." I am going to criticize this approach, but I would like first to say that the group's obvious concern for "what is happening to people, what they are seeking to express, what motivations and intentions they are satisfying, what fruits, good or bad, they are harvesting" is of great importance and commends their report to every person who is seeking light on sexual ethics in our time. Law and Gospel The issue for Christian ethics raised by the pamphlet is a particular case of the relation of Law and Gospel. The Friends group was right to see that in our present cultural situation it is not longer sufficient to reiterate traditional standards, not even if this is combined with a Christian compassion for the offender. For the problem is that the traditional standards are no longer felt by the society to be derived from a genuine authority. This is so not only because of the alienation of the multitudes from the Church but also because within the Church--among pastor and other counselors--there is a widespread feeling that to insist upon "pure" sexual behavior may lead to neglect of "weightier matters," may jeopardize the communications of that profounder thing, man's freedom in Christ. This feeling may not be based upon the deepest sort of insight, but it is based upon one accurate opinion: namely, that when traditional religious authority is not felt by a man to be binding upon his conscience, then it is not possible to preach to him the Law and the Gospel as the same time. Well aware of the disasters created by preaching the Law only, ministers tends to say more about the Gospel. But in the long run this has the effect of undermining the Law itself, at least in so far as the Law must be spelled out as a specific guide to conduct. The last 50 years have witnessed most churches steadily liberalizing their views on divorce, softening their condemnation of many sexual practices, particularly homosexuality, and at the same time failing to provide a new formulation of the Law as it pertains to sex. No area of life is so neglected by specialists in Christian ethics as is sex. In no field have we done less to re-examine our basic assumptions, "Bible in one hand and newspaper on the other." The Quaker group calls for a "new morality" of sex. It affirms that "there must be a morality of some sort to govern sexual relations." It insists very cogently upon the social character of even the most private sexual acts. But it says nothing that might lead directly to the enunciation of the "new morality" for which it calls. The call had to be made, however, and I want now to add to it a few considerations that ought to be taken into account by Christian ethicists when they consider, as they must, the problem of sexual morality anew. The aim of the Quaker group is to pass beyond an insistence upon conformity to a code by urging that sexual relations, conformist or not, be brought into line with authentic selfhood. This is of course commendable, especially when so many people treat sex as a commodity. But I am convinced that it is insufficient and even highly misleading. It is at once too idealistic and too somber to fit the facts. An Impersonal Force Sex is a force that streams impersonally through nature. If we ask that this force be an expression of love, we must be aware of the several reality that are signified by this one English word. Love is not only responsibility and agape. It is also eros, which means desire. Sexual desire is not only desire of the "other" for the various kinds of beauty and good he, she or it may possess. It is also desire for self-gratification. The great power of sexual desire comes from the fact that it combines desire for the other with desire to gratify the self. If we are not speaking of this Janus-force we are not speaking of sex but of other things that are deemed good in association with it. No sexual ethic, including a Christian one, can be valid if it does not recognize the sex-force as a power in its own right and in both its other-directed and self-directed aspects. Whatever we say of the Church's time-honored view that marriage is a license for outlet of sexual passion (and the Quakers' report is adamant against it), at least it had the virtue of realism in regarding the sex-force as a given and not fully tamable fact of human nature. It is a mistake to assume that sex can be entirely personalized or, as a new book by a Protestant tells us, that is "is inseparable from the realization of one's humanity."* Sex is not essentially human, it is not inseparable from the human in us, and it cannot be fully humanized. It can be personified, as Aphrodite or Brigitte Bardot (I prefer Aphrodite), but these personifications have imaginative power because they represent as personal that which overrides personality. Did we not laugh when Thurber and White asked us, "Is sex necessary?" It is, indeed, from sexual humor that Christians have at present most to learn. We should distrust any pronouncement about sex, including the Quakers' report, that does not allow for the humorous side of the subject. Volumes of ostensibly Christian literature may in this way be swept from the shelves, with good riddance. Misplaced seriousness has wreaked more havoc on modern sexuality than all the films of Hollywood, most of which are themselves soddenly lugubrious as a "concession" to the pious. A return of ribaldry, now virtually absent from Broadway and Hollywood, would do much to clear the air. Laughter at sex is about the only way to put sex in its place, to assert one's humanity over against that impersonal, irrational, yet necessary force that turns even the best of men into caricatures of themselves. Not only "sinful" sex does this: lawful sex, safely within the limits of marriage and love, does it too, as everybody knows; and he who does not laugh about it must be humiliated by it. To be sure, there are various kinds of laughter. I hold no brief for snickering. Quite the opposite. A snicker is the unhappy result of a healthy impulse to laughter being partially suppressed by an unhealthy sense that laughter is forbidden. Also the giggle, which comes from embarrassment. What I proclaim is the Christian freedom to treat an impersonal aspect of creation lightly. What I deplore that that almost every book and article written on sex by a Christian leaves one with the feeling that sex must be a serious business. What has happened to our common sense? The Adolescent and the Disturbed Part of the answer may lie in the negative attitudes St. Paul seems to have had, part in the Church's long-held view that flesh belongs to sin. But I believe there is a simpler explanation closer to hand, especially as regards recent writing. It is that writers on sexual behavior tend to have in mind the needs of adolescents and other persons who are disturbed about their sex life. Laughter at sex comes naturally to the blessed, by which I mean young children and grown-up people, but not to the adolescent and the disturbed. To children the human body is neither a temple nor a prison; it is just odd, like the frog in the garden. The girl child's laughter at male physiognomy is no rejection of the body but simply a subordination of it to common sense. And her mother, if she has left adolescence behind her, will find the subject even funnier because she knows the sex act and all its disproportions. (Males usually do not find as much to laugh at; proud man does not like humor to cut him down to size.) In the whirlwinds of puberty the body becomes a serious matter. Loss of chastity looms up, longed for and feared, and even after that happens there is a long road to travel before those many adjustments are made that allow the sex life both to flower and to be separated from the centers of anxiety. While this is going on, laughter seems too cheap for sex--though by an assumed toughness the adolescent can invert his natural feelings. A special problem is therefore posed as to how one discusses sex with the adolescent and the disturbed. Telling a homosexual who is a potential suicide that his situation is comic is obviously not going to help him. That doesn't change the fact that this is actually what he most needs to know. Had Oscar Wilde considered his own emotions to be as humorous as he considered other things, he would not have gotten into all that trouble. Of course we wanted trouble; and the law, being as serious as he, obliged him. If Wilde lost his sense of humor at this point, at least one old lady maintained hers. Asked what she thought, she replied: "I don't care what they do, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses." What we say to the adolescent and the disturbed is a pastoral question or, if you like, a question of therapeutic strategy. (Adolescence is a disease: if one is cured of it, he becomes immune.) The strategy will often be decided, as the Army says, "by the situation and the terrain." But this particular question is to be separated sharply from the problem of framing a basic Christian sexual ethic. The psychology of the adolescent and the disturbed cannot be normative. The adolescent is endemically romantic: he idealizes sex, sometimes inverting this idealism into scorn and fear. But Christianity should no more idealize sex than it should scorn or fear it. It sees sex as a fact of created nature. This natural force can no more be made fully "human" than can mountain goats or ocean currents. Like them it can, if accepted, be used by man for his own good within a life of faithfulness and praise. Only, however, if the mystique of sex, a holdover from paganism, is blanched away. For the idealization of sex is merely once face of the coin that shows on its other side the disparagement of sex. Among the topics in the Quakers' report that could be improved with the leaven of humor is homosexuality. Society regards homosexuality between consenting adults as a crime. Opposing this, the Quaker group sees it as tragedy or potentially as a serious and responsible sexual relation. Now a crime is certainly should not be. I would not deny that it can be a serious and responsible relation. But the matter cannot be left there, as the report leaves it. Let us go on to say that homosexuality is odd. All sex is odd, but homo-sex is odder than most. And funnier. The homosexual doesn't know what he's missing. Bigger joke: for emotional reasons, he can't know. The guy is trapped. The question now is: are we to take this trap as fate (bad), or destiny (potentially good) or as a devil of a predicament from which there might be a way out? The minute we opt for fate and/or destiny we play acolyte to the bogus rituals that surround homosexuality. There is a whole literature and psychology built on this, and it's just plain cockeyed. Psychiatry, as it sheds its doctrinaire determinism, is waking up to this fact. Since we are not to idealize heterosexuality, neither are we to acquiesce in the idealization of homosexuality. The first step to health is to remove from it the aura of forbidden (therefore exalted) mystery. And I submit that homosexuality brought fully into the light of day and stripped of its exotic defenses will appeal to only a fraction of the people now swept along by it. I do not mean to say that the ethical dilemmas of sex can be overcome by purely social and psychological means. Whatever we do to dispel by laughter and common sense the mystique of sex, whatever we do to make the statutes of the land more wise, there will always remain an area in which one's moral response is decisive and in which codification is necessary. But the area of decision-making will remain obscure as long as the laws and the prevalent attitudes of society are out of touch with human nature. Let us not try fully to humanize, let alone to sanctify, sex; but let us assert a human transcendence over it. Such a plea does not add up to a Christian ethic of sex. It only asks that specialists in ethics deal with sex at the thing it is and not as the bearer or either our salvation or our damnation. The Quakers did not make that mistake, but they were so serious in their approach that they come close. Sex is necessary, but it is not a necessity. _______________________________ *Roger Mehl, reviewing in Le Monde (May 29, 1963) Amour et Sexualite by Robert Grimm (Delachaux et Niestle: Neuchatel and Paris, 1962). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tom Driver review in Christianity & Crisis Description An account of the resource Tom F. Driver, instructor at Union Theological Seminary in New York (later long-time Paul Tillich Professor of Theology &amp; Culture there) published this somewhat whimsical review in the weekly journal <em>Christianity &amp; Crisis</em>. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <em>Christianity &amp; Crisis</em>, October 14, 1963. pp. 175-79. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/11d321a3449ab8dc2d03b6d78637fe2c.pdf c4e433cceb35bd00960685173eedf531 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/88c0766174431d74c8d044a477153461.pdf d0dc7fcb2726c21f51f9619e83bc0c24 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/24e62acf09b6e8c34db924da1f755f9d.pdf 498aa8d88df91edc0b415c4694676ee9 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a2fd5e983cfdbc58fe5459af7efad2c4.pdf 7b673bc816f9701e2d264b27a53a407e Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mattachine Review Reprint 1963 Description An account of the resource <em>Mattachine Review</em>, published by the San Francisco chapter of the Mattachine Society, reprinted most of the report over four issues--April through July 1963. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco, California https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9ec639574b6578853b33b4c75122c4d9.pdf b2938418df1413d185231ceba522d4f0 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Lancet March 2, 1963 The Quaker Pamphlet It is now commonplace that Western civilisation is almost destitute of generally accepted "values". The march of the sciences (occupied exclusively with the objective and demonstrable kinds of truth, doubtful of the existence of other kinds, and largely unconcerned with the consequences of their own discoveries), the shock of two devastating wars, and perhaps the passage of time have exploded or shaken down the accepted and established values of what could, at the turn of the century, still be called Christendom. The young must somehow find their way in a desert strewn with ruined shrines. In no province of life is their dilemma more obvious than in sexual relations and behaviour. The conventions and rules of conduct which did partly govern and determine sexual behaviour fifty years ago have crumbled with special thoroughness, because they were, in fact, little more than conventions floating in air without logical foundation in reason or belief. To set them up again is neither possible nor desirable. Yet anarchy will no do; and condemnations, taboos and lack of sympathy and of understand have been and are responsible for a vast amount of suffering and missed happiness, There is urgent need for enlightenment and reform both of public opinion and the law. All who are concerned about these things will welcome an informative and stimulating pamphlet by a group of Quakers who have been working on the subject individually and together for the past five years. The group's eleven members include men and women with experience in teaching, penology, marriage guidance, psychiatry, biology, psychology, and the law; three are medically qualified, and six are Elders in the Society of Friends. Their starting-point was the problem of helping and advising young Quaker students "faced with homosexual difficulties", but they soon found themselves compelled to explore and consider the whole subject of sexual relations and practices, homosexual and heterosexual, within marriage and without, in both sexes and with animals. The contents of the pamphlet correspond with its title, Towards a Quaker View of Sex. The many intricate problems raised are fairly stated, and when, as often, there are two sides, they are both presented. Conclusions are seldom dogmatic and often tentative, but on some fundamental points the group feels sure of its collective opinion. "We shall have reason to say that sexuality, looked at dispassionately, it neither good nor evil--it is a fact of nature, But looking at it as Christians we have felt impelled to state without reservation that it is a glorious gift of God." They "reject almost completely the traditional approach of the organised Christian church to morality with its supposition that it know precisely what is right and what is wrong." They make it clear that in their view the words "natural" and "unnatural" have no--or next to no--meaning when applied to sexual performances. Masturbation, homosexual practices, and even a kind of transvestism occur among animals as among men. They are empathetic that public opinion--and laws reflecting it--concern themselves too much with acts, too little with circumstances and motivation. They cannot condemn homosexuality or the acts springing from it as such. "Homosexual affection can be as selfless as heterosexual affection and therefore we cannot see that it is in some way morally worse." "At the same time members of this group have been depressed quite as much by the utter abandon of many homosexuals...as by the absurdity of the condemnation rained down upon the well behaved." They cannot agree that the words "I love you" should be spoken only when a permanent union in marriage is desired and is possible, and they have no dogmatic pronouncement to make about coitus before marriage. The group is at once well and widely informed, convinced about spiritual values, clear-headed, warm-hearted, not lacking humour, and candid to an unusual degree. To anyone concerned to promote humane and orderly thinking on this very difficult subject, or, it may be, to get their own thoughts clear, the pamphlet can be very strongly recommended. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lancet Review March 2, 1963 Description An account of the resource The report received exposure in the international medical community through this sympathetic review in the British journal, <em>The Lancet</em>, on 2 March 1963. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in the HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friend House, London https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/215b693082243ae3e3be120f0617af08.jpg 4a30ca6640507014a64894ade78ec61a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). URL http://www.delery-edwards.com/#!books/cnec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Up Stairs Lounge Arson by Clayton Delery-Edwards Description An account of the resource Native Louisianan Clayton Delery-Edwards brings together his decades-long research into the tragedy into this new book. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived McFarland Books