The Postmodern Quaker

An experiment in publishing by George Amoss Jr.

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Memoirs

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (12) — Postscript: Becoming an A-theistic Quaker

The memoir concludes with an adaptation of a piece published twenty years ago in the inaugural issue of the journal Quaker Theology.

April 28, 2019 in Christianity, Memoirs, Quaker worship, Quakerism, Zen.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (11) — The Draft, Part 4: Decision

An escape hatch is opened. Can I, in good conscience, climb through it?

April 14, 2019 in Memoirs, Peace, Quakerism.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (10) — The Draft, Part 3: Watching and Waiting

The draft board holds a hearing but doesn’t listen, lays a snare that fails, and then goes silent while the FBI investigates me. While marking time, I embark on psychedelic adventures.

April 7, 2019 in Memoirs, Peace, Personal reflections.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (8) — The Draft, Part 2: Conscience and Conflict

I notify the draft board of my conscientious objection to war; the board refuses to recognize it. I quit school, leave home, and wait for the government’s ax to fall.

March 24, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Peace, Quakerism.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (6 & 7) — The Church, Part 4: Taking Flight | The Draft, Part 1: The Question of War

Two brief, closely-related sections. As I am slowly separating myself from Catholic piety, the necessity for a moral decision about war leads me ultimately to reject the Church and embrace pacifism.

March 17, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Peace, Personal reflections.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (5) — The Church, Part 3: Seminary Again

Further vocational misadventures, including being ordered to watch an old horror film rather than study for a crucial midterm.

March 10, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (4) — Sidebar 1: The Absurdity of Catholic Morality

“The house of cards that is the Catholic moral system was my childhood home”: a critical look, with autobiographical anecdotes, at the unsound and abusive nature of basic Catholic morality.

March 3, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Quakerism.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (3) — The Church, Part 2: “The Habit Covers a Multitude of Sins”

“Moral theology admits that the habit of sin, considered in itself, may be and often is completely sinless.” Seriously.

February 24, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Personal reflections.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (2) — The Church, Part 1: The Call

Installment #2, in which, after being saved unawares from sexual abuse, I begin high school in a seminary far from home.

February 17, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Personal reflections.

The Church, the Draft Board, and Me (1) — Introduction

A sketch of my evolution, despite encounters with predatory priests and a vindictive draft board, from youthful candidate for the Catholic priesthood to adult a-theistic Quaker who still asserts that “God is love.”

February 10, 2019 in Catholicism, Memoirs, Peace, Personal reflections, Quakerism.

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