Towards a Quaker View of Sex - 50 years old.

[afleitch]

It's been 50 years since the publication of the seminal (I make joke!) work Towards a Quaker View of Sex probably one of the most progressive pieces of thinking of it's age which in true Quaker style quietly and unobtrusively shifted 500,000 copies.

'Homosexual affection may of course be an emotion which some find aesthetically disgusting, but one cannot base Christian morality on a capacity for disgust. Neither are we happy with the thought that all homosexual behaviour is sinful: motive and circumstances degrade or ennoble any act, and we feel that to list sexual acts as sins is to follow the letter rather than the spirit, to kill rather than to give life.Further we see no reason why the physical nature of a sexual act should be the criterion by which the question whether or not it is moral should be decided. An act which expresses true affection between two individuals and gives pleasure to them both, does not seem to us to be sinful by reason alone of the fact that it is homosexual.'

The edict, which I hope you will take time to read, is still far too open minded and reasonable for some minds to digest which is all the shame as it discusses relationships which, in 1963 were not as public as they are today.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Yeah.  The Quakers have always been a rather progressive denomination, if my history is correct, especially for their earlier days.  Good excerpt.

[TDAS04]

The Quakers have long been ahead of their time.