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Bill Durland

Articles

Martyrs for Conscience’s Sake “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” These words were written by Lord Acton in 1887. Throughout the ages, we have seen this: When autocrats exercise power corruptly, heroic persons stand up to challenge them. This essay is a brief history of just a few of the countless individuals who have spoken truth to power over the past 2500 years and who sacrificed their lives for it. Let us not forget them.

Issue: On Loss (May 2023)

Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration The following article was excerpted from the text of a presentation that Bill Durland made to the Colorado Regional Society of Friends, April 23, 2017. To read the full text of this presentation, see: westernfriend.org/media/resistance-resilience-and-restoration-unabridged.

Issue: On Politics (July 2017)

The Essential Elias Hicks Many books use the title, “The Essential So-and-So,” and here’s another. This book depicts a Quaker who proved himself essential. However, reading Elias Hicks is not “more essential” than reading, say, Fox, Penn, Mott, Dyer, or Woolman. So at the beginning of this review, I would like to suggest that Inner Light Books and Charles Martin, Publisher, consider producing more of the same, more books of this caliber that are “Essential.”

Issue: On Limits (May 2016)

Of Quakers and Corporations George Fox and the early Quakers made their witnesses to authentic and original Christianity public by their testimonies. The English word, testimony, derives from the Latin word for “witness,” which is primarily an outward expression “to the whole world … actions and words, intended to proclaim, demonstrate and convince” (from The Quaker Peace Testimony, Friends House, London, 1993).

Issue: On Superiority (July 2013)

Archive Articles

Library items

Cicero, the Fall of Rome, and American Democracy

Authored by: Bill Durland

WF Podcast Twenty-Two – Martyrs for the Truth

Authored by: Bill Durland, Jonathan Stoll, colin cole

Theocracy in the USA

Authored by: Bill Durland

Does Membership Matter? (conversation notes)

Authored by: Mary Klein, michael burnside, Bill Durland, Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting

Resistance, Resilience and Restoration (Unabridged)

Authored by: Bill Durland

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