Innovation and testimony

Joy Belle Conrad-Rice considers whether buying innovative things is Quakerly or not

To what extent is taking advantage of innovations adding to… our goals of living within our modern meaning of the old term ‘simplicity’? | Photo: Photo: DeclanTM / flickr CC.

Recently, while reading Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury, I learned of the conflicts with the testimonies that were endured by early Quaker family producers of chocolate. Sometimes an outcome was in accordance with the testimonies of Friends, sometimes not, especially as younger generations took over these companies, as world war intervened and changed the stakes, global manufacturing and distribution changed perspectives, and complex financial dealings made quick profits uppermost in the minds of stockholders and stockbrokers.

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