Letters - 20 October 2017
From the Quaker way to charitable status
The Quaker way
I enjoyed the piece by Harvey Gillman in the Quaker Week edition of the Friend (29 September) and took courage and strength from it. His writing in this article and in so many of his pieces speak to my condition perfectly.
For me Quakerism is an unquantifiable approach and an indescribable way of life more than it is a philosophy, or even a religion, but long-ingrained habits often pressure me to find words to describe that condition and, for me, no one speaks more clearly than Harvey.
All of the contributions on Quaker life, not least the editorial, are magnificent. My cup runneth over – for which many thanks.
Padraic Murray
Animal cruelty
I feel very sad after reading the letter by Edmund Dunstan (8 September). Calves and chicks are God’s creations. They may or may not be intended for human use. The reason why most of them would not exist without humans’ wish to use them is that they are no longer ‘natural’, in the same way that dogs are no longer wolves.
For centuries we have enslaved them to satisfy our needs. Their self-interest and wellbeing are largely ignored. They have now evolved into helpless, dependent, miserable creatures entirely for our pleasure. It is all our doing.
We often treat the calves and chicks indecently, and always have done. Rather than insulting them by saying that they should exist for human use or not at all, we should be ashamed and apologise to them.
Wan-Hing Tonothy
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.