[jdeibele]

The Friends are more popularly known as Quakers. My wife is one. We were married almost 20 years ago in a Quaker ceremony.

There's a lot to like about their approach to things but consensus is difficult to deal with. Unreasonable people cause great stress on people who are trying to get simple things done.

There are different flavors of Quakers: my wife attends an "unprogrammed meeting" which means that there's not a minister. Instead, members sit in a circle (pre-COVID) and those who are moved to speak do so. But there's also programmed meetings, which have a minister. There's probably more variations.

Around the time the US was founded the Quakers were seen as good people to do business with, since they strove for honesty and transparency in business. There were many prosperous Quaker merchants. These days they seem to be more anti-capitalist.