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Malcolm Bell grew up in Brooklyn, served in the U.S. Army, and practiced law in Manhattan before the state and federal courts of New York. He wrote The Turkey Shoot: Tracking the Attica Cover-up (Grove Press 1985), reissued as The Attica Turkey Shoot: Carnage, Cover-up and the Pursuit of Justice, (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017, paperback 2022), which tells of being a New York State prosecutor who was assigned to indict police for the murders and other violent felonies they committed during the 1971 Attica prison riot, then was blocked from finishing the job. He resigned in protest and took the cover-up public in the New York Times, leading to revelations that high State officials had sought to suppress and to more justice than they found convenient.While becoming a confirmed Episcopalian at age thirteen, he began to question traditional Christian doctrines. His spiritual journey took himfrom the Episcopal Church to a United Church of Christ, where he taught junior and senior high Sunday school, to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where he found his spiritual home. In the 1980s, he became active in the Sanctuary Movement and, as a matter of conscience, broke the law to stand with illegal refugees fleeing the state-led, U.S.-backed terror in Guatemala and El Salvador. He wrote about the Guatemalan civil war in his novel, Roses in the Night. He has long engaged in spiritual discussions in groups where he or he and his wife Nancy were the only Quakers. For the past forty years, he has jotted down his spiritual thoughts; they comprise this book.
Malcolm's observations are thoughtful and well informed, challenging both stifling orthodoxy and the bogus argumentation of those who use the very science which Malcolm sees as revealing Divine methodology to promote 'randomality'. Perhaps, only a Quaker bound by no orthodoxy and an attorney schooled in open mindedness could have penned these observations -Phil Megna Malcolm Bell, having absorbed the teaching of his childhood's church, has spent much of his adult life trying to align those teachings with truths he has gleaned from science and his own experience. As a Quaker, he accepts the idea that Truth gained from meditation and personal seeking is to be trusted and followed. His book invites its readers into their own personal seeking after Truth. -Mary Eagleson With a wry sense of humor, Quaker philosopher and theologian Malcolm Bell has created an entirely fresh daybook for the reader to savor and enjoy. Like a companionable pair of really good, broken-in garden gloves, daybooks are a special part of the contemplative life and like others of this genre, Bell's Overdue Heresies is meant to be used. Grab a handful of bookmarks and a sharp pencil before you start to read as you will find yourself wanting to go back again and again to thoughtfully provoking reflections. Go ahead and scribble in the margins your own responses to the quandaries and moral dilemmas the author has placed in your lap. If you're like me, you'll want to put Bell's book on your breakfast table where you can read a paragraph each day with your first cuppa. Bell's writing style is clear and concise. His logic honed to a keen edge that delights as it lays bare fresh approaches to complex issues confronting contemporary society. -Len Cadwallader, former Presiding Clerk of Hanover (NH) Friends Meeting Overdue Heresies presents Malcolm Bell's clear-headed insights, humble humanity, and deep love for God behind all his questions in a way that rings true for this moment in time. As more and more of us abandon institutional religion for more liberating spiritualities, I find Bell provides gravitas and grace to our quest. -The Rev. Dr. James Lumsden, Spiritual Director This is an interesting and thought-provoking book by an older American who looks back on his years of religion and practice, and raises questions at variance with some of today's religions. His insight and willingness to examine alternative views is refreshing. Mr. Bell, a well-educated and widely read individual, reviews a number of tenets of modern religions, and tries to bring religious teachings into line with modern science and observations. He is a deeply religious and spiritual individual who became a Quaker after a more traditional Christian upbringing. The author begins by contrasting the Big Bang theory with the teachings of Genesis in the Bible. Can evolution be completely explained by a chance combination of circumstances for elements to form on Earth, gradually, or was the hand of a Creator involved? Many issues reviewed in the book will cause readers to pause and reflect on whatever form religion may have taken in their own lives, and reach conclusions at variance with accepted lessons from the Bible, Scripture, and religious leaders. I recommend the book to those who seek new perspectives on their own beliefs. -Peter Areson, M.D. Malcolm Bell has been a careful and conscientious custodian of his long spiritual life and growth. In Overdue Heresies he offers the reader his clear-minded synthesis with numerous examples drawn not only from his own life, but also from the collective and individual lives he's observed during his spiritual journey, activist engagement, and wide reading. I read it slowly to allow for contemplation in the Quaker way of Minding the Light. -Carl Buffum
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