William John Grassie (born May 3, 1957) is an American activist for numerous causes, including nonviolence and a freeze on nuclear weapons,[1] reform of science education,[2] and greater dialogue between science and religion.[3] He is the executive director of Metanexus Institute, an organization which worked closely with the John Templeton Foundation to promote "dialogue and interactive syntheses between religion and the sciences internationally".[3]
Grassie was arrested in several non-violent civil disobedience actions and was a symbolic war tax resister.[6] Grassie and David Falls, another employee of the Religious Society of Friends, a Quaker organization, refused to pay federal taxes on the grounds that it would support nuclear war, but a judge ruled, in a civil suit by the Internal Revenue Service in 1990, that the church was obliged to enforce levies against the salaries of the two employees. A statement by the Friends Quaker religious organization said, "They.... are not tax evaders, but deeply religious and conscientiously motivated individuals who feel they cannot pay the military portion of their taxes without violating the central tenets of their religious faith."[7]
In 1987 and 1988, Grassie worked as a community organizer in southwest Germantown, Philadelphia, and organized the "Three Hundred Anniversary Celebration of the Germantown Protest Against Slavery" in commemoration of the first European protest against slavery in the New World (1688).[8] The project was designed as a community development initiative and helped to catalyze a community revitalization project now known as "Freedom Square".[9]
Academia
Grassie earned a Ph.D. in comparative religion from Temple University in 1994 and was an assistant professor in its "Intellectual Heritage Program".[3]
The Philadelphia Center for Religions and Science was founded in 1998.It changed its name in 2000 to the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science to reflect its international reach. In 2011, the organization shortened its name to simply Metanexus Institute and is now based in New York City. The organization originally promoted dialog between religion and science, but now "promotes scientifically rigorous and philosophically open-ended explorations of foundational questions" through engagement with Big History.
^ abWilliam Robbins (June 9, 1982). "KROL ASSESSES POSITION IN DISARMAMENT MOVEMENT". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2013. William Grassie ... a Philadelphia Quaker .. a director of the Pennsylvania Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze...
^Tom Infield (March 26, 1982). "A New Breed is Battling Arms Race". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
^William Robbins (June 12, 1982). "A cardinal's campaign for disarmament". The Windsor Star. Retrieved March 21, 2013. - Jane Eisner (September 23, 1982). "A Drive for Support of the Nuclear Freeze". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
^Jim Smith (December 21, 1990). "Quakers Lose Suit On Taxes". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on December 30, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2013. ... The ruling stemmed from two civil cases filed in 1988 by the IRS against the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the area's 13,000-member Quaker organization.
^Rich Henson (April 24, 1988). "Germantown Parades for Justice". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
^Jan Gehorsan (March 15, 1998). "Ill-Fated Anti-Slavery Document Focus of Week's Activities". Associated Press. Retrieved August 27, 2013. "You could call it a failure," since slavery continued for nearly two more centuries, said the event's coordinator, William Grassie.
