Monday, August 30, 2021
Through the production of Beginner's Guide to Quakerism, I have become more involved in the general picture of Quakerism. I, as founder and clerk of Cloud Quakers, am already familiar with general issues in the Quaker world. But actually printing a pamphlet for beginners puts a new light on the problems and issues, and makes me more aware of the feelings of people on the edge of the liberal Quaker world.
Frankly, the people who are most alienated these days are the traditional Christians and traditional Christian mystics, who find that mentioning Christ, or even God, is sometimes controversial in their meetings, since people have varying interpretations of each's role in what they do and how they practice Quakerism. I think it's fair to say that what people object to about God is the society-imposed image of judgmental patriarch - if one were to define God as the Eternal, or the Great Spirit, or something similar, one might get a different reaction to what is basically the same force in our lives. But an increasing number of modern Quakers reject Christ altogether, and many reject God altogether, simply not willing to accept the traditional understanding or a variation of it as it has come down through the culture. And they maintain that they believe in all other aspects of Quakerism to the degree that they find Quakerism their spiritual home. What is to be done about this? I don't know, but I am not one to boot someone out of a meeting because their interpretation of the universe is different from mine. So I start from the perspective that, partially because we are small in number already, actually having a split over this might doom us altogether.
So it happens that I am on the cusp of this situation where I am helping to define modern Quakerism in a very rapidly changing environment. I say "rapidly" because in Quaker terms, a sea change really can happen in maybe twenty or thirty years, but that's still rapid in the big picture. In my lifetime, surely. It may be worth a book, as I think a friend of mine, a well-known Quaker author, might say. I have put my musings on how to print it on the Cloud Quaker blog, and of course I'm open to comment if you're so inclined. I am inclined to take some leadership in this general discussion, because I see the survival of Quakerism as being partially dependent on a mutual agreement of terms to use when discussing it. If some people will settle for no less than God and Jesus, the rest of modern Quakerism may have to find a way to at least talk about it without stepping on each other's toes. The world is actually big enough that we ought to be able to find safe places to worship with people who have similar world views. It's not worth actually having an argument about what words to use, and how they trigger people's memories of being mistreated in one or the other's name. But the fact remains that the damage done by mainstream Christianity, to mischaracterize the divine forces in our lives, will not go away as the rest of us struggle to find a religious base that is comfortable enough for us to develop a relationship. And I mean a relationship with the divine, not just a relationship with each other.
Frankly, the people who are most alienated these days are the traditional Christians and traditional Christian mystics, who find that mentioning Christ, or even God, is sometimes controversial in their meetings, since people have varying interpretations of each's role in what they do and how they practice Quakerism. I think it's fair to say that what people object to about God is the society-imposed image of judgmental patriarch - if one were to define God as the Eternal, or the Great Spirit, or something similar, one might get a different reaction to what is basically the same force in our lives. But an increasing number of modern Quakers reject Christ altogether, and many reject God altogether, simply not willing to accept the traditional understanding or a variation of it as it has come down through the culture. And they maintain that they believe in all other aspects of Quakerism to the degree that they find Quakerism their spiritual home. What is to be done about this? I don't know, but I am not one to boot someone out of a meeting because their interpretation of the universe is different from mine. So I start from the perspective that, partially because we are small in number already, actually having a split over this might doom us altogether.
So it happens that I am on the cusp of this situation where I am helping to define modern Quakerism in a very rapidly changing environment. I say "rapidly" because in Quaker terms, a sea change really can happen in maybe twenty or thirty years, but that's still rapid in the big picture. In my lifetime, surely. It may be worth a book, as I think a friend of mine, a well-known Quaker author, might say. I have put my musings on how to print it on the Cloud Quaker blog, and of course I'm open to comment if you're so inclined. I am inclined to take some leadership in this general discussion, because I see the survival of Quakerism as being partially dependent on a mutual agreement of terms to use when discussing it. If some people will settle for no less than God and Jesus, the rest of modern Quakerism may have to find a way to at least talk about it without stepping on each other's toes. The world is actually big enough that we ought to be able to find safe places to worship with people who have similar world views. It's not worth actually having an argument about what words to use, and how they trigger people's memories of being mistreated in one or the other's name. But the fact remains that the damage done by mainstream Christianity, to mischaracterize the divine forces in our lives, will not go away as the rest of us struggle to find a religious base that is comfortable enough for us to develop a relationship. And I mean a relationship with the divine, not just a relationship with each other.
