Quakers have been asking some very hard questions about their testimony to peace and their forms of pacifism following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They are hard because there are no simple right answers.
Quaker Ranter
A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley
Tag Archives ⇒ quakers
Truth and integrity retreat
February 14, 2023
My weekend online retreat went well, I think, at least many of the 15 participants said they appreciated it. It’s the first multi-day event I’ve led in awhile and as I wrote here earlier, I felt strongly led to plan a flexible, Spirit-led event. It was a bit terrifying to be working so from-the-seat-of-my-pants, but it was a great group of people, who could maintain the pacing on their own. There was a lot of very deep sharing (I set confidentiality as a value early on) and we let people share for longer or share something different than asked if they felt it important. There were a few moments when it felt like a long statement might be bringing in too much centrifugal force but it pulled back and we were the richer for it. The hardest time for me was around 4pm Saturday but that’s such a hard time to be alert.
The two-day, three-part retreat was part of Windy Cooler’s “Testimonies to Mercy” series, co-sponsored by New York’s Powell House and Ben Lomond Center. Some random phrases and ideas:
- Integrity=Love, Integrity=Faithfulness, Integrity=Presence.
- Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy: the much-quoted adage, attributed to Warren W. Wiersbe on sketchy quote websites.
- Disciples are followers who aren’t motivated by punishment.
- The image that truth can chase us.
One of the more surprising moments was when I brought in Hugh Barbour’s Five Tests for Discernment. Participants had been talking about the meaning of Truth — Is there only one? Are there many? How do we know to continue when others disagree? — and I thought Barbour’s list would be an easy one to lean on. He developed it in the early sixties as findings for research for his 1964 book, The Quakers in Puritan England and I remembered it as a revelation when I first came across it probably twenty years ago. But the insistence on “moral purity” and “inward unity” didn’t sit well with a group with members that have sometimes had to buck Quaker cultural mores and institutional inertia to follow a leading. We started brainstorming different tests we’ve developed more experientially. I’d love to tease these ideas out more someday.
Quakers on Mastodon
November 25, 2022
Every day brings more news of existential trouble at Twitter. It’s new overlord is openly engaging with White supremacists and talking garbage about the service’s algorithm had long had a liberal bias (spoiler: not true). Banned accounts are being reinstated and there’s a list circulating in rightwing circles of left-leaning accounts they’re trying to get banned.
In all this I’ve been switching over to Mastodon, a decentralized network whose structure isolates it from the kind of takeover and consolidation we’re seeing at Twitter. My account there is writing.exchange/@martin. There are dozens of beginner’s guides available if you’re thinking of making the switch. If you’re looking for Quakers on the service, you can check out my following/followers list, which is chock full of them (probably about 2/3rds of my list are Quaker or Quaker-adjacent). Once you set up you should post an introductory post with hashtagged interests. I follow the quaker and quakers hashtag and will spot you right away. There is a Quakers group as well. Friends Journal also has a new account there, at mastodon.lol/@friendsjournal.
Other places to get your online Quaker fix include the Quakers subreddit and a very chatty Discord server (follow the link from the subreddit for an invite). Two other services getting buzz are Post (where I’m on the waiting list) and Hive (where I have a placeholder account at @martinkelley).
Ask Me Anything: How easy is it to become a Quaker?
April 25, 2018
I have an Ask Me Anything request from reader Ruby M:
Hello! I’m studying The Friends Church for academic purposes and I’d love to hear from someone with firsthand experience. How easy is it to become a quaker? Do you ever feel people treat you differently because you’re a quaker? Do you think there should be more representation of quakers in the media? Thank you so much for your time. I’m very eager to hear back from you!
Since my experience is just one data point, I hope others will use the comment section below to add their stories.
I found becoming a Quaker to be something of a spiral process. I first walked into a Friends meetinghouse at the age of 20 and only slowly took on an identity as a Friend. At each step of the process, I learned more clearly what that might mean and have strived to grow into deeper faithfulness. I didn’t formally apply for membership until a decade or so after I became a regular attender. This time lag is not unheard of but I don’t think it’s usual. It’s more of an insight into my own carefulness and reticence about joining things than it is an indication of anything the meetings I attended required. When I did finally apply for membership I was quite qualified and wanted the clearness process to be exacting: again, this is an insight into my psyche!
Most people on the street don’t quite know what Quakers are so I can’t say I’m always treated differently. I guess seeing more Quakers in the media would be helpful, though given our overall small numbers I suspect even our fleeting appearances in TV shows and movies are more than we might proportionally expect.
I’m interested to hear how other Friends would answer Ruby’s question.
Update: reader answers by email and commentary
Jessica F: I’ve wanted to be a Quaker since I learned about the Abolitionists who helped with the Underground Railroad and prison reform. Unfortunately, the movie Gentle Persuasion presented Quakers as being against music so I became a Unitarian instead. Eventually I learned that wasn’t true for many Quakers and I found that all of the values I had developed through the years were also Quaker values and so becoming a Quaker gave me a support system and a community of like minds.
Pareto opportunities for Friends?
June 10, 2015
Nate Silver recently ran a piece on Marco Rubio’s presidential chances has used the previously-unknown-to-me concept of the “Pareto frontier” to line up potential candidates:
In economics, there’s a concept known as Pareto efficiency. It means that you ought to be able to eliminate any choice if another one dominates it along every dimension. The remaining choices sit along what’s called the Pareto frontier.
Silver then followed up with a real world example that speaks to my interest in food:
Imagine that in addition to White Castle and The French Laundry, there are two Italian restaurants in your neighborhood. One is the chain restaurant Olive Garden. You actually like Olive Garden perfectly well. But down the block is a local red-sauce joint called Giovanni’s. The food is a little better there than at Olive Garden (although not as good as at The French Laundry), and it’s a little cheaper than Olive Garden (although not as cheap as White Castle). So you can eliminate Olive Garden from your repertoire; it’s dominated along both dimensions by Giovanni’s.
These days we choose more than our dinner destinations. Spirituality has become a marketplace. While there have always been converts, it feels as if the pace of religious lane-changing has steadily quickened in recent times. Many people are choosing their religious affiliation rather than sticking with the faith traditions of their parents. For Quakers, this has been a net positive, as many of our meetinghouses are full of “convinced” Friends who came in to our religious society as adults.
Quakers are somewhat unique in our market potential. I would argue that we fall on two spots of the religious “pareto curve”:
- The first is a kind of mass-market entry point for the “spiritual but not religious” set that wants to dip its toe into an organized religion that’s neither very organized nor religious. Liberal Friends don’t have ministers or creeds, we don’t feel or sound too churchy, and we’re not particularly concerned about what new seekers believe. It’s a perfect fit for do-it-yourself seekers that are looking for non-judgmental spiritually-minded progressives.
- Our second pareto frontier beachhead is more grad-school level: we’re a good spot for people who have a strong religious convictions but seek a community with less restrictions. They’ve memorized whole sections of the Bible and might have theological training. They’re burned out by judgmentalism and spirit-less routine and are seeking out a more authentic religious community of religious peers open to discussion and growth.
It seems we often reach out to one or the other type of “pareto” seeker. I see that as part of the discussion around Micah Bales’s recent piece on Quaker church planting–do we focus on new, unaffiliated seekers or serious religious disciples looking for a different type of community. I’d be curious to hear if any Quaker outreach programs have tried to reach out to both simultaneously. Is it even possible to sucessfully market that kind of dual message?
The two-touch pareto nature of Friends and pop spiritual culture suggests that meetings could focus their internal work on being the bridge from what we might call the “pareto entrances.” Newcomers who have walked through the door because we’re not outwardly churchy could be welcomed into Quakerism 101 courses to be introduced to Quaker techniques for spiritual grounding and growth – and so they can determine whether formal membership is a good fit. Those who have come for the deep spiritual grounding can join as well, but also be given the opportunities for smaller-scale religious conversations and practice, through Bible study groups, regional extended worships and trips to regional opportunities.
Are you an enthusiast?
March 12, 2015
Max Carter explains how Friends “named and claimed” a judge’s accusation that they were some sort of quakers.
Colorful Quakers
June 18, 2013
Hold onto your broadbrim hat! After 58 years of black and white, COLOR is on the way to Friends Journal starting in AUGUST 2013. To announce it, FJ’s first Vine video:
This was what we were working on last week, when I tweeted out asking how many Quakers does it take to shoot a seven-second video!
As you might all expect, I’m really happy with the move. Color won’t add very much to the overall budget just 1.5 percent!) but it should help us reach new readers. I’m also hoping it will give lapsed readers a reason to open the magazine again and see what we’ve been doing the last few years. Subscriptions start at a very reasonable $25. If you sign up before July 8, you’ll get August’s very first color issue!
Sectarian Symptoms: Jumpers, Shakers, Quakers, and…
February 7, 2013
Sectarian Symptoms: Jumpers, Shakers, Quakers, and Millenarians.
No date. Via the Viz blog and before that the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections.