Some Quaker FAQs, For New Friends & the “Quaker Curious”

Part 1

A few years back, a young Friend told me about a church which is near her home. She had high school friends who went there, and they had invited her to visit.

They had also been asking her about what Quakers believe, and how that might differ from what they believe there, or in other churches.

These are reasonable questions, but this young Friend had trouble answering.

The thing is, she hadn’t really been taught much about either of these topics: the basics of Quaker beliefs, or the basics of what more “orthodox” Christian churches believe.

I’ve heard of similar incidents, where younger (and some older) Friends were left feeling puzzled or embarrassed when asked such questions. And in our still highly-churched society, such questions come up a lot.

I looked around for a book to help her cope with these questions. Something short and focused, and meant for younger Quakers and  the “Quaker Curious” of any age.

Didn’t find anything.

So I wrote a 40-page booklet, .Some Quaker FAQs, For New & Curious Friends.

It covers 24 FAQs, including:

Q. What About The Bible?
Q. What About Jesus?
Q. What Does “The Son of God” Mean?
Q. What About “Sin”?
Q. What’s A “Personal Relationship With Jesus”? Do I Need One?
Q. What About Hell?
Q. How Are Liberal Quaker Beliefs Different?
Q. How Do I Know If I’m Really A Quaker?

The answers are concise, contemporary, and of course, non-creedal. They offer a beginning in learning about Quaker beliefs, the Bible, and Jesus. My hope is they can help younger Friends (and new ones of whatever age) think about and handle such questions better. At the end there’s a short list of more books for followup.

Seems to me Some Quaker FAQs, For New & Curious Friends could be of use in high school RE work, at least I hope so.