Category Archives: Quaker Theology

North Carolina Yearly Meeting: On The Brink

NCYM is NOT a “hopelessly divided YM.” Rather, it is a body that currently includes a handful of discontented meetings.

The spokespeople for the discontented meetings say that some other meetings, whose views they dislike, must be purged. Failing that, the discontented ones have vowed to leave . . . .

The targeted meetings, and several others, have declared that they intend to stay, and have rejected a purge. I don’t know the future, but I doubt the targeted meetings will suddenly just roll over on Saturday and let themselves be purged after all.

So if the purge doesn’t come to pass, the discontented meetings have a decision to make: do they finally make good on their threats/promises, and go out on their own? The withdrawal option is readily available; they need nobody’s permission. An outline for a new YM was floated by one of them some months ago.

Or will they stay and continue the disruptive barrages, perhaps hoping that continued harassment and bullying will wear down the targeted meetings til they leave? Maybe set another Dilly-Dally Doomsday Deadline (or two)? Ignore the fact that the campaign of bullying and abusive behavior has been roundly denounced?

Or might their leaders decide to follow Jesus’ call in Mark 1:15 to “Repent!” that is, change their thinking and their mind, and decide to follow Jesus’ other command from John 13:35, by showing the world how Christians are supposed to act toward other Christians. (Hint: purges don’t fit.)

A Message from John Wesley to Kevin Rollins (& others)

“Search me, O Lord, and prove me. Try out my reins and my heart! Look well if there be any way of “bigotry in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

In order to examine ourselves thoroughly, let the case be proposed in the strongest manner. What, if I were to see a Papist, an Arian, a Socinian [Unitarian; of Rollins argot, “liberal” or “progressive” Quakers] casting out devils?

If I did, I could not forbid even him, without convicting myself of bigotry. Yea, if it could be supposed that I should see a Jew, a Deist, or a Turk, doing the same, were I to forbid him either directly or indirectly, I should be no better than a bigot still.

O stand clear of this! But be not content with not forbidding any that casts out devils. It is well to go thus far; but do not stop here. If you will avoid all bigotry, go on. In every instance of this kind, whatever the instrument be, acknowledge the finger of God. And not only acknowledge, but rejoice in his work, and praise his name with thanksgiving. Encourage whomsoever God is pleased to employ, to give himself wholly up thereto.

North Carolina YM: Goodbye To Doormat Quakerism?

“We are concerned about rumors, innuendo, gossip and bullying not only concerning prospective personnel, but among the larger body of Friends in the Yearly Meeting. This behavior is hurtful to some and a hindrance to all, is unbecoming and not consistent with our Quaker Christian expression of love.
We ask that this letter of concern be read in the next meeting of each Yearly Meeting committee or organization, and that we all seek to follow the commandment of loving one another in a Christ-like manner. We pray that Friends cease to participate in rumors, innuendo, gossip and bullying, and take a clear stand against such activity if it occurs in your presence.”

After Gay Marriage: No, The END Is NOT Near

Yes, the Same sex marriage forces in Massachusetts and elsewhere have deployed a secret weapon that is proving irresistible. And it does not involve locking opponents up, burning their churches, banning their books and movies — none of that paranoid silliness.

Even so, it’s real, and it works. I’ve seen it in operation close up, and am ready to to spill the beans:

It’s NORMALITY.

Legal same sex marriage expands the realm of day to day family life, with all its routines: juggling work & child care; homework, dentists, soccer, adolescence; fix the dinner and clean up that room. Plus the usual conflicts, which sometimes lead to divorce. Which is sad, but also NORMAL.

That’s what life is for legal same sex families. Flagrant, flamboyant, in-your-face NORMAL.

And over time, I haven’t seen anything that can beat it.

Richard Nixon’s First Cover-Up: His Quaker Religion

A former Nixon speechwriter-turned newspaper columnist compared Nixon’s personality to a many-layered birthday cake: cut into his persona and there was layer after layer, after layer.
It’s a striking image. But historian Larry Ingle’s new book about Nixon’s religion left me with a very different visual sense: that I had been peering down a deep, dark well, then shining a small but sharp penlight into the depths, hoping to glimpse the reflection of water, but finally seeing only a distant, dry emptiness, with an accumulation of trash, the deposit of endless lies.
And without Ingle’s saying so flatly, I also got nearly as strong a sense from the book that Richard Nixon, the second Quaker president, learned his lying ways first from, of all people, his supposedly “sainted” mother.
What’s the evidence for this?