Quakerism and the Rejection of the Arts

Quakerism was one of many wild flowers of an egalitarian revolution and spiritual seeking movement that sprouted and bloomed in England during the late 1640's.

It was part of the vast social, political and spiritual upheaval known as the English Civil War and the 30 Years War (on the European Continent). So much of the great change was very uncivil and drastically unspiritual, but amidst all of the bloodletting and destroying, many people also turned to the spiritual.

The vast conflagration killed millions and devastated the landscape. The main opposing movements of the Reformed/Puritans versus the Roman Catholics slaughtered many hundreds of thousands of European and English people.

Their beliefs led the soldiers to claim the predestination of billions of humans to eternal torture; they ravaged cities and countrysides, lied, stole, and destroyed thousands of works of art, sculpture, etc.

Historians write that almost a 1/3 of eastern Europe was destroyed. In England, Scotland, and Ireland so many were killed, harmed, and suffered, it changed a whole generation.

And all of them did this in tne name of Jesus giving God the thanks:-( The Puritans even marched into killing singing Bible verses.

Thankfully, most of leaders of the early Quaker movement, (at first termed the “Children of Light), turned away from all that endless savagery, slaughter, and mayhem.

Other Puritan influences on early Quakers were also negative, but most Quakers didn't go around slaughtering others as did the Puritans against the Roman Catholic Augustinians.

Quakers did adopt the rejection of artistic expression that characterized most of the Puritan/Reformed movement. They were all trying to "reform" and “purify” the Christian Church.

Fortunately, Quakers didn’t destroy thousands of works of art and beauty like the Puritan armies (which were much worse in this than the modern day Islamic State and Taliban who have blown up and bulldozed art treasures).

However, artistic expression was considered immoral. The brilliant musician and Quaker Solomon Eccles destroyed his own musical instruments:-(.

With this turning from aesthetics, drama, poetry, however, there was one wonderful counter result, early Friends turned inward to seek only the mystical beauty of the Light there.

So for a very long time Quakerism prohibited or took a dim view of artistic and literary creations, particularly dancing, drama, painting, sculpture, fiction, poetry, and architecture.

This led to a deep impoverishment toward creativity in the arts.

Even a century later, John Woolman, while so in ethics that he early on experienced from God the truth of the evil of slavery, yet he believed that poetry should be opposed.

It wasn’t until in the 1800’s that a little art in painting and in poetry bloomed in the Society’s austere desert.

Of course not all Friends or religious historians think this rejection of the arts was bad like I do.

I do need to show my cards (bad analogy since card-playing and other games were also banned by Friends).

I am an biased against all this prohibition and dismissal, because I am an artist and writer. Being an art major for 2 years at university, an oil acrylic, tempra painter, and earning my B.A. in Creative Writing gives me a very different perspective.

So, yes, I admit I am strongly against the early Friends opposition to aesthetics, and all the other bad influences from the Puritan/Reformed for that matter.

However, it is important to point out that part of Puritan reaction against aesthetics came about because of the gross immorality in Protestant and Roman Catholic culture and society, especially among aristocrats and the rich (the ones who could afford to pay for art, painting, sculpture, drama, and fancy clothes).

Look at modern western culture now. Media is often used to glorify what is base, vulgar, and even evil. Huge amounts of money--billions of dollars--are spent and made today by Hollywood and Internet for salacious and pornographic ‘art.’

Consider the amazingly creative and technically brilliant TV show, Sense8, by the Wachowskis siblings who gave the public, The Matrix.

Without a doubt, that show is one of the most creative, thoughtful, reflective, at times very compassionate, and artistic achievements in modern cinema.

But the show is also a modern paean to gross immorality, deep praise of the superficial, the untrue, the impure and the evil.

How is that possible?

Humans so often turn the very best to glorify the very worst.

On the other hand, other creative humans use the arts to bring the Good, the True, the Just, and the Beautiful to Light for all to experience.

Without the arts, we humans would be greatly impoverished.

Consider this:

Many modern Quakers emphasize silence, and most modern day Puritans (Reformed/Calvinists/Muslims) emphasize lecture.

But many, probably most, humans aren’t silent or lecture learners, but DO grow spiritually through artistic expression.

Which would most of the humans in your city or town prefer to go to a 2-hour sermon?

A 2-hour time of mostly silence?

Or a 2-hour movie?

Hmm;-)

I've spent many hours in silent meditation, prayer, open unprogrammed worship, and reflection...

and am an aficinado of long lectures on history and religion and spirituality...

but my first love is the artistic, the poetic, the visual, the creative!
--

Brief history of Quakers and their later responses to the artistic rejection:

In the early 1800's, Bernard Barton, later called "the Quaker poet", wrote an aesthetic article justifying the arts. His main poem, "The Convict's Appeal," protested against the harsh British system of criminal justice, especially its use of the Death Penalty for many offenses.

Keep in mind however, that even on ethical issues, Quakers were often uncreative and almost passive. Partially because of such intense persecution, Friends had rejected and turned away from their very early expressive, revolutionary vision and became traditional, conservative, and often rigid.

In the modern era, many look back and credit the Quakers with abolition, but that is only seeing a few Quaker peaks. Actually most Quakers until the late 18th century owned slaves or supported slavery. Many of the ships which transported slaves were Quaker owned!

Even worse, a Massachusetts Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends "in 1837 voted not to permit anti-slavery lectures at Quaker Meeting Houses...!"

The rising poet, John Greenleef Whittier said "he could never again be the representative to the Yearly Meeting...Although he did not believe Quakers should sing in Meetings, he wrote over 100 hymns, mostly for other denominations, many of which are still sung in Protestant churches today."
North Shore Community College
http://myweb.northshore.edu/users/sherman/whittier/quaker/

"George Fox had a very definite 'puritan' view of the arts. To him these 'jests and toys' were nothing but a distraction from God and Truth and as such were to be entirely avoided by Friends. The only purpose of sports, games, poetry, plays and music as far as he and other early Quakers were concerned was to while away time that should be dedicated to a higher and more serious end."

"Another objection to the arts was that they were not true. Plays were particular offenders here as not only was the story being told not real but actors dressed up and pretended to be someone else!"

Some serious religious poetry was allowed for private personal devotion.

In 1799, Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer, wrote,
"How much my natural heart does love to sing: but if I give way to the ecstasy singing sometimes produces in my mind, it carries me far beyond the centre; it increases all the wild passions, and works on enthusiasm."

"Many say and think it leads to religion, but true religion appears to me to be in a deeper recess of the heart..."

However later she did write,
"My observation of human nature and the different things that affect it frequently leads me to regret that we as a Society so wholly give up delighting the ear by sound."

"Surely He who formed the ear and the heart would not have given these tastes and powers without some purpose for them."
--

"Paintings were seen as superfluous decoration and portraits were particularly frowned on as leading to personal vanity. This is the reason why there are so few contemporary representations of Quakers in the 17th and early 18th centuries."

"In 1846 for example London Yearly Meeting minuted 'We believe [music] to be both in its acquisition and its practice, unfavorable to the health of the soul. . . .'"
http://stumblingstepping.blogspot.com/2013/01/quaker-alphabet-week-2-for-arts.html
Quaker and retired librarian, Gil S.

Some Quaker thinking showed the anti-humanistic influence of the Reformed and the Augustinian views (even though all Friends rejected those horrific theologies). In regards to paintings of families and portraits:

"Sorrowful it is...Shallow indeed must be the religion of him who knows not that in himself, as a man, dwelleth no good thing."
from The Friend, Philadelphia

Such an extremely negative view of humanity and the arts started to gradually change. Consider the beautiful painting, The Peaceable Kingdom , by Edward Hicks, 1830:

And by 1895 Quaker leader William Charles Braithwaite wrote,
"It needs to be recognized that our Society has not escaped the tendency to narrow down spiritual action to certain prescribed ways as a substitute for the reality of the spiritual life."

"For example, while Friends have been among the pioneers of modern science they have, until recent years, repressed all taste for the fine arts."

"These, at their greatest, always contain some revelation of the Spirit of God, which is in the fullest harmony with our spiritual faith."

"In the fields of music, art, and literature, as in others, Friends may witness to the glory of God and advance that glory by their service."
--

At present, we have fine Quaker organizations who support the arts such as the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts and the Quaker Arts Network.

Also some contemporary Friends leaders such as Jan de Hartog and Chuck Fager have written fiction.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Corny Quaker Humor: Part #4

"Are you a member of that new high-falutin religion?"

"Huh?"

You know, Hyphen-ate, the newest religion?"

"What in heaven's name is a Hyphenate?"

"You know, I keep hearing about them. They all emphasize hyphens like no get out. You know ---Buddhist-Friends, Jewish-Friends, Episcopal-Friends, Mormon-Friends, JW-Friends, Wall-Street-Friends...

So I just wondered."

"Oh, yeah; just remember a little dash never hurt anybody."

--

Two Quaker honeymooners on Tybee Island stood watching two terns pacing the beach.

The young woman asked, “Why are there two birds on the beach?”

Her finance said, “Because one good turn deserves another.”

--

Heard about the Friends meeting which had plenty of committees but no members or attenders?

--

Your Friendly Nebraska Cornhusker:
Glancing out the window at their ripening fields, May whispered, “Look at those vibrant rows of corn you’re growing. You’re an amazing farmer, George!”

“Ah shucks, thanks honey. You’re rather foxy, too.”

“And, do you know what else?”

He turned toward her, “I’m all ears.”

“George,” she whispered in her husky voice.

And he planted a kiss on Maize’ luscious lips.

--

As for meticulous honesty:
A Friend was taking a daily stroll along a Pennsylvania fence row with his best friend when he saw a large cow with an unusually vivid brown hide. “Look at the brown Moo’er, such rich texture!”

The less artistic Friend said, “I don’t know if we can call it a brown cow; I’ve not seen its other side.”

--

“So you see, darlins’,” the Quaker grandfather said to his grandchildren ensconced next to him on their porch swing, “my great-grandfather was a Quaker ship captain. He even once encountered a pirate ship west of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.”

“What happened?!” asked the oldest as he squirmed closer on the swing next to his sleeping little brother.

“Let me tell you that tale or the one about the whale…But first do you know how to tell a genuine pirate from a fake?

“No.”

The real pirate had real gold, but the fake pirate…pyrite, only had fool's gold.”

--

“Heard about the pirate who liked pumpkin pie?”

“Nope, but how does the pie rate?”

--

"Why do Quakers spend so much time with cereals?"

"I didn't know they watched TV."

--

“Did you know that the Friend John Woolman was not only a vibrant abolitionist, but that he earned his living as a tailor?”

“You usually give me too many such yarns. But seams to me, I do recall that historical tact.”

“And you could say, he spoke so much against slavery that he was stitching together
words in voice patterns,
needled points jabbing his listeners.”

“Sew right! He really was concerned with every peace of fabric.”

“Just a darning minute! You’re getting corny, too. Better quilt while you’re ahead.”

--

“A young adult Friend over at Foothill Yearly Meeting went to see his podiatrist to get his feet heeled. That was his sole concern,” said the Virginian waiting for his herb tea.

The older Quaker next to him asked, “Are you toe-tally sure? Seems like he was faithfully at worship every First day since he was a kid—I’ve known him that long--always wearing those blue Keds."

A waitress brought the first Friend his tea and the man sipped his hot brew. “No, but that young Friend had been standing a lot, working too much at the Fallen Arches, yah know. Quite a feet actually, besides attending Florida State. Do you know he had a chance to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?”

“You’re flat wrong,” responded the middle-aged talker. “It was because of going to that new-'fungled' gym. Those workouts gave him athlete’s foot.”

“Well, I think you are being rather callus about the whole blistered thing! Would you want to foot the bill?”

“Oh, walk the talk or forget about it."

--

The young person in First Day class asked his Quaker teacher, “Why didn’t early Quakers
listen to music and play instruments?”

The teacher thought for a a moment, then said, “Because they were against “saks and violins” which usually go with music.”
--

"Why don't Quakers allow shakers into their houses?"

"You're confused about religious history. Shakers were different."

"Weren't they both against assault and pepper-spray?"

--

A marriage license is just a learning permit.

If that is so what is parking?

Oh, that's neck-and-neck, not the fast lane.

--

Seven days without compassion makes one weak.

--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Our Human Culture of Violence and Future Choice

Though the horrors of war and lethal violence occur much less now in the world than 70 years ago,*
there are still so many innocent victims
and far too many misguided victors, and not a few sociopaths.

How ought a human being--just one of your average "I"s--respond to all the urgent calls for war?

How should I respond?
Take a brief trip down into memory hell...

What is the best way to respond to injustice, inequality, aggressive attack, and terrorism?

1. Like many Jewish people in the Holocaust?

2. Like the Deists in the American Revolutionary War?

3. Like the Girondins and Jacobins during the French Revolution?

4. Like Howard Gilmore, the Medal of Honor submarine captain fighting the Japanese?

5. Like Desmond Doss, the Medal of Honor medic?

6. Like the Allies using carpet bombing on German cities ending with the firebombing of Dresden?

7. Like American sniper Chris Kyle in the American first strike war in Iraq?

8. Like General Sherman in his "March to the Sea" in the American Civil War?

9. Like Gandhi in his nonviolent struggle against colonialism?

10.Like Muslims such as HAMAS and Islamic Jihad in their religious fight for land?

from Liberty Magazine

11.Like the Israeli military bombing of Gaza after Palestinians murdered 3 Israeli teens and shot rockets into Israel?

12.Like the Greeks in the Trojan War?

13.Like Krishna who ordered Arjuna in 3,000 B.C. India to kill his own relatives in war because that is a soldier's duty?

14.Like 19th century Europeans who escaped being drafted into their countries' wars by immigrating to the United States?

15.Like the Crusaders when they conquered Jerusalem in 1099?

16.Like Viet Cong soldiers against other Vietnamese, the French colonists, and American soldiers?

17.Like General Santa Ana in fighting invading Americans in the Mexican War? And the leaders of the Mexican Revolution against each other in the early 20th century?

18.Like Emperor Qin when he conquered Zhao in China about 220 B.C.?

19.Like John Woolman, the famous abolitionist and Friend to the Indians in the 1700's?

20.Like the fictional character in the movie Collateral Damage who emphasizes only the killer ought to be killed, not any innocent bystanders?

21.Like American leaders in the killing of about 450,000 civilians in the bombing of Japanese cities?

22. Like Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Muslim community activist and nonviolent warrior in the 1920's who opposed the British?

23.Like Napoleon against the European countries that opposed the government of Revolutionary France?

24.Like Joshua and the armies of Israel who killed everyone for Yahweh--"both men and women, young and old" living in the cities they attacked? And David and his band who robbed villages and then massacred everyone so that there would be no one to report their attacks?

23.Like the Prophet Muhammad who beheaded 600 to 900 Jewish men and older teens and then had their women and children sold into slavery? And like Muhammad when he had a Jewish poet executed because she wrote a poem against him?

24.Like the Confederate army which sometimes executed Union army troops after they surrendered?

ETC. (Come up with your own variations on how to deal with war.)


*The Fallen of World War 11: https://vimeo.com/128373915 and http://www.fallen.io/ww2/


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Yes, it's time to be a bit prophetic--to stand with a 'clint' in the eye, and a cigar (unsmoked, that causes cancer), to be honest and tell it like it is:

The Good:
Jesus, when he forgave all of humankind, even the worst of us, from the cross.

The Bad (actually the evil):
John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Knox, the Popes, Oliver Cromwell, etc. when they supported the killing of other Christians, those who disagreed with them theologically. The Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church burned Christians at the stake, drowned them, horribly tortured and "legally" murdered the innocent who had done no evil.

In August 2009, Israeli police ejected two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem where they had been living for 50 years, and allowed Jewish settlers to move into the houses!

The Ugly:
Ex-Bishop John Shelby Spong when he claims theism isn't true, argues for the killing of pre-born babies, and supports acts of suicide:-(

The Southern Baptist minister when he prayed for the death of President Obama.

President Barak Obama, when he wins the Nobel Peace Prize yet promotes abortion, war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Conservative Protestant Christians (those who support Defense of Marriage legislation against same sexual individuals)actually have the highest divorce rate according to the Barna Research Group. According to Donald Hughes, author of The Divorce Reality, 90% of divorces among born-again Christians occur after they have been saved:-(

In the sixties, in our town a young woman married a Chinese guy. The comments went around,"Couldn't she find a man?"

When I yelled at a student for not doing her homework for a week, (my not being patient and sensitive), only to discover later that her father had abandoned her:-(

To be continued


Feel free to weigh in with your own heroic, abhorrent, and despicable choices.

In the Light of God

Daniel Wilcox

Discerning True Guidance

Growing up naive, sincere, pietistic, and goal-oriented, I was very concerned to know God's will for my life--what was to be my central mission? Who would I someday meet, love, and wed (and let it be soon;-)? Which theological doctrine was true and which false? What career should I choose? Where would God have me serve? How best should I prepare for all this? Even where should I live?

I prayed, listened to umpteen sermons and read countless books and pamphlets on the topic. I was all into the "How To." One of the best theological booklets, The Will of God, by the British Methodist pastor, Leslie D. Weatherhead, written many years ago during the worst days of World War II, surprisingly didn't even deal with any "how-to."

Don't miss this deep meditation and reflection if you can find the booklet. Weatherhead shows the central message related to God's will is not a series of abstract theological points, nor even a bunch of practical steps, but to know God, to experience God relationally, to live in God's love. Indeed, that thesis was in all the best books: Live in and for God now, and the path of life for you will unfold as it ought.


I wish I could say then, everything worked out well for me, but it didn't. Nor has it for most people! History often seems one long deranged wreck.

At times, when hearing of all the heartache, even from successful leaders, I wonder if there are any truly blessed God-centered people. Consider that at one point in his ministry, George Fox lay in bed listless for two weeks overwhelmed by an ocean of despair.

And Fox could be mean and petty. For instance when he visited James Naylor in prison, Fox demanded that James Nayler kiss his foot before he forgave him! What?! Sounds not only ethically immoral, but down right egotistical.

Mother Theresa, near the end of her life, said she hadn't felt God's presence for years! John Wesley, after leading thousands to Christ, meeting the needs of the poor and needy, helping to transform the lives of so many lost people, wrote in a letter to his brother Charles, during one severe depression, that he felt he had never really loved God. Even John the Baptist, when in prison, came to severe doubts as to whether Jesus was really the Messiah, the One sent from God.

Sometimes, even in my earnest love and seeking to do God's will, the brokenness of myself and others and chance circumstances got in the way or led to dead-ends. Once I strongly felt and reasoned through that I and my wife should help start a peacemaking, socially-concerned church. Sounds good does it not?

We did, investing many hours in the effort, praying fervently that we would reach many people, giving out to the local community--but then in only a matter of months everything came crashing down. Why, when all seemed right?

According to statistics, hundreds of worshiping communities fail all the time. I suppose one could argue that God is not responsible when a Christian business fails. After all "Jesus saves people, not money"--to quote the current joke. But why does God allow the vagaries of circumstances and time to strangle meetings which exist to show compassion, work for justice and equality, and help those in need?

When doing my very best as a high school teacher, I had several students lie and claim that I had shoved them! What a ridiculous slander if the charge weren't so serious. That horrible slander left me feeling angry at the school district and abandoned by God. I wasn't so upset at the students. They were at-risk students who often caused and got into trouble. Their lies could be understood. But what of God's will? Why?

To tell you the truth, I am still not over the tragedy. But it has finally dawned on me that Jesus, early on in his ministry, warned us we would be falsely charged and unfairly maligned, and yet we should bless those who lie about us. So I do. I pray for the people who so hurt me, and I pray that someday I will be able to live completely in God's peace.

The hard truth of life finally comes to most of us: though we do experience God and seek to live each moment in the Spirit, and though some choices are morally and spiritual far better than others, in this open-ended path of becoming, there are no easy sure-fire methods or step-by-step trail maps.

Scripture does say "In all things God works together for good," but God's working is within the finite--our best choices, circumstantial chance (the openness of this life of being), the natural order of survival, and other factors. So millions of humans who seek the truth don't end up being healthy, wealthy and wise, let alone happy and successful.

When we speak of finding meaning and purpose--God's will for us--we aren't thinking of the glossy success of the pop evangelical Christian books that flood the U.S. market, where if one does the three steps or the seven points, he will achieve what is meant to be. Nor are we talking of the doctrinal tomes that weigh so heavy they twist and bend nearly every individual who carries them around within his psyche.

Some individuals do seem blessed with temporal success, but so many humans go through present hell--the deepest levels of Sheol, dropping deeper and deeper year after year, and only their centering in God's love, despite the wreck of life, keeps them from plummeting into an abyss of despair. In the Bible why was it that Job after all his trials became happy and successful, but Jeremiah's life ended so terribly, his people and country destroyed, he himself kidnapped and taken to a foreign country?

Why did Peter escape jail but James got beheaded by the government? Why, if everything works out for good, did all of the apostles' lives, but one, end in very violent death? Why did so many early Friends have to languish in prison for years, many dying? Why are many thousands of followers of the God suffering now as I type, in Orissa and North Korea and Saudi Arabia and...

Finding meaning and your destiny in the Light doesn't mean all will be well in the short run or that you will achieve the American dream or that you will only have personal setbacks like I did in ministry and career. On the contrary, millions of humans suffer natural disasters, disease, and evil behavior by individuals or governments. In fact, often the worst seems to come the way of the devout.

Think of Elie Wiesel, age 12 and a fervent lover of God, suffering in Auschwitz, his father dying, his head bashed in by a Nazi club. Elie lost most of his family who were gassed and turned to horrid smoke drifting up into the Nazi sky. Think of the loving persons lost in the tsunami which raved over Indonesia killing over 230, 000!

Far too often this life journey is difficult and lonesome and tragic--as the old gospel song wails. What of a lady friend of my family who developed cancer, died all too soon leaving behind her three little kids with no mother?!

Evidently, finding God's will is not at all what most people have thought, certainly not what I thought for so many years. Even Yeshua, who lived in God's presence from moment to moment, in his last seconds cried out in agony, feeling totally abandoned by his Father! "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

And strangely of all, in all of this--in all the excruciating suffering in the cosmos--God suffers most, endures the agony each of us and every sentient creature suffers! God is closer to us than our own heart.

What is the point of this reflective wallow in the "ocean of darkness"?

What I am trying to do? Get us all depressed and make us feel hopeless? Have I been reading too much history? Too many biographies? Are facts such as that half of all babies in 17th century England never survived to their 5th birthday obsessing me too much? Or that every year in the present time, 6 million children die from malnutrition?

Not at all!

But we do need to realize down to our innermost being what St. Paul stated and what the theologian Paul Tillich and others have so profoundly pointed out--when we live truly spiritual lives we must do so living "under the Cross."

Both liberal and traditionally conservative religious views are too often filled with human illusions of their own particular distortion. The depth of evil is so great that, as one mystic writer wrote, "At the Heart of the Universe is the Cross." Thank God that no matter how deep and wide the abyss of evil, Eternal Light is deeper and wider and higher and further.

In this difficult reflection, I am seeking to walk very circumspectly--looking soberly and realistically at the facts before I suggest one small method toward seeking to do God's will, to finding in each moment God's meaning and purpose for us that we might in our own small way be a part of the Spirit's counter to the juggernaut of natural and human history. That we might be one tiny step forward by God's love toward what Teilhard de Chardin called the Omega Point, the Scriptural metaphor of the Kingdom of God, the union with Ultimate Reality.

Here's my suggestion, the result of all of the above:

I've made it into an acronym (though some may find that sort of cheesy), because I need daily a quick method to remember to remember to seek to live in the Light, not in my own designs, and certainly not in my own selfishness, my culture's twisted perspectives, or the tragic brokenness of human history.

--

Guided by God's Light

Understand by Reason

Inspired by Scripture

Decide through Clearness of Community

Enlightened in Experience and Practice

--

Here's an example of how this has played out in the past:

In the 18th century the vast majority of Christians, and people of other worldviews, supported slavery. They were morally blind to the terrible evil though many of them saw slaves every day. Indeed, Christians were the strongest supporters of the slavery, citing the Bible as proof. Friends, from their birth in the leveling movement of England in the 1640's, had emphasized equality for all humans yet most contradictorily they didn't actively oppose slavery. Many Quakers in the 1700's owned slaves and supported slavery!

Scholars think this is so because Quakers were already being persecuted for their faith and didn't want to be seen as supporting slave revolts and insurrection. Many Friends had been imprisoned for years because they were considered dangerous revolutionaries, even though most of them clearly were not. So it would seem that George Fox and other early Quakers practiced the subterfuge of St. Paul, who also emphasized the quality of all humans in Christ, yet supported the institution of slavery so as to not receive more persecution from the Roman Empire.

This, of course, seems unethical to us now, but we ought to be careful in our judging, unless we are willing to stick our neck out on other controversial ethical standards.
How many Quakers regularly protest against the murder of pre-born infants now when our society is so committed to the right of abortion on demand?
How many of us are deeply involved with supporting suffering Iraqis, Syrians, Nigerians, and Afghans?

Some Friends did protest strongly against slavery. One of the best known protests occurred in 1688 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. However, by the time John Woolman was a young person working for a Quaker merchant, most members of the Society accepted slavery or remained quiet in their disapproval.

Even in the 1800's, long after Quakers had banned slavery in their meetings, they still were so ethically blind that they disowned and and expelled abolitionist Levi Coffin from the Society of Friends because he worked to free slaves through the Underground Railroad!

--

#1 Guided by God's Light
When John Woolman was directed by his employer to write a bill of sale for a slave, he felt suddenly slavery was wrong and that he shouldn't write it. But he did so because he had been assigned the task, but then later he deeply regretted his act. The next time he ordered to write a legal document dealing with slavery he followed his conscience's warning that this was contrary to the Good, the True, the Just and refused.

#2 Understand by Reason
Humans in history and now get all sorts of convictions and notions. They conscientiously seek to do the right thing. Consider Robert E. Lee. He was so guided by right action, by duty, by honor, by conscience that he didn't get one demerit in all of his time at West Point! Yet, look how wrong his conscience guided him. His guidance that he thought was from God was the partial cause of the horrific deaths of over 800,000 Americans, and the wounding and suffering of millions, and the loss of so many families, and so countless other worse results.

So often our conscientious "guidances from God" later turn out to be exactly the opposite. When accepting any "guidance," we need to use our reason to make sure we aren't deluded, misguied, or deceived. When ever we get an intuitive ethical sense, we need to double check it with our rational ability.

Later as Woolman became more and more convinced of the evil of slavery, he reasoned that he should not buy or use products available in the market if they came from slave labor.

#3 Inspired by Scripture

There are too many cases where millions of us humans have used Scriptural passages to slaughter, torture, enslave, persecute, destroy, steal, lie, and so forth; therefore when we seek inspiration from Scripture, we need to carefully ground that in reason and Enlightenment values. See Valerie Tarico's
"In Defense of Cherry Picking" for a good explanation of this. http://valerietarico.com/2015/05/21/in-defense-of-cherry-picking-the-bible/

#4 Decide Through Clearness of Community

Though John Woolman and Levi Coffin were sure of the rightness of abolition, they sought confirmation from other Friends, and never became self-righteous but traveled about among Friends seeking to convince them in the Light that they needed to oppose slavery too.

#5 Enlightened in Experience and Practice

The more we choose well, the more we reject the wrong, the more we see the Light more clearly. Based on Woolman's sense of the Truth, his understanding of the central ethical meaning of the NT (despite its many pro-slavery verses that so civilized humans used in defending the institution), his interpreting his concern with careful reason,
Woolman then, more and more, applied this to his experience.

At one point Woolman, despite being a very successful business man, stopped wearing dyed clothing because the dye came from slave labor. This lead other well-to-do people to look at him as an odd duck, but he followed God's Spirit putting into practice his concern, without regret.

--

But there is no money back guarantee;-) that G.U.I.D.E. will succeed. Besides, the ideas and methods expressed for this aren't mine. However, after a life time of reading and hearing wise counsel, trying to implement and live in the Light, yet encountering roadblocks and sometimes suffering serious car wrecks and the daily drudge,
I do find Light in G.U.I.D.E.

Reflect and go forth to walk over the earth cheerfully as George said 450 years ago:-)

In the Light,

Daniel

Truth versus the Joseph Story

When I was a kid, one of my favorite stories was the narrative of Joseph
in the book of Genesis.

Not only was it an exciting tale--much better than the Begats, Leviticus, or the doctrinal epistles of Paul--
the Joseph story filled me with deep hope and faith in God.


I read with wonder how Joseph by faith overcame betrayal, terrible experiences, false accusations,
insurmountable odds, and eventually became Prince of Egypt--healthy, wealthy, powerful and wise.

Then as I grew up, and, myself, encountered terrible times (like most of us do),
and came to face to face with insurmountable odds, I would remember the rags-to-riches story or re-read it for more details.

Keep the faith and you will win, no matter how bad things get.

What I didn't realize until much later--into middle age when I continued to have worse and worse life experiences--
is only one person can be prince of Egypt, and it wasn't me;-)

Somehow I had modeled my central hopes and expectations according to a very few winning stories--
Joseph, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego,
the Apostle Peter, George Fox, John Woolman,
Menno Simons, Levi Coffin, etc.--the great heroes of the faith who suffered greatly but overcame and eventually succeeded.

What I had somehow missed is that most hopeful people down through the many thousands of years of human history, and at present,
not only never reach a high place, they seldom overcome their tragic lives,
don't get out of the "pit" others or bad circumstances have thrown them in;
they live lives more like Jeremiah
than Joseph--
life only gets worse and worse as they age.

Millions never get to even age.

Their lives are cut short by debilitating illnesses, false accusations, abuses, wars, tortures, and destruction.

They die in prison like Francis Howgill, mistreated to death,
get drowned like Felix Manz,

executed like Quaker Tom Fox in Iraq,
or are tortured, sawn into, beheaded,
or burnt at the stake like Michael Sattler.

On an on the suffering goes. The injustice and very bad news seem endless.

This doesn't even deal with the millions of people who die in vast plagues, in hurricanes and tidal waves, who starve to death, get cancer or are abused.

No wonder so many despair and feel the hopelessness of Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah:
"For Sheol cannot thank you, Death cannot praise you,
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness."

Indeed, I now see that the Joseph story as I envisioned it is a harmful delusion of the worst sort.

Contrary to the claims of hundreds of thousands of success sermons and endless prosperity books, most people don't win by the world's standards. They don't even get to come in last, 5 hours late like
one runner who refused to give up.

They are born blind, or get leukemia at 4 years of age, or die of cancer at 33, leaving behind their 3 little preschoolers.

So where does that leave us, those who seek and hope in God, despite the worst Life heaves our way?

Those who think Dawkins, Harris, and other non-theists are wrong in their claim that existence is meaningless and hope is a delusion.

It's all about perspective.
Paul spoke of it in Corinthians when he spoke of the scandal of the cross:
"We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness."

No doubt many Jews were hoping for a Joseph-like figure, a messianic leaders who would thrash the Romans and become an overcoming prince.

They didn't want a Jewish laborer who told them to love their national enemies and sinners, one who was then arrested for treason,
tortured, and nailed to a Roman cross.

And the Gentiles (all those not Jewish) were interested in power, wealth, and success as well. Who would want to follow some Jewish peasant that didn't
have an abstract philosophical system and who ridiculously told his followers to resist evil with love?

Obviously he didn't understand the real world.

Not much has changed in over 2,000 years. Many of us still want--at least I so often do--
a successful Christ, one who will help us live a healthy, happy life, with a successful career, etc.

But Truth doesn't come our way very often with Joseph-like health, power, wealth, wisdom.
Besides, how wise was Joseph really when he turned millions of Egyptians into paupers dependent on the national ruler?

George Fox and the early Quakers learned that early. They had hoped that Oliver Cromwell and English government would bring in justice, goodness, and truth.

On the contrary, only more destruction, slaughter, and oppression!

Many innocent individuals spent years in prison, lost all their material possessions;
thousands died as have many other people of truth have in the past. And in Europe,
hundreds of thousands died because of the 30 Years War--a battle between Roman Catholics versus Reformed to see who would get to be "Joseph"!

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of how unearned suffering is redemptive in the midst of a life of sacrifice.
For a while it even appeared that King might become a modern day Joseph as he went from being a minor Black minister in the South
to becoming a national hero and society-changer.

But in the end, he was executed by a lone gunman, and he, himself, had turned from the ethical way, even committing adultery repeatedly.

So tragic.

May we in each moment of now abandon our Joseph delusions.

Let us not give up, or give into unethical actions.

Instead, let us live in the hope that good, truth, and justice will eventually win, even if we don't.

To be continued--


Daniel Wilcox

To start this new blog, I would like to give several of my favorite quotes--ones that guide and sustain me:

"I saw that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that I saw the infinite love of God."
George Fox


"True religion consisted in an inward life, wherein the heart does love and reverence God the Creator, and learns to exercise true justice and goodness...I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions, but believed that sincere, upright-hearted people, in every society, who truly love God, were accepted of him."
John Woolman


John 15: 12-15 "Love each other as I have loved you.. I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father."
Jesus the Chosen One



1646: "When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.'"
George Fox