Peaceable Kingdom LOST: Paxton Boys and Destruction of Penn's Holy Experiment by Professor Kevin Kenny

from Amazon:

"William Penn established Pennsylvania in 1682 as a "holy experiment" in which Europeans and Indians could live together in harmony. In this book, historian Kevin Kenny explains how this Peaceable Kingdom--benevolent, Quaker, pacifist--gradually disintegrated in the eighteenth century, with disastrous consequences for Native Americans."

"Kenny recounts how rapacious frontier settlers, most of them of Ulster extraction, began to encroach on Indian land as squatters, while William Penn's sons cast off their father's Quaker heritage and turned instead to fraud, intimidation, and eventually violence during the French and Indian War."

"In 1763, a group of frontier settlers known as the Paxton Boys exterminated the last twenty Conestogas, descendants of Indians who had lived peacefully since the 1690s on land donated by William Penn near Lancaster. Invoking the principle of "right of conquest," the Paxton Boys claimed after the massacres that the Conestogas' land was rightfully theirs."

"They set out for Philadelphia, threatening to sack the city unless their grievances were met. A delegation led by Benjamin Franklin met them and what followed was a war of words, with Quakers doing battle against Anglican and Presbyterian champions of the Paxton Boys."

"The killers were never prosecuted and the Pennsylvania frontier descended into anarchy in the late 1760s, with Indians the principal victims."

"The new order heralded by the Conestoga massacres was consummated during the American Revolution with the destruction of the Iroquois confederacy. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the United States confiscated the lands of Britain's Indian allies, basing its claim on the principle of "right of conquest."

"Based on extensive research in eighteenth-century primary sources, this engaging history offers an eye-opening look at how colonists--at first, the backwoods Paxton Boys but later the U.S. government--expropriated Native American lands, ending forever the dream of colonists and Indians living together in peace."

PEACEABLE KINGDON: LOST By Kevin Kenny, Professor of History at Boston College

More Public History Getting Torn Down-- How Wrong!

How tragic that public history is being torn down!! Will the Jefferson Memorial be next since Jefferson Never freed his slaves?

ALL human leaders in the past failed morally in many ways, as do we now!
But some human leaders, despite their moral failures, we still honor with statues because of their GOOD actions they did!

The statue of Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish explorer, at Pacifica was just torn down by Cal Trans!! https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/statue-removed-in-pacifica-gaspar-de-portola-18615209.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR2DP0oVMDGKvggnZz9vp0C7505BTfqxebngy-VFXstKC73_6htJiBn4j1k

The statue of Spanish military officer Gaspar de Portola, which stood near the Pacifica Community Center for more than 30 years, started drawing attention in the summer of 2020, as discussions about racial justice and the legacies of colonization reached a boiling point across the nation.
In the late 1760s, Portola led a Spanish fleet along the California coast, including by the San Francisco Bay, and is credited with sparking settlements in the area that ultimately displaced Indigenous inhabitants.

Bob n' Renee via Wiki Commons; Illustration via SFGATE

In mid-2020, a petition calling for the statue’s removal — which read, in part, that the “colonialism, racism and patriarchy this statue represents has no place in the City of Pacifica” — gained nearly 5,000 signatures. Meanwhile, other statues of historical figures, including Christopher Columbus, Ulysses S. Grant and Junipero Serra, were being toppled across the Bay Area, either officially or by protesters.

And, even William Penn's statue was to be removed by the National Park Service from Philadelphia this month, but enough people objected so that is uncertain now.

Matt Rourke/AP
YET William Penn paid the Native Americans for his landgrant of Pennsylvania (granted to him by the King). And he and his followers defended innocent Native Americans from racist-invaders such as the Scotch-Irish who masssacred innocent Native civilians!

Portola's statue’s "confiscation, done without ceremony a little after 9 a.m. on Thursday, was first reported by the Pacifica Tribune."
January 18, 2024


In the Light of the Good, the Just, the Kind,
and the actual facts of history, not the ideological distortions!

Dan Wilcox

WHY I USED TO FLY THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, but no longer do so.

Here’s an incredible irony: BLMer’s, Democrats, and others are up in arms demanding the banning of the Confederate battle flag. I’m certainly not a fan of that flag that glorified killing and that represented a nation whose leaders believed in the institution of slavery.

HOWEVER, HERE’S THE IRONY: NONE of these BLMer’s, Democrats, and most Americans plan to ban Old Glory, the U.S. flag even though it flew over the U.S. in defense of slavery, invasive wars, huge land thefts, etc. from 1776 to 1865, a total of 89 years!

Even after 1865, though slavery had become illegal, actual slavery, racism, and legal discrimination continued in many states until the 1960's and 70's!

In 1877, President Hayes made a deal with the racist Redeemers and removed all Federal troops from the South.
The Redeemers brought in Jim Crow, Negro Codes, and Segregation. There were "Sundown" towns in the north. President Woodrow Wilson segregated the U.S. government offices! All of these horrors lasted until the 1970's!

-- Even after the Emancipation Proclamation of Lincoln in 1863, slave owners in the Union were allowed to keep their slaves. The Union slaves weren’t freed until the end of the war in 1865.

Lincoln had meant the E.P. only for slaves not under his control in a separate nation, the Confederacy. So, he freed slaves he couldn’t, and kept slaves that he could have freed in the U.S., enslaved!

And Lincoln was still trying to convince all Negros to move from the U.S. back to Africa or go to Latin America in 1863. Lincoln didn’t think that Blacks could live with Whites because he believed Blacks were inferior. While he opposed slavery, he didn’t think Blacks were equal, nor that they should be allowed to vote or serve on juries, etc.

During the Revolutionary War, and especially the War of 1812 the British offered freedom to American slaves, BUT the Americans, supposedly for freedom and liberty, continued to support slavery!

And in the invasion of Mexico and the annexation of Texas, the U.S. supported slavery, while Mexico had banned slavery.

Over the years, in some cases, Old Glory has stood for freedom and genrosity, but in the last 247-years most of the time it has stood for invasions and the rejection of refugees such as when we rejected escaping Jews from Nazi Germany in the late 1930's!

And now in the last 4 years, we've again supported a harsh rejection of the "huddled" refugees, a denial of the Statue of Liberty.

STATUE of LIBERTY on the 4TH of July: "Give me your huddled masses, longing to be free..."


Dan Wilcox

Quaker Corny Humor #13

After the 3 am tragic results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the next morning early, one tired liberal Quaker turned his combine left into the next set of corn rows in southeast Nebraska and ruminated:
“The good candidates always seem to lose these major elections. It’s so discouraging, but I do see a little corn-husking humor
in the thrashing." And grinned.

He stopped the gears, picked up a a little corn cob by his feet, and pulled at the shucks.

Later, he said to his wife, "As a former University of Nebraska Cornhusker (1965)—and literally a corn husker
with my dad on my grampa’s farm near Table Rock, Nebraska, I can combine;-)
those memories with the current thrashed debacle.

"NO, dear, don't go there!"

He shifted the tooth pick in his mouth, grinned and said, "Ear, ear! Countrymen give me your...Or, how about this sweetheart?

See, I usually am on the outs with whatever group I am in, particularly in being a citizen of the U.S.

With ‘wrong’-wing American voting patterns, I keep getting liberated from U.S. policy. For instance, I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries, though I am actually left of him, so in the final election, my views got left out,
But I and others aren’t left-OVER."

"Forget your corn, and come help me snap these green beans, please."

He got up, gave her a hug and said, "On the contrary, we are determined to ‘left’ up--

"NO, no," she pretended to scream and laughed.

"Seriously, we need to--especially with this bad turn of event--lift up
all those ignored by this new U.S. president, and continue to oppose
the increasing religious intolerance of Christians—
(you know)
help the needy, the suffering,
the persecuted,
undocumented immigrants,
hard-working single moms,
prisoners of conscience in various Islamic countries,
and so forth."

"Yes, darling, I agree." But now please snap the green beans."

He picked up a bean and snapped its ends. "I wish we could say that we are so hopeful that we could afford to enjoy a little leftar;-)"

With that his wife hit him with a wooden spoon and kissed him.

--

As we used to say in Adams, Nebraska, “Shucks, that ain't nothin' yet. I reckon I can get to the bottom of the corn crib before I'm done.”

For those who always want Scripture verses with their reflections, no matter how corny
here's a few:
Genesis 1:10 “And they came to the thrashing-floor of Atad,”

Numbers 28:27 “As though it were the corn of the thrashing-floor”

Ruth 3:7 “Ruth lay down at the end of a heap of corn on the thrashing-floor.”

from The Farm Engineer by Robert Ritchie, page 6, 1849
--

The taciturn Quaker in northern Oregon, suddenly, spoke up with fervency,
“What ought one to call a line
of rabbits hopping backwards, losing their hairy fur,
across several generations from the young
getting older, to parents, to grandparents, and great grandparents?”

A visiting Portlander looked puzzled. "I don't know. What's your meaning?"

“A receding ‘heir’ line,”
and the old Quaker grinned and went back to hoeing his corn.

-Anonymous
--

What is the fastest country in the world?

Russia
-
What is the slowest country on record?

Slovenia
-
In what country is running a passionate activity?

Runmania
-

What country doesn’t run at all?

Guess.

-Adapted
--

The danger of semantics! See below:

William Penn crossed the road despite lots of horse-drawn vehicles.

Can you spell that without any r’s?

Huh? I’m baffled.

It’s easy, T-H-A-T.

-Anonymous

--

Why did the jolly Quaker stop grinning early one morning, on the Oregon Trail,
when his oxen stubbornly refused to be hitched up?

What?

They wouldn’t take a yoke.

-Adapted


Light-heartedly,

Daniel Wilcox

Quaker Witness Against Syrian War

A statement from British Quakers concerned for peace in the Middle East:

Working for peace, opposing war

"Quakers in Britain work for peace. We are led by our faith to reject “outward weapons", turning instead to those of the spirit. As a faith community our religious understanding and experience is that true peace cannot be imposed by military might. Ideas cannot be removed with bombs."

"There are both moral and pragmatic reasons to oppose military action in Syria. Bombs dropped from the air not only kill indiscriminately, they further increase the risk of terrorist retribution. Security comes from building peace not from supplying weapons. It comes from welcoming refugees fleeing war rather than erecting fences."

"Take action now."

-- https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-say-no-to-military-action-in-syria

"It is human nature that the closer suffering comes to us, the more acutely we feel the pain and grief. But that experience should sensitise us to the suffering caused repeatedly by acts of war and violent crime in more distant places, including Beirut, Sinai, Bamako and Aleppo. It should strengthen our determination to build a safer world together."
--

"The military actions of Western nations recruit more people to the cause than they kill. Every bomb dropped is a recruitment poster for [Islamic State], a rallying point for the young, vulnerable and alienated. And every bomb dropped on Syrian cities drives yet more people to flee and seek refuge in safer countries."

"Our political leaders seem determined that Britain should look strong on the world stage."

"Quakers in Britain believe our country should act with wisdom and far-sighted courage.
A wisdom that rises above the temptation to respond to every problem with military might."

"A wisdom that looks back at our failures in Libya and Iraq and Afghanistan
and learns from experience. The courage – and strength - to think through
the likely consequences of actions to find a long term, lasting solution."

"Although there are no quick or easy answers, there are things we can do, all of us together, which will defeat
the terrorists [and the Syrian Government, Saudi Arabian government instigators, etc.] more assuredly than military action."

"We can quieten ourselves and listen to the truth from deep within us that speaks of love, mutual respect, humanity and peace."

"We can and will refuse to be divided. By bridge-building among faiths and within our local communities we can challenge and rise above the ideologies of hate and actively love our neighbour."

"By welcoming refugees, we can not only meet the acute needs of those individuals but also undercut the narrative of those who seek to create fear and mistrust."


"And we can ask our political leaders to:

Treat terrorist acts as crimes, not acts of war
Stop arming any of the parties fighting in Syria
Observe international law and apply it equally to all parties
Build cooperation among nations, strengthening those international institutions which contribute to peace
Export peace rather than war, so that we can create the conditions the world needs to address its most serious problems, including climate change."

"...from a statement made by Quakers in Britain in 1943 (Quaker faith & practice 24.09):

“True peace cannot be dictated, it can only be built in co-operation between all peoples. None of us, no nation, no citizen, is free from some responsibility for this."
http://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-responding-to-terrorism
-

"The UK and NATO allies must stop arming and financing any of the parties
fighting in Syria, before we can expect that others do the same."
https://quakers-production.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/store/13ab9820c6d6537a38d7d8954233cdba7551622faff943059bb195dcbd03

Is your Friends Meeting, or other human rights organization working to oppose this war
in which more than 350,000 have been killed and many injured, and millions refugeed?

Please write your governmental representatives to oppose this mass slaughter.

Make a visible witness.





In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox

Living in Skeptical Hope

Is that possible?

Given the sufferings, tragedies, and horrors of history, especially the last 100 years?

Millions of humans slaughtered many millions of other humans...

Millions more died and are dying from disease and famine and abuse...

Millions despairing...

To be hopeful for the future, seems an impossible dream though a wonderful idea.

Yet how does one choose to hope, while not being willfully blind, not being deluded and eluded
from how the cosmos really was, really is, and appears really will be?

How can we live above and beyond our all too common selfishness,
in-group dynamics, ethnocentric focus, nationalistic perception, and religious/secular
intolerance so characteristic of nearly all of us humans, to one degree or another?

I realize it does seem almost completely doubtful.

But where there is consciousness, awareness, the transcendent sense
of what ought to be rather than what is and what has been, then we can yet
choose to defy the stars and our own sometimes selfish nationalistic-centered ways.

If we do choose with courage—no matter what--there is hope’s possibility.
We through hope in the transcendent Good create what goes counter
to natural selection, the downswing of indifferent matter and energy.

Insightful human leaders from Buddha to Jesus to William Penn
to Elizabeth Fry to Levi Coffin to Lucretia Mott
to Martin Luther King Jr.
to Thich Nhat Hanh have demonstrated this truth.

Hope and creativity and change and new ethical choices are always open despite
the juggernaut of human selfishness, greed, and oppression.

Step#1 Practice skeptical insight.

In my view, skepticism is usually best thought of as a mind-rinse, a mental Listerine,
daily, probably hourly, mindfully gargling, to rid oneself of modern gargoyles,
intellectual germs, social and religious viruses, and delusions.

To protect ourselves from confirmation bias, prejudice, illusion, deception,
finite-itis, cultural and social assumptions, givens, instinctual urges.

Yes, skeptical thinking is a stringent rinse/wash needing done constantly, at least 3 times a day.

Read, reflect, eliminate, and spit;-)

Then drink in the life-giving water of hope.

Step #2 Don't focus on the negative.

This often happens to us humans. We discover false beliefs, delusional errors, even plain mistakes,
and we major on the negative, identifying with what we oppose rather than
with what we hope for in the future.

We become like the hypochondriac who never lives in hope because he is always
fixating on the danger of illnesses out there that he may get.

He becomes so sickness-germ-avoiding obsessed that he fails to think of how not only
the cosmos was, is, will be, but even more importantly, how the cosmos ought to be and could be!

We don’t stop drinking rum or wine or beer or tea or coffee or hot chocolate or milk
and water because sometimes they might be contaminated.

We are just very careful.

So don't identify as central what you reject. Don't fall for pessimism, total skepticism.

Step #3 Focused on what is good, what is true, what is beautiful, what is just, what is right, and
what is compassionate.

Seek new ethical truths not yet discovered.

Live for transcendent values.

Step #4 Keep aware that hope isn't proof.

Immediately there will be critics who will demand the
impossible--that we prove hope exists,
prove that ethics
exist, prove that humans are more than "bags of chemicals," “wet robots,”
"puppets," or cosmic chaff.

While I think there are reasons for hope, and reasons to think creativity, chance,
and human alternative choice exist, there's no proof that transcendent values are true.

If one looks back in natural history, or nature today, one can see that "survival"
seems to be the only reality before extinction.

Hope can't be proven any more than any other philosophical hypothesis.

Philosophers have argued for thousands of years over this sort to idea.

Step #5 Be aware of false choices such as determinism.

About a thousand years ago, Muslim scholars became convinced that determinism
is true, that no human can make alternative choices, only Allah ordains all.
And after that, Islamic countries suffered a shocking decline in education, creativity, discovery, etc.

There were likely many factors which caused this not only the Muslims’ fatalistic
philosophy, but the latter has been noted by a number of historians as to why
so many Islamic countries are backward, unproductive, intolerant, and stagnant.

“Allah wills” as the constant refrain of every conversation isn’t skeptical by a long shot.

And think of how Hinduism's rigid interpretation of karma, caste, and the concept
of eternal return inhibited Asia from leading in science in the past.

After all, if one is convinced that everything is illusion, and that Brahma causes
all events to happen in his cosmic dance, of what point would there be
to look for new concepts and actions? That would only be deluding oneself.

And, more recently, one can swim in the dark waters of postmodernism, where even
the most basic concepts of realness are questioned. But then no one has a leg to stand on.

And, of course, there are the horrific examples from Christianity.

Yes, one needs to be both honest, skeptical, and hopeful.

It seems that a specific miracle claim—if available for study—can be disproven
(or supposedly proven, though none ever have been), but how could one possibly
prove or disprove
that consciousness, reason,
logic, mathematics, aesthetics, the “laws” of nature, etc. are illusions or are real?

This becomes a philosophical battle between the empiricists and the rationalists.

Allegedly, we can’t even prove that existence is real
because we have to assume that our senses
are reliable, that reason and science aren't fooling us.

And we must highly value honesty, not deception.

While both methods work in nature—methods of deception have been
highly successful in nature—scientific discovery depends on complete and meticulous honesty
in one’s scientific findings.

Think of how many studies in science have been shipwrecked by over eager
scientists who have jumped to conclusions or even a few times
intentionally fabricated lab results to help produce wanted conclusions.

I’m opting for the opposite view,--that is my presupposition--that the Enlightenment view of existence is true,
that humans have choice,
that reason is reliable,
that the scientific method does find actual real characteristics
of a real world and cosmos out there,
and
that the good, the just, the right is real.

So here goes: A Skeptical Worldview of Hope

To be continued--

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Wise Words

Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it:
For Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than the arguments of its opposers.
-William Penn

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.
Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.
-Immanuel Kant

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
-Albert Einstein

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.
-C.S. Lewis

Human beings are the only creatures who are able to behave inrrationally in the name of reason.
-Ashley Montagu

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, and the children of men, as a whole, do not experience it... Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
-Helen Keller

The sense of duty is the fountain of human rights. In other words, the same principle which teaches the former bears witness to the latter. Duties and rights must stand and fall together.
-William Ellery Channing

Spend 10 billion on the welfare of others, not on warfare against others.
-from Dave Traxson

A nation that continues year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

-Returning violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars...
Hate cannot drive out hate:
only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable...In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous.
-Dalai Lama

Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.
-Nelson Mandela

One of the ironies of human worldviews is that ‘law and order’ individuals who reject civil disobedience often in the end accept violent war and rebellion;
in contrast ‘civil disobedient’ individuals who break unjust laws as wrong and believe in nonviolent resistance usually reject violence, war, and rebellion.

One would think that 'law and order' individuals would oppose war, especially the slaughter of civilians, but historically that hasn't been the case.

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
-Thomas Jefferson

What you commit yourself to be will change what you are and make you into a completely different person. Let me repeat that.

Not the past but the future conditions you, because what you commit yourself to become determines what you are – more than anything that ever happened to you yesterday or the day before.
-Dr. Anthony Campolo

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
-W C Bryan

To be educated means to have the ability to be aware of yourself and your worldview, and thereby be able to make corrections when you are wrong; then you will be lead to new insights.
-Lit Insight

Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.
-Paul Tillich

Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
-H.L. Mencken

You don't get to advertise all the good that your religion does without first scrupulously subtracting all the harm it does and considering seriously the question of whether some other religion, or no religion at all does better.
-Daniel C. Dennett

Religion is the vision of something which stands beyond, behind and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.
-Alfred North Whitehead

The fact of the religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

The power of God is the worship He inspires....The worship of God is not a rule of safety — it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. The death of religion comes with the repression of the high hope of adventure.
-Alfred North Whitehead

Our minds are finite, and yet even in these circumstances of finitude we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of human life is to grasp as much as we can out of the infinitude.

Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development.
-Alfred North Whitehead

I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality.
-Gandhi



True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
-Alfred North Whitehead

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

The artistic representation of history is a more scientific and serious pursuit than the exact writing of history. For the art of letters goes to the heart of things, whereas the factual report merely collocates details.
-Aristotle

There are sports stars who make 10 times the annual salary of the President. They are national heroes. Why, exactly? There is something here transcending the diversity of political, social, and economic systems. Something ancient is calling.
-Carl Sagan

The hero is an individual who gets up when one can't.
-Anon

Why listen to the pithy maxims and aphorisms of various thinkers?


As the Teacher said 2,500 years ago:
12 "...be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body."

11 Sayings from the wise are like cattle prods and...well-driven nails."
-Ecclesiastes 12:12 and 11, Hebrew Bible

I actually like endless books--both the writing of them, and the reading of them; and the studying of them and the reflecting on them, and then the meditating on them, but
there is a grain of insight in what the teacher said, especially when like him, one becomes discouraged.

Wise phrases can inspire hope.

Pointed statements do break through our daily rituals, cognitive biases, and tendency toward ethnocentricism.

In the Light of Reason, Truth, and Justice,

Daniel Wilcox

Is This Presidential Election a "Seeding Time"?

Would you agree or disagree with the following statements?

#1 Usually, war is justified when there is a dangerous enemy.

#2 The only way to understand what is happening and what ought to happen is to wait a couple hundred years to get a more objective perspective.

While we wonder at the tragedy, uncertainty, and even absurdity of our times, so have humans in the past.

We, at present, deal with Muslim jihadists, but the colonists dealt with savage Indians resisting the confiscation of their lands, and with the complex conflicts between the British and the French Empires on the American frontier, and then against the British government itself.

If one skips the nationalism, even the admirable patriotic legends of the Revolution, and reads a few history books, one soon discovers that those troubled times weren't clear cases of good versus evil, or right versus wrong, or justice versus injustice (nor are most--maybe all--historical events).

Nor is the present time. Who is correct? who is right?

The Syrian Government of President Assad which protected all of its citizens except for Sunni Muslim jihadists?

The Sunni Muslims jihadists that the U.S. Government supports, hoping they will overthrow the Syrian Government of Assad?

The Russian Government which is bombing the jihadists to protect the Syrian Government?

The Turkish Government which is killing Kurdish Rebels?

Etc.

T'was Seeding Time by John L. Ruth is a powerful narrative about the troubles and tragedies of that period, but not told from the perspective of the Revolutionists such as Adams, Jefferson, or Washington,
or told from the opposite perspective of the British Parliament and King George and the evangelist/reformer John Wesley,
or even the Indian tribes losing their homelands,
but
from the perspective of a few contrary American immigrant groups--the Mennonites, the Quakers, the Brethren.

Ruth starts out his historical account in December 1755 at the start of the worldwide 7 Years War (known in the colonies as the French and Indian War).

The war involved all the European powers and "affected Europe, North America, Central America, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. Considered as the greatest European war since the Thirty Years War of the 17th century, it once again split Europe into two coalitions," Great Britain against France. (Wikepedia)

From the first page of Seeding Time:
"Angry Indians had crossed the long Blue Mountain...and left behind in the ashes of [immigrants'] cabins the smoldering, scalpless bodies of European settlers...their Swiss Amish father had forbade them to fire at the Indians..."

"The wounded Jacob Jr. and his sister were tomahawked on the spot, and the mother as well, after having been stabbed in the heart with particular malice"

"...No one was more troubled by such events than the Quakers, who up to this point had controlled the Pennsylvania legislature...Israel Pemberton...with fellow Friends...organized the "Friendly Association"...appealed to the Mennonites..."

"for aid in building up a fund from which presents could be purchased for meetings with the aggrieved Indians...on account of the unjust treatment of the Indians...This enraged the Scotch-Irish...[but] the devout Quakers...believed that nonviolence was the essence of the Christian faith..."

Benjamin Franklin (later one of the Revolutionaries) took a dim view of the Mennonites, Quakers, and their nonviolence toward the Indians.

So on the eve of the Revolution, these formerly oppressed Swiss-German Anabaptist Brethren and Quakers were living diligently in the Quaker Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in "Penn's Woods."

Then following the first battles in Massachusetts, during the spring of 1775, fervent war fever spread again like fire through the colonies including Pennsylvania. All men were under pressure to sign up to fight the British or to contribute money for the Revolution.

Thus whether we live now when nearly all presidential candidates are claiming we Americans should attack the Syrian government
and continue supporting the Islamic jihadists
(who we gave about 300 million dollars alone several months ago)
or
back in the volatile slaughter of the 1700's, there are no easy answers.

So, too, as at the time of "Seeding Time" described by Ruth, those who oppose war find it very difficult to follow the way of peace-making when everyone is crying "War!
Go Fight!
Stop the Enemies!"

A fine short history book well worth the reading time.

'Twas Seeding Time by John L. Ruth, Herald Press, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other book stores.

In the Light of Peacemaking and Seeking,

Daniel Wilcox

Did the Quakers' Fox Escape or Overcome the Dogs of War?

"Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace and ensue it; to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God; seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. We know that wars and fightings proceeed from the lusts of men, as James iv. 1--3...All bloody principles and practices, as to our own particulars, we utterly- deny; with all outward wars and strife, and fightings with - outward weapons, for any end, or under an pretense whatsoever; this is our testimony to the whole world."
"That the Spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world."
George Fox, 1660

However, the excellent biographer H. Larry Ingle said the Quakers' ethical view, Fox's in particular, was ambiguous and may have been politically motivated: "George Fox’s role as first among Friends was never more clearly evident than in the evolution of his sect’s witness for peace. Not only did he refuse to participate in the civil wars that wracked the Midlands countryside that was his home, he also specifically rejected a captaincy in the New Model Army offered to him while he was in Derby jail in 1651. Citing the apostle James epistle, Fox answered that he knew wherein wars arose, "Lust," and added that he "lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all wars."5 On another occasion he rejected a similar request by saying that he had been "brought off outward wars."

Fox’s statement was the first we know about on English soil of what we could call "pacifism." In that context, his comment pushed the peace movement a giant leap forward in his own country, particularly in that he was rejecting participation in a conflict with whose overall aims he was in fundamental agreement."

"Many joined Friends and remained in army ranks. Both officers and recruits found that Quakerism spoke to their condition, and early Friends, including Fox, targeted them as potential converts without requiring them to give up their positions. Indeed, many early Quaker leaders were refugees from military service. Richard Hubberthorne himself and James Nayler...had held high positions in the army, and others like Thomas Curtis, one of Fox’s closest early companions...served as militia commissioner...and busily raised soldiers for the army as late as 1659; Pearson accepted the post but refused to don a sword, a kind of symbolic balancing act highlighting the tensions produced in the period."

"Committed to his own personal peace witness, Fox never, until 1661, took the kind of unequivocal position that Agnes Wilkinson evinced in 1853. In a brief epistle to "all who wear swords"..."to strip yourselves naked of all your carnal weapons..."

"The implications of the peace testimony thus stand apart from most modern Quaker peacemaking, which owes more to the aristocratic Penn than to the ruder Fox..."

The Politics of Despair:
The Quaker Peace Testimony, 1661
by H. Larry Ingle

Also, read Ingle's fine biography of George Fox, First Among Friends.


What do you think?

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Albion's Seed, an Historical Analysis of the Ways of Quakers, Cavaliers, and Puritans in the New World

Interested how early Friends (such as William Penn) lived out their spiritual, social, and cultural lives in the American colonies?

How the Quakers' lived-out faith differed drastically from other British immigrants--the Cavaliers and Puritans?

Then read Hackett's profound study, a very detailed analysis of daily life based in 4 contrary worldviews which immigrated to the colonies and brought drastic changes that we affect us today.

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer
Published by Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford

David Hackett Fischer is currently University Professor and Earl Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University. He received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1962.

Here is a book of the kind that comes once or twice in a generation, one that is a decisive, seminal work of historical scholarship! Besides breaking new ground in interpretation, Fischer has a prose style and “voice” that is intriguing, inviting, fascinating, and positive even when dealing with the negatives of history.

Never boring, (though a few of the sociological charts made my study eyes glaze over--glad I didn't have to assemble all those minute historical details on which Hackett based his historical conclusions:-)

Did I say this book is amazing?

There are so many new views and facts of American and British history, contrary interpretations of the Christian religion, and how all of those factors play out and shape culture and society, and how these influences carry over for generations, indeed for centuries up to and including our present day.

Read and gain new insight.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

How Many of Us in the West Are Robbing the Poor?

The Quaker William Penn wrote a striking line on social justice that reaches to the very depths of our conscience, does it not?

"If thou art clean and warm, it is sufficient, for more doth rob the poor."

William Penn, from Some Fruits of Solitude

Think of how many of our luxuries and our weapons and our expenses in the United States could totally eradicate all poverty.

Several years ago, one leader emphasized that only a small portion of what U.S. citizens spend on non-basic items could eliminate all the hunger in the world!

And consider that the many billions spent on weapons
could easily eradicate disease,
and hunger,
and inequality
in the
WHOLE
world.


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Corny Quaker Humor

Today, let’s take a break from all the spiritual reflection, historical commentary, and theological analysis, and instead tell a few jokes.

But I can’t until the Spirit moves me;-) Besides we haven’t formed at least 7 committees to discuss it. Then give us a ‘minute’ to write it all out and pass it on? Whatever happened to “Be still and know”?)

Yes, I do have my corny side. In junior high, joking was my first name. You see, I’m from Nebraska—“Shucks, yah, I’m a cornhusker from way back. Lots of corn…

--

‘Herd about’ the Quaker cowgirl, Patty, who got caught and surrounded in a stampede?

--

Or what about that young Quaker girl who didn’t want to move from Philadelphia to Erie, Pennsylvania on Halloween.

She started crying and blubbering, “But, Dad, it will be too eerie!”

--

Consider the case of the Quaker student about to take a test on William Penn. He turned around in his desk and asked the girl behind him, “Got a ‘pencil, Vania’?”
--

This is a long one like so many teachers' lectures;-):

Or how about the 2 college freshmen? Their professor was lecturing, “When William Penn founded a colony in America, he chose the name Sylvania (forest or woods in Latin). But King Charles II chose otherwise and named it Pennsylvania for William’s father.”

“Even though Penn was of British aristocratic heritage, his conversion to faith in Christ, led him to seek to live a humble, altruistic life. Because of his honesty and respect toward the Indians, there was peace in Pennsylvania between the Indians and European immigrants for about 50 years!”

“But then came the next generation of Quakers. They didn’t live in the Light of God, but instead focused on themselves and cheated the Indians of much land. Then they worried about the various tribes attacking.”

Finally, the professor asked the class, “Do you see how the colony changed for the worse when the colonists turned from the Way of God?”

“Yes,” piped up a freshman, the later Quakers were “pensive-vain--

Yah” butted in another student.
--

Did you hear the one about the Quaker who raised ducks but didn’t like how they kept saying “Quack, quack.”

So he gave them crackers each time he got them to stop saying “quack, quack.” But then they started padding about his yard squawking, “Quacker, Quacker!”

Finally, he switched to feeding them with oats but wouldn't you know it, they squawked, “‘Quacker’ Oats!”
--

There is an old Quaker joke about a stranger who came into a Quaker meeting. Nothing was happening, so the man leaned over and asked one of the Friends, "When is the service going to start?"

The Friend whispered back, "The service will start outside after the end of worship."
--

What are the only 2 musical instruments that Quakers disapprove of? ‘Sax and violins.’
--

Heard about the Friendly little kitty who came into meeting, but got stepped on, and screeched, “Me-Owie”?

"Shhh," said the clerk. "This isn't a Pentecostal meeting!"

--

There was this elderly Quaker man who had constipation troubles. When he took his young pup out for a walk in the neighborhood, the puppy suddenly squatted, then turned and looked and barked, “Bow-el, wow!”

--


Lastly, there’s the Quaker store manager who refused to sell liquor, at least he said, not until he was in the “Spirits.”

Instead, he sold tea—and sold so much of that he loved totaling up his earnings!

Because you see, he was a ‘tea-totaler.’


Lightsomely,

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

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