Am I a Quaker?
A couple years ago, I started diligently looking for a spiritual practice. In that search I found the Quakers (The Religious Society of Friends) and took an instant liking to the group. On my list this year was to learn more about the faith.
As I learn about it, I like it more and more because there are things that Quakers believe (or at least a portion of them do) that I hadn’t realized others believed. To learn more, I’ve read a couple of books on it and talked with other Friends about their beliefs.
Going into a long list of what exactly Quakerism is is not feasible for a couple of reasons. One, this is a blog and not the right medium for that. Two, Quakers don’t have a solid list of beliefs. There’s little that is universal to all Quakers. So, below is a sampling of some of the commonalities across most Quakers that resonate with me.
No creed
As I said in my original blog on religion, I don’t think there is any single “truth” about God. Quakers don’t have a set of beliefs that everyone agrees to. You can pretty much believe whatever you want.
This can also be a detriment because if you move and switch meetings, you might not find what you’ve grown comfortable with. About 2/3 of Quakers in America are Evangelical meetings. From the sounds of it, these Quakers are essentially like any ol’ protestant Christian denomination. That’s not what I’m looking for.
Equality
Quakers are big into equality, which manifests in a variety of ways:
- No priests — there’s no clergy amongst the Quakers. Everyone has the same level of “access” to God as anyone else.
- No titles — Titles set people apart. This practice was probably more important when there was a formal aristocracy, but it’s still an interesting thing to think about. Why do we call doctors “Doctor”? It only drives inequality between people.
- Consensus — Meetings for business look for consensus from the whole group. This isn’t majority rule and it isn’t voting. It’s letting the God direct the group and trying to understand the underlying feeling of the group.
The Inner Light
The Inner Light is one of the few common beliefs across all Quakers. The inner light is the belief that there is God in everyone. This goes back to having no priests; there’s no class of people that are better at communing with God than any other. The inner light is part of us all.
Living in the Present
One of the appealing things about atheism is its emphasis on the here and now and we shouldn’t be living for a “better” life afterwards. Quakerism also focuses on this life and doesn’t pay much heed to heaven and hell. The thought process is more that we have no idea what comes later but we do know that God is in each and every person and we should be experiencing that.
We focus on whether we are living, at this very moment, in the presence and power of God
The meeting
The meetings I’ve attended (one in Omaha and one in London), both start with an hour of silence followed by a discussion topic for the day. I love both aspects. An hour of silence is so rare these days. Having this long alone with your thoughts can be nerve racking at first, but that illustrates the importance.
The discussion topic is so much better than a normal sermon since it’s interactive. There’s a topic of discussion and everyone participates. I suppose a lot of churches handle this need with Sunday school, but I like this better.
Peace
A strong peace testimony is not something I knew I was looking for until I found it. If you know anything about Quakers, it’s that they’re strong pacifists. The more I think about it, especially in relation to current events, the more I think a strict pacifist stance is the only moral stance.
I still struggle with this, but I have definitely notice how pervasive violence is in our culture. Just take one day to try to notice how many violent phrases are in our lives, “attack this problem”, “war on drugs”, etc. Violence is everywhere, and it shouldn’t be.
Weird
I’ve discovered that I like being weird. Being a Quaker definitely adds to that weirdness because it’s so out of the mainstream religions. There are only about 100,000 Quakers in the US, so hardly anyone knows much about them. There are a few other random weird things that I just love:
- Oaths — Historically, many Quakers have refused to take oaths. The feeling is that by taking an oath to tell the truth, it implies that you’re not speaking truth the rest of the time. It’s kind of an F-you to the man.
- “Meetings” — Saying “meeting” is somehow both cooler and lamer than saying “church”.
- No hymns — Seriously, they’re dumb.
- Cargo pants — I fit right in here.
I still don’t know if I want to become an “official” Quaker, but I’m still open to it. I’m trying to attend Meeting more frequently and will be looking to learn more what becoming an official member means.
