Quaker Universalist Fellowship

by Anthony Manousos

Zablon Isaac Malenge, one of the leading theologians of Kenya and former General Secretary of Nairobi Yearly Meeting,  had a remarkable take on missionaries and the universal basis of Quakerism:  

“I will tell you a mystery. Many people in this world are practicing Quakerism without being aware of it. Some have never heard of it and yet they are practicing it. Even our great-grandparents might have practiced Quakerism long before missionaries came here. Quakerism is a religion of the soul, the indwelling Spirit, the light within, the light of Christ, the Seed. Missionaries did not bring it to us, but the missionaries revealed it to us and said, ‘This is Quakerism.’” (Early Christianity Revised in the Perspective of Friends in Kenya, Diana’s Book Library Services,Kenya, 2003, rev. 2012, p. 79).

Malenge describes Quakerism as an “old practical religion” that preceded the arrival of Europeans to Africa. It is the religion not of John or Paul, but of James, the practical apostle, whose letter was a favorite with Quakers. James wrote: “faith without works is dead” and “true religion means taking care of the widows and orphans, and remaining unspotted by the world.” Similarly, Malenge writes:

“When Quaker Missionaries came to Africa, and revealed Quakerism to our people, many lesser-known individuals discovered that they had been Quakers long before they had heard of this new movement. They had been caring for one another with compassion, they had aided each other in times of need and trouble and they had been providing companionship in their small communities. They had elders in their communities who handled conflict resolution through dialogue and counseling. Those who were offended were encouraged to reconcile with their offenders and so they forgave one another, loved their neighbors and exercised fairness and justice in their societies.”

Can this practical mysticism be a basis for uniting? After spending time in Kenya among Evangelical Friends, it is clear that Quakers cannot unite on the basis of theology alone, though we have surprisingly more in common than we might imagine, once we learn the art of theological translation. We cannot unite on the basis of silent worship (as Howard Brinton used to claim) since most Friends in Africa, Latin America and Asia worship with music and even dance, and with long sermons and precious little silence. Perhaps we can unite through a common commitment to serve, in the spirit of what Albert Schweizer called “ethical mysticism.” The idea that Quakerism is about service, not simply contemplation, is an old one. As William Penn wrote: “True religion does not draw men out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.”

The world needs a religion that can unite us in service rather than divide us through dogma. I was pleased to see evidence of this approach in western Kenya where liberal and Evangelical Friends are working together to practice the Peace Testimony in ways I found inspiring. Over 10,000 Kenyans have been trained in Alternatives to Violence (AVP). Hundreds have been trained as AVP trainers. Others have been trained in community organizing, trans-formative mediation and trauma healing and reconciliation. These are small, grass root projects but they have enormous implications for Africa, where violence is still endemic. Through Quaker projects like these, the seeds of peace are being planted. Perhaps, like the Green Belt movement, these seeds will grow and begin to change the culture so that elections can be peaceful, and justice can be attained without resorting to mob violence. We already are seeing signs of such change.

In Turbo, one of the most violent areas of Western Kenya, Quakers reached out to the beleaguered Muslim community and welcomed them into an Interfaith Peace Task Force. Issa, the iman of Turbo, a city of 200,000 with a population of only 200 or so Muslims, told us that during the post-election violence, Muslim stores and homes were burned and the tiny Muslim community had to hide out in their mosque and the police station.

“The Quakers were the only Christians to reach out to us,” explained Issa. He was so impressed by the Quakers that he himself took AVP and other training and now he is training his fellow Muslims in such techniques.

We don’t have statistical evidence that these projects turn communities around, but we do have anecdotal evidence that husbands who take such AVP training treat their wives with more kindness. That’s an important start!

Can we agree that we, as Quakers, are universally called to be peacemakers? Quakerism teaches that true peace begins within ourselves, and in our communities, and then can be spread to where it’s needed—to a world torn apart by violence, selfishness, and greed—a world that desperately needs to connect with the “indwelling Spirit, the light within, the light of Christ, the Seed.” It is this universal Light which calls us to faithful action, to be true peacemakers, no matter what the cost, wherever we are, whether in Africa or in our own backyard.

 To find out more about what Quakers are doing to promote peace in Eastern Africa, see http://aglifpt.org/

In March,  Mike Shell wrote of learning to listen and be understood amid diverse spiritual paths and language in “Listening in Tongues”.  At www.quakerquaker.org, Paula Deming raises her quandry of talking about God in her Meeting, in her post “Why does my faith journey threaten yours?” :

I ask the question above, because for some reason many Friends say they don’t feel safe if I use “God” language in their presence. No matter how gentle I am in explaining that I am merely using language that best describes my understanding of the Divine Mystery, others wish to silence me because they are uncomfortable.

But isn’t this the same as claiming that gay marriage threatens marriage between a man and a woman? Isn’t that what these “defense of marriage” bills are claiming? What does one have to do with the other?

Friends, I have taken great joy in this conversation. I have also taken joy in the conversations our meeting is having on our Facebook page. We are really examining “God talk,” and talking about our journeys and feelings. I have to believe that this is very important for Friends to do, no matter how painful it might be for us.

I keep coming back to Isaac Penington:

For our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations against another, but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.

This is such simple and loving guidance for us. Primitive Christianity Revived. By these means we fulfill the Spirit, whose fruits are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22)

Yours in Faith and Love, Paula

How do you or your Meeting mediate language about God or Spirit?  Is there “love, and peace, and tenderness”?  What are the varieties of language used to describe spiritual experience?   Is this a topic you discuss or would like to discuss in your Meeting or spiritual circle?

Gail Rogers

from Gail Rogers

The Word Conference of Friends ends this week in Kenya.  There is a study guide and study circles forming through the website at http://saltandlight2012.org/.  QUF’s Anthony Manousos  and Lyn Cope are there now, and we can look forward to hearing from them!

Holmes Rolston III, Three Big Bangs: Matter-Energy, Life, Mind, (Columbia University Press, 2010)

by Larry Spears

We lack a story of the universe.  Genesis is the story of this world.  The first words of the Gospel of John give hinting comfort to Quakers about the origin of the universe.  But, we do not yet have a story of the universe.

In this quest for a story of the universe, religious leaders are hampered by the fear of reaching beyond their particular tradition and they fear to identify a story that will be found inconsistent with the partial stories of their traditions and sacred texts.  There is a struggle within religions over the universally recognized sources of religious authority (tradition (including scriptures) experience and reason) in developing a sound story of the universe.  It is a tough struggle.

From the number of recently published books, scientists appear to feel freer to offer a story of the universe.  There have been several propounded.  To date, none have gathered much critical mass support.  Holmes Rolston’s Three Big Bangs: Matter-Energy, Life, Mind is one such effort to tell the story of the universe.

Holmes Rolston is a professor of philosophy at Colorado State University and a recipient of the Templeton Prize for his work in relating science and religion.  He also is a Gifford Lecturer. These awards give him stature in both scientific circles and in religious circles.  In this book, he seeks to develop the story that we lack.  Also, he is a Presbyterian minister and a founder of the academic field of environmental ethics.

The story of the universe that Rolston offers is simple.  There are three big events in the history of the universe, or three “big bangs” as his title indicates.  The first bang is the astrophysical beginning of the universe, as we know it, with the appearance of matter and energy. The second bang is the origin of life on this particular globe.  The third bang is the beginning of the mind in the human species.

Sometimes, authors are inclined to distort their text by offering a slick title.  The use of “Big Bang” is an accepted popular reference to the origin of the universe.  The idea of three big bangs is intriguing.  But, these bangs are only particular metaphors selected by the author as notable in the story of the universe. While these bangs are important, they do not feel fully comprehensive.  For example, where are the full dimensions of space and time?

Regarding these particular selected important bangs, Rolston is not wrong, but his treatment is incomplete.  Regarding the first bang origin of the universe, he does not fully recognize the possibility that this bang is but one of many prior and simultaneous universe origins that are repetitive and cyclical in an even larger cosmic framework in space and history. Regarding the second bang of life, there is little clarity about the precise definition of life and about the possibility of other, non-carbon based, life forms.  Regarding the third bang, Rolston does not recognize the possibility that consciousness and mind has occurred in other species first, and does occur now, in other species in parallel with humans.

Rolston argues for the anthropic principle that “mind” underlies the universe because so much of the reality of the universe had to be as it is in order for humans to exist in the universe.  Rolston celebrates the heights of the human mind.  He is awed in its contemplation.  However, he seems unconcerned with the human care and compassion for healing that world and with the human abilities to meet the challenges of human sustainability.

This book is short at 160 pages, with 12 pages of bibliography and a good index.  Rolston organizes this book in three chapters.  In each, he seeks to describe the significance for humans of each of these three bangs placed in the context of a universal evolution process.  Within each chapter, there are numerical facts that boggle the mind and are effective in impressing your mother.  The numbers of atoms in a person (10²⁸) and the number of human thoughts (10^{70 billion}) in a lifetime are big numbers.

Rolston sees a predestination of the universe as it is. He is circumspect about it, but that is his view.  The alternative explanation of chance is finally too uncomfortable for his view.  Rolston also tilts to the view that humans are unique and distinctive relative to other animals and plants, despite growing contrary scientific evidence of consciousness and interior lives in other species.  Rolston argues that there is a discrete boundary between the human mind and those animals with no mind, if such animals exist.

Recognizing that humans value the human mind, Rolston asserts, but does not justify, the high and singular regard in which he holds the human mind as the apex of reality.  His argument is the circular argument that we who do the valuing find that we are the most valuable.  Trout would make the parallel argument for their apex status.  We Homos are the ones who define that we are the sapiens.

Among human cultures, Rolston prefers the current scientific culture as the best, but without persuasive explanation, except that is where his experience lies.  In his view, less scientific cultures are lesser in value.  It is true that other human cultures do not currently do our science, but that current difference does not justify a subordinate priority designation.

This book is an example of a real and earnest quest for a story of the universe.  This one is flawed, but it indicates the struggle of big minds to comprehend and explain.  In order to avoid smugness, if the Rolston story is finally unsatisfactory, what we can say is that this is a story of the universe of which we are a part.  Then, how do we communicate that story of the universe to Quaker children?  Rolston’s effort is significant as a standard against which we can measure our story of the universe.  In the absence of a story of our own, Rolston’s story shines alone.

In the very last sentence at the end of the book, Rolston makes reference to our not being alone in the universe.  We are accompanied by a larger Presence.  This last gesture will be interpreted as a gesture offered to funders who are committed to showing the existence of God, which may be unfair.  But, positively, this last reference to an accompanying Presence shows the elemental human desire to make sense of the universe and to see understanding and purpose in the universe.  The fact that we have not yet found that powerful story is not a reason to celebrate its absence.

We cannot leave this task of formulating the story of the universe to Rolston alone or wait for another brilliant mind to discern the story of the universe.  This is a task that each person must address.  We can rely only weakly on the incomplete stories of our traditions.  In the silence, we must seek to pass through the awe of humanity to understanding and then turn this experience into communication with others, particularly as we seek to adjust our practice to our newly clarified faith.  This is a universal task with universal benefits.  What is our alternative story of the universe?

by Gail Rogers

During my 35 years as a Friend, I have heard various people say “I don’t fit in because I am a Christian,” or  “I don’t feel welcome because I am not Christian,” or “I feel connected to nature in my spirituality but I don’t talk about it because Friends will think I am strange., ”   On occasion I have asked myself whether I am really a Quaker; do I qualify, and by whose standard?

My vision for Quaker universalism is that of a “free space” where we can feel safe to speak our truth, ask hard questions and explore in safety – where we all belong.  A lack of trust inhibits our worship, our verbal sharing, and our own spiritual growth as we develop and test our leadings in community.  If we believe that the Light is within all of us, why do so many of us hide our Light from each other?   How many of us are worried about feeling accepted and our own unique spirituality respected?

The Quaker Universalist Fellowship can foster a safe forum for sharing, exploring and experimentation among our own participants.  This already happens in the QUF Yahoo group, and we have the opportunity to have expanded discussion on this blog.  What steps can we take to foster dialog?

We can also encourage a dialog between Friends with diverse paths within Quakerism.   I suspect that most, if not all Friends who participate with Quaker Universalists are part of the more liberal, unprogrammed branches of Friends.  We can take the lead fostering sharing among Friends from the many branches of the Quaker tree.   How can we be more inclusive?

Quaker Universalism includes participation with denominations and religions outside of Quakerism. Quakers frequently participate in interfaith efforts and projects based on common values. How can we, as Quaker Universalists, foster interfaith dialog in a free space with peace, safety, and deep listening?

As I consider this vision of fostering a “free space” for dialog regarding our spiritual journeys, I am wondering how those of you who read this blog feel about this matter.  Do you share my feelings about the need for this?  Do you share my vision for fostering dialog as a role for QUF?   What other thoughts arise on this topic as you read this?

by Anthony Manousos

For the past six years I have been the official Quaker representative to Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (icujp.org), which was started by religious leaders in Los Angeles after 9/11 with the motto: “Religious communities must stop blessing war and violence.”

Each Friday morning 40-50 of us gather at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, listen to speakers, share ideas, and plan programs to promote peace and justice. Over the years we have become what Martin Luther King called a “beloved community.” Last fall, I was arrested with 14 members of ICUJP, a “bonding experience” I will never forget.

Another less dramatic, but no less profound way we bond as a community is to share our reflections,which include spiritual, political, and autobiographical elements. Through these reflections we catch a glimpse of the inner and personal life of our fellow activists and are often amazed and moved by what is shared in this special moments.

For me, ICUJP is “Universalism in practice” as well as what Douglas Steere called “mutual irradiation.”  Through our reflections and our struggles for peace and justice, we discover our common values and our shared hopes for a better world. We also come to appreciate each other’s difference, and to love each other for being different. As Friedrich Nietzsche wisely observed:  ”What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?”

Because I find these reflections so meaningful and enjoyable, I decided to start a blog so that others might catch a glimpse of what are Friday morning sessions are like and what a fascinating group of people Spirit has drawn together.  I recommend checking out Icujpblog.net where you will see entries such as these:

March 16, 2012
“The Right to Wear (or Not to Wear) a Head Scarf”
by Stephen Rohde, Chair of ICUJP (and member of Death Penalty Focus, Progressive Jewish Alliance, and ACLU) writes: “At a time when women are being raped and exploited around the world and defiled at home as “sluts” and ‘prostitutes’ for defending contraception, conservative columnist Dennis Prager recently chose to devote his column to the topic of head scarfs….”

*****

 March 15, 2012
Remembering Rachel Corrie
by Rev. Darrel Myers, a retired Presbyterian minister active with Sabeel and other pro-Palestinian causes, pays tribute to this brave young woman. “This Friday, March 16th, is the ninth anniversary of the bulldozer killing of Rachel Corrie in the Gaza Strip. The 23- year-old from Olympia, Washington, was trying to block the demolition of yet another Palestinian home…”

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March 14, 2012
“Dancing in an Earthquake”
Reflection of Rita Lowenthal on her 85th birthday. “I’m not quite sure how this happened—why I decided to use my reflection time to celebrate my 85th birthday with you. It feels a little egocentric—my women friends are giving me a luncheon–the family is having two …” Rita, who authored a moving book about her son’s struggle with heroin addiction, gives a fascinating, funny and wise talk about aging and coping with a 96 year old husband whom she loves dearly and who has Atzheimer’s. And she also has a passion for peace and justice that shines through her talk….

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March 12, 2012
Protesting unfair foreclosure, single mom is fined and given probation
by Anthony Manousos. I talk about the case of Rose Gudiel, who was arrested along with eight other protesters at a bank which was trying to foreclose on her home without just cause. The bank relented and she saved her home, but the City Attorney of Pasadena prosecuted her….

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March 10, 2012
An Atheist Affirmation of Activism
by Bonnie Blustein, a college professor and Unitarian Universalist, discusses how her atheist “faith” animates her commitment to struggle for justice and peace.

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March 9, 2012
“Demilitarize the Pacific…”
So says Carol Urner, well-known Quaker peace activist, a 80+-year-old who inspired us with her passion for peacemaking.

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March 8, 2012
“Moral injury”
One of the often overlooked psychological effects of war was discussed by Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a retired Methodist minister who is active with Process Theology.

George Levine, ed., The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now (Princeton University Press, 2011)

By Larry Spears

Properly viewed, this book, George Levine, ed., The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now should be titled Affirmation of Secularism: 11 essays addressing, but not solving, how we live now.  The book’s cover is cute in making visual reference to the cookbook, The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer.  The implication is that secularism is a kind of recipe for happiness, wellbeing, ecstasy and stewardship of community life.

The editor is George Levine.  The writer contributors are Philip Kitcher, Charles Taylor, Bruce Robbins, William Connolly, Adam Phillips, Paolo Costa, Frans de Waal, David Sloan Wilson, Robert Richards and Rebecca Stott.  These are not household names in our house, but I should be more familiar with their work.  They are serious, substantive seekers trying to apply their understanding and experience to lives lived in community with others.

The book has a similar theme to The Secular City by Harvey Cox (1971) in celebrating the secular perspective.   However, this book celebrates secularism as an alternative to religion, whereas the Cox book celebrates the secular world as the location for the action of the sacred.

The authors in this book share a common theme that, as they observe them, religions are, on balance, obstacles to fullness of life in this world and unhelpful in addressing the mysteries of the future.  Yet, the authors generally recognize that religions provide the human need for community that must be matched by the secular. For their parts, this new secularism is the beneficial replacement.

The real enemies of these authors are literal understandings of traditional religious doctrines (Kitcher), reductive religious accounts of human life (Taylor), arrogant religious certainty and pursuit of enchantment (Robbins), impractical religious wisdom (Connolly), the distractions of exclusive religious perspective (Phillips), religious humorlessness (Costa), religious essentialism (de Waal and Wilson), religious denial of the reality of evolution (Wilson) and religious denial of secular enchantment (Richards and Stott).  Yet, these obstacles are fully acknowledged and opposed by the religious perspective, but we recognize that these obstacles are poorly addressed, articulated and implemented by religions.  These are common challenges for all humans.

What these authors are groping for, along with the rest of us, is a common understanding of reality and a common human approach to dealing with the other in daily life as individuals and as communities.

The book provides helpful endnotes and a generally good index and background summary on each featured author.   The oddity is that the index refers to Ayn Rand, which is not accurate.  To my reading, Ayn Rand is never mentioned in the book and, certainly, not on the referenced pages.

Doubting is a universal of the human condition.  We may or may not share doubting with other animals and plants, but we share it among ourselves.  This is true whether we identify our religious affinity with any religion or atheism or anywhere in between.  Doubting is not pain, just uncertainty.  Doubting is a universal among humans.  Neither religions (any religion) nor atheism definitively answers the questions about purpose in the cosmos and the meaning of lives individually and collectively.  We all do the best we can with our experience, tradition, reason and reflection.

A contrasting view is that there is design and purpose in the cosmos, including this universe, and in each person’s, animal’s and plant’s life and, as a consequence, all of us can trust in the management of the time and later conditions in death, over which we have no personal control.  In what we call a condition of grace, time will go on no matter what happens to us.  These are traditionally theological issues with theological answers, couched in human language as best they are understood in the contemporary situation.  They generate general apprehension and fear in the hiddenness and development of answers.  The present uncertainty in many is not a loss, but a gain in clarified understanding.  We are disenchanted (freed from magic), which is good.  We move in a rational, scientific and secular world and may feel nostalgic for a more dominantly religious past.

Can secularism offer us moral, aesthetic and spiritual understanding of reality and the future?  The Joy of Secularism seeks to model a balanced and thoughtful approach for understanding an enlightened, sympathetic and relevant secularist alternative to religion for our lives.  The book brings together diverse and thoughtful writers, including historians, philosophers and scientists.  To this task, these authors assert that secularism provides a more positive approach and a fuller vision of the natural and complex world, but without miracles or supernatural interventions or religious teaching.  They believe that this combined approach and vision is richer, more honest and more accurate than what is offered by any current religions.

The philosophy, evolutionary biology, primate study, psychoanalysis, Darwin and poetry perspectives in this essay collection examine a range of approaches for achieving a condition of personal fullness as they address the meaning, justice, spirituality and wonder of life.

This book seeks to occupy the center of the debate.  In their view, this is the space vacated by both religionists and atheists.  They assert tolerance and respect for diverse traditions of religious practice and state their alternatives in a measured style. We might call this the “soft secularism.”

Setting aside the categories of intelligent design and the New Atheists, the contributors make the case for a secular view that embraces awe, wonder and reflects passion, emotional integration, mystical satisfaction, happiness, enchantment and ethical discernment and argues for their secular foundation of a purely secular life that is meaningful and fulfilling. It may surprise the reader that such questions are still under debate, but these issues of secular stories still resonate in many hearts and minds.

The premise of this book is that there is an enchantment deficiency or a need for reenchantment that is available through secularism and that this approach is better because it relieves us of the burdens of religion and religious efforts to explain all mysteries. They recognize that there are aspects of traditional religions that must be captured by secularism through humanism to provide fullness in this world and confidence for the next.  These authors offer to replace religious reassurance with a group of opportunities for community involvement.

This book contains thoughtful perspective offered as alternatives to those traditionally offered by religions.  They join religionists in addressing the universal issues faced by all humans.  Secularists and religionists are in the same family that recognizes these issues.  Most of the rest of us do not.

The premise of this book is that secularism and religion are contrasting perspectives, separate and distinct.  But, secularism is not rightly contrasted with religion.  They are different perspectives and emphases in a shared, universal human search.  Both self-styled religionists and self-styled secularists recognize the other, notwithstanding denials.  Both religion and secularism recognize the reality of the current scientific description of the cosmos and its processes.  Both secularism and religion recognize the reality of the numinous and mystery in human experience, that the arrow of time has direction and that there is an imminence of undescribed presence and influence in events and practice.  While both secularists and religionists are awkward in using language to describe and explain these universal human experiences, this book is one of the best efforts by secularists to share their perspectives on our universal human experiences.