tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post7488277964740417611..comments2024-03-24T11:30:08.199-07:00Comments on Can you believe?: A tale of two booksJohan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-75415753375292659772009-09-30T17:19:17.102-07:002009-09-30T17:19:17.102-07:00The critical word is "level" in this sen...The critical word is "level" in this sentence: "Kelly says that in this fellowship, cultural, educational, national, and racial distinctions are made level."<br />Too often, we seem to believe that the goal is to eliminate the distinctions.Paul Buckleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-62187458357150132482009-09-26T00:21:07.422-07:002009-09-26T00:21:07.422-07:00PS: By "white majority" I'm referrin...PS: By "white majority" I'm referring to the first two-thirds of our history, before the rise of the East and Central African yearly meetings.Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-38622952147015769792009-09-25T22:53:35.826-07:002009-09-25T22:53:35.826-07:00Hi, Bill. That's great theory. I was really as...Hi, Bill. That's great theory. I was really asking a rhetorical question, perhaps your reply was also rhetorical. The book <i>Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship</i> pointed out that the majority of Friends were apparently not living in the full social potential of their faith. I believe the sad reality is that this is true of most or all religious communities. For better or worse, we're never simultaneously all living in the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God, able to resist the pressures of unredeemed society to compromise, deny, objectify. The job of the prophet, in part, is to pierce our complacency and reawaken us to the spiritual and ethical dimensions of our claimed allegiance.<br /><br />What, in return, does the community owe the prophet? Encouragement? Oversight? What are our prophets telling us now that, as a community, we're evaluating, accepting, rejecting, ignoring?<br /><br />I could be asking these questions about the whole Christian church, but the tiny size of our own Quaker community tempts me to think we could be a useful test bed for the larger church. Our theology honors the immediate leadings of God, but what evidence do we have that God is getting through to us now--in comparison, for example, to the centuries we (speaking primarily of the white majority now) remained oblivious to the demands of racial justice?Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-56926283684673432112009-09-24T18:27:42.777-07:002009-09-24T18:27:42.777-07:00"What proportion of the constituents of a hea..."What proportion of the constituents of a healthy community should be prophets?"<br /><br />The proportion God chooses for that community at that time.Bill Samuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00752443575410023776noreply@blogger.com