tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72171992024-03-16T11:50:32.817-07:00Can you believe?<strong>Fifth-day commentaries,</strong><br>published every Thursday (mostly)Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger1069125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-37004311766339736902024-03-14T22:51:00.000-07:002024-03-14T22:51:02.124-07:00"... Nature cannot be fooled," part two.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKIsRpLPSBb93q1D8g0d6jpuhpVsuHno95qMm1R8PRCf3OFct7JofLnRdzLfewYoTsUsBxidvQ8Vz1a4wOdld0Bjrpol7x2G_ZMlvf5Ofy5FI8TN7VvFcmbSBCoo8nZ-MgKXQkZQsOp_QNSKGruS7K7WdJBs5D0D8CoY_HTL-FhQaqLf6j1N_-Q/s3264/Selfie%20on%20train%20PXL_20231020_172811132.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1836" data-original-width="3264" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKIsRpLPSBb93q1D8g0d6jpuhpVsuHno95qMm1R8PRCf3OFct7JofLnRdzLfewYoTsUsBxidvQ8Vz1a4wOdld0Bjrpol7x2G_ZMlvf5Ofy5FI8TN7VvFcmbSBCoo8nZ-MgKXQkZQsOp_QNSKGruS7K7WdJBs5D0D8CoY_HTL-FhQaqLf6j1N_-Q/w640-h360/Selfie%20on%20train%20PXL_20231020_172811132.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"> Selfie on the train from Birmingham to London, last autumn.</div><p>Tomorrow I'll be on the train again, going to Klamath Falls, Oregon. This evening I have a pounding headache, so I'm taking the day off and not posting on this blog. As I said last week, "nature cannot be fooled."</p><p>I'm scheduled to give a message at Spokane Friends Meeting on March 24, and I am feeling a strong leading to speak on the theme of hope. It must be a leading; I don't actually want to address this them. Feel free to pray and advise!</p><p><br /></p>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-60162390291683140062024-03-07T23:59:00.000-08:002024-03-08T12:18:33.087-08:00"...Nature cannot be fooled"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsHB7a4iGNSLeiJAI_I0Gtfk29qpi4ZtUC0Z21U9mGOZFDpuedU1KjAkQ8Og3WF6dadjh7g_XLQaPFb8Ehu0vRhQHmqgp5fuz68ByQzYX3fjRvry58rqGrVYESIVb6PsMTBh3SbZ0U-LYhlG2lWPXqsEKenRXSYQfoGmS6X8jKx-qd2q22-pZVg/s3426/Ship-sunset-20160530_224830v2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1966" data-original-width="3426" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJsHB7a4iGNSLeiJAI_I0Gtfk29qpi4ZtUC0Z21U9mGOZFDpuedU1KjAkQ8Og3WF6dadjh7g_XLQaPFb8Ehu0vRhQHmqgp5fuz68ByQzYX3fjRvry58rqGrVYESIVb6PsMTBh3SbZ0U-LYhlG2lWPXqsEKenRXSYQfoGmS6X8jKx-qd2q22-pZVg/w640-h368/Ship-sunset-20160530_224830v2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Sea sunset.</td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyDSfx_bt6Pyv_KCIFhv0y1C40U64Z6uVwER_JnZgewIaxnqXIn6lKMG4SZA7vkL6xtqVDznWhLpEnL0KmG9cOMUHBUcOJjVGajm6XloTq7wbHjdl-Ana49DiKLHiiiUM1u2Hfs86CFmAM0CYVfgwSX4QTYAr03j4x-3CIUicBqHD7dEz2QGf5w/s1950/20200118_Global_warming_and_climate_change_-_vertical_block_diagram_-_causes_effects_feedback.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1950" data-original-width="1775" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijyDSfx_bt6Pyv_KCIFhv0y1C40U64Z6uVwER_JnZgewIaxnqXIn6lKMG4SZA7vkL6xtqVDznWhLpEnL0KmG9cOMUHBUcOJjVGajm6XloTq7wbHjdl-Ana49DiKLHiiiUM1u2Hfs86CFmAM0CYVfgwSX4QTYAr03j4x-3CIUicBqHD7dEz2QGf5w/s320/20200118_Global_warming_and_climate_change_-_vertical_block_diagram_-_causes_effects_feedback.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_impact_on_the_environment" target="_blank">Source</a></i>. </td></tr></tbody></table><i>The dream is almost always the same</i>. I'm out in the open country. There's a roar overhead, and I see a missile crossing the sky, and I instantly know it's carrying a nuclear warhead. It's on its way to a target somewhere behind me. I take off and run. There's a blinding flash and the dream ends.<p></p><p>Well, occasionally I manage to dive into a depression, feel the heat and shock pass by, shake off the dust, and realize that I've apparently survived. <i>Then</i> the dream ends.</p><p>I've continued to have these dreams since childhood. They're stored in my brain alongside memories of the Cuban missile crisis, air raid shelter signs, the air raid siren tests every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., and classroom instructions on what to do during a nuclear attack. </p><p>On March 26, 1970, our high school classes were canceled owing to a snowstorm, but I was already at school. One class had scheduled a viewing of the British pseudo-documentary <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game" target="_blank">The War Game</a></b></i>, portraying a fictional nuclear attack on the UK. The teacher decided to offer a viewing to anyone interested. Not really wanting to trudge two and a half miles back home in the snow, I joined the audience, and got many more searing images for my apocalyptic dreams.</p>
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<p>We are not yet really free from <b><a href="https://tomdispatch.com/unilateral-sanity-could-save-the-world/" target="_blank">the threat of nuclear warfare</a></b>, but the shadow of another threat has become at least equally prominent in our times: global ecological catastrophe. The first threat may seem more vivid and immediate; some would argue that the second may be more inevitable in the long run. Has this second threat—climate change's worst scenarios—become our younger generations' version of nuclear dread?</p><p>Although both threats originate in a sort of shortsighted human arrogance, there are important differences between them. The decision to use nuclear weapons is in the hands of specific human beings who are, or should be, perfectly capable of choosing not to use them. (Of course I'm glossing over the possibilities of miscalculations, insanity, and equipment failures.) Nuclear war is not inevitable, whereas ecological degradation is already well underway. Human interventions to avoid catastrophe are possible at several points on the chart above ("Global warming and climate change"), and many scientists and activists have specified what those interventions should look like, but the track record of our species in acting at the required scale is not promising.</p><p>Sometimes I'm tempted to succumb to a doom mentality. For all we know, extinction might be inevitable no matter what we do. Countries and empires have come and gone, civilizations have perished, species have vanished. The planet itself will survive our misdeeds—as Richard Feynman reminded us in his <b><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/history/rogersrep/v2appf.htm" target="_blank">famous appendix</a></b> to the Rogers Commission investigation into the <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster" target="_blank">Challenger</a></b></i> explosion, "... nature cannot be fooled." However, at some point even planets will vanish into their dying suns. Our loving Creator will archive us one way or another (I vote for "heaven"!) but, short of that, nothing about our long-term future is guaranteed.</p>
<p>Before I reject doom entirely (you knew I would, right?), I found this article in <i>Scientific American</i> intriguing: <b><i><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyond-the-doom-and-gloom-heres-how-to-stimulate-climate-action/" target="_blank">Beyond the Doom and Gloom, Here's How to Stimulate Climate Action</a></i></b>, by Madalina Vlasceanu and Jay J. Van Bavel.</p>
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<p>Not everyone is a fan of the doom and gloom messaging. Climate scientists like Michael Mann have warned <b><a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/04/recent-readings-on-climate-doomerism-and-science/" target="_blank">against climate “doomerism,”</a></b> messaging that can depress and demoralize the public, assuming that helplessness will simply lead to further climate inaction. And the title of a new book by Hannah Ritchie states clearly that it’s <b><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Not-End-World-Generation-Sustainable/dp/031653675X" target="_blank">Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet</a></i></b>.</p>
<p>There is, however, some evidence that doom and gloom messaging can spur climate action, as long as it falls on the right ears at the right time. For example, research has found that climate <b><a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/distress-about-climate-change-and-climate-action/" target="_blank">distress</a></b>, climate <b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378023001048" target="_blank">anger</a></b> and climate <b><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494422001323" target="_blank">anxiety</a></b> are all associated with increased climate action under some circumstances.</p>
<p><i>[Links in original]</i></p>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibWQFeLoS8AClgg7iNLOmvaORuxE4wvt4B2PpH4pFos-1MeybNSl-0iyMaK-yXGqqU4lj13MHCNmRF-DHFp0lTiY30nIZ9YLkFm8E8pVjx13Dke7KNrqvLijpdLBEWNYRp-pg-_1n00Ba-s9QgaZNuXw0BqZBWHTlHvjBWiGgbPLNEOe5yzAum4g/s863/Bock-cover.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibWQFeLoS8AClgg7iNLOmvaORuxE4wvt4B2PpH4pFos-1MeybNSl-0iyMaK-yXGqqU4lj13MHCNmRF-DHFp0lTiY30nIZ9YLkFm8E8pVjx13Dke7KNrqvLijpdLBEWNYRp-pg-_1n00Ba-s9QgaZNuXw0BqZBWHTlHvjBWiGgbPLNEOe5yzAum4g/s320/Bock-cover.png" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://barclaypress.corecommerce.com/A-Quaker-Ecology.html" target="_blank">paper edition</a>; <a href="https://barclaypress.corecommerce.com/A-Quaker-Ecology-digital.html" target="_blank">digital edition</a></b></td></tr></tbody></table>I'd like to recommend a better way. <b><a href="https://chericebock.com/" target="_blank">Cherice Bock</a></b>, an environmental scientist and theologian, and Quaker minister, has an alternative vision—one that has two major advantages over the doom mentality. She describes this vision in her short, carefully organized and well-written book, <i>A Quaker Ecology: Meditations on the Future of Friends</i>. <div><br /></div><div>The advantages of her approach: <p>First, her vision of an Eco-Reformation has great persuasive power. She anchors her vision in powerful biblical insights and the raw honesty of acknowledging the toxic effects of individualism, racism, and colonialism, even in our own Quaker histories. She writes beautifully about the healing effect of repentance and of reweaving ourselves into the ecology around us and within us through what she intriguingly calls "watershed discipleship." If a new, wider Reformation among people of faith adds to our united ability to reach the scales needed for crucial interventions, Cherice has made a valuable contribution toward that end.</p><p>Second, no matter how far we succeed in sharing this vision, no matter what the eventual outcome of our efforts to mitigate climate change might be,<i> this is how we should live along the way</i>. Cherice is blunt when she needs to be, but she personally models the power of honesty and a non-shaming repentance in describing, for example, the history of her own family on lands once inhabited by Indigenous nations. And her watershed awareness carries with it a sense of joy and embodiment.</p>
<p>Cherice subtitled her book, <i>Meditations on the Future of Friends</i>. Although I'm convinced that her theological and ecological insights have wide application beyond Quakers, the history and current state of Friends in the USA give an important context to her book—and give me a sense of positive urgency. As she says, "I was inspired by earlier generations of Friends; I want to be part of my own generation's faithfulness."</p>
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<p>Nancy Thomas looks at the patriarchs, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes ... and old age. "<b><a href="https://nancyjanethomas.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-tree-or-insect-differing-views-of.html" target="_blank">The tree or the insect</a></b>."</p><p>This link is hard to post. <a href="https://www.ashleymwilcox.com/blog/als" target="_blank"><b>Ashley Wilcox</b></a> tells us that ALS is likely to keep her from reaching old age.</p><p>More ripples, via Meduza, from the death and burial of Aleksei Navalny. <b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/03/05/the-world-doesn-t-know-how-to-stand-up-to-evil" target="_blank">Shura Burtin cautions us</a></b> against unrealistic faith in the "beautiful Russia of the future." On the other hand, here is a Russian university instructor who is <b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/03/06/i-m-tired-of-being-afraid" target="_blank">tired of being afraid</a></b>.</p><p>The documentary film <i>Butterfly in the Sky</i> celebrates the legacy of the long-running television show <i>Reading Rainbow</i>, which I remember watching with our kids. <b><a href="https://reactormag.com/butterfly-in-the-sky-trailer-celebrates-reading-rainbows-legacy/" target="_blank">Here's the trailer and context</a></b>. (Thanks to <b><a href="https://lithub.com" target="_blank">Lithub.com</a></b> for the link.)</p>
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<p>Michelle Birkballe (Denmark) covers Solomon Burke's classic "Cry to Me." (<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEu8DrO9PbY" target="_blank">Link to Burke's original</a></b>.)</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UKQuHZf14dw?si=HuyJDyrDSd5AJL9Y" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe></div>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-43617266892864577702024-02-29T23:15:00.000-08:002024-02-29T23:32:53.668-08:00Saying goodbye to Aleksei Navalny<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWmL9pz_DhZXxJDE4q8aSjJ_RWmVApNG5GfHpXwGbnTdhQIs51C9xordNdglHplfuu2NhH7OlsbI1YwJdJSolhAqafcnlEbOJC9kpW0NTWUhdL6oUAfmuO1YchtSyGlDnFP1mW5sx-2GuYhPQYlyZwPKlm-pGa0PlTji1DTTQsidvpGdmtd_20ag/s1197/Yulia%20and%20Aleksei%20Navalny%202015-photo-Sefa%20Karacan-Anadolu%20Agency-via%20Novaya%20Gazeta%20Eur.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1197" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWmL9pz_DhZXxJDE4q8aSjJ_RWmVApNG5GfHpXwGbnTdhQIs51C9xordNdglHplfuu2NhH7OlsbI1YwJdJSolhAqafcnlEbOJC9kpW0NTWUhdL6oUAfmuO1YchtSyGlDnFP1mW5sx-2GuYhPQYlyZwPKlm-pGa0PlTji1DTTQsidvpGdmtd_20ag/w640-h428/Yulia%20and%20Aleksei%20Navalny%202015-photo-Sefa%20Karacan-Anadolu%20Agency-via%20Novaya%20Gazeta%20Eur.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yulia and Aleksei Navalny (2015). <i>Photo: Sefa Karacan, Anadolu Agency via Novaya Gazeta Europe.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/02/29/surveillance-cameras-police-patrols-and-scaring-students" target="_blank">Surveillance cameras, street patrols, and scaring students</a>.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-navalny-cemetery-security/32842585.html" target="_blank">Security beefed up at Moscow cemetery where Navalny to be buried</a>.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/navalny-funeral-avoiding-police-crackdown/32842926.html" target="_blank">Rights group offers tips on avoiding police at funeral</a>.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;">"<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/29/i-feel-for-his-family-in-alexei-navalny-funeral-echoes-of-dissidents-past" target="_blank">They don't care about the optics</a>."</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ceVtpnK_Uo" target="_blank">Video stream of funeral</a>, scheduled to start tomorrow (Friday) at 4 a.m. US EST.</span></b></p>
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<p>By offering those links above, I intended to provide access to news coverage and commentary about the memorial events for Aleksei Navalny. I can't, and don't need to, compete with these sources.</p><p>Instead, I'd like to turn to one specific aspect of these events: their Christian context.</p><p>When I <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/02/the-gospel-according-to-al-sharpton.html" target="_blank">wrote about Al Sharpton</a></b>, I framed my comments in our common identity as Christian ministers, which allowed me, as a commentator, to dare to cross lines and rush in where angels might sensibly fear to tread. My goodbye to Navalny is in a similar context. With all the differences in our social locations, political circumstances, and all that, we are brothers in Christ.</p><p>Maggie Phillips urged us, in <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/02/22/alexei-navalny-christian-death-247369" target="_blank"><b>her article in <i>America</i></b></a>, not to ignore Navalny's Christian faith, as the news media usually do. (Thanks to <b><a href="https://www.faithonview.com/" target="_blank">Faith on View</a></b> for the link.) A fascinating sample of that faith came in the form of a statement by Navalny in a court hearing on February 20, 2021. Inga Leonova, in Public Orthodoxy, <b><a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2024/02/26/greater-love-navalny/" target="_blank">provides the full text</a></b> of that statement. You can hear the original recording <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMw-PHa1ytw" target="_blank">here</a></b>, and read Leonova's article in Russian <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/ru/2024/02/26/%d0%bd%d0%b5%d1%82-%d0%b1%d0%be%d0%bb%d1%8c%d1%88%d0%b5-%d1%82%d0%be%d0%b9-%d0%bb%d1%8e%d0%b1%d0%b2%d0%b8-%d0%ba%d0%b0%d0%ba-%d0%b5%d1%81%d0%bb%d0%b8-%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%be-%d0%bf%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b6/" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.</p><p>These words leaped out at me:</p>
<blockquote>This teaching—“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied”—appears somehow esoteric and odd, but in fact it is the central political doctrine in modern Russia. Your Honor, what is it, this phrase or slogan, the most important political slogan in Russia? Where does power lie? Power lies in truth.</blockquote>
<p>The more that the principalities and powers try to distract us with lies and confusion and doubt and cynicism, the more persistent we need to be in our hunger and thirst for righteousness; the more determined we need to be to seek out truth; the more ready we need to be to admit (without wasting time shaming ourselves and each other!) when we fall short, and continue the pursuit.</p><p>This "central political doctrine" applies in this very moment in Russia, and in the USA, too. Where does it not apply?</p><p>If we Christians apply this doctrine consistently in our political involvement, we will bless our neighbors far and wide. But, for some of us at least, our first challenge may be to continue confronting the scandalous stink that too often surrounds the word "Christian" in the public arena. Where did that stink come from? Evidence suggests that some of us hunger and thirst for something else—dominance, privilege, the approval of the alpha figures of the moment. Maybe it takes the words of a contemporary martyr to recalibrate our values.</p><p>Thank you, Aleksei. Eternal memory!</p>
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<p>Related: </p><p>"<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/09/the-mere-sound-of-his-name-will-signal.html" target="_blank">The mere sound of his name will signal hope</a></b>."</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/08/is-christianity-under-attack.html" target="_blank">Is Christianity under attack?</a></b></p>
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<p><b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hJW56xpAQTKFsJjf3VzFL72rSDsMessJB1tiZbJPVyw/edit" target="_blank"></a></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioXxzmssg-A7GtQrdd571yH8VA3OVSgiFZ-QECaLXh10GKmjH36Fl2x74wR-OtbngCiVzGYzgCan_tYfvT-a_cm_FHNeNpGjkeXpmDajvjNm_5ru5Va_KwKef8Vn8_dffsfDhY19_7R-TLRvbBVzkmMA1MnFuyEpW8CILaO4rbIMOpAJGI_IJ00A/s1029/Reclaiming_Two-Spirits-cover.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="691" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioXxzmssg-A7GtQrdd571yH8VA3OVSgiFZ-QECaLXh10GKmjH36Fl2x74wR-OtbngCiVzGYzgCan_tYfvT-a_cm_FHNeNpGjkeXpmDajvjNm_5ru5Va_KwKef8Vn8_dffsfDhY19_7R-TLRvbBVzkmMA1MnFuyEpW8CILaO4rbIMOpAJGI_IJ00A/s320/Reclaiming_Two-Spirits-cover.png" width="215" /></a></b></div><b><a href="https://maurers.org/devastation.pdf" target="_blank">Minute on the Ongoing Devastation in Palestine</a></b>, adopted last Saturday by the winter gathering of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends.<p></p><p>Rebecca Solnit on the <b><a href="https://lithub.com/what-is-left-rebecca-solnit-on-the-perennial-divisions-of-the-american-left/" target="_blank">perennial divisions of the American Left</a></b>.</p><p>Rondall Reynoso (Faith on View) <b><a href="https://www.faithonview.com/im-an-evangelical-democrat/" target="_blank">on being an evangelical Democrat</a></b>.</p><p>Micah Bales at Berkeley Friends Church: <a href="https://www.micahbales.com/only-way-to-life-is-through-death/" target="_blank"><b>The only way to life is through death</b></a>.</p><p>The late Mariellen Gilpin's tribute to <b><a href="https://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2024/02/25/a-meeting-well-stocked-with-quaker-elders/" target="_blank">a meeting well-stocked with Quaker elders</a></b>.</p><p><b><a href="https://martycenter.org/series/seminary-co-op-author-talks/gregory-d-smithers-on-reclaiming-two-spirits-sexuality-spiritual-renewal-sovereignty-in-native-america" target="_blank">An interview with Gregory D. Smithers</a></b>, author of <i>Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal, and Sovereignty in Native America</i>.</p>
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<p>In memory of Aleksei, my favorite blues from J.S. Bach and Mstislav Rostropovich:</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ijTQILeJLPU" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com2Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-10368531038268392702024-02-22T23:58:00.000-08:002024-02-23T12:21:23.013-08:00Aleksei Navalny 1976 - 2024<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6p5II6NI2TsNrqvOM8RjeLgXGyCqLrVVeSywb-BTf_ThEAkHH-7xSKqTzRntSfYo57qe23gplJMfSE-RPP4Hs81oXcR0OASDNg6qqYxC9bqVOxAWAH7sD41KPlq5j4qsYYgyPvWuiG9SW1Pw5jpn2lM-LIC4qGKJNQK-_7zmz9m388xYNRj9WSA/s1029/sobesednik_via_Yahoo.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="802" height="822.5" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6p5II6NI2TsNrqvOM8RjeLgXGyCqLrVVeSywb-BTf_ThEAkHH-7xSKqTzRntSfYo57qe23gplJMfSE-RPP4Hs81oXcR0OASDNg6qqYxC9bqVOxAWAH7sD41KPlq5j4qsYYgyPvWuiG9SW1Pw5jpn2lM-LIC4qGKJNQK-_7zmz9m388xYNRj9WSA/w498-h640/sobesednik_via_Yahoo.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This issue of <i>Sobesednik</i>, the only national newspaper in Russia that covered Navalny's death, was <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-sobesednik-withdrawn-newsstands-navalny/32830381.html" target="_blank"><b>seized by authorities</b></a> when it hit the streets. Cover photo caption: "Aleksei Navalny before his death: 'BUT THERE'S HOPE.'" Tagline at bottom of page: "When others keep silent, we speak!" Coverage of Navalny's death was also removed (or blocked) from the paper's Web site. <i><a href="https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/deportes/sobesednik-peri%C3%B3dico-ruso-abre-navalni-121230812.html" target="_blank"><b>Source</b></a></i>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>Last Friday morning began with a terrible shock, a message on my Whatsapp account from a friend in Elektrostal:</p><p><b>Navalny has been killed in the prison today...</b> 😔😔😔</p><p>Since that moment I've been spending far too much time in the Russian Internet, trying to understand the meaning of his death for Russia, and why I feel so much personal grief. A relatively small percentage of Russians actively supported him, but those who did were <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/07/navalny-army-russians-risking-all-to-oppose-vladimir-putin" target="_blank">willing to take enormous risks</a></b> to do so. The hope he gave them (and the feeling of hopelessness that many testified to in the first shocked hours after Navalny's death) reminded me instantly of nine years ago, the killing of <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2015/03/boris-nemtsov.html" target="_blank">Boris Nemtsov</a></b>.</p><p>I can't deny my own fascination: I mentioned Aleksei Navalny 39 times on my blog over the years, not counting reposts and annual digests. The first mention was <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/01/conversations.html" target="_blank">January 12, 2012</a></b>.</p><p>It wasn't that Navalny was perfect. (Jeremy Morris reliably delivers <b><a href="https://postsocialism.org/2024/02/16/russia-lost-its-greatest-and-most-naive-optimist-a-curmudgeons-obituary-of-alexei-navalny/" target="_blank">his trademark mixed evaluation</a></b>, which to my mind isn't entirely fair, but at least you know I've read it!) But, among other things, I loved the enthusiasm with which he did his political work, the care he put into being accessible, both on a personal level and in his unparalleled <b><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/russias-tiktok-generation-is-putins-achilles-heel" target="_blank">digital presence</a></b>, his unquenchable humor, even in prison—and that energy and enthusiasm was clearly infectious. The Russian power vertical decreed his movement's total removal from the public arena, but those thousands of alumni/ae no doubt cannot forget how they felt serving the cause of "the beautiful Russia of the future," and what they learned, in the Navalny laboratory of hope.</p><p>Listen to their voices now, as they react to the news of his death: (<b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/02/17/he-didn-t-live-in-vain" target="_blank">source</a></b>)</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Ksenia:</b> When he returned to Russia after being poisoned, I understood his decision: because being a brave person and a true patriot of our country, he couldn’t be torn away from it. But I felt very sorry for him and his loved ones: it was clear that years of tribulations lay ahead, with no apparent way out, and possibly with a tragic ending. He’d still have chosen this path. There are people who let themselves burn up, giving light and warmth to others. He was — and remains — such a person in my heart.</p>
<p>Now, I’m grieving. And I feel love for my country. If the best among us are ready to die for it, then it’s worth the price.</p>
<p><b>Anastasia:</b> I’ve been having these horrible thoughts that there’s no point in a beautiful Russian future anymore because Alexey won’t see it. He deserved it more than anyone, and without him, it won’t be the same. It also seems like Russia was beautiful when he was free, could travel around the country and speak to us from the screen, and we didn’t appreciate it enough. I know he’d scold me for these thoughts, but I have them. I see no point in anything. I just have this pain that he’s no longer here.</p>
<p>Yulia, Dasha, Zakhar [his wife and children], I think of you every minute. There’s still the chance that he’ll see our country free through your eyes. And that keeps me going.</p></blockquote>
<p>I could go on to describe some of the gratuitous cruelty with which Russia's propaganda machine has treated Navalny's widow Yulia (as if memos must have gone out to all those media outlets with the same trashy messages, so that a simple and heartfelt "we're sorry for your terrible loss" seemed beyond the realm of official possibility). I won't go into detail about the unseemly ways that the authorities have been playing hide-and-seek with <b><a href="https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/02/22/navalnys-mother-says-russian-authorities-want-to-bury-him-in-secret-en-news" target="_blank">Navalny's body</a></b> and its proper Orthodox burial. I won't list all the ways his years in prison were made as vexatious as possible, including poor medical attention, and over 300 days in solitary. You can find all that in other places. I'll just end with one more tribute, a screenshot from <i>Dozhd</i> TV ("the optimistic channel")... with a supporter holding up a sign that used a common nickname for Aleksei: "Forgive us, Lyosha...."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4BTg3x-SXlHR5XqkEgBCF9gupVp2YfcbTece5WTjhXXfOLfqKMURwo4ErSITmaJPpS1NDWQb0gcq97SevzSLNwlwlrKyYvRyPYlw02vM0OETjgiuFYaQ0PyctPE7oWoFnqJgZEkpUcrqd_xMStcD7kY0MoYVYIPBgIxiYbcOie4Ge5PAZMmflQ/s1920/Navalny%20Prosti%20nas%20Lyosha%202024-02-17%2014-49-16.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4BTg3x-SXlHR5XqkEgBCF9gupVp2YfcbTece5WTjhXXfOLfqKMURwo4ErSITmaJPpS1NDWQb0gcq97SevzSLNwlwlrKyYvRyPYlw02vM0OETjgiuFYaQ0PyctPE7oWoFnqJgZEkpUcrqd_xMStcD7kY0MoYVYIPBgIxiYbcOie4Ge5PAZMmflQ/w640-h360/Navalny%20Prosti%20nas%20Lyosha%202024-02-17%2014-49-16.png" width="640" /></a></div><hr />
<p>A brief <b><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/16/1231980139/alexei-navalny-who-was-he" target="_blank">political biography</a></b> of Aleksei Navalny from the USA's National Public Radio. </p>
<table align="right"><tbody><tr><td><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="180" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RIrYWhjdK_o" width="320" youtube-src-id="RIrYWhjdK_o"></iframe></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I will continue Aleksei Navalny's work."</span></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Navalny's <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@NavalnyRu" target="_blank">channel on YouTube</a></b>. Many of his greatest hits have decent English subtitles. In this video, Yulia Navalnaya <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrYWhjdK_o" target="_blank">commits herself</a></b> to continuing their work.</p><p></p><p>Russian authorities declare Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty <b><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/rferl-named-undesirable-organization-russia/32828106.html" target="_blank">an undesirable organization</a></b>. (Story in <b><a href="https://www.svoboda.org/a/im-uzhe-vse-ravno-radio-svoboda-stalo-nezhelateljnoy-organizatsiey-/32828021.html" target="_blank">Russian</a></b>.)</p><p>The Carlson/Putin interview is apparently going to be an <a href="https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/02/22/local-russian-officials-instruct-schools-to-use-tucker-carlson-s-interview-with-putin-for-educational-purposes" target="_blank"><b>educational resource</b></a> in Russia.</p><p>Martin Indyk on the "<a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/palestine-strange-resurrection-two-state-solution-indyk" target="_blank"><b>strange resurrection of the two-state solution</b></a>" for Israel and Palestine.</p><p>Heather Cox Richardson warns that <a href="https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-22-2024" target="_blank"><b>theocracy and authoritarianism</b></a> go hand in hand. (Russia-related update: <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/good-reads/open-letter-ukraine-war/" target="_blank"><b>open letter</b></a> from the Orthodox Christian Study Center and a growing list of cosigners, with a plea to the ecumenical world to hold the Russian Orthodox Church accountable.)</p><p>Micah Bales on a Transfiguration observation: <b><a href="https://www.micahbales.com/too-much-reality/" target="_blank">reality can be hard to take</a></b>.</p>
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<p>"5-O Blues", Corey Harris. Not sure why, but this seemed appropriate.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W2TyWkg0feA?si=AI_oOk78Kv47gFZC" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com1Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-52220955517977212192024-02-15T23:58:00.000-08:002024-02-16T01:14:06.204-08:00Christians calling for a free Palestine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLrVlGbMkPRSt-z_DwaifjY5sGeC2D47Wjus_JOD79_rjW9S7GxGv24JM2f5yyUyoEeHCtsG4XM9wjmteaVwAj4foCUWUSRvf1bnytADFbMymBnKxOmicKpZrC0syzo1zaJh8Kn6nWT9FkrD08ORVIa8pdaXmYenVBEVQ3OZqlUvK9jt-qSCMYSA/s1272/Mass_mobilization_call_collage.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1272" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLrVlGbMkPRSt-z_DwaifjY5sGeC2D47Wjus_JOD79_rjW9S7GxGv24JM2f5yyUyoEeHCtsG4XM9wjmteaVwAj4foCUWUSRvf1bnytADFbMymBnKxOmicKpZrC0syzo1zaJh8Kn6nWT9FkrD08ORVIa8pdaXmYenVBEVQ3OZqlUvK9jt-qSCMYSA/w640-h360/Mass_mobilization_call_collage.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/" target="_blank"><b>Christians for a Free Palestine</b></a>: screenshots from this evening's Zoom call. Clockwise: Erica Williams, Cole Parke-West, Rifat Kassis. Others involved in leading this evening's presentation included Margaret Ernst, SueAnn Shiah, Jonathan Brenneman.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We confess that Your message has been manipulated by those who claim Your name. <i>Rifat Kassis (in prayer)</i>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">There are so many reasons to turn away, and we need you [Christians] to stay, Palestine needs you to stay. <i>Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg</i>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">This Lent we're not to <b>GIVE UP</b> anything, but to <b>STAND UP</b>. <i>Rev. Erica Williams</i>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<p>Just a short post today to report on this evening's interesting "mass mobilization call" on behalf of <b><a href="https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/" target="_blank">Christians for a Free Palestine</a></b>.</p><p>I had found out about this call from friends who knew about my longstanding concern for Palestine. Having written on my blog last week about the use of "Christian civilization" as a justification for outright cruelty, I was relieved to learn about an effort to organize Christians to stand against one of the most blatantly cruel spectacles currently underway under the eyes of the whole world—the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.</p><p>That campaign has reached a place of lethal absurdity in Israel's demands that Palestinians evacuate Rafah, where over a million of them have sought relative safety after being driven out of points further north. Among the actions we took this evening was to leave voicemail messages with our elected representatives and senators, using the <a href="https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/urgent-tell-congress-to-stop-fueling-violence/" target="_blank"><b>calling facilities</b></a> of Jewish Voice for Peace and a suggested script:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgXitvibxYgladOSm-btitfhXayqj2mZNFHt8uxg_Y2pECQrhSfiOZOGZqg2P9pmFy1Kh2O8uKfaredDEf6D0MqzRBM-wx5wRmeJaiLWp0NGPOuxhSvmyPN8HQ_ua4pR8HQL9_xqPz3m1MHVqqeMa1iysMUJzs_yF27tVNG-alMNCJo38jmg3QOQ/s1641/Suggested%20Script%20for%20calls%20to%20electeds.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1641" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgXitvibxYgladOSm-btitfhXayqj2mZNFHt8uxg_Y2pECQrhSfiOZOGZqg2P9pmFy1Kh2O8uKfaredDEf6D0MqzRBM-wx5wRmeJaiLWp0NGPOuxhSvmyPN8HQ_ua4pR8HQL9_xqPz3m1MHVqqeMa1iysMUJzs_yF27tVNG-alMNCJo38jmg3QOQ/w640-h346/Suggested%20Script%20for%20calls%20to%20electeds.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<p>In the slightly longer term, we were given links to join a regional community-building program, and encouraged to spread the word on a Day of Action at senators' and representatives' offices, planned for March 18. The next mass call will take place on the previous day, March 17.</p><p>There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the hour is very late, and <i>any</i> credible campaign for Christians to rise up against the slaughter of Palestinians is worth considering. This evening's event had plenty of the signals I associate with the activist subculture, but my sense was that the prayer and the music and the appeals to mobilize were sincere, honest, and non-manipulative. For example, almost unbelievably, there were no images of the suffering and ruin to which we desperately desire to respond. The co-opting of our faith in the service of imperialism was very clearly denounced, but nobody aimed invective at any specific villains. Instead, we sang, "There is power in the Name of Jesus, to break every chain...."</p><p>I saw that this evening's call was recorded, and if a link to the recording is supplied, I'll update this post. Likewise, if I learn that my trust in this effort was misplaced, I'll also update. </p><p>In the meantime, consider joining a regional group <b><a href="https://christiansforafreepalestine.com/" target="_blank">through this link</a></b>, and judge for yourself. But, in any case, in addition to <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/12/praying-without-ceasing-in-hebron-also.html" target="_blank"><b>praying without ceasing</b></a>, let's make some noise! In particular, let's confront the heresies of white supremacy and Christian Zionism that encourage and compound these outrages, and spread the genuine Good News with humility and boldness in the strong name of Jesus, and without glibness or denial in the presence of suffering.</p>
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<p>One of the participants in this evening's call pointed out that there are more members of <a href="https://cufi.org/warroom/" target="_blank"><b>Christians United for Israel</b></a> than there are Jewish people in the USA.</p><p>Do you think Len Gutkin is right about a <b><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-hyperbolic-style-in-american-academe" target="_blank">hyperbolic style in American academe</a></b>?</p>
<blockquote>The hyperbolic style is marked by a cluster of generic traits. First, it emphasizes its speaker’s, or else some other potential victim’s, vulnerability to harm, up to and including murder. Second, it relies on distant historical analogies meant to heighten its urgency. Third, it is hortatory, alarmed, exigent: Something needs to happen, and it needs to happen <i>now</i>. Fourth (and this is its most “academic” feature) it makes large but ambiguous claims about the structural or systemic aspect of one or another threat.</blockquote>
<p>Timothy Snyder on <b><a href="https://snyder.substack.com/p/putins-genocidal-myth" target="_blank">Vladimir Putin's genocidal myth</a></b>.</p><p>Madeleine Davies, a senior writer at Britain's <i>Church Times</i>, <b><a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/9-february/features/features/american-evangelicalism-an-apocalypse-mapped" target="_blank">reviews</a></b> Karen Swallow Prior's <i>The Evangelical Imagination</i>.
</p><blockquote>
What is needed, she suggests, is nothing less than another Reformation. If the first concerned the truth revealed in scripture, this one must confront “the way and the life revealed in Jesus—and how the Church has failed to follow and embody it”.</blockquote>
<p><b><a href="https://religionnews.com/2024/02/07/we-need-more-howard-thurman-in-our-politics/" target="_blank">We need more Howard Thurman in our politics</a></b>, says David Gowler at Religion News Service.</p><p>Mike Farley: <b><a href="https://themercyblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/things-are-as-they-are.html" target="_blank">Lent is a strange period in many ways</a></b>.</p><p>Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, announces a new program of mutual learning and encouragement among Friends churches and meetings—<b><a href="https://fwccamericas.org/connections/quaker-connect.shtml" target="_blank">Quaker Connect</a></b>—and is seeking a new staff member to serve this new program. Note! Deadline for applications is March 1. </p><p>Martin Kelley considers <b><a href="https://www.quakerranter.org/the-new-quaker-histories/" target="_blank">the new Quaker histories</a></b> ... and how expensive they can be. Do we need a movement toward <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access" target="_blank">open access</a></b> among Quakers academics and their institutions? (By the way, since Martin mentioned <b><a href="https://www.jstor.org/" target="_blank">JSTOR</a></b>: I found out when researching Fairhope, Alabama, and the <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/06/monteverde-and-power-of-faith-shaped.html" target="_blank"><b>Friends community in Monteverde</b></a>, Costa Rica, that our public library here in Multnomah County, Oregon, <b><a href="https://multcolib.org/resource/jstor" target="_blank">makes JSTOR available</a></b> without charge to cardholders.)</p><p>A self-serving PS: Since I'm among those who cannot afford those expensive books (thought I've bought some slightly older books at used book stores), I find these scholars' blogs a helpfui way to stay at least somewhat informed. And here's a sobering thought: I've now been a Quaker for fifty years, which means that my own lifespan as a Quaker already spans almost 15% of Quaker history!</p>
<hr />
<p>Here's something a bit different: a Russian rock musician's approach to what I think qualifies as blues (at least as far as the lyrics are concerned)—Konstantin Nikolsky's "When you understand with your mind." The lyrics and a translation appear after the video. At first glance, it's a bit of a gloomy and ironic song, not qualities I usually look for, but it's probably my favorite of his many hits.</p><p>By some miracle of timing, I once heard Nikolsky live. It was during the <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2014/12/russia-in-crisis.html" target="_blank">financial crisis of 1998</a></b>, and he appeared in a small Moscow club with an audience of less than 20.</p><p>Константин Никольский, "Когда поймешь умом."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RlRZv1LDbYU?si=QD_BroWu2l1L9Yx6" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<table style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td width="50%">Когда поймешь умом,<br />что ты один на свете,<br />
И одиночества дорога так длинна,<br />
То жить легко и думаешь о смерти,<br />
Как о последней капле горького вина.<br />Вот мой бокал, в нем больше ни глотка<br />
Той жизни, что как мед была сладка.<br />
В нем только горечь неразбавленной печали,<br />
Оставшейся на долю старика.<br />
Бокал мой полон, но друзей не стану<br />
Я больше угощать питьем своим.<br />
Я их люблю, дай боже счастья им.<br />
Пускай они пьют воду из под крана.<br />
Для мира сделаю я много добрых дел,<br />
Во веки вечные их не забудут люди.<br />
И если выйдет все, как я хотел,<br />
То, боже милый, мир прекрасным будет.<br />
Послав страдания на голову мою,<br />
Послав отчаянье душе моей правдивой,<br />
Пошли мне веру, я о ней спою,<br />
И дай мне силы,<br />Чтобы стать счастливым.<br />
</td>
<td width="50%">When you understand with your mind<br />
that you are alone in the world,<br />
And the road of loneliness is so long,<br />
Then life is easy and you think about death,<br />
Like the last drop of a bitter wine.<br />
Here's my glass, there's not another sip in it<br />
That life that was as sweet as honey.<br />Now there's only the bitterness of undiluted grief,<br />That remains as an old man's share.<br />
My glass is full, but I won't make friends<br />
I'll offer more of what I'm drinking.<br />
I love them, God bless them.<br />
Let them drink water from the tap.<br />For the world, I'll do many good deeds,<br />Forever and ever, people won't forget them,<br />
And if everything turns out the way I wanted,<br />
Then, dear God, the world will be wonderful.<br />
Having sent suffering to my head,<br />
Having sent despair to my truthful soul,<br />
Send me faith, I'll sing about it,<br />
And give me the strength to become glad.<br />
</td></tr></tbody></table>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com3Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-67528177395925529312024-02-08T23:58:00.000-08:002024-02-09T12:59:55.560-08:00Time (Elektrostal, shameless nostalgia, and repost)<table align="center"><tbody><tr><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/21XISKJXnow" width="640" youtube-src-id="21XISKJXnow"></iframe></div></td></tr><tr><td><div style="text-align: center;">Sergey Kadyrov's "Elektrostal City" video with his own composition.</div><div style="text-align: center;">(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@piano148/search?query=Elektrostal" target="_blank"><b>All of his Elektrostal videos</b></a>; his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@piano148" target="_blank"><b>YouTube channel</b></a>.)</div></td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<p>In the fall of 2004, I found out that McDonald's had established their first restaurant in Elektrostal, Russia. I confess that I had mixed reactions, as I recorded in <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2004/11/cures-for-homesickness.htm" target="_blank">Cures for homesickness</a></b>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8FhWPpSc_CN6XXS_eehJAKri__4-5zGtx-jj370sD3fDe5VfeLdvLKLp6c7TghgCCVH1nEkvEaKdqjWtJiv-Cnn2uTln_BAjQdBHGzoPfAddSYfYLFrABlqspcCc5ER08ycm9PET3rxURNgZ6IH96J4VdBKQ5eNtSNUyfG0cOGMVr-u4pKCYxw/s960/McDonalds_from_Yakor-2004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8FhWPpSc_CN6XXS_eehJAKri__4-5zGtx-jj370sD3fDe5VfeLdvLKLp6c7TghgCCVH1nEkvEaKdqjWtJiv-Cnn2uTln_BAjQdBHGzoPfAddSYfYLFrABlqspcCc5ER08ycm9PET3rxURNgZ6IH96J4VdBKQ5eNtSNUyfG0cOGMVr-u4pKCYxw/s320/McDonalds_from_Yakor-2004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">McDonalds from my window (2004).</td></tr></tbody></table>Although I'd heard rumors for years, I found myself unprepared for the mixed feelings I had when I saw, right from my eighth-floor $8/night hostel window, a McDonald's restaurant right there on Yalagin Street, "my" street in Elektrostal. On the one hand, I had to smile—leave it to McDonald's to find even this out-of-the-way industrial town. I knew that I would be welcome within its golden precincts, I would get polite service and predictable food, I could close my eyes, inhale the french-fry incense, and the miles (er, kilometers) separating me from home might briefly melt away.
</p><p>
There was another feeling, too. "They" had found "my" safe little city, "they" had violated its innocence, "they" were out to Americanize even this stolid, utilitarian, brick and cinderblock outpost of Soviet planning. I was no longer solely responsible for defining to the Elektrostal people what "American" meant.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two weeks later, I felt that my description of this "stolid, utilitarian, brick and cinderblock outpost of Soviet planning" gave a somewhat inadequate picture of the city, so I filled in some details. (P.S. no. 2 in <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2004/12/genuine-war-vs-official-terrorism.htm" target="_blank"><b>this blog post</b></a>.)</p><p>Three years later, I began serving as an instructor at the Moscow region's first privately-owned linguistics college, a post that didn't end until November 2017. Judy and I and two cats lived happily in a warm apartment that became an extension of our educational work, a place where we fed and entertained students and offered our guest room to many wonderful visitors over the years. We were familiar figures at the local libraries, art exhibitions, poetry readings, not to mention the grocery stores, coffee houses, pizza and sushi restaurants, post office, computer parts stores, the fitness center, branch banks, the sports clinic, the immigration office ... and McDonald's. We knew many of the bus routes and stops by heart. In short, Elektrostal became a home for us.</p><p>It's a complicated time to express nostalgia for Russia. For me, Russia has been a massive paradox—encompassing what I called <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/01/grace-and-mercy.html" target="_blank">in this post</a></b> "the warm heart of Orthodox heritage" with "centuries of relentless violence, conspiracy, invasion, aggression, suspicion, and mass-scale cruelty." And those negatives have been on blatant display since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.</p><p>It's no comfort to me to say, correctly, that every nation, including the USA, has its ratio of high ideals vs cruel betrayals. As a patriotic American, I have a responsibility to defend our own high ideals in this particular season of danger. However, as a Christian I feel bound to challenge <i>any</i> time, <i>any</i> place, where "Christian civilization" serves as a justification for outright cruelty. Modesty, grace, and deep listening must be part of any such challenge, but blind denial and whataboutism are not options.</p><p>Given today's realities, I find it understandable that many people want to "cancel" Russian language and culture. (See <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/05/canceling-russia.html" target="_blank">Canceling Russia</a></b>.) But I can't join them. The reason in some grand sense is my long acquaintance with Russia, starting with my first Russian class in high school, my first visit in 1975, and my travels to many parts of the country. But more concretely, my reason is: <i>Elektrostal</i>, period. This is the city whose artists and educators, students and grocers, doctors and bus drivers (and even the immigration office, <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2015/09/elektrostal-shorts.html" target="_blank">usually</a></b>!) welcomed us and gave us a home.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLG_tpc4-7I253QxruL3Hqi5EqwklBUg_YjqmAQbXop9hZV9b6OHb-rZICfDqNvrNNYNT6Mza0T6y8FntNB_O26CMuyQ9lzyi2gLKhglu0e5KYRQo1k_0kvoSQWZX7m2Iig0j9eeSvsxapEovPoTdvv_PlD9XPriHKvxXcDfYFpJTa8PCWQap_w/s2048/2016-09-01-Knowledge_Day_Celebration_on_Tevosyan-.17.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLG_tpc4-7I253QxruL3Hqi5EqwklBUg_YjqmAQbXop9hZV9b6OHb-rZICfDqNvrNNYNT6Mza0T6y8FntNB_O26CMuyQ9lzyi2gLKhglu0e5KYRQo1k_0kvoSQWZX7m2Iig0j9eeSvsxapEovPoTdvv_PlD9XPriHKvxXcDfYFpJTa8PCWQap_w/w640-h360/2016-09-01-Knowledge_Day_Celebration_on_Tevosyan-.17.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tevosyan Square, Elektrostal. Celebrating <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2016/09/happy-knowledge-day.html" target="_blank">the first day of school, 2016</a></b>. The Sberbank branch bank mentioned below is just beyond the left edge of this picture.</td></tr></tbody></table><hr /><p>I began this post with one of Sergey Kadyrov's videos that feature views of Elektrostal. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Wf2GiU42Q" target="_blank"><b>This video</b></a> includes a segment recorded from a bus driving along Mir Street, passing Park Plaza, the Crystal sports stadium, the Kazantsev School (at 2:20) where we taught, and City Hall. The memories flood back.</p>
<hr />
<p><i>Stories are better than sentimental generalities. Here's one on life in Elektrostal (and a nice helping of Boris Pasternak), originally published <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2011/04/time.html" target="_blank">April 7, 2011</a></b>.</i></p><p>
</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1aAPd0VLOdERzF4QFGOCjWyccAc7w29EycOdsxvErg_nIrytTyVWqp5fbTV8FWWXIngtCZ48uwe5b4BZ_YdWIPrE5E2qZn2WA5Wdh4y9pn9XWpWSRO_Inbz8MbKr0s8Z0PIA1g/s1600/sberbank-ul-mira-18.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM1aAPd0VLOdERzF4QFGOCjWyccAc7w29EycOdsxvErg_nIrytTyVWqp5fbTV8FWWXIngtCZ48uwe5b4BZ_YdWIPrE5E2qZn2WA5Wdh4y9pn9XWpWSRO_Inbz8MbKr0s8Z0PIA1g/s320/sberbank-ul-mira-18.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sberbank branch where I read Pasternak.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Time.</span></b><br /><div><br /></div><div>
The day before yesterday I went to the bank for a routine transaction, arriving about forty minutes before my appointment at the nearby hair cutting place.<br />
<br />
I brought a book with me, knowing there might be a wait. As I entered, I took a number and glanced at the electronic signboard showing which number was being served. Number 37 was at window 6; I was number 83. Well, there was a chance, I thought.<br />
<br />
Half an hour later, they were still twenty places away from serving me, and I knew I had to face reality. Off to the haircutter without finishing my banking. I took another number (117) on my way out, although I figured that, with my luck, they'd get to that number long before I was able to get back to the bank.<br />
<br />
Well, no, they hadn't. They'd simply gone a little past my first number. So, no longer having a close deadline, I settled in for a wait. All the seats along the wall facing the bank tellers were taken; I folded myself into a child's seat next to the ATM. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWGBVUywTaxGof_pjXhR_Bxf5nG70RyY0GialMwZYRp7oQqovUWytsoRC3KiFW4mABSnE7qlaQDH8Mae3StKpTPDGWsenlT4Ia142G_6Mr87mKPJAxHRBvKY2wkPfHdq9sqEHJjA/s724/qmatic.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="389" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWGBVUywTaxGof_pjXhR_Bxf5nG70RyY0GialMwZYRp7oQqovUWytsoRC3KiFW4mABSnE7qlaQDH8Mae3StKpTPDGWsenlT4Ia142G_6Mr87mKPJAxHRBvKY2wkPfHdq9sqEHJjA/s320/qmatic.jpg" /></a><p></p>
"It's a good thing to bring a book," said a woman a little older than me, sitting on the other side of the children's table and looking at my thick paperback of Pasternak's family correspondence. "Yes," I agreed, "and it's a good thing that this seat will hold 83 kilograms." A little further away, I heard a typical exchange among the elderly pensioners who make up the majority of the bank's midday customers. "What kind of transaction could be taking 45 minutes over at window 7?" "I have no idea. But that teller has been sitting at window 2 for most of the morning without taking any customers."<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, an elderly man was trying to figure out the number system—another customer was patiently explaining that he had to push the machine's button for a number and then watch the signboard to know which window would be serving that number when it came up. Not every arriving person even bothered to find out the system—occasionally someone would walk into the branch and assertively step up to a window, standing just to the right of the customer being served. They were almost always noticed and reprimanded by other customers: "Wait a minute. You have to wait in line just like the rest of us."<br />
<br />
On the other hand, those same customers, as I've seen more than once, might rise to the defense of an elderly man who's already been sitting a while, and who shuffles over unsteadily to a window and quietly asks whether the wait would be much longer. The crowd knows when to bend the rules and demand that someone be allowed to slip in.<br />
<table align="RIGHT" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrIZzUQdNrxc6pkqJs1HEjY3hEZADBNl4owxEdF_E0QGWb1MmjmHUq6P9BK8dQZNIH1NkLcW5HXhwCXj5_xd3q6I0aEWHn1LfWqHY7nTzO6Sai9Z0Y_R_C1AjJkSJFWbjO0-pQw/s1600/Boris_Pasternak-Family_Correspondence-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrIZzUQdNrxc6pkqJs1HEjY3hEZADBNl4owxEdF_E0QGWb1MmjmHUq6P9BK8dQZNIH1NkLcW5HXhwCXj5_xd3q6I0aEWHn1LfWqHY7nTzO6Sai9Z0Y_R_C1AjJkSJFWbjO0-pQw/s320/Boris_Pasternak-Family_Correspondence-cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Boris-Pasternak-Correspondence-1921-1960-PUBLICATION/dp/0817910255?ie=UTF8&tag=cayobe-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Source</a>. </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />I was interested that, while I waited for the signboard to creep from number 88 to number 117, I came across this passage in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boris-Pasternak-Correspondence-1921-1960-PUBLICATION/dp/0817910255?ie=UTF8&tag=cayobe-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Pasternak book</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=cayobe-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0817910255" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="1" />, in a letter to Boris Pasternak's parents and sister Lydia:<br />
<blockquote>
The house doesn't terrorize me, and I'm not scared of work or bother, although I have enough and to spare of all that. The reason I have no time is something entirely different. As with money, and with objects I don't know how to value and am always glad to give away, I would probably be glad to share the most precious treasure that I know, which is: free time (perhaps that's the very thing that all religions have deified under the name of God). I mean the pure interval in which one can see the boundless fullness of real life, as real as the life of trees and animals. And incredible as it may seem, I would be able to find enough free time to share with anyone you like, because everyone always manages to get hold of and store up the thing he values most highly. But, more than anything else in the world, this is something reserved for the connoisseur. An understanding of art, however rare it may be, is much more widely distributed than a feeling for and understanding of free time. I'm talking about something that's far greater than mere 'leisure'. I'm talking about living time, in freedom.<br />
<br />
This is something that I would be willing to share (as I have done on occasion), but only with someone who knew the meaning of the word 'an instant'. Why is there so much beauty in a thunderstorm?—Because it piles space upon space, making them flash, in other words it shows how fathomless the instant is, and what immense distances it can absorb and give forth again. But since there aren't many who know how inexhaustible and capacious an instant is, there's almost no-one to share it with—yet an instant is all that free time is. It's in this sense that I never have time—I don't have time for those who don't know what time is. [pp. 113-114]</blockquote>
There is beauty in a thunderstorm, and immense beauty in the moment people stick up for an elderly client, even though they will be "delayed" as a result.<br />
<br />
On the one hand, I've never been bored at the bank.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I see on the bank's Web site that—contrary to what I was told when I opened my account—debit cards, usable at ATMs, are available to foreigners. I think I'll check into it again. <i>[Indeed, I soon had a debit card, which saved many hours, and deprived me of time to spend reading in the warm company of other bank clients.]</i><br />
<br />
<hr />
<br /><i>[Continuing from 2011....]</i> Having just observed another birthday, I was caught short by this passage to Pasternak's sister Josephine, written in 1927, more than thirty years before his death:<br />
<blockquote>
I haven't aged, and yet I've more than aged. I don't think I'm going to live as long as I should like. But there are other reasons too—I'll explain them below—why I've started behaving and feeling—in my consciousness, in my spiritual being, without reference to my biological self—as if I were in the final stage of my life. The main reason is this: that it's the only way to live in Russia at the present time without being a hypocrite, or wasting effort to no purpose,—or worse, provoking horrible catastrophes while achieving nothing whatsoever—wasting the explosively personal creative fire of mature middle age, these years so utterly and deservedly devoted to the love of freedom. I don't want to let myself go on this subject. I'll leave it at that. [p. 82]</blockquote>
<hr />
<p>Related: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/10/boredom-for-dummies.html" target="_blank">Boredom for dummies</a></b>.</p>
<hr />
<p>The <a href="https://julieroys.com/with-flashpoint-live-roster-of-pentecostal-prophets-hits-the-road-for-trump/" target="_blank"><b>Roys Report</b></a> on the "Flashpoint" roster of Pentecostal prophets hitting the road for Donald Trump.</p><p><b><a href="https://www.authoritarianplaybook2025.org/" target="_blank">The Authoritarian Playbook</a></b>, 2025 edition.</p><p>Christopher Harding on Alan Watts, <b><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-alan-watts-re-imagined-religion-desire-and-life-itself?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">for all his faults</a></b> ... </p><p>"<b><a href="https://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2023/11/18/choose-life/" target="_blank">Quakerism in Illinois Yearly Meeting</a></b> will die in our generation, unless we as a Society stop saying, 'Ain't it awful'." From the late Mariellen Gilpin—one of the series of memorial posts in the online periodical <i>What Canst Thou Say</i>.</p><p>A frighteningly up-to-date quote (1845!) from Frederick Douglass on <b><a href="https://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abaufda14t.html?fbclid=IwAR3SPeplwgiT8NZX_oE8wBxbiQy0z5_LdfTiRshgXY8fbtFkguSECad1QuQ" target="_blank">genuine Christianity</a></b> and its peculiarly American counterfeit. (Thanks to Jim Fussell for the link.)</p><p>Clare Flourish on <i><b><a href="https://clareflourish.wordpress.com/2024/02/09/the-zone-of-interest/" target="_blank">The Zone of Interest</a></b></i> (film version). I consider myself warned.</p>
<hr />
<p>Another helping of vivid memories: In December 1969, B.B. King made his break onto the Top 40 radio charts with this song, which he performs here not long after he received his first Grammy for that hit.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dvRwZga4hAE?si=FRRyT5XIGnzxUhsm" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe></div>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-16091559115057137062024-02-01T23:58:00.000-08:002024-02-02T01:11:53.060-08:00To know our audiences—and to serve them<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZzNan4OLfoZXliViV97UmGOwBPXR4yrc0Opv-HTngSMOIKuqDucDUFOD281XQXRWYm6JP3BLadVl9Q6gbngyRXM3cBSt1H3EeZx6tg4NDajYLzdPUUEnqt5EtatXTC0VyKjiIfx87pxY08Q1dDJ-L58F3SuVjEfWckRN_W-sveWN7bMGZv9KKA/s2816/NWYM-2013-8919-auditorium.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2112" data-original-width="2816" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGZzNan4OLfoZXliViV97UmGOwBPXR4yrc0Opv-HTngSMOIKuqDucDUFOD281XQXRWYm6JP3BLadVl9Q6gbngyRXM3cBSt1H3EeZx6tg4NDajYLzdPUUEnqt5EtatXTC0VyKjiIfx87pxY08Q1dDJ-L58F3SuVjEfWckRN_W-sveWN7bMGZv9KKA/w640-h480/NWYM-2013-8919-auditorium.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northwest Yearly Meeting, 2013; photo was first used on <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2013/08/production-values.html" target="_blank">this post</a></b>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>As the 20th anniversary of this blog approaches, I've been looking at some of my recurring themes. One of them is the importance of communicators knowing and serving their audiences rather than themselves.</p>
<p>If you, dear reader, are concerned to communicate with a particular audience—whether it's inside or outside your organization; whether it be someone who is wrestling with addiction or other personal demons, or someone you'd like to introduce to Christian faith, or a potential contributor to your charitable campaign—maybe something here will make sense to you. I'm writing to anyone who cares about effective organizational communication, and I also invite your comments and corrections.</p><p>As part of my own background, during the first four years of this blog I was working for a marketing firm, Crane MetaMarketing Ltd (now <a href="https://www.craneandpeters.com/" target="_blank"><b>Crane + Peters</b></a>). It was a wonderful opportunity to learn what deeply researched, ethically grounded marketing and branding could do for communicators. I don't apply these lessons very systematically in these posts, but I gratefully acknowledge the values and skills I learned in the Cranes' nest.</p><p>What follows is nothing new. I'm just linking to some of the posts (and occasional rants) I've already done on this theme, hoping that something here might be interesting.</p>
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<p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/08/publishers-of-truth.html" target="_blank">Publishers of Truth</a> </b>(August 13, 2009)</p>
<p>We Quakers have been publishers and pamphleteers from the very start. But maybe our priorities have changed.
</p><p>
In the 1600's, we issued calls all over the English-speaking world and beyond—to know Jesus personally, and as a result, to change worship, church government, stewardship of resources, and social ethics. There was passion, wonder, discovery, urgency, and fearlessness.</p><p>
As we live with the results of the 19th-century divisions among us, the stuff we put out often reflects where we are in the complex geography of today's Friends. We evangelical Friends write more about Jesus (and with less emphasis on metaphor). At the universalist end, there's a lot of speculative material, and much that emphasizes how to be more quakerish. There's a lot of material in the middle, but so much of it, from whatever source, seems to be, well ... tame. I think a lot of it is intended just to fine-tune us, to make us more sophisticated or more well-adjusted within our present categories.
</p><p>
Some of this material is great. But two related elements often seem to be missing. The first is the excitement and urgency of a movement that once believed it was bringing something new and crucial into the world, that lives and destinies depended on getting these new experiences and insights expressed persuasively. As William Penn says in one of his tracts, "Hear and be entreated for your soul's sake!"
</p><p>
The disappearance of this element isn't necessarily a simple or entirely bad thing—that original fire might have been 90% inspiration, but surely there was a danger of arrogance and narrowness. We were, after all, claiming the very mantle of the apostles themselves! But has all of that confidence completely evaporated, and (aside from misplaced arrogance) what have we lost as a result?
</p><p>
. . .
</p><p>
The second missing element is the expectation of an external audience. We issue timid mating calls to try to attract people as much like ourselves as possible, and nobody else. We pander to prejudices—some of us saying "we're really just another safe, Bible-believing, evangelical denomination (water baptism on request)" and others, "don't worry, we won't intrude on your private spiritual space; we're all on various paths up the mountain, and we just like each other's company." There are a few Quaker books out there for non-Quakers, but with some exceptions they seem to portray us with an aura of quaint unworldliness and a uniformity we no longer have except in isolated pockets.... —I don't dare give examples lest I step on toes.
</p><p>
There's an in-between zone—for example, pamphlets for inquirers and newcomers. The series that Paul Anderson wrote for Barclay Press is good, but the vast majority of that genre is narrow, prim, derivative, overly intellectual, and often still fighting modernist-fundamentalist battles that are now largely irrelevant to spiritually hungry people.
</p><p>
Here's my complaint, in summary: Our publications and public communications generally seem directed at enhancing our personal sense of righteousness (however our branch of Friends defines righteousness) without a guiding vision of global relevance. I'm sure someone will tell me that the the context is there; it's just implicit. I will respond that if the non-Quaker can't detect it, they can be forgiven for believing it's not there.
</p><p>
What set off this train of thoughts was a question that has been raised in one of the committees I'm on, concerning choosing Friends materials to translate. It's not the first time I've been involved in discussions of translating Friends publications into or out of English, but this time I just had a brief but shocking intuition: what if the material we publish and distribute gives an impression of a tiny, fastidious, legalistic, joyless, rootless group of theoretically progressive philistines? Do we resemble anything so much as 19th-century middle-class spiritualists, gathering for seances? Do our evangelicals really take Jesus seriously, or are they just stuck on the old-time cliches because that's the safest thing to do? When will the liberals acknowledge Jesus again as prophet, priest, and king among us, and get rid of all those sophisticated post-Christian excuses for avoiding his claims on us?
</p><p>
In all fairness, I don't think that we Friends have made a corporate decision to project a tiny and timid message, if any at all, to the world. But where is the forum to discuss widely what kind of message we <i>should</i> project?—not a message about us and how <i>wonderful</i> we are or how safely <i>innocuous</i> we are, but about the world, the state it is in, its bondages on people's lives and souls, and what God demands of us?</p><p>(<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/08/publishers-of-truth.html" target="_blank">Full post.</a></b>)</p>
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<p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/08/publishers-of-truth-part-two.html" target="_blank">Publishers of Truth, part two</a></b> (August 20, 2009)</p>
<p>Aside from academic stuff, the Christian publications I find most useful begin with the audience member's situation, either as an individual or as a part of society—in either case, facing a significant challenge. The author then tries to show how biblical insights, Christian disciplines, the author's own personal experiences, or the lives of fellow Christians, can shed light on the reader's situation. In many cases, such expressions have an emotional appeal as well—ranging from "your eternal destiny might be at stake!" to "God has hope for you in your addictions" to "Stop this injustice before more people are exploited or killed!" Sometimes the author even dares to claim a God-given insight specifically for that situation.
</p><p>
Please let me know whether you've found Quaker books, pamphlets, videos, anything, from recent years, that do this. I'm not saying they don't exist—if they do, I'd like to do my bit to give them more visibility. But too often we are not audience-centered at all; we're too busy describing ourselves and our ideas. Whether our motive is to make Quakers simply glow in the dark, or to one-up somebody else, internal or external, it's all about us.
</p><p>
It can't be just about us any more. Either God wants to reach the world through us, or we are just a boutique option for a spiritually drifting niche market, and our fellow creatures in spiritual or social agony should look somewhere else. If there's some other way to put it, convince me! In any case, I can't believe that the best we have to offer is to describe ourselves yet again, or to theorize on silence, "minding the light," simple living, earth care, from a position of serene safety.
</p><p>
There is a place for self-description; our hard-earned heritage deserves loving stewardship and persuasive advocacy, especially as we continue the important work of spiritual formation within our community and the empowerment of newcomers. I'd like us to build on that strength, going forward with honest attempts to speak God's prophetic words to the condition of people who don't have the safety margin to enjoy our self-descriptions, internal arguments, and theories. And if such people have a word to say to us, let's find ways of making that connection. Is more of this already happening than I realize? (Perhaps beyond the North Atlantic zone of Friendly affluence?)</p>
<p>(<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/08/publishers-of-truth-part-two.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b>)</p>
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<p><b>"<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/12/please-dont-go.html" target="_blank">Please don't go</a>."</b> (December 28, 2006)</p>
<p><i>Am I becoming a Quaker curmudgeon?</i> Here comes another newsletter from an international Friends organization I care about. Let's see ... four pages of tiny print, with God mentioned once (in the mission statement) and absolutely no reference to Christ or Christianity. And how are we asked to support the organization? By sending money and getting our meetings to send money; evidently no prayer is needed. In contrast to the lack of divinity, the words "Quaker" and "Quakerism" are used at least a dozen times. But the overwhelming tone is that of a secular nongovernmental organization.
</p><p>
Years ago, when my job required me to read lots of these sorts of Quaker newsletters, I had a similar experience. A newsletter from the Quaker Council for European Affairs sent me over the edge when I realized that there was not a word in it about the spiritual motivation behind the excellent work it described. Being an experienced Quaker bureaucrat myself, after cooling off I had to admit that I knew the temptation to publicize what was on my desk rather than visualize and speak to a human audience about what was in my heart. Furthermore, as Right Sharing of World Resources staff (which I was at the time), I was aware that most of my daily reading and much of my advocacy work was in a context and culture set by large and competent secular organizations, and I began to recognize that I probably had a subconscious desire to be credible in that community.
</p><p>
I also realized that many Friends activists assume that their readers already understand the motivations undergirding their work, or can pick them up between the lines. But that's not how communication actually works, except perhaps among others <i>already in the activist culture</i>. So we think that our newsletters are spreading the word about our valuable work, but they're actually giving a cold shoulder to anyone who doesn't already share that culture. Everyone else can actually be forgiven for thinking that what we DON'T say <i>must not be important</i>.
</p><p>
I wrote a letter to QCEA at the time, but I can't remember getting a response.
</p><p>
Our income doesn't increase, because we're not connecting with new people, not communicating a motivation they can identify with. We communicate our <i>programs</i>, not our passion. We speak in the language of budgets and proposals and policies and the latest "thinking" about how to make lives better, but the common-sense reader needs to see <i>how their own response can confront oppression</i>, not how clever we are in using their money. And it may be natural to us to say "Quaker" and "Quakerism" over and over and over in our literature and Web sites, but without any reference to a living spirituality or the wider Christian context, we begin to give off a very cultish smell, as if we were representatives of some kind of rarified independent religion.
</p><p>
The newsletter that set me off <i>this</i> time (not from the QCEA) shows no ability to connect with any audience other than one primed to salute at the word "Quaker" and at listings of activities combating social ills. There's not even a symbolic, token linguistic nod at the majority of Friends who are at least nominally evangelical. My first, most ornery response: I guess our Christian faith must either be inconsequential or an embarrassment; it is certainly not a source of motivation worth mentioning. The intended audience obviously doesn't include me or people like me. But I know the writers, who are wonderful people, and I know that the reality cannot be that bleak: perhaps it is just that common tendency to forget the audience in favor of the desk, to emphasize the quantifiable and familiar "whats" and "hows," and leave out the <b>why</b>.
</p><p>
Why do I fear that I'm becoming a curmudgeon? Because a day earlier I received a mailing from an evangelical Christian organization, for yet another curriculum to train counselors in the church. Why must I always immediately scan such material to see if there's any evidence of women and of racial diversity in leadership? (Often not, even in 2006, soon to be 2007!!!) Why do I immediately check for evidence of at least minimal gender sensitivity in language? Why do I get so discouraged when there's no mention of systemic violence or societal sin? Why do I bristle at bouncy happy-talk that includes no serious analysis or self-criticism, and treats me like a naive idiot?
</p><p>
So, honestly, when was the last time I got a newsletter or appeal letter from a Quaker or other Christian source that actually satisfied me?
</p><p>
. . . See why I worry?</p>
<p>(<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/12/please-dont-go.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b>)</p>
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<p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/10/meditations-on-sectarianism.html" target="_blank">Meditations on sectarianism</a></b> (October 11, 2012)</p>
<p>A few years ago I <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2007/09/open-hearts.html" target="_blank"><b>tried</b></a> to draw a distinction between evangelism and proselytism.</p>
<blockquote><p>Evangelism is the persuasive, experience-driven communication of spiritual truth, combined with an invitation to experience a community formed by that truth. Without the invitation, evangelism is never complete, but without hospitality, the community is not truly accessible. If being a Friend is not simply a matter of happy historical accident, the reality must be as available as the theory.
</p><p>In a world full of competing loyalties and oppressions, evangelism must be rooted in God's love for all creatures. Practically speaking, it must have the recipient's best interests at heart; it must be truly liberating. Proselytism, on the other hand, simply aims at a transfer of the listener's affiliation from one spiritual home to another (ours); in the worst case, it serves our interests, not theirs.</p></blockquote>
<p>We Quakers do not proselytize. We are not trying to sell our spiritual community at the expense of another's: our responsibility is strictly limited to informing people about our faith and experience, and making the doorway accessible to those who want to test and see whether what we say is true. Furthermore, as a teacher, I believe that I have the responsibility to (as <a href="https://maurers.org/Douglas_Steere-On_Confirming_the_Deepest_Thing_in_Another.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Douglas Steere</b></a> put it) "confirm the deepest thing in another," and if that deepest thing is his or her Orthodox faith, I will do nothing to weaken it. If anything, I'd seek to make it stronger!
</p><p>
Keeping that doorway open, however, remains crucial!! Without the refreshment—and the scrutiny—of new people, we run the danger of stagnation, of becoming a chaplaincy for a small self-absorbed group. There's a question that some Quakers seem to pose whenever we suggest putting more energy into evangelism: "If we get new people, how do we know they are really Friends?" I love the way Jane Boring Dunlap of Wilmington Friends Meeting in Ohio responded to that question in a discussion: "Why do we assume that new people would be dumber than we are?" On a sadder note, I remember how some people in the old Elektrostal Meeting (when it existed) asked me, "Why is it so difficult to become a Friend? Aren't we good enough?" Yes you are!!—Friends are nothing more exotic than Christians who simply want to clear a way to the Source.
</p><p>What did that unexpected visitor see when he burst into our [Moscow] meeting, with its quiet circle of Russians (and Judy and me), and the candle and Bibles on the table in the center? Maybe in this complicated age of gurus and special knowledge and ever-more-fragrant varieties of Gnostic elitism (and you find them here in Russia, too), a group of people sitting in reverent silence might at first glance resemble a special rarified group of adepts. No, no, no! We gather neither for self-confirmation nor for self-enhancement; we gather to meet with God in full reliance on the promises of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to meet with God in friendly company and in simplicity of faith? That's the sole basis of our warm invitation. In the realities of today's Russia, it's more important than ever that we remain completely transparent, faithful to our essential simplicity—and accessible.</p>
<p>(<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/10/meditations-on-sectarianism.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b>) (Be sure to read comments, too.)</p>
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<p>With many thanks for your patience, here are a few more links along these lines:</p><p><b>Signs, <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2008/01/signs.html" target="_blank">part one</a>, <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/05/signs-part-two.html" target="_blank">part two</a>, <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/05/signs-part-three.html" target="_blank">part three</a>, <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/05/signs-part-four-revival.html" target="_blank">part four</a>.</b></p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/03/do-we-realize-how-we-sound.html" target="_blank">Do we realize how we sound?</a></b></p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/07/a-good-quaker-is-hard-to-find.html" target="_blank">A good Quaker is hard to find</a></b>.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/02/publishing-truth.html" target="_blank">Publishing truth—ethically</a></b>.</p>
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<p>In light of our Camas Friends' <a href="https://www.camasfriends.org/word-of-the-year" target="_blank"><b>2024 Word of the Year</b></a>, "Repair," here is Becky Ankeny on <a href="https://reconciliationpapers.blogspot.com/2023/09/gods-repair-shop.html" target="_blank"><b>God's Repair Shop</b></a>.</p><p>Kristen Du Mez remembers <b><a href="https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/remembering-letha-dawson-scanzoni" target="_blank">Letha Dawson Scanzoni</a></b>.</p><p><b><a href="https://lithub.com/what-fiction-can-reveal-about-the-fragile-fabric-of-our-societies/" target="_blank">What fiction can reveal about the fragile fabric of societies</a></b>: Aminatta Forna on Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia, and wider implications.</p><p>Kake, Alaska: <b><a href="https://alaskabeacon.com/2024/01/22/monetary-reparations-follow-quaker-apology-to-alaska-native-community/" target="_blank">A Quaker apology</a></b>.</p><p>Hearing aids may take some getting used to, <a href="https://nancyjanethomas.blogspot.com/2024/01/what-say-that-again.html" target="_blank"><b>according to Nancy Thomas</b></a>.</p>
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<p>Introducing Dorothy Donegan.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KJ7OLTl-HRE?si=7sTc8OgqoYm2_oKk" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com3Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-3027054582685301062024-01-25T23:59:00.000-08:002024-01-26T12:44:43.248-08:00Pure intention, part three: Fox, Penn, and deconstruction<p><b>(<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2015/03/the-ecstasy-of-worship-is-connected-to.html" target="_blank">The ecstasy of worship is connected to pure intention</a></b>. <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/pure-intention-part-two.html" target="_blank">Pure intention, part two</a>)</b>.</p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaRBGd94I-RGhaf2ceq6fHsDSPsemFi7Y-cARjTvJfA6c1mKfpJ8IT4_KLdzxfeRt9XN4TpADpapVxk1NrMzjamdWv4wpHo4Xvi41wCU5vN-XTBez2kiJO-bC4niG2KDx06mXMEPiT75tYL8JDk9RVIITF3-XWm6qOB4Op55UaJNG1EoGdRKycA/s881/William%20Penn%20A%20Key%20cover%2015th%20edition.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" data-original-height="881" data-original-width="505" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaRBGd94I-RGhaf2ceq6fHsDSPsemFi7Y-cARjTvJfA6c1mKfpJ8IT4_KLdzxfeRt9XN4TpADpapVxk1NrMzjamdWv4wpHo4Xvi41wCU5vN-XTBez2kiJO-bC4niG2KDx06mXMEPiT75tYL8JDk9RVIITF3-XWm6qOB4Op55UaJNG1EoGdRKycA/s320/William%20Penn%20A%20Key%20cover%2015th%20edition.png" width="183" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/K9mYCDfV90kC?hl=en&gbpv=1" target="_blank">Source</a>. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><b>Do not satisfie yourselves with <i>out-sides</i>, with a <i>Name</i>, a <i>Profession</i>, a <i>Church-membership</i>, &c. For 'tis not what you say, but what you do. But <i>Turn In</i>, and examine your own <i>Hearts</i>, see how they stand affected towards God and his Law and Truth in your inward Parts. Be Strict and True in the Search, as you would save your Souls. If your Minds be set on <i>Heavenly</i> Things, and that <i>Holiness</i> and <i>Charity</i> be the zealous <i>Bent</i> thereof, well will it be with you for ever.... </b></p><b>Isa. 51. 6. Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 8. 10, 11, 12. Phil. 1. 12. Psal. 144. 15. </b><p>—William Penn <i><b><a href="http://dqc.esr.earlham.edu:8080/xmlmm/docButtonB?XMLMMWhat=builtPage&XMLMMWhere=E2177021B-027.P00000796-791&XMLMMBeanName=docBean&XMLMMNextPage=/printBuiltPageBrowse.jsp" target="_blank">A Key</a></b></i>... (1693)</p></blockquote><p>Last year, when the "word of the year" for Camas Friends Church was <i>curiosity</i>, I was curious about how many friends (Friends) I knew whose faith journeys were in a time of deconstruction.</p><p>(For the year 2024, <b><a href="https://www.camasfriends.org/word-of-the-year" target="_blank">our church's word of the year</a></b> is <i>repair</i>, a word I link more or less closely with all sorts of other <i>re</i>- verbs: <i>restore, renew, renovate, resurrect, resuscitate, rejuvenate, regenerate, revitalize, reanimate ... reboot</i>. They all have corresponding nouns, too, and let's not forget <i>renaissance, rebirth</i>, and so on. A fertile word!)</p><p>Last year, in <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/pure-intention-part-two.html" target="_blank"><b>part two</b></a>, I thought about why, as an adult convert, I hadn't felt a similar desire to deconstruct my understandings of faith. I'm sure part of the reason was that I was an adult convert. At times, when I heard people's positive stories of growing up in the church, I regretted not having the supportive family that church had been in those people's experience. But when I heard stories about the church's shadow side—from fear of damnation for petty misdeeds, all the way to outright abuse—I could see that my late entry had its pluses. As I became more involved in Quaker institutions, I began to realize that I had some responsibility for church systems that wounded others, even if they hadn't directly wounded me.</p><p>This was part of why I began to think about what it meant for a church to be trustworthy. One step in that journey was my participation in a group of Friends who had gathered around a former student of a residential Friends school who had been molested by the headmaster. That case became a centerpiece of a special issue of <i>Quaker Life</i>. (A Mennonite periodical's article on a similar theme had encouraged us to take this step, despite <i>Quaker Life</i>'s ancient avoidance patterns for anything controversial.) Another step was the experience of reading Gordon Aeschliman's book <i>Cages of Pain</i>, which I wrote about <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/03/trustworthy-part-three-choices.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.</p><p>Lately I've been reading some writings of early Friends, in connection with my last three blog posts on why Quakers might prefer the term <i>Quaker</i> or <i>Friend</i> to refer to themselves and their churches/meetings. Today I've been re-reading William Penn's brief tract with a long title, <i>A KEY, Opening the Way to every Capacity; How to distinguish the RELIGION professed by the People called QUAKERS, from the Perversions and Misrepresentations of their Adversaries, With a brief Exhortation to all Sorts of People to examine their Ways, and their Hearts, and turn speedily to the Lord</i>.</p><p>Back in 1974, as an enthusiastic new Quaker, I was eagerly immersing myself in the journals of George Fox and John Woolman, the book of discipline of London Yearly Meeting, Barclay's <i>Apology</i>, and William Penn's <i>Key</i>, along with the other writings and tracts that I mentioned <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/08/core-sample-of-quaker-culture.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>. Something in this material struck me in a new way today. Maybe it occurred to you a long time ago! But here's what I realized: the early Quakers might strike us now as staunch defenders of Christian faith, but they themselves did an enormous amount of deconstructing. And they did so at great cost and risk.</p><p>Consider these famous lines from George Fox:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Now after I had received that opening from the Lord that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient to fit a man to be a minister of Christ, I regarded the priests less and looked more after the dissenting people…. As I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could 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’, and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.</b> [1647]</p></blockquote><p>I've always been impressed by his vivid recollection of that "voice"—but look at what preceded it. After bitter experience, he had to leave the religion industry and all its management structure behind. It's not surprising that his first imprisonment—for blasphemy—was just a few years away.</p><p>And then here is his future wife Margaret Fell reporting on the sermon that he gave at Ulverston steeplehouse in 1652:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><b>And then he went on, and opened the Scriptures, and said, ‘The Scriptures were the prophets’ words and Christ’s and the apostles’ words, and what as they spoke they enjoyed and possessed and had it from the Lord’. And said, ‘Then what had any to do with the Scriptures, but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth. You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?’</b></p></blockquote><p>Talk about deconstruction! He neither dismisses the Bible nor gives it a magical superiority that the Bible itself never claims. He honors the Bible but also challenges his audience by linking the Bible's rootedness in the Spirit with the people's innate capacity to hear the same Spirit, <i>if they will do so</i>.</p><p>Barclay's full-length <i><b><a href="http://www.qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/" target="_blank">Apology</a></b></i> and Penn's short <i><a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-key-opening-the-way-t_penn-william_1736/mode/2up" target="_blank"><b>Key</b></a></i> both purport to defend Quakers from charges of heresy by showing how our every apparent peculiarity is directly tied to the Bible, or plain logic, or both. Even so, in their own ways, they are textbooks of deconstruction. A typical argument from Penn: </p><p>(a) the Quakers' opponent's "perversion" says that Quakers don't believe in X, </p><p>(b) but (says Penn) nothing could be further from the truth. The opponents hedge that X with human inventions, but we Quakers take a simple and direct approach. Look at a few of the "perversions" he cites in <i>A Key</i>, and see what I mean.</p><p>None of this is to suggest that the Quaker movement turned out to be immune from corrupting influences. At times we've tolerated pride, self-mythologizing, social prejudices of all kinds, cultural blind spots leading to colonialism, doctrinal rigidities among liberals and evangelicals alike, the twin addictions of affluence and individualism, and the struggles of technocrats and spiritualizers who fight over "what" and "how" and forget to ask "<b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/05/why_18.htm" target="_blank">WHY?</a></b>" </p><p>Friends who once admired William Penn now must deal directly with his ownership of slaves, and <a href="https://web.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/quakersandslavery/commentary/people/fox.php" target="_blank"><b>even Fox himself now seems unclear</b></a>—perhaps ignorant, perhaps resigned—about the slavery he encountered in the colonies. More recently, I know that scandals equal to those reported by Gordon Aeschliman have happened in Friends organizations.</p><p>However, at their best, our founding parents were able to model the deconstructing power of returning to the Center. It's important to recognize what they did; it's more important to do likewise ourselves.</p>
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<p>Ron Worden on <a href="https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1178&context=qrt" target="_blank"><b>George Fox's use of the Bible</b></a>.</p>
<p>Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, seeks <a href="https://fwccamericas.org/jobs/" target="_blank"><b>a new executive secretary</b></a>. Robin Mohr's very productive service for FWCC ends in July 2024.</p>
<p>Judy Maurer <b><a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/community-news/xttezm0l5829n6o2zzdfw4ozn649b5" target="_blank">interviews Windy Cooler</a></b> for our Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends newsletter.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">We [Quakers] have a need to belong to each other—and to belong to that identity. For us, to allow shame into our lives and into our communities is incredibly threatening. It’s things like interpersonal violence or substance abuse or having too much money or too little money. These are all taboo in the broader society but I think inside of our little emotional pressure cooker, which is this tiny little Quaker world that we share with each other, being open about the shame of these things would be completely off limits.</p></blockquote><p><b><a href="https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/lhps" target="_blank">Living Histories: A Past Studies Journal</a></b>. Looks very interesting. Unfortunately, the next deadline for submissions (February 2) is almost upon us.</p><p>Woodbrooke hosts Paul Anderson, March 13, for <a href="https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/george-fox-an-evangelical-quaker-perspective/" target="_blank"><b>an evangelical Quaker perspective on George Fox</b></a>.</p>
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<p>Angela Strehli with the Aki Kumar Band with a Muddy Waters classic, "I Love the Life I Live."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-k0psX6KrfQ?si=EbQHwIw0HRm_ySl-" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-458210869603527422024-01-18T23:59:00.000-08:002024-01-19T02:02:04.158-08:00 "...The People, called in Scorn, QUAKERS": part three<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0GJjO-uVfCau8Tv9YLTYAWmiQGVkU8sc4bXeMz3bAtnevQRzPq7goR9vAiWzpArH0qwA5HtwUp906-7s1HhnyiJplB1eTKR3PcXhqw07CIZ6yuMMWKK4vKdJPZIb9nk_lZbDLhG53BiK9mNXi0YdKOPOQa9iIYuaiqsbR2CoB0R04a0Kid0KLg/s979/In_turbulent_times-via-tw-Gillian_OBrien.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="730" height="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0GJjO-uVfCau8Tv9YLTYAWmiQGVkU8sc4bXeMz3bAtnevQRzPq7goR9vAiWzpArH0qwA5HtwUp906-7s1HhnyiJplB1eTKR3PcXhqw07CIZ6yuMMWKK4vKdJPZIb9nk_lZbDLhG53BiK9mNXi0YdKOPOQa9iIYuaiqsbR2CoB0R04a0Kid0KLg/w306-h409/In_turbulent_times-via-tw-Gillian_OBrien.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A banner at Friends House, Euston Road, London.<br /><i>Source: Gillian O'Brien via Twitter</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>"I think our jargon and collective theological vagueness sometimes gets in the way of welcoming new people. And YET, the theological vagueness is part of what makes room for people of different backgrounds to worship together."</b></p><p>—A<i> response to the final question, "Any closing thoughts?" on <a href="https://forms.gle/7GTY2caQLSpXudm98" target="_blank"><b>my survey</b></a> asking whether and when you prefer the term "Friend" or "Quaker."</i></p><p>I have so many mixed feelings about this insightful statement. It almost makes me want to post a whole new survey, with such questions as ...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Does your corner of the Quaker world consider itself jargon-ridden and/or theologically vague? </li><li>If so, what advantages and disadvantages of these features have you experienced?</li><li>If not, is your greater conformity a source of strength and joy, or a result of not wanting to reveal your doubts? (Or both or neither!?)</li><li>For what purposes do you want to welcome people of different backgrounds and make room for everyone?</li><li>How much unity, if any, do you consider necessary to worship together? (For that matter, what is worship?)</li></ul><p></p><p>Based on this Friend's other responses, I'm guessing that they're in the unprogrammed side of the Quaker movement, among whom there tends to be more theological diversity than where I am. But in any case, the big question for me is: <i>why do we gather as a Quaker community?</i> To put it another way, <i>Who or what gathered us?</i></p><p>(Related: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/10/a-great-people-to-be-gathered.html" target="_blank"><b>A great people to be gathered</b></a>.)</p>
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<p>A couple of years ago I saw this banner hanging on the outside of Friends House in London: "IN TURBULENT TIMES ... BE A QUAKER." I'm relatively sure no irony was intended. Here's my guess at an interpretation: "In times such as these, be someone who is capable of centering yourself in quietness, while at the same time being engaged on behalf of social justice and earth care." I'm not sure literal <i>quaking at the word of God</i>, as early Quakers preached and experienced, is directly recommended by the banner. We may have been the 17th century forerunners of the Pentecostal movement, but that's not the comparison that comes to mind now.</p><p>(Related: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2010/05/happy-birthday-charismatics.html" target="_blank"><b>Happy birthday, Charismatics</b></a>.)</p><p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYrf6iVlBnWGFO9-zCPRdqoLdifplMmV499qy0WEk4iwpZjoSaeyL1e7X_DQG2VJXULBhTRSGIy7kQO2WI5NEMsSsc8FLLmQxb6UoFMfv44v5tBeGxzfAPvrXb36pDAe-20_TLsjiASUZD-9dcevVkF8PwCO_1BSeF4NPoKl6fwjnczD8YmcTLQ/s5417/IMG_0733-edited-Westminster-FMH-.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5417" data-original-width="3069" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYrf6iVlBnWGFO9-zCPRdqoLdifplMmV499qy0WEk4iwpZjoSaeyL1e7X_DQG2VJXULBhTRSGIy7kQO2WI5NEMsSsc8FLLmQxb6UoFMfv44v5tBeGxzfAPvrXb36pDAe-20_TLsjiASUZD-9dcevVkF8PwCO_1BSeF4NPoKl6fwjnczD8YmcTLQ/s320/IMG_0733-edited-Westminster-FMH-.JPG" width="181" /></a><p>On that same visit to London, we visited the Westminster Friends meetinghouse, location of the first British Quaker meeting for worship I ever attended, back in 1975.</p>
<p>On that more recent visit, I was intrigued by an outreach of that meeting in the form of an attractive invitation to its "Drop-in Silence ... Bringing peace, tranquility and silence to London's busy streets." Especially interesting were these promises in capital letters at the bottom of the notice: "NO PHILOSOPHY, NO RELIGION, NO CATCH / JUST PEACE, TRANQUILITY & SILENCE."</p><p>The <a href="https://dropinsilence.org/" target="_blank"><b>Drop-in Silence Web site</b></a> makes it clear that this weekly period of quiet is not a Friends meeting and is solely intended to provide a safe, unconditional place of calm. But Westminster Meeting's qualifications as host of Drop-in Silence are hinted at on <a href="https://westminsterquakers.org.uk/" target="_blank"><b>the meeting's own Web site</b></a>, in its tagline: "An oasis of calm in central London."</p><p>There is a modest reference to Friends on the Drop-in Silence Web site. Those who are curious about the sponsorship of the Silence can find links in the "About" pull-down menu. These links go to Westminster Quakers, to Britain Yearly Meeting, and to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers" target="_blank"><b>Wikipedia article</b></a> about Quakers—the last one making it clear how diverse our movement has become since the days quaking was more or less normal.</p><p>Londoners can come into the weekly Silence with the assurance that there is no proselytizing intent in Friends' offer of an oasis of quiet in the city. But there is a side of me that Eastern Christianity has influenced, which is why I can't help believing that those visitors are entering a space that is drenched in decades of prayer.</p>
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<p>Back to my survey. The ways respondents identified themselves in the conventional categories we Friends use were interesting. Many were not content to choose just one category; for example, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Friends" target="_blank"><b>Conservative/Wilburite</b></a> category (yes, I know they're not exactly the same) included two who also identified as Liberal, and two who also identified as Evangelical.</p><p>Two respondents said they encompassed practically the whole spectrum: Liberal, Orthodox, and Conservative. To my mind, these intriguing responses don't necessarily indicate theological vagueness, but instead point to the inadequacy of these categories. I suspect I know at least a couple of these people, and there's nothing vague about them. </p><p>Seven included "other" in addition to specific categories. Five simply chose "other."</p><p>Eleven people responded to the questions in the section addressed to people who aren't now Quakers. Eight said that they understood that the two terms, <i>Quaker</i> and <i>Friend</i>, are synonymous, and three hadn't understood that. Five were more familiar with the term <i>Quaker</i>, four with <i>Friend</i>, and two said that both terms were familiar. I would love to have more data from people who aren't involved with Quakers, but the great flaw in that aspect of my survey is that non-Quakers pop into my readership very randomly, probably as an odd result of an Internet search, and most don't stay on my blog very long.</p>
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<p>Speaking of random encounters with the term <i>Quaker</i>, my last quotation from the survey follows.</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEd0jt6Im6br3lNu1i-yFjnxQSncvsI5LYOTh6HaYviq2iyziDY-JjtHQiEC-z11r_KcO-GfgIAg9Yvh5zztlg0l3hCDT5qfS73VIqO5erTrnX2ck-KPyV80itedW75ghyXY7xGemw8YabtR_QH3918BWDiXIe0R41BIuYwy8wd_DSl_dmUMFVpw/s940/05072014quakercoat.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEd0jt6Im6br3lNu1i-yFjnxQSncvsI5LYOTh6HaYviq2iyziDY-JjtHQiEC-z11r_KcO-GfgIAg9Yvh5zztlg0l3hCDT5qfS73VIqO5erTrnX2ck-KPyV80itedW75ghyXY7xGemw8YabtR_QH3918BWDiXIe0R41BIuYwy8wd_DSl_dmUMFVpw/w136-h200/05072014quakercoat.jpg" width="136" /></a></b></div><b>I prefer the full title Religious Society of Friends of Truth, because I think dropping the last phrase obscures the significance of history of the former words. And I do wish that P&G or whoever is responsible for past or current Quaker brands, such as are referred to above, would drop them. I consider they're offensive effrontery. Would they use Methodist or Anglican or Catholic or Mormon or any other church name? It's absurd, and fixes Quakerism in the quaint past, along with comparable Racial totems like Aunt Jemima - I speak as an American Quaker...</b><p></p>
<p>When I read this comment, this jingle came unbidden into my head: "Quaker State your car, to keep it running young." Although the motor oil brand is probably referring to the state of Pennsylvania rather than to our religious movement, it does reinforce the respondent's point. But I also have to ask, whose fault is it that it's so easy to fix Quakerism in the quaint past? Have we been marginalized by others, or <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/06/are-quakers-marginal.htm" target="_blank"><b>have we marginalized ourselves</b></a>?</p><p>Many thanks to the survey participants for giving me so much food for thought.</p><p>(<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part.html" target="_blank"><b>Part one</b></a>. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part_11.html" target="_blank"><b>Part two</b></a>.)</p>
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<p>Here's the late Mariellen Gilpin on prayer and place—and Moscow Friends: <b><a href="https://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2024/01/17/the-cloud-of-witnesses/" target="_blank">The Cloud of Witnesses</a></b>.</p><p>Here's Britain Yearly Meeting on <a href="https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/celebrating-400-years-of-quakers" target="_blank"><b>observing George Fox's 400th birthday</b></a>. Note the link to the Friends World Committee's <a href="https://fwcc.world/event/fox/" target="_blank"><b>page on the same subject</b></a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.georgefox.edu/offices/peace_justice/woolman-forum.html" target="_blank"><b>Is There a Balm in Gilead? Prospects for a Palestinian/Israeli Peace</b></a>. George Fox University's Woolman Peacemaking Forum this year features Jonathan Kuttab. Tuesday, February 13, 6 p.m. Pacific time.</p><p>Do <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/11/newly-discovered-cosmic-megastructure-challenges-theories-of-the-universe" target="_blank"><b>unexpected megastructure discoveries</b></a> challenge the cosmological principle?</p>
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<p>I'm going to hurry up and publish this blog post in case we lose power in this icestorm. But not before I provide some blues dessert.... The late James Harman had been in "this same racket since 1962...."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uykFa3l8mec?si=_Ek-uE6rmquim9q3&start=499" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com4Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-87950502612898339032024-01-11T23:58:00.000-08:002024-01-23T18:51:21.515-08:00"...The People, called in Scorn, QUAKERS": part two<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM0abKhtXRIZ-_9qeHaR_FJVW_c_90ClH69YJOggwEUR_arnZUcdYvAyplzUatw5DHvFEUvyTq-6eAhBnkjo4sdfB9hEn2DDZ_Cll7uZmwKxV3aIX_xWOQe5CBJ6OvCcWE7weiy5izaNrmTv14yfp5UGJP8H_2WQEazGzb8wsdnaAs9R9Ho0xKbw/s406/Barclay-excerpt_from_Prop_XI-silent_assemblies.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="406" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM0abKhtXRIZ-_9qeHaR_FJVW_c_90ClH69YJOggwEUR_arnZUcdYvAyplzUatw5DHvFEUvyTq-6eAhBnkjo4sdfB9hEn2DDZ_Cll7uZmwKxV3aIX_xWOQe5CBJ6OvCcWE7weiy5izaNrmTv14yfp5UGJP8H_2WQEazGzb8wsdnaAs9R9Ho0xKbw/w640-h424/Barclay-excerpt_from_Prop_XI-silent_assemblies.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Robert Barclay, <i><a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_an-apology-for-the-true-_barclay-robert_1703/page/n385/mode/2up?q=XI&view=theater" target="_blank">source</a>. </i></td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<p><b>"When speaking with non-Quakers, I find it more exact to say I’m a Quaker. Among other Quakers I prefer Friend to reinforce to each other our relationship with Jesus and each other."</b></p><p>—<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank"><b>Survey</b></a> respondent, explaining the occasions or contexts which determine whether they choose the term <i>Quaker</i> or <i>Friend</i>.</p>
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<p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part.html" target="_blank"><b>Last week</b></a> I noted the powerful content of both terms among the early Quakers. The "scorn" they met with in the larger society when labeled <i>Quakers</i>, especially among the religious polemicists who opposed them, was an important differentiator. It was almost guaranteed to bring them the public attention they urgently wanted so that they could proclaim and demonstrate their revolutionary message.</p><p>As I said last week, the more I read, the more I got the impression those early Friends did not often use the term <i>Friends</i> as a public label. But it wasn't really a private label, either. Instead, it was used much more literally as an affectionate term of address within the community.</p><p>This aspect of the term may not have entirely disappeared. When I'm writing to a meeting or church or committee, I find that I almost always write "Dear Friends." I don't think I've ever written "Dear Quakers" in that context.</p><p>This week I'd like to sample some of the other responses to the survey. But before I do that, I'd like to say something about the state of the world we're in today, in comparison to which these questions about what we call ourselves may seem narrowly sectarian and scandalously trivial. You know as well as I that innocent civilians are being killed and maimed, and their homes are being destroyed, this very day, and you know where. You hear the outrageously bland and lying explanations from the leaders that command these crimes. Your tax money may have paid for some of the munitions.</p><p>Whatever we call ourselves, what might be our response? Should we be crowding the prisons with our civil disobedience, should we accompany with our own bodies those who are being bombed, should we stop paying taxes? All of these have parallels among early Quakers. At the very very least, should we not be telling the Judge Gervases of our time to "tremble at the word of God"?</p><p>Let's remember whom we might be addressing. The state of Israel claims to be the haven and guardian of the legacy left by the biblical <i><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2016/04/your-license-to-insult-anyone-is-hereby.html" target="_blank"><b>People of God</b></a></i>. Part of that legacy is a rich ethical heritage, summed up by the promise to Abraham that his descendents will bless all the peoples of the world.</p><p>The state of Russia claims to be the last line of defense for <i>Christian civilization</i>. Before it became a compliant government chaplaincy, the ancient Russian Orthodox Church differentiated itself from western Christianity by its so-called capacity for <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2022/12/have-mercy.html" target="_blank">mercy</a></b>. </p><p>In both cases, the leaders ought to be made to tremble, and many of their people will have to answer for their meek conformity. (Do some of us also fit this description?)</p><p>So, we ourselves ought to be quaking, and warning others to quake at the word of God—while seeking with passion and creativity to make actual contact with those we want to reach instead of just self-indulgently preaching to the wind.</p><p>Now, what about that word that early Quakers loaded with so much affection: <i>Friend</i>? It seems to me that the more people we can evangelize and bring into loving communities of Friends, the fewer will remain to conduct war. I'm not joking: each new person who experiences the power of God to form communities that do not depend on coercion, wealth, or social distinction, but on God's grace, is one person closer to tipping the balance. Our affection for each other is an internal and an external witness: there is another way to live. </p><p>We Quakers are of course far from being the only Christians who have a heritage of nonviolence and mutual love. It's not a competition—as in the days of the <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/new-new-call-to-peacemaking.html" target="_blank"><b>New Call to Peacemaking</b></a>, let's encourage and support each other. Let's keep building ties to other faith communities who are also refusing to support governments and cultures dependent on violence. The affection represented by the word "friend" does not depend on whether we capitalize it.</p>
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<p>As I showed last week, almost three-quarters of the survey respondents said they use both terms,<i> Friend</i> and <i>Quaker</i>. Here's how some responded to the follow-up question about what occasions or contexts their choice depends upon. Most of these responses (as well as the ones I didn't quote) seem to be in broad agreement.</p>
<blockquote><p>I prefer “Friend” if it will be understood by everyone being spoken to. “Quaker” if that is clearer because some people might not recognize “Friend” as an address.</p><p>I use them relatively interchangeably. Personally, I would probably lean towards "Quaker" because I think it's more distinctive. In Evangelical Friends contexts (where I currently am most of the time) I will mix in "Friend" more since that a part of the official idiom, but I am still comfortable using "Quaker."</p><p>I use Friends in the description of my church and when pressed to ask what that means I say we are a Quaker church, because there is some knowledge of what that means but most people I have encountered are not aware of what "Friends" means as a denomination or movement.</p>
<p>Who I’m speaking to—Quaker has more ‘brand recognition’ for people who may not know much about us; Friend is friendlier to people I know are fFriends! (unless it’s being used as a form of admonishment!). <i>(Notice the double fF—I've seen others use a similar device.)</i> </p><p>Both are interchangeable for me, but I'm more likely to use 'Friend' with people that are more Christ-centered theologically and 'Quaker' with Liberals.</p><p><i>On the blog post itself, Kevin Camp commented as follows:</i></p><p>The term "Friend" seems convivial and affectionate to me. I've applied it to others with whom I regularly worship and have fond feelings. Most people I have encountered outside of the Society of Friends know us as "Quakers" first and foremost. </p><p>I don't prefer one over the other. Sometimes I use them interchangably.</p></blockquote>
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<p>I asked whether respondents used <i>church</i> or <i>meeting</i> in referring to their current congregation. Almost 62% said <i>meeting</i> and 23.5% said <i>both</i>; it depends. (Note: I'm dividing up 34 respondents in total for this question, so I can't claim scientific precision among all English-speaking Friends!) About 12% said <i>church</i>. Some of the reasons for their choices seem parallel to the responses for the <i>Quaker/Friend</i> choices. Examples of the responses:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Church:</b> I'd like to use "meeting" more instead of "church," but I think this could just be weird and counterproductive to most of my fellow congregants.</p><p><b>Church:</b> I prefer "church" because it marks us as a Christian body and is less sectarian.</p>
<p><b>Meeting:</b> The word "meeting covers so many things, I do not know where to start: the act of meeting God; the act of meeting Friends; the collection of people who make up a meeting; the session in which worship takes place; the session in which business is conducted; etc. I suppose the words "congregation" or "assembly" could be used in some of these ways, but they come to mind less often.</p><p><i>This same Friend made another interesting observation in the "here's a place to comment..." section of the survey:</i></p><p>The individuals in my conservative meeting who at least part of the time use the word "church" are people whose families have been Friends for hundreds of years and tend to see the meeting as another religious group such as the Methodists or Baptists. Those who have made a break with other denominations are more consistent in saying "meeting".</p><p><b>Meeting:</b> Church carries too much negative baggage for many people (in UK).</p><p><b>It depends:</b> I generally say "my Quaker Meeting" when speaking about something where the phrase "my church" would be appropriate. I learned not to say just "my meeting" when I found out that a co-worker thought I was a very open alcoholic talking about my AA meeting!</p><p><b>It depends:</b> I attend both Friends churches and Quaker meetings. But for me personally the word 'Church' refers to the congregation and not the church building.</p></blockquote>
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<p>There were several other interesting mini-essays that I plan to quote <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part_18.html" target="_blank"><b>next week</b></a>, but my main focus in part three will be responses from people who are <i>not </i>now Friends.</p><p>If you would like a spreadsheet with all the questions and responses (slightly anonymized where needed), write to me at <a href="mailto:johan@canyoubelieve.me"><b>johan@canyoubelieve.me</b></a>.</p>
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<p>Last week I linked to an article on the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/01/02/meet-the-new-apostolic-reformation-cutting-edge-of-the-christian-right/" target="_blank"><b>New Apostolic Reformation</b></a>. Martin Kelley commented with another link to illustrate that "some of the New Apostolic folks have this bizzarro obsession with William Penn and use him to justify their Christian nationalism." Here's the link he provided: <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/08/abby-abildness-lobbyist/" target="_blank"><b>www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/08/abby-abildness-lobbyist/</b></a>.</p><p>This brought back memories of the <b><a href="https://maurers.org/bicentennial.pdf" target="_blank">Bicentennial Conference on Religious Liberty</a></b>, held in April 1976 at Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia. I had come down from Ottawa to serve on the Friendly Presence nonviolent security team for the conference. One of the security factors we were briefed on was the presence of the famous fundamentalist leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_McIntire" target="_blank"><b>Rev. Carl McIntire</b></a> and his supporters, who planned to (and did) picket this conference. Part of their message was that modern Quakers had betrayed the spiritual legacy of William Penn.</p>
<p>Alireza Doostdar on <b><a href="https://martycenter.org/sightings/witnessing-genocide" target="_blank">witnessing genocide</a></b>—and specifically the self-giving of journalists.</p><p></p><blockquote>It is difficult to square this hopeless situation with the radical hope required to continue the deadly work of journalism in an unfolding genocide. There is an excess, a surplus, in the hopefulness and urgency of Dahdouh and his colleagues’ daily reporting that cannot be explained through our ordinary secular sensibilities. The only way to account for this surplus, I think, is through faith: the journalists’ conviction that even if their witnessing does not stop the war, even if it does not end the genocide, even if it does not liberate Palestine, it is worth doing—on pain of death—as an act of <i>shahāda</i>, truthful witnessing before God and humanity.</blockquote><p></p>
<p>And Joshua Frank on <a href="https://tomdispatch.com/the-killing-of-gazas-environment/" target="_blank"><b>making Gaza unliveable</b></a>.</p>
<p>When someone reports experiencing abusive religion, <a href="https://www.faithonview.com/what-not-to-say-when-someone-has-god-beaten-out-of-them/" target="_blank"><b>here's what not to say</b></a>.</p>
<p>Elder chaplain Greg Morgan <a href="https://elderchaplain.com/2024/01/11/all-the-lonely-people/" target="_blank"><b>encounters loneliness</b></a>, and responds.</p>
<p>On the way to movie screens, a <b><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67943913" target="_blank">"less mean" <i>Mean Girls</i></a></b>—and critics have mixed reactions. (There's a potential plot spoiler in this BBC article.) Back in 2007, as I reported <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2007/12/elektrostals-hospitable-artists.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>, I showed the first <i>Mean Girls</i> film to my American studies class in Elektrostal, Russia, observing that the campus depicted in the film was based on my own high school. After we viewed the film, we listed all the features of high school life that they saw in the film, and then in a second column, features of their own high school experiences. It was interesting that there were more similarities than differences.</p>
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<p>Speaking of being scorned, <a href="https://americansongwriter.com/lightnin-hopkins-ive-been-buked-and-scorned/" target="_blank"><b>here is a meditation on "I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned (You're Going to Need Somebody on your Bond)."</b></a> The audio-only YouTube link at the end of the article is also below, featuring Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Williams, and Jimmy Bond.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-aXRAKG1KO4?si=UTSaIR2N3MIEwZ92" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p>"Yeah, you're going to need him."</p>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-63515806624183602462024-01-04T12:54:00.000-08:002024-01-23T18:48:45.813-08:00"...The People, called in Scorn, QUAKERS": part one <hr />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2kxpQ1qsV2r3KTBMIwkir3wyUZX1EcE6PN6C1EyRQw8WyVlQuilC2WTpm2srXi6diLLIzyJ-zyJdeeLhTqnRtAj7n64BJqdRf5XLNIa9U0g-xgFkEhY8gyEsiorkdz6nBwt3_gt8WKi2gVaK-JCZq4wYlgSCT_uzwT4PUVQG4G6MfuGXsF-PpA/s600/friend%20or%20quaker%20piechart.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="600" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2kxpQ1qsV2r3KTBMIwkir3wyUZX1EcE6PN6C1EyRQw8WyVlQuilC2WTpm2srXi6diLLIzyJ-zyJdeeLhTqnRtAj7n64BJqdRf5XLNIa9U0g-xgFkEhY8gyEsiorkdz6nBwt3_gt8WKi2gVaK-JCZq4wYlgSCT_uzwT4PUVQG4G6MfuGXsF-PpA/w640-h308/friend%20or%20quaker%20piechart.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<p>The participants of the eighteenth-century movement that, under the leadership of George Fox and his fellow enthusiasts, claimed to revive Christianity after a "long dark night of apostasy," had a number of ways of referring to themselves. The name <i>Quaker</i> arose very early in our history. As Margery Post Abbott explains in the <i>Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers)</i>, </p><p></p><blockquote><p>The term Quaker was allegedly first used to describe Friends in 1650 by Justice Gervase Bennet of Derby, England, at a trial of George Fox, who had been imprisoned under the Blasphemy Act. As Fox recorded in his Journal, "This was Justice Bennet of Derby that first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God." By this, he meant that they trembled before the power of God. Friends such as Robert Barclay equated quaking to the trembling experienced in worship. The term Quaker was soon widely used by Friends as well as by their detractors.</p><p>Friends originally called themselves Children of the Light (see John 12:36, Ephesians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:5). Publishers of Truth, Friends of Truth, and Friends in the Truth were other early names used starting with the second generation of Friends. As the formal name Religious Society of Friends became standard, many friends rejected the term Quaker as an unwanted nickname. By the late 20th century, most liberal Friends accepted the popular name along with the more formal one, while evangelicals more consistently spoke of the Friends Church.</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmvFVf7zFqLdhGO-rpq_MGta5cbQyK3G01ciL4WgXTSRcR94cqO155sXeTo2ug_CZ18oYbjjtr8NA2F2GzYUWgSFsQn6K2WyETu0H1kswjWL08XaSIdt3Uw4wlhEaM4VejbigCHAdk7QokeT3ZYCJ9XVbGXNkqzey6lWiI2SC85GSUbpi3Zh6qw/s734/Apology-title_page.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="424" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLmvFVf7zFqLdhGO-rpq_MGta5cbQyK3G01ciL4WgXTSRcR94cqO155sXeTo2ug_CZ18oYbjjtr8NA2F2GzYUWgSFsQn6K2WyETu0H1kswjWL08XaSIdt3Uw4wlhEaM4VejbigCHAdk7QokeT3ZYCJ9XVbGXNkqzey6lWiI2SC85GSUbpi3Zh6qw/s320/Apology-title_page.png" width="185" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i><a href="https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_an-apology-for-the-true-_barclay-robert_1703/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Friends" target="_blank">Source</a></i>. </td></tr></tbody></table>However these early disciples chose to refer to themselves, they soon adopted "Quakers" as a public nameplate, trading on the fact that this name was used by their theological (and political) opponents. Early theologian Robert Barclay's <i>Apology</i> (1676) barely uses "Friends" at all as a label for the movement he was defending, reserving it as a vague and general salutation to his varied readership. He uses "Quaker" right up front, entitling his volume <i>An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, As the Same is Held Forth, and Preached, by the People, called in Scorn, QUAKERS</i>....—as if that "Scorn" were a badge of defiant authenticity.<p></p><p>I was fascinated by the <i>Apology</i>'s opening pages, in which he addresses a plea for fairness and tolerance directly to King Charles II. He makes constant references to Quakers, but never calls them either Quakers or Friends. They are "messengers of the Lord," "prophets," "those people," "these innocent people," and most often, simply "they" and "we." In this letter, Barclay defines the people whose cause he pleads by their peaceful witness and the suffering they're undergoing. Who "they" are is indicated in stark simplicity on the cover: <i>Quakers</i>.</p><p>Next week I hope to summarize some of the results of the <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank">survey</a></b> that 35 of you (thank you!) responded to, concerning these various names for ourselves and our communities in our own time. When I first presented this survey, I wanted to test my own observation that, as Margery Post Abbott said in her article, the term <i>Quaker</i> is generally and increasingly preferred among liberal Friends, and <i>Friend</i> among evangelical Friends, but (as the chart at the top of this post shows) the vast majority of my survey respondents use both terms. ("It depends.") </p><p>Things divided out somewhat differently in the time of George Fox and Robert Barclay. It seems that the movement's publicists and pamphleteers, at least, used <i>Quakers</i> as a slightly ironic badge of honor, a sort of provocative innocency (borrowing Robert Tucker's phrase) in the face of the public. Among themselves, they addressed each other simply and literally as <i>friends.</i> In writing, they may have capitalized the word mainly in conformity with general usage in English at the time—most nouns and many other words were capitalized—rather than intentionally using the word as an organizational label. It may have been a gradual process that this informal and affectionate usage of <i>friends</i> became the collective name for a less provocative, less trembly, and more dignified <i>Religious Society of Friends</i>.</p><p>What was the spark and substance of this powerful community-shaping friendship? Here's Robert Barclay in the <i>Apology</i>, Proposition XI (punctuation and italics as in the 1703 edition):</p><p></p><blockquote>For not a Few have become Convinced of the truth after this manner: Of which I my self, in a part, am—a true Witness; not by strength of Arguments or by a particular Disquisition of each Doctrine, and Convincement of my Understanding thereby, came to receive and bear witness of the Truth, but by being secretly Reached by <i>this</i> Life. For, when I came into the <i>silent Assemblies</i> of God’s people, I felt a <i>secret Power</i> among them, which touched my Heart; and as I gave way unto it I found the Evil weakening in me and the Good raised up; and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the Increase of this Power and Life, whereby I might feel myself perfectly Redeemed. And indeed, this is the surest way to become a <i>Christian</i>; to whom afterwards the Knowledge and Understanding of <i>Principles</i> will not be wanting; but will grow up so much as is needful, as the natural Fruit of this good Root, and such a Knowledge will not be <i>barren</i> nor <i>unfruitful</i>.</blockquote><p></p><p>With these words, Barclay helps me understand the joy and enthusiasm that united this group of "God's people," these <i>friends. </i>He describes an experience of Quaker worship that, in my own time, I too witnessed and cherished; and many of the people around me when it happened to me in August 1974 (the capital-F Friends of Ottawa Meeting) really became very dear to me. </p><p>I'm not arguing that literal silence is required for this knit-togetherness to happen, but Barclay's testimony does give me more insight into both of these evocative words, <i>friend</i> and <i>Quaker</i>.</p><p>(<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part_11.html" target="_blank"><b>Part two</b></a>. <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/01/the-people-called-in-scorn-quakers-part_18.html" target="_blank">Part three</a></b>.)</p>
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<p>A new "dark night of apostasy" in our own time? What does the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/01/02/meet-the-new-apostolic-reformation-cutting-edge-of-the-christian-right/" target="_blank"><b>New Apostolic Reformation</b></a> have to do with Jesus? (I admit it's a rhetorical question, but I welcome good-faith answers.)</p>
<p>And questions about the former president's eligibility for office, in <a href="https://religionnews.com/2024/01/02/what-christian-moral-theology-has-to-say-about-trumps-eligibility-for-office/" target="_blank"><b>the light of moral theology</b></a>.</p>
<p>Nancy Thomas's <a href="https://nancyjanethomas.blogspot.com/2024/01/favorite-books-of-2023.html" target="_blank"><b>favorite books of 2023</b></a>.</p>
<p><i><a href="https://friendspeaceteams.org/eventwalking-in-the-world/" target="_blank"><b>Walking in the World as a Friend</b></a></i>—a monthly online practice and discussion group starting this coming Monday, and repeating in three-month cycles.</p>
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<p>Here's a clip from my beloved Chicago, from the late Little Arthur Duncan: "Little Red Rooster."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_PgSLLUcrak?si=NO8dD67puJ3GLFgW&start=1869" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com3Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-58775993536354451172023-12-28T23:58:00.000-08:002023-12-29T00:39:12.851-08:00Digesting 2023<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQ-oq5Zaxr4KS29y6k6Z6s_4AYN5514o9ZbCii4xdM5QUIOhl-swoovN9iC-zX_hfAcmBbjzFQo3pHiXuhM7rsB9Cyq7KXYp2e8x9GuB0zg-EyRqVse3z4uvBowbsXYCKyMcFFPMyF3-DzDH9jgDDdwo2WyujFV80wH2d3LLinTHCf9QmJTRsZA/s4032/Bailey_Island_PXL_20230723_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQ-oq5Zaxr4KS29y6k6Z6s_4AYN5514o9ZbCii4xdM5QUIOhl-swoovN9iC-zX_hfAcmBbjzFQo3pHiXuhM7rsB9Cyq7KXYp2e8x9GuB0zg-EyRqVse3z4uvBowbsXYCKyMcFFPMyF3-DzDH9jgDDdwo2WyujFV80wH2d3LLinTHCf9QmJTRsZA/w640-h360/Bailey_Island_PXL_20230723_.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant's Stairs Trail, Bailey Island, Harpswell, Maine, USA. </td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>As the year 2023 makes its way into the New Year's Eve harbor, it's impossible to ignore the wreckage it left in its wake. I'm having a hard time remembering the hopes and ideals with which I started this year's voyage. Many of them seem to have been drowned out by physical and verbal violence.</p><p>That's all true. But even so I want to think carefully about what to take aboard with me as 2024 prepares to get underway. As I try to refresh my stocks of hope and idealism (<i>without</i> ignoring today's realities <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-83" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>, for example, and <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-glance-what-we-know-on-day-674" target="_blank">here</a></b>), I've been finding inspiration in a novel and a podcast.</p><p>The novel is <i><b><a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-james-duncan/sun-house/9780316129374/" target="_blank">Sun House</a></b></i> by David James Duncan. Even though I've been reading it on and off the whole of this month, I'm only halfway through it. I find that this 775-page rollicking manifesto for love, ecstasy, healing, unpretentious mysticism, and honesty, and against (<i>sooo</i> against) cynicism, is just what I needed. But I cannot read it for too long at one sitting. I have to take some deep breaths and move, and chat about whatever, and then I can return to the book. I don't think a book has affected me like that since <b><i><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2013/01/interpreter.html" target="_blank">Daniel Stein, Interpreter</a></i></b>, by Liudmila Ulitskaya.</p><p>As Judy and I sailed into the Norwegian fjords back in 2016, I remember thinking, <i>these scenes are every bit as beautiful as they were advertised to be.</i> Likewise, in the case of <i>Sun House</i>, those happy readers' paragraphs <a href="https://www.davidjamesduncan.com/sun-house" target="_blank"><b>on the author's Web site</b></a> do not exaggerate one bit.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-OK083VIrgSvpPWC3Ee7lIx0IeczRkbTRs0vuU6YfXhx6aFVDJx_chmLXEc-nCmDFQiyZN-Dfa4SLyVa324kbrbg0JkhLwixFwiCdFnUlhyy50R1ZAVjsB0oVp19VXB_USLSoj7G7W8ii6sG1HwyFfWOscF-MGzB-HVnS-LjlLgV9BRaCWoJwhQ/s1514/13-minutes.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1514" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-OK083VIrgSvpPWC3Ee7lIx0IeczRkbTRs0vuU6YfXhx6aFVDJx_chmLXEc-nCmDFQiyZN-Dfa4SLyVa324kbrbg0JkhLwixFwiCdFnUlhyy50R1ZAVjsB0oVp19VXB_USLSoj7G7W8ii6sG1HwyFfWOscF-MGzB-HVnS-LjlLgV9BRaCWoJwhQ/s320/13-minutes.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p083wp70" target="_blank">Link to podcast's second season</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>The podcast is the BBC's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p083wp70" target="_blank"><b>13 Minutes to the Moon, season two</b></a>, a detailed but wonderfully conversational series telling the story of the Apollo 13 flight to the moon in 1970, and the onboard explosion that not only cancelled its moon landing but nearly killed the astronauts. The inspiration comes from the constant parade of life-threatening complications that the crew, mission control staff, and hundreds of backroom staff had to confront.<p></p><p>Many of these crises were unanticipated even in the rigorous simulation sessions that people and equipment had to undergo before flight, and most of the solutions had to be read up to the astronauts through the hiss and crackle of the radio connections, and copied down by hand. I had already listened to every minute of <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1yaZz2qeGrj_-TCMeupfzRUmf6CysdF" target="_blank">the Apollo 13 flight director's loop</a></b>, but until I heard this BBC podcast, I really did not understand how risky the post-explosion journey was. Only the collaboration of a huge network of utterly dedicated professionals, all willing to fight the odds, and the prayer support of a whole planet, could have resulted in the amazing outcome of Apollo 13. It seems like a lesson needed now more than ever.</p><p>Finally, in preparing for 2024, I will refresh my commitment to <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/05/out-of-order.html" target="_blank"><b>Gospel Order</b></a>, as we Friends refer to the way we pray and work to shape our reality into something resembling God's will for all of creation. We don't know exactly what it will look like when God's "will is done on earth as it is in heaven"; we can only take the steps we're shown, one by one, as we work together to build trustworthy communities that demonstrate Norval Hadley's vision of Quaker discipleship: </p><p>"The body reflects the beauty of the Head."</p>
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<p><b>Here's some of last year's freight ....</b></p>
<p>JANUARY: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/pure-intention-part-two.html" target="_blank">Pure intention, part two</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr3mq4OJhr5G8XBfw-bcPDXs-GhttzEh_9lH7FecHnqm4B8Wq1nXqwxvYb0Yc-nws1ks9b1RqiZd5WKq3TNtVyoWf1eGiir3HUjnE-u3ZCCyM-O7Mp3pvmyVPrazkj2txJyX2D_BegTeU8UJRbkjeOQ6CVCfbEa23-FpmT8ln8va1uKhJ_zvSFw/s548/DoIStayChristian.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="350" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr3mq4OJhr5G8XBfw-bcPDXs-GhttzEh_9lH7FecHnqm4B8Wq1nXqwxvYb0Yc-nws1ks9b1RqiZd5WKq3TNtVyoWf1eGiir3HUjnE-u3ZCCyM-O7Mp3pvmyVPrazkj2txJyX2D_BegTeU8UJRbkjeOQ6CVCfbEa23-FpmT8ln8va1uKhJ_zvSFw/w182-h285/DoIStayChristian.png" width="182" /></a></div>As I hinted <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/choose-curiosity-part-two.html" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>last week</b></a>, I'm curious about whether my own Christian chronology (conversion as an adult after growing up in an anti-religious family) helps explain why my faith and my doubts haven't yet led me through a deconstruction experience. If I wasn't socialized as a Christian in my earlier years, maybe that helps explain why I'm not disillusioned now. After all, I didn't have any experience of church politics, religiously-driven culture wars, pressures not to ask awkward questions, biblical malpractice, or most of the various alienating factors mentioned in McLaren's book. [Brian McLaren, <i><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250853035/doistaychristian" target="_blank"><b>Do I Stay Christian?</b></a></i>]<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">However, this doesn't really let me (or the church) off the hook, because a church that teaches you unsustainable things is not really a trustworthy place for you in the long run. And if it's not trustworthy for <i>you</i>, then it's not trustworthy for <i>me</i>, even if I don't go through the same disillusionment.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/01/pure-intention-part-two.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>FEBRUARY: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/02/the-gospel-according-to-al-sharpton.html" target="_blank">The Gospel according to Al Sharpton</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77IWINIsutSvirj3OETfw9flxZT0aob3_1ZwJmk0eH-t8-lhYOCQs7pyd-dAVtVuVz-GKYUXFtJJ1ZwLa7Khg03qkJBrSCByiL630bljzIOly_T-pbCklB5AaaYdNQ5EFvzmqRQl2s2UMMTTiFnM-tiEDvy3ZntGM_fZ9LOnnQvSJ4yltI2Ddjw/s1240/Al_Sharpton_Loudmouth-imdb.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="1240" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77IWINIsutSvirj3OETfw9flxZT0aob3_1ZwJmk0eH-t8-lhYOCQs7pyd-dAVtVuVz-GKYUXFtJJ1ZwLa7Khg03qkJBrSCByiL630bljzIOly_T-pbCklB5AaaYdNQ5EFvzmqRQl2s2UMMTTiFnM-tiEDvy3ZntGM_fZ9LOnnQvSJ4yltI2Ddjw/s320/Al_Sharpton_Loudmouth-imdb.png" width="320" /></a></div>After nearly six decades of activism, Rev. Al Sharpton has lots of admirers, and also many critics. The comments on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNM5jJIYrlE" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>YouTube page with the trailer</b></a> for [the film] <i>Loudmouth</i> include a sampling of typical reactions to this divisive figure. The Internet has an ample stash of harsh criticisms of Sharpton, some of them probably justified, but I see <i>Loudmouth</i> as a fascinating, coherent, very worthwhile presentation of his own side of the ledger—in the context of a country where racism, though weakened, remains embedded as a satanic stronghold. As a Christian minister in the Quaker tradition, struggling to reach the mountain top, I see Sharpton—with all his complications—as a mutual ally. His errors and excesses may be partly his own, but (for example, in the Brawley case), I see them also as an aspect of the smoke and chaos that racism continues to generate, that obscures the view and frustrates the designs of activists and observers alike. I'd rather have imperfect prophets than none at all.<p></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Those that oppress us had the nerve to try and advise us on how we ought to try to get free from them. We are intelligent enough not to let you tell us what tactics that you are comfortable with…. </b>(1986)</blockquote><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/02/the-gospel-according-to-al-sharpton.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p><p><b>Also this month: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/02/ukraine-bloggers-recapitulation-part-one.html" target="_blank">Ukraine: A blogger's recapitulation</a>.</b></p>
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<p>MARCH: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/03/thinking-twice-about-billy-graham-rule.html" target="_blank">Thinking twice about the "Billy Graham Rule</a>."</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44zjd_5-VlHkjDvOhY43lOIRDsZOnkqHn_MFhV5F5HiMfAQq8GrXBrBRcwycfyW_EAN2adZePP-8Da7YC7EYJFYJEQvjWRAw3G3o0ZQQcfCnBKOlwpVPe19Hf3jBIagQohWHw3YzXJ3TFWtXFEAlATCLxszsgw5Nf1_2OELnNZAXosvs9nDp9kw/s639/%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D1%8B-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="639" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44zjd_5-VlHkjDvOhY43lOIRDsZOnkqHn_MFhV5F5HiMfAQq8GrXBrBRcwycfyW_EAN2adZePP-8Da7YC7EYJFYJEQvjWRAw3G3o0ZQQcfCnBKOlwpVPe19Hf3jBIagQohWHw3YzXJ3TFWtXFEAlATCLxszsgw5Nf1_2OELnNZAXosvs9nDp9kw/s320/%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D1%8B-2.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.8px;">Shurik and Lida study for exams. </span><i style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.8px;">Operation Y and Other <br />Adventures of Shurik</i><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.8px;">; screenshot, </span><i style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/OwePaTelm-E" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">source</a></i><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></td></tr></tbody></table>I don't know of anyone who questions Graham's original intention—to shut down even a hint of the kind of impropriety that had obviously tempted many other public figures in the religion industry. (My term, not his!) However, over the years, the rule has come in for much criticism. Women have pointed out some of the implications of the rule: the not-so-subtle hint that women are temptresses, for example; and the professional and personal cost for women in public ministry because this theoretical risk has robbed them of mutually advantageous mentoring and collaboration; and finally and oh-so-familiarly, once again, men try to set all the ground rules.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">In turn, others have noted that the rule reinforces the idea that men are so selfish and predatory that they must make unilateral rules to overcome their own weaknesses. Even if I intend to behave perfectly in my relationship with a woman friend or colleague, the onlooker might still assume "boys will be boys." Kristin Kobes Du Mez's book <i>Jesus and John Wayne</i> documents how this view of man-as-selfish-predator even served the cause of telling evangelical women to cater to their husbands' sexual whims: quoting from the LaHayes' book <i>The Act of Marriage</i>, "Few men accept bedroom failure without being carnal, nasty, and insulting." Really?</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/03/thinking-twice-about-billy-graham-rule.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>APRIL: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/04/kind-words.html" target="_blank">Kind words</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Two cautions about giving and receiving compliments that should be acknowledged but should not be controlling: </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">First, let's be real about our motivations. Compliments should be given out of <i>genuine appreciation</i>; there should never be a manipulative or ingratiating intent. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">The second occasion for being real: learn to <i>receive compliments with directness and appreciation</i> and then getting on with life. There's no need to be self-deprecating or to minimize a sincere compliment, just as there is no need to develop an unhealthy dependence on getting praised. There will be times when you and I get no compliments precisely because we said or did the right thing at the right time.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; float: right; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; padding: 4px; position: relative;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTLF9lwHOf3sIc6Rv8VJDmkXC-rKCOrJ6lf8vr2LIm6HmZWUllstbIrUw479CA2WMt6kKS8D56MM3j_I3X4xtRqm_UoWLO79UxxWMyW2a8RupfSw9584hCMfvX5ExqBYgy1zin3OIF1kR8q8iwfSElyp3HUeGwdrt7CD-MkaXKFl1gcyEg7U/s1917/Roger_Hawkins_Muscle_Shoals.png" style="clear: right; color: #3778cd; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1917" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtTLF9lwHOf3sIc6Rv8VJDmkXC-rKCOrJ6lf8vr2LIm6HmZWUllstbIrUw479CA2WMt6kKS8D56MM3j_I3X4xtRqm_UoWLO79UxxWMyW2a8RupfSw9584hCMfvX5ExqBYgy1zin3OIF1kR8q8iwfSElyp3HUeGwdrt7CD-MkaXKFl1gcyEg7U/s320/Roger_Hawkins_Muscle_Shoals.png" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Screenshot from <i>Muscle Shoals</i>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Kind words can change lives. </span><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/05/the-church-is-like.html" style="background-color: white; color: #3778cd; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>About two years ago</b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">, in the links section of my blog, I wrote about the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section" style="background-color: white; color: #3778cd; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Swampers</b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>'</b> drummer Roger Hawkins, who had just died. I linked to the point in the film </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Muscle Shoals</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"> where Hawkins and his fellow musicians reminisced about the time Hawkins received this compliment from veteran producer Jerry Wexler:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"><p><b>Wexler:</b> Roger.</p><p><b>Hawkins:</b> Yes, sir.</p><p><b>Wexler:</b> Roger, you're a great drummer.</p><p><b>Hawkins</b> [to the interviewer]: And all of a sudden it just, I just kinda relaxed, and became a great drummer, just like he said I was.</p></blockquote><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/04/kind-words.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>MAY: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/05/t-canby-jones-on-george-fox-and-light.html" target="_blank">T. Canby Jones on George Fox and "the Light</a>."</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Our [discussion group] topic yesterday was an essay by T. Canby Jones, published nearly fifty years ago in <i>Quaker Religious Thought</i>: "<a href="https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1957&context=qrt" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>The Nature and Functions of the Light in the Thought of George Fox</b></a>."</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-4JXx6NJuC4u1gKCWIqaQiCR6OIX_MSigGAjE8Irvt_AhJBuUpYlzPnzv_PDGyWqIMmtr6dH9Xzanc6H8dJTZWZ0ZUx-6DWv1MSuSqBlreEUPj9lBMTHV4J6YHoVm44r16560l6W1-Qw_TeTdGele0NCVpW8QUvYTOHym4OGee41sMKcLu-8sQ/s1000/Practiced_in_the_Presence-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="616" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-4JXx6NJuC4u1gKCWIqaQiCR6OIX_MSigGAjE8Irvt_AhJBuUpYlzPnzv_PDGyWqIMmtr6dH9Xzanc6H8dJTZWZ0ZUx-6DWv1MSuSqBlreEUPj9lBMTHV4J6YHoVm44r16560l6W1-Qw_TeTdGele0NCVpW8QUvYTOHym4OGee41sMKcLu-8sQ/s320/Practiced_in_the_Presence-cover.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>It's not a long article, and it's well-organized, so if you have a few minutes, please take a look at it. You may enjoy it so much that you forget to come back to this blog post, which would be a very satisfactory outcome! ...<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Canby exemplifies a typical Quaker approach to theology: it's often <b>functional</b>. He doesn't spend time defining "light," he finds the distinction between "natural light" and the Light of Christ unhelpful; he doesn't cling to or generate doctrines. Instead, he describes how the Light of Christ actually seems to work in our lives.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">In linking Light with spiritual diagnosis, exposure of sin and evil, repentance, and so on, Canby doesn't associate Fox's teachings with any sense of primordial depravity. There's <b>no shaming us</b>, there's simply the bald fact that without the Light we wander into disobedience, but we are not trapped there. We always have the choice of turning to the Light, which has the power to graft us into unity with God and each other.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/05/t-canby-jones-on-george-fox-and-light.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>JUNE: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/06/grace-and-peace.html" target="_blank">Grace and peace</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">In two weeks, here in London, Charles the Third will be crowned king of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If the model of the two previous coronations will be followed, at some point during the ceremony, Charles will be anointed with holy oil, while the choir sings, “Anoint and cheer our soiled face / with the abundance of thy grace.” In fact, God’s grace will be invoked several times during the coronation. What is this grace that they’re singing and talking about, that is apparently essential to sealing the deal for Charles to be the king?</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">When I was in seminary, I had <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150905115427/http://esr.earlham.edu/news/esr-mourns" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>Tom Mullen</b></a> as my preaching professor. I have lots of Tom Mullen stories, and maybe some of you do, too. He was an excellent speaker himself, so of course we students were all eager to do well in his course, and at the same time knew we had a hard act to follow.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">I think HE thought he was making it easier when he told us, “There is really only one truly Christian sermon theme, and that is ‘grace’—but that gives you enough material for a lifetime of messages.” I suppose I should have been comforted by the idea that I really don’t have to search for new topics every time I speak, but there really is a problem: thinking about “grace” is a little like looking directly at the sun. It seems much safer to skirt around the issue than to dare to look directly at God’s unconditional love poured out on us.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/06/grace-and-peace.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/06/grace-and-peace-part-two-windows-of.html" target="_blank">Part two</a>. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/06/grace-and-peace-part-three-cherishing.html" target="_blank">Part three</a>.</b></p>
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<p>JULY: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/07/more-on-biblical-realism-howard-macy.html" target="_blank">More on biblical realism: Howard Macy and the prophets</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UJPdwjVVUmwTljA9udUqptMIkzX1w0FeyzJbvePDTzO0CXUDROPHsN1zRtx5br5M5_Rc_eE94O4YWoBowk961zjISUFoZutmErz7AEUULy1E-NziXbT0vNecxF8vy8HBhTuknHIoaTsEAUJcb23SZSG9A-jI9Nqt0Hoynli6s8jX6_em0z8d1w/s2157/Befriending_the_Prophets-cover-4238.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2157" data-original-width="1325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UJPdwjVVUmwTljA9udUqptMIkzX1w0FeyzJbvePDTzO0CXUDROPHsN1zRtx5br5M5_Rc_eE94O4YWoBowk961zjISUFoZutmErz7AEUULy1E-NziXbT0vNecxF8vy8HBhTuknHIoaTsEAUJcb23SZSG9A-jI9Nqt0Hoynli6s8jX6_em0z8d1w/s320/Befriending_the_Prophets-cover-4238.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>Howard's book represents a great expression of what I've called "biblical realism," the Bible's unblinking portrayal of reality in the light of God's love. There are at least two dramatically different obstacles to a deep encounter with the Bible: one is a sort of pious trance that causes our eyes to skate on the surface (I think this is Mary Morrison's metaphor) of those ancient texts, both familiar and puzzling. Another is the skepticism, even scorn, that can result from apparent contradictions within and authoritarian biblical malpractice without.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Howard gets us through these obstacles with his calm and very direct focus on the humanity of the prophets, a humanity that is a sufficient antidote for both the pious trance and the skeptic. Sure, there is a distance of two or three millennia and wide cultural gaps between then and now; there's also the concentrated lyricism of poetry and the intense drama of street theater, depending on the prophet and the occasion. After all, in the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel, these are "some of the most disturbing people who have ever lived."</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">But the warnings and ethical demands of the prophets are not at all obscure....</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/07/more-on-biblical-realism-howard-macy.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>AUGUST: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/08/silence-freedom-and-trust.html" target="_blank">Silence, freedom, and trust</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2Yx4QwTg_PSBhAOpjWggUhgQgs7ezOlSCCQWTvaIz8e-gktdbzGaGWZpmAWFaIvtKVeyKFh_pVWJH7Rl11GPK1r2Czn_8mZXApeBCGrHuy6Vuq2f9yV-tTcGGrUwo4D3x7VjYsVDvZZxhEj77BXnCWOEiTjgELp6FgI-TWKzZ5s9TLOt-ID17w/s896/TatianaPavlova.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2Yx4QwTg_PSBhAOpjWggUhgQgs7ezOlSCCQWTvaIz8e-gktdbzGaGWZpmAWFaIvtKVeyKFh_pVWJH7Rl11GPK1r2Czn_8mZXApeBCGrHuy6Vuq2f9yV-tTcGGrUwo4D3x7VjYsVDvZZxhEj77BXnCWOEiTjgELp6FgI-TWKzZ5s9TLOt-ID17w/s320/TatianaPavlova.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tatiana Pavlova.</td></tr></tbody></table>Russian historian Tatiana Pavlova was the person around whom the Friends community in Russia gradually developed, starting in the late 1980's. She herself was strongly Christian (I <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20001022082611fw_/http://www.fum.org/QL/issues/9905/pavlova.htm" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>interviewed her about her faith</b></a> in <i>Quaker Life</i> magazine back in 1999) but the meeting did not require an explicit Christian commitment for participants, and its diversity reflected some of the spiritual ferment and experimentation that abounded in those early post-Soviet years.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Tatiana Pavlova herself was uneasy with some of that variety. Once she said, "When I sit in worship, I want to know that the person next to me is worshipping the same God."</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">I understand and sympathize, but I'm not quite ready to make the same sort of firm statement. On the one hand, I love the mutual inspiration and encouragement we can get from worshipping with a group of people who fully expect that (in George Fox's words) "Christ has come to teach his people himself." It's this experience that, to me, makes us Quaker, makes us ready to reject the world's reliance on power, violence, objectification of others, and social bondages of all kinds, in favor of trusting in God's leadership.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">On the other hand, how will we provide access to this mutual inspiration and spiritual freedom if we don't dare let anyone in who doesn't already speak in Quaker terms? </p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/08/silence-freedom-and-trust.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>SEPTEMBER: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/09/yearly-meetings-myth-and-reality-part.html" target="_blank">Yearly meetings, myth and reality, part two</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBQWKpT8hnCELI6ixadixpMpDNgYymDbnMasONSMcb9JBUSET4b7Gt3Y9xZ9lYLPoM-czQgNUuUaMn5AjJEBa45ZTfKOWTwWu7arwRba94RNaURv8xFIJ27ptWliI9Y_gNeaTmT4VsvdaqKPbvs4J7evho_V__6RzwcTsFLmNeKQUO7WM1IUkCzA/s1127/SCYMF-header-with-bulletin-background.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="1127" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBQWKpT8hnCELI6ixadixpMpDNgYymDbnMasONSMcb9JBUSET4b7Gt3Y9xZ9lYLPoM-czQgNUuUaMn5AjJEBa45ZTfKOWTwWu7arwRba94RNaURv8xFIJ27ptWliI9Y_gNeaTmT4VsvdaqKPbvs4J7evho_V__6RzwcTsFLmNeKQUO7WM1IUkCzA/s320/SCYMF-header-with-bulletin-background.png" width="320" /></a></div>Once upon a time, I was a Quaker denominational leader, emotionally invested in our structures and their missions. One weekend, I was visiting a Friends church in an evangelical yearly meeting. I stayed with a delightful family in the city where the yearly meeting's office was located, and I went with them to their Sunday morning meeting for worship.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">The church was impressive, both in the size of its building and the breadth of its programming. Aside from the variety of Sunday morning options for all ages, there were programs for every day of the week, ranging from Bible studies to family finance seminars to Christian aerobics.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">My hosts were very knowledgeable about these programs, which clearly had become a social and spiritual base for their family. They gently let me know, however, that they had never heard of my organization. As it turned out, they also knew nothing about their own yearly meeting or any of its wider affiliations, even though the yearly meeting office was in their own city. The word "Friends" meant little to them beyond the fact that it was in their church's name, and the word "Quaker" even less.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/09/yearly-meetings-myth-and-reality-part.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>OCTOBER: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/10/al-ahli-hospital-and-search-for-villains.html" target="_blank">Al Ahli Hospital and the search for villains</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Israel uses the language of "war" as if the Gaza Strip were an independent, sovereign country, <i>which it is not</i>. The civilian population of Gaza depends on Israel for its security and well-being, and Israel's government has made it very clear that these people and their security and well-being have no priority in comparison to the rest of Israel's territory. Their lives don't count in the same way.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; float: right; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlBmKRPU3Db-PnwbNPhevq8yqqI-bZGv78iEMy2Fh7k91roa8j9xQcuDccW6rkh5t6I8I1WediKUP5yuIQM3W9kNU2XgzS3bpewfSCxuVlhcRsk-eL5dbmrKRjZkHB9qKKOuzKk1LggLMyfDiMfYk0TPO5uv9CoT5yKfXVrmlYI07WLWHErMUtw/s1920/CBC-Al_Ahli_Hospital_20231018.png" style="color: #3778cd; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1920" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlBmKRPU3Db-PnwbNPhevq8yqqI-bZGv78iEMy2Fh7k91roa8j9xQcuDccW6rkh5t6I8I1WediKUP5yuIQM3W9kNU2XgzS3bpewfSCxuVlhcRsk-eL5dbmrKRjZkHB9qKKOuzKk1LggLMyfDiMfYk0TPO5uv9CoT5yKfXVrmlYI07WLWHErMUtw/w320-h200/CBC-Al_Ahli_Hospital_20231018.png" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: right;">Screenshot from <i><a href="https://youtu.be/ZUQXsmuTKmo" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">source</a></i>. </td></tr></tbody></table><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Israel's allies who see the danger of this moment for the people of Gaza are pleading for concessions such as the restoration of water and electricity (water alone is not enough; water pumps require electricity, water trucks require fuel) and the opening of the Rafah crossing point with Egypt. Whether or not any of these pleas get satisfied, the overall context remains: Gaza is still a zone where Israel corruptly believes it has the right to ignore international law.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and several other militant groups claim to provide the defense and protection that Gaza would have if it were a country. But they too do not carry out the function of a protective force within international law. In opposition to the Palestinian Authority, they reject any collaboration with Israel, and in fact claim to be pursuing the mythical goal of eliminating Israel altogether. They too show no concern for civilian life. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">For Palestinians who are have little hope for a future under Israeli occupation, it's understandable that they might see the militants as the only people actually showing some resistance. For this symbolic comfort, they are apparently willing to let millions of their own neighbors suffer as the militants' fake armies poke Israel in the eye in the service of their myth. So they poke, and Israel bombs, and they poke again, and Israel bombs again, and innocent people die.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/10/al-ahli-hospital-and-search-for-villains.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p>NOVEMBER: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/11/friends-and-comrades-sergei-nikitin.html" target="_blank"><i>Friends and Comrades</i>: Sergei Nikitin and Quaker work in Russia, 1916-1931</a>.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qCdEFGHsMEI7vOhEuIRXFToIr8pvw__z-p9SU7f9a37gzufflLgTj77qeFvPYi93JQYLsqBNdCMCs2OSpKR8wZm3IOqlKdlBIyVWTihPGql4Mevz1MKJKBNJcYlTtBCHsEBu-wOzmSaYUblKHiUNWqNlxATivMmbqT08Ai6ASGU9RmOJyC2lRg/s977/Nikitin-2_covers.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="977" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qCdEFGHsMEI7vOhEuIRXFToIr8pvw__z-p9SU7f9a37gzufflLgTj77qeFvPYi93JQYLsqBNdCMCs2OSpKR8wZm3IOqlKdlBIyVWTihPGql4Mevz1MKJKBNJcYlTtBCHsEBu-wOzmSaYUblKHiUNWqNlxATivMmbqT08Ai6ASGU9RmOJyC2lRg/s320/Nikitin-2_covers.png" width="320" /></a></div>In 1947, the Nobel Committee of Norway's parliament awarded that year's Nobel Peace Prize to the Quakers, "...represented by their two great relief organizations, the Friends Service Council in London and the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia."<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">In his <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1947/ceremony-speech/" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><b>presentation speech</b></a> at the award ceremony, Gunnar Jahn cited Quakers' role in peace and relief work in many countries, including Russia: "It is through silent assistance <i>from the nameless to the nameless </i>that they have worked to promote the fraternity between nations cited in the will of Alfred Nobel." (My emphasis.)</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">At the peak of the famine relief work, over 400,000 Russians were depending on Quaker food rations to stay alive. 20,000 to 30,000 people a month were treated in their malaria clinics in Buzuluk. In the history of this campaign, many people involved will indeed remain "nameless." We will not know most of the people whose lives were saved from starvation and disease through Quakers' efforts, and most of those who provided prayer and money to this work will also remain unknown. Thanks to Sergei Nikitin's book <i>Friends and Comrades</i>, however, the full scale of this effort, and the names of many of its central figures, are made known and brought to life.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/11/friends-and-comrades-sergei-nikitin.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/11/friends-and-comrades-thanksgiving-ps.html" target="_blank">Part two</a>.</b></p>
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<p>DECEMBER: <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/12/collateral-damage-part-five-advent-2023.html" target="_blank">Collateral damage, part five: "We as a people</a>."</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNg_SgBsmOJ76daby56zdDtbuv6GlDiu86jk76aGmJSBVCkdYOOEzYZY_RHeKRE1gtgQDkedN-T_IFOzuX3-FSJi3iU4htBRRtAwo3R8CcbVmdOMuNpwyBNVAymEUrvpBixsujn9oZ_YGZz5_nUWvVJevhW8H_o614c6lPqYVX9ixW9Fvrs6bxg/s1800/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNg_SgBsmOJ76daby56zdDtbuv6GlDiu86jk76aGmJSBVCkdYOOEzYZY_RHeKRE1gtgQDkedN-T_IFOzuX3-FSJi3iU4htBRRtAwo3R8CcbVmdOMuNpwyBNVAymEUrvpBixsujn9oZ_YGZz5_nUWvVJevhW8H_o614c6lPqYVX9ixW9Fvrs6bxg/s320/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-1.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>But even if the shooting stopped this very night, from all sides, almost 20,000 (including victims in Israel and the rest of Palestine) have already died <i>in this cycle alone</i>. These people, the vast majority of whom were not soldiers or terrorists, have already paid the ultimate price for the lethal failure of national, regional, and international leadership to agree on a peaceful resolution of this running conflict and its utterly predictable eruptions, either through a genuine two-state solution or a non-discriminatory one-state solution, or some third path.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">Yes, there's plenty of passion among activists and ordinary people in favor of peace with justice, but we have not found a decisive way to make it plain to decisionmakers that we have seen the cost of their inaction and obstruction, and they have lost their moral authority. I wonder if this most recent wave of mass violence in the face of the whole world is finally breaking through.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">That breakthrough might bring some comfort to those grieving for those 20,000 and counting. I take comfort from Martin Luther King, who referred to the Book of Deuteronomy in a speech on the evening before his assassination: "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that <i>we, as a people,</i> will get to the Promised Land." </p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/12/collateral-damage-part-five-advent-2023.html" target="_blank">Full post</a>.</b></p>
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<p><b><a href="https://elderchaplain.com/2023/12/19/tina-and-tony/" target="_blank">Greg Morgan tells the story of Tina and Tony</a></b>. "Chaplaincy isn't a role, it's an attitude."</p>
<p><a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/12/21/changing-date-of-christmas/" target="_blank"><b>Talia Zajac on Ukrainian identity</b></a> and changing the date of Christmas.</p>
<p>Simon Reynolds <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/12/21/changing-date-of-christmas/" target="_blank"><b>will never stop blogging</b></a>.</p><p>And ... the last time (I promise) that I will make this announcement/plea: if you haven't told me whether you prefer the term "Quaker" or the term "Friend," <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank">here's the survey</a></b>. I will stop counting in a few days, and see whether there are any interesting patterns to report.</p>
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<p>Another rerun: Eric Bibb. A good admonition to take on board for 2024:</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WpUCbrS-1Lo?si=bI1qvo0ZghEXywsK" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-79359722053989136502023-12-21T23:59:00.000-08:002023-12-22T13:04:20.441-08:00The gift of words. Mostly a repost.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMMh2YdNgdmmTu2JSaeIfDODZbpJx626gl4pxjerfRNA73lecDanfRpSt0qT0TC0phUVK4pLzE9tsgz8n-DQ3m8WkX7cJVIg0LlG4DrGmhsydZMlnD27UogaT14Fo_MMtuQSItG3Pcv6Vy84LCXGB1cRVZKSONqdQ0ofjfJMUq-A9_k6kEBCsmg/s1500/Superior-Cub-press-Etsy-sold.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMMh2YdNgdmmTu2JSaeIfDODZbpJx626gl4pxjerfRNA73lecDanfRpSt0qT0TC0phUVK4pLzE9tsgz8n-DQ3m8WkX7cJVIg0LlG4DrGmhsydZMlnD27UogaT14Fo_MMtuQSItG3Pcv6Vy84LCXGB1cRVZKSONqdQ0ofjfJMUq-A9_k6kEBCsmg/s600/Superior-Cub-press-Etsy-sold.jpg" width="600" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i> </i>My favorite childhood Christmas gift.<i> <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/86044951/vintage-toy-printing-press-superior-cub" target="_blank">Source</a>.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>As I was meditating this evening on my blog's Christmas post, the word "gift" kept coming to me. Maybe it's been because I've been obsessing on what to give as Christmas gifts this year—while not knowing what to say when Judy asks me, "What would you like for Christmas?"</p><p>At one point I gave the first answer that popped into my head: "Write my December 24 Christmas eve sermon for <a href="https://spokanefriends.com/" target="_blank"><b>Spokane Friends Meeting</b></a> for me!" To put it another way, help me string together the right words to say on an occasion when almost all the words a preacher could say would be superfluous, unless they were memorably stupid. But when I sat down to start writing the sermon, the title came to me almost immediately:</p><p><b>The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. </b>John 1:5, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-14&version=NIV" target="_blank"><b>context</b></a>.</p><p>The Word—the Christmas gift at the heart of my faith.</p><p>Suddenly I had far more to say than will fit in a Sunday morning message. I'll spend the next couple of days editing. But in the process of chasing those Sunday words, I remembered the last Christmas blog post I ever wrote in Russia, though I didn't know it at the time (December 2016) that it would be our last Christmas there. The post was entitled "The gift of words."</p>
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<table align="center" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjPemlSyEHn6LaWQy4G_bO6Yj-4Y_xK0BbllYZLQ8XNMXQOB3SnLly2mXSqrMED37y6tumqSXsNYcr_uxLS79RAqv9aNeKj-PoTZl2HANTXUo0i_-3UW03ZrMnd6OuVDWt4trUA/s1600/2016-12-20-Elektrosta-Yolka-Lenin-square-firetruck.18.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjPemlSyEHn6LaWQy4G_bO6Yj-4Y_xK0BbllYZLQ8XNMXQOB3SnLly2mXSqrMED37y6tumqSXsNYcr_uxLS79RAqv9aNeKj-PoTZl2HANTXUo0i_-3UW03ZrMnd6OuVDWt4trUA/w640-h361/2016-12-20-Elektrosta-Yolka-Lenin-square-firetruck.18.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our last Christmas and New Year season in Elektrostal: Lenin Square and the Park Plaza shopping center dressed for the New Year holiday.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="right"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfXWJOJ0mAoDiRKoWHiPwe8oAmUcxHzA3T8VsHEehbbodVocc8mac9qN2So-liQK0TLcSX_NaN7hGB9-VCoee-XXX6D-gYRukhWXxW5_1I5jbfXYnRV-Z5J2gIObDFcXFjeg8Kg/s1600/2016-12-20-Lenin-Square-Park-Plaza-snow-hill-closer.31.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfXWJOJ0mAoDiRKoWHiPwe8oAmUcxHzA3T8VsHEehbbodVocc8mac9qN2So-liQK0TLcSX_NaN7hGB9-VCoee-XXX6D-gYRukhWXxW5_1I5jbfXYnRV-Z5J2gIObDFcXFjeg8Kg/s320/2016-12-20-Lenin-Square-Park-Plaza-snow-hill-closer.31.jpg" valign="top" width="310" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sledding under Lenin's gaze.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaqC0-m27evwA7gvrrVUxKiJzxUwrH3Y-WhN905I7dlQz4l-X90HZfwnRhdLtU5zsaIyjhWQmkrsikdAk6Vl-x5FptcaT6ZmExLFviT_kIh4yxalg75Rsy4vUKzEf5uhyphenhyphencW276g/s1600/2016-12-20-Lenin-Square-snow-hill-Park-Plaza.39.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPaqC0-m27evwA7gvrrVUxKiJzxUwrH3Y-WhN905I7dlQz4l-X90HZfwnRhdLtU5zsaIyjhWQmkrsikdAk6Vl-x5FptcaT6ZmExLFviT_kIh4yxalg75Rsy4vUKzEf5uhyphenhyphencW276g/s320/2016-12-20-Lenin-Square-snow-hill-Park-Plaza.39.jpg" valign="top" width="310" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elektrostal's Park Plaza shopping center.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>
I can remember just a few of the Christmas gifts I was given in my childhood—but nearly all of them were somehow linked with words. Usually—but not always —that meant books.</p>
<p>
In my early grade school years, I drove teachers to despair with my apparent indifference to the classroom—I was usually looking out the windows or daydreaming. After educational TV came to our grade school (courtesy of a strange experiment known as the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction—<a href="http://www.chicagotelevision.com/MPATI.htm" target="_blank"><b>MPATI</b></a>), I liked to fantasize that my eyes were educational TV cameras, so it was important to watch the teacher and the blackboard, but not necessarily <i>learn</i>! My teachers were so upset with my inattentiveness that I was sent to counselors, who held anxious consultations with my parents. In turn my parents were so angry about my poor school performance that one year they took away my favorite non-print gift, a huge shiny red toy tow truck.</p>
<p>
However, school librarians knew my secret—I loved to read! I always had the maximum number of books on loan, and would soon be bringing them back for a new load. Christmas always meant that I would get new books—and those were even better than library books for a special reason. In the blank pages at the front and back, I would draw television-screen shapes into which I could write the "credits" for the books I was reading. My eyes had the special property of turning print into video, and in preparation for each reading session, my viewers would need to know who the director and actors and crew were. Then I could go on to the book itself, whose text would become vivid television, not just for me, but for my fantasy audience who depended on my camera-eyes to see the world.</p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgfR0_e_crTCLAv-3xKelDEIplNh5bwNmwJfMEjHZCEaSMmycpUBBuj2AEKUHMKxjX5rBZgwT7r6N0-xOPemzBFMK8SoH_88C5SSilPPEdNBuk_-nPE7pj8LkNCg9MkKnt55bUhA/s1600/Johan-Ellen-Christmas-1961-cigarbox.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgfR0_e_crTCLAv-3xKelDEIplNh5bwNmwJfMEjHZCEaSMmycpUBBuj2AEKUHMKxjX5rBZgwT7r6N0-xOPemzBFMK8SoH_88C5SSilPPEdNBuk_-nPE7pj8LkNCg9MkKnt55bUhA/s320/Johan-Ellen-Christmas-1961-cigarbox.jpg" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas with my sister Ellen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>Some of my earliest book memories involved the <a href="https://www.google.ru/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjy2a3x84jRAhUBbBoKHafpBtcQFggnMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthehappyhollisters.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNH3NhBxAE0SJ-nb7agiGW7Zm9cVAA&sig2=VnbcgZdoA665Sl_zUbC0-w" target="_blank"><b>Happy Hollisters</b></a> series—a big happy family who loved solving mysteries. I remember one volume's cast of characters included a woman who did something I'd never heard of before—she didn't change her last name after her marriage. Thanks to other Christmases' gift books, Robin Hood's forest and King Arthur's Camelot also came to life for me and my invisible audience in those grade school years. King Arthur's and Robin Hood's deaths gave me my first glimpses of human mortality.</p>
<p>
The very first gift that I can remember actually asking for was a bulletin board. Yes, a real cork bulletin board, complete with thumbtacks! I can't remember why the idea of owning my own bulletin board took on such urgency, but my parents humored me, and I joyfully hung it up in a corner of our apartment's front room. Letters and postcards from my grandparents in Norway and Germany were among the things on which I bestowed the honor of being pinned up on the board. Later, I pinned up lists of my favorite Top-40 AM radio hits, whose order in the current week and previous week, carefully noted in two columns, were totally based on my choices, not on any statistics or other lists. I stubbornly included Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" on my bulletin board honor roll long after it had disappeared from Billboard.</p>
<p>
I guess the bulletin board was somehow a form of publishing and was therefore linked to the next gift I'm reminiscing about this Christmas season, a gift that ranks at the very top for all of my childhood. I think I was ten years old when I had the ecstatic experience of unwrapping the gift I didn't dare hope I would get: a printing press.</p>
<p>
It was an utterly simple toy press that used rubber type mounted on a cylinder, pressed against a smaller cylinder wrapped with inky cloth, and then applied to a small piece of paper that slid through the press and came out the back with WORDS ON IT. And the next piece of paper had the SAME WORDS! You could change the cloth for another soaked with a different color of ink and pass the same papers through to print IN TWO COLORS!! You could write to the Superior Marking Equipment Company in Chicago and order different fonts and even rubber clipart and print ILLUSTRATIONS. I don't think I was any more concerned with who would read my output than I was with the audiences for my TV-camera eyes; the important thing was that I was publishing!</p>
<p>
And now maybe you know why this blog has been going for twelve years. [Now just shy of 20 years.] May the gifts you give and receive this Christmas bring you something like the joy that the Cub printing press gave me.</p>
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<p>
The wonderful Letterology blog <a href="http://www.letterology.com/2014/03/press-kit.html" target="_blank"><b>tells more</b></a> about the Superior Marking Equipment printing presses of my childhood and provides some samples of what the press could do. More background <a href="https://printinghistory.org/swiftset-journal/" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>. Did you by any chance have one of these?</p><p><i>Here endeth the repost. The original post and comments are <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2016/12/the-gift-of-words.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>. </i></p>
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<p>Back in my childhood, the Word and the words of the Bible were still years away in my future. (In this post, I tell of <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/02/is-bible-nice.html" target="_blank"><b>my first encounters with the Bible</b></a>.) But I do vividly remember a childhood encounter with the Word. It was in an evangelistic tract that I found on the floor of the lobby of our apartment building in Evanston, Illinois. I must have been seven or eight years old. I already knew better than to show the tract to my anti-religious parents, but it intrigued me. It was the story of a convert to Christianity, and it told how, in his early days of faith, when he had occasion to walk around in his city, he would go out of his way to find churches, to walk by them and see that word "Christ" on the church's sign.</p><p><i>Now back to Christmas 2023....</i></p>
<p>Here's a gift you could give me, if you feel like it and haven't done so already: </p><p>Tell me, via <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank"><b>this survey form</b></a>, whether you prefer the term "Quakers" or the term "Friends" for the sometimes quirky, sometimes reticent little Christian movement I joined almost fifty years ago. There are a few more questions on the survey, but you can answer as many or as few as you like. Whether you are a Friend (Quaker) or not, or aren't sure, your contribution is welcome. I'll publish a summary of what I learn early in the new year.</p>
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<p>A Christmas post from <a href="https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/a-christmas-post" target="_blank"><b>Kristin Du Mez</b></a> ... including progress report on her next book.</p><p>We were sad to hear about the death of Andre Braugher. Aside from his better-known roles on television, he was the narrator for a film we used several times in Russia, <i><a href="https://ulitsaradio.blogspot.com/2014/04/standing-in-shadows-of-motown.html" target="_blank"><b>Standing in the Shadows of Motown</b></a></i>. Here's a tribute article with a different slant: Braugher as <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/12/15/andre-braugher-death-246735" target="_blank"><b>the best Catholic character on TV</b></a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.quaker.org.uk/blog/why-i-am-still-a-pacifist" target="_blank"><b>Tim Gee</b></a> on staying true to our peace testimony in time of war. (Thanks to <a href="https://www.threads.net/@martin_kelley/post/C1Hp748gn1B" target="_blank"><b>Martin Kelley</b></a> for the link.)</p><p>And <a href="https://nancyjanethomas.blogspot.com/2023/12/christmas-in-time-of-war.html" target="_blank"><b>Nancy Thomas</b></a> on celebrating the Prince of Peace in wartime.</p><hr />
<p>Once again, my favorite Oslo Gospel Choir song for Christmas. "... The world was never abandoned after all: a Star is shining tonight...."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pyZmeUCtrcs?si=l7-bwaY829zTnKB7" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-63166361448873386492023-12-14T23:58:00.000-08:002023-12-15T01:14:19.166-08:00Collateral damage, part five: "We as a people" and Advent 2023<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4hVxSeiw-kqmqWtDxBK7FisVcdMF5Wn8UqERkENVgbmWLBjbmQy-hwodIq_f_uZ14cAtnhuQJiz7ImhakIkH97vmIkHEjSsRL_6nJGCHsH4Q-kq3gsZYzOPceN1l82U8Krbx_pVmFRsxQS6ilpTTKJIiRq2uyFfWZ_E9eklnVg6Uh8lecO1Y1A/s2048/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1306" data-original-width="2048" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4hVxSeiw-kqmqWtDxBK7FisVcdMF5Wn8UqERkENVgbmWLBjbmQy-hwodIq_f_uZ14cAtnhuQJiz7ImhakIkH97vmIkHEjSsRL_6nJGCHsH4Q-kq3gsZYzOPceN1l82U8Krbx_pVmFRsxQS6ilpTTKJIiRq2uyFfWZ_E9eklnVg6Uh8lecO1Y1A/w640-h408/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i>Triptych photos: Bob Henry </i></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="right"><tbody><tr><td><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X87h9OdVQycMb3A42H438QZ3whR807gSvyhEjEdqnimkZs3JF0D6Y3auMX5uzh4p2B1lU8NWshRy_u5iD2-lyf8TQbEXLKi6wYmcAMPKF_Z_VZTEB_h5VTFLV-8GVVxypB9Q5tykCyYesYQo4tgWRSRQGyfO02dYt1wjtWAL7MhgXFJCb1nqUQ/s1800/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-1.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X87h9OdVQycMb3A42H438QZ3whR807gSvyhEjEdqnimkZs3JF0D6Y3auMX5uzh4p2B1lU8NWshRy_u5iD2-lyf8TQbEXLKi6wYmcAMPKF_Z_VZTEB_h5VTFLV-8GVVxypB9Q5tykCyYesYQo4tgWRSRQGyfO02dYt1wjtWAL7MhgXFJCb1nqUQ/s320/Bob_Henry_triptych-2022-1.jpg" /></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qhCkVplDYquXVEx7fnAfHg4YWEYiazpy4m-BdA019kaVnrZYYK_AfIaGyrZrheU2K4rCOg-tNA2XKFRfUP9JIHUSOSQZN2Y7a4IoqzhTOsgGP22Ppw0U1H1J8AYNsfEmWwrUP1VSx7EEteNh8-h-CL536D21dEQ_s7VlE3nf-3-P1HpDWTA97Q/s886/Gaza_icon_Bryce_Haymond-IG.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="886" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_qhCkVplDYquXVEx7fnAfHg4YWEYiazpy4m-BdA019kaVnrZYYK_AfIaGyrZrheU2K4rCOg-tNA2XKFRfUP9JIHUSOSQZN2Y7a4IoqzhTOsgGP22Ppw0U1H1J8AYNsfEmWwrUP1VSx7EEteNh8-h-CL536D21dEQ_s7VlE3nf-3-P1HpDWTA97Q/w257-h177/Gaza_icon_Bryce_Haymond-IG.png" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i>Graphic: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C0kBLWpPpZO/" target="_blank">Bryce Haymond</a> #gaza </i></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><i>"Identify, Embrace, Welcome" (mixed media) by Bob Henry graced the front of Indianapolis First Friends Meetinghouse on Christmas Eve 2022. It is what is traditionally known as a triptych. Made of three pieces or panels, it is often used to impart narrative, create sequence, or show different elements of the same subject matter. The three panels highlight how in the Christmas story Jesus’ family identifies with the poor, homeless, and refugee. If you look closely, you will notice that the framework for the three panels is made of refuse, everything from plastic bags to toilet paper rolls—once again making the ordinary into something holy.</i></p><p>(Many thanks to Bob Henry, First Friends' pastor, for the photos and explanation.)</p><p>It's hard for me to look at Bob's triptych without thinking about the state of today's world. How is the Body of Christ suffering with those who suffer—whatever their faith—and how are we responding in concert with everyone else who responds—whatever their faith?</p>
<p>Part of that response is providing the resources needed for practical relief and healing. Just about everyone I know is doing that, directly or indirectly. Part of that response is challenging the systems that allow <i>avoidable suffering, misery, desolation, and death to happen</i>. That's where we need to grow. It's not an either/or choice; we need both.</p><p>But for so many, our aid and our challenge is already too late.</p><p>Nearly 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, of whom about 13,000 are women and children. According to the local ministry of education, as of December 5, more than 3,477 students and 203 educational staff in the Gaza Strip had been killed. Around 85% of the Gaza Strip's population are "internally displaced," some of them several times.</p><p>I've dealt with Israeli official justifications for this sort of atrocity <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/05/rarely-asked-questions.html" target="_blank"><b>a number of times</b></a> over the years, and others have done so, too, so I won't repeat all that here. If you believe that, as long as a bullet is targeted at a terrorist, it doesn't matter that its path goes through innocent people, you're probably not reading this. If you believe that having terrorists hiding among innocent people deprives those people of the right to live and to be protected by the occupying force, as international law requires, nothing I can say is likely to change your mind.</p><p>But even if the shooting stopped this very night, from all sides, almost 20,000 (including victims in Israel and the rest of Palestine) have already died <i>in this cycle alone</i>. These people, the vast majority of whom were not soldiers or terrorists, have already paid the ultimate price for the lethal failure of national, regional, and international leadership to agree on a peaceful resolution of this running conflict and its utterly predictable eruptions, either through a genuine two-state solution or a non-discriminatory one-state solution, or some third path.</p><p>Yes, there's plenty of passion among activists and ordinary people in favor of peace with justice, but we have not found a decisive way to make it plain to decisionmakers that we have seen the cost of their inaction and obstruction, and they have lost their moral authority. I wonder if this most recent wave of mass violence in the face of the whole world is finally breaking through.</p><p>That breakthrough might bring some comfort to those grieving for those 20,000 and counting. I take comfort from Martin Luther King, who referred to the Book of Deuteronomy in a speech on the evening before his assassination: "I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that <i>we, as a people,</i> will get to the Promised Land." (My italics.)</p><p>"We as a people..." is all in fact we're promised, not individual safety. The Bible is brutally direct about that, from the drowning of earth's population in <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/01/collateral-damage-part-two-noah-and.html" target="_blank">Noah's time</a></b>; to <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2018/03/his-eye-is-on-collateral-damage.html" target="_blank"><b>Pharaoh's soldiers</b></a>, just following orders; to Ezekiel's <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/09/collateral-damage-part-three-shock-and.html" target="_blank"><b>shock and awe</b></a>; to Rachel, <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2022/04/collateral-damage-part-four-easter-2022.html" target="_blank"><b>weeping for her children</b></a>, and on, and on. Jesus refers to a news item in his own time: "... those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no...." [<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+13%3A1-6&version=NIV" target="_blank"><b>Context</b></a>.] Counting ourselves among Jesus's followers isn't insurance either: "... The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God." (From John 16:2.)</p>
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<p>Now we await the birthday of the Prince of Peace. As Simeon told his mother Mary about her newborn baby, Jesus will "be a sign that will be spoken against, ... and a sword will pierce your own soul too." [<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22-38&version=NIV" target="_blank"><b>Context</b></a>.] For us in the Body of Christ, there may be no better way for us to understand God's intention for us "as a people" in the face of avoidable suffering than to realize that God's own son was not exempt. Jesus became the collateral political damage of Roman dominion ("We have no king but Caesar!"—John 19:15), but he promised that he will not abandon us. It's not any illusory assurance of <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/08/safety-and-nature-of-world-in-which-we.htm" target="_blank"><b>my own safety</b></a> that I cling to, but this very promise.</p><p>I don't pretend to know exactly how, regardless of our individual fates in this world of violence and all-too-frequent indifference, "we as a people will get to the Promised Land." In my fantasy life, I see those innocent victims of Holy Land violence pouring through the gates of Heaven, and being welcomed into God's arms. And I envision a world where people in the millions all finally mobilize to block the brutal solutions that, over and over, dismiss innocent lives as collateral damage.</p><p><i>Jesus, thank you for coming to live with us, and for taking on the risks of life and death in a world that keeps clinging to the ways of violence. Help us to see each other as you see us, and to accept no less from those who claim to lead us</i>.</p>
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<p>"Killing an Arab": <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/12/14/killing-an-arab-reflections-on-loyalty-to-humanity/" target="_blank"><b>Rico G. Monge's meditation</b></a> and plea, on Camus, antisemitism, colonialism, dehumanization, and Gospel imperatives. (This is the article that led me to Bryce Haymond's double icon above.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My point is that any position on Israel-Palestine that is not grounded in a consistent stance will lead one to make grave errors. Standing with <em>all </em>Palestinian liberation groups indiscriminately will lead one to alignment with groups with an explicitly antisemitic ideology (such as Hamas) and/or who explicitly and despicably target civilians. At the same time, a person concerned with the horrors of Hamas’s activities, but who does not remain consistent, likewise can become an unreflective supporter of the atrocities committed to found and maintain the nation-state of Israel. Consistent commitment to justice cannot include support for the Israeli government’s racist laws and policies (more on this in the next section), its military’s indisputable willingness to target civilians (including those <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/11/13/orthodox-christians-in-gaza-city/" target="_blank">hiding for refuge in one of the world’s oldest Orthodox churches</a>), or the audacious and repeated claims (of some of the highest ranking Israeli officials) that there are “no innocents in Gaza”—a vile claim that is not new and has now been <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/no-innocents-gaza-3455246" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">repeated for years</a>.</p><p>What then should we do? Reject the binary of picking a team and then justifying their crimes. Stand with Christ. Stand with the Gospel. Stand with humanity and the least of these no matter what it costs, including friendships—and more. If this seems too costly, I assure you the alternative is far more devastating.</p></blockquote>
<hr style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;" /><p style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>I'm still collecting responses to my survey: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Which term do you prefer, Friends or Quakers?</a></b></p><hr style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;" /><p>A rerun that felt right somehow: Ukrainian blues harmonica player Konstantin Kolesnichenko playing Little Walter's "Sad Hours." (<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ13EVzK5OQ" target="_blank">Backing track</a></b>.)</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QoKXkmsGQHI?si=1-HBvS1HVvApTDZV" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com2Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-72131009724237361682023-12-07T23:59:00.000-08:002023-12-09T17:47:06.677-08:00Inheriting the earth<hr />
<p><b style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 16px;">I'm still collecting responses to my survey: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" style="color: #3778cd;" target="_blank">Which term do you prefer, Friends or Quakers?</a></b></p>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJvVuPmif2C3PButvTnmE2alKjp0dEykMMLlh6EdGES0EBCB49zYlsB4SN1t8I-dOT2IcGTWDobnS9aPkBtuhWQMoHCRrIfs7rsgNVZ92D8OI-ZX0xFpXmUipUELDSM99bOUeUZs0cZE0Y3pjPhZus5mzcCxRI9Ouu1CTRv6i8wF3vEKzmICUuA/s3147/Woolman_RU-cover-scan2-matching.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2348" data-original-width="3147" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWJvVuPmif2C3PButvTnmE2alKjp0dEykMMLlh6EdGES0EBCB49zYlsB4SN1t8I-dOT2IcGTWDobnS9aPkBtuhWQMoHCRrIfs7rsgNVZ92D8OI-ZX0xFpXmUipUELDSM99bOUeUZs0cZE0Y3pjPhZus5mzcCxRI9Ouu1CTRv6i8wF3vEKzmICUuA/w640-h478/Woolman_RU-cover-scan2-matching.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian edition of John Woolman's<i> Journal and Plea for the Poor</i> (Moulton edition, translated by Tatiana Pavlova). Text on back cover: "If you don't read this book, your idea of America will be incomplete." Cover design: A. Aristov. Co-published by Friends United Press and Astreya, 1995. Digital edition <a href="https://quakers.ru/%d0%b4%d0%bd%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%ba-%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%be%d0%bd-%d0%b2%d1%83%d0%bb%d0%bc%d0%b0%d0%bd/" target="_blank">here</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>Nearly four decades ago, at First Friends Meeting in Richmond, Indiana, we began confronting dilemmas of inclusive language when referring to other people and to God.</p><p>In ordinary church life, the sharpest point of contact with the controversy was often our hymns and praise songs. As beautiful as Quaker poet Whittier's sentiment was, it was just plain hard to sing "Oh brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother." Another hymn presented us with these words, "Strong men and maidens meek," at which point Judy and I had to avoid looking at each other in the interest of suppressing impious snorts. But for some of us, these constantly recurring male-centered usages were more painful than funny.</p><p>Solutions were proposed: new hymnals, new inserts for our old ones, or just give liberty to everyone to change words on the fly. The problem was that, for every person who found the traditional lyrics difficult, there were several who cherished them. One Sunday, Mary Garman of the Earlham School of Religion came to First Friends and gave a very helpful guest sermon, reframing the inclusive language issue as one of hospitality—something our meeting was very good at. Meanwhile, ESR itself adopted a policy that required using inclusive language for people, while leaving the question of language for God to each of us, trusting that we had each weighed the concern for ourselves.</p>
<p>In recent years, several other examples of cultural patterns that objectify and marginalize people are drawing our attention. If we yearn to build a trustworthy church, we cannot avoid or trivialize these concerns. In our <a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/" target="_blank"><b>Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends</b></a>, we are instructed to specify our preferred pronouns when we introduce ourselves at our gatherings for worship and business, and we record those preferences in our minutes. In business sessions and in minutes, we record acknowledgments of Indigenous Peoples identified with the lands that we and our meetinghouses now occupy. We have begun to make allocations from our legacy funds, allocations that are intended as reparation, recognizing that those funds are, at least in part, the fruit of stolen land and stolen labor. We have adopted minutes as a yearly meeting that express our intent to seek right relationships in concern for <b><a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/minutes-of-concern/minute-for-black-lives" target="_blank">Black Lives</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/minutes-of-concern/minute-on-right-relationship-with-indigenous-peoples" target="_blank">Indigenous Peoples</a></b>. Our Equity and Inclusion Committee helps us remain accountable for our commitments.</p><p>This two-dimensional description of our Quaker community's progress in confronting the primordial sin of objectification is deceptive. We didn't arrive here easily, we're not all in unity with <i>how</i> we got here, we still have much to do, and we haven't really come to terms with unintended consequences.</p><p>First of all, some of Adria Gulizia's diagnoses of pressures and procedural shortcuts that seemed to be going on in her own yearly meeting's consideration of anti-racism policies (see here, <a href="https://shadowofbabylon.com/2022/06/08/anti-racism-and-the-war-of-the-lamb/" target="_blank"><b>June 2022</b></a> and <b><a href="https://shadowofbabylon.com/2022/11/18/fight-the-symptoms-or-cure-the-disease-a-plea-for-spirit-led-discernment/" target="_blank">November 2022</a></b>) are similar to our experience, though far from identical. I want to be clear: the processes of adopting our minutes may have been imperfect but the minutes themselves stand on their own merits. In any case, I hope and pray we will always remember: political or ideological shortcuts, however urgently or piously presented, are not a substitute for actual prayer-based discernment. A church where people are labeled racist or colonialist (or, more likely, labeled as a person who does not sufficiently honor historically marginalized voices) might not be a trustworthy church.</p><p>(I trust you already know that this is the viewpoint of a 70-year-old white male! I try to remember that "we have the mind of Christ" [<b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+2%3A11-16&version=NIV" target="_blank">context</a></b>] ... but I sure don't have an exclusive claim on that mind!)</p><p>It's not that all opinions are equal. For example, there is far too much defensiveness among white people, especially those who don't recognize that <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/08/seeking-to-justify-myself.html" target="_blank"><b>their own individual racism or lack of it is rarely the central issue</b></a>. Racism is a demonic reality embedded in our social and economic structures. However, all of us are at different levels of personal maturity, education, experience, and spiritual gifting, and we should be humbly willing to speak our (almost always very partial) insights, trusting that the community will correct us if necessary, but <i>never </i>shame us.</p><p>One possible unintended consequence of our Quaker community's progressive self-presentation is that we might end up letting legalism and hypercritical attitudes undercut our warm and friendly reality. We may be imposing a hidden filter of classism, preference for activist subcultures, a dislike for enthusiastic faith, and expectations of advanced education, all while proclaiming a public message of inclusion.</p><p>The answer isn't to second-guess our commitment to right relationships. We have learned a lot about the awful cost of objectifying and marginalizing people, wherever we are on social maps; <i>let's not unlearn it!</i> Instead, lets talk about what a more multidimensional invitation—one that welcomes finders as well as seekers—might look like. Instead of living under new sets of rules, can we use <a href="https://quakerpodcast.org/advices-and-queries/" target="_blank"><b>advices and queries</b></a> more frequently and more creatively? In our business meetings, can we stop and pray more frequently, resisting our agenda's relentless push when necessary? Is there space for genuine lament, for humor? What has been your experience of building true inclusion, and what do you think our community's next steps might be?</p>
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<p>Related: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/06/why-evangelicals-should-like-crt.html" target="_blank"><b>Why evangelicals should love CRT</b></a>. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/03/dismantling-racism-with-grit-and-grace.html" target="_blank"><b>Dismantling racism with grit and grace</b></a>. <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2019/06/whiteness.html" target="_blank">Whiteness</a></b>.</p>
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<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5sUF6JDIt6M0kskAf6RaOaqXsym0QJxUHdbKbpGptBaJkHa2bn80rZRN1nkcqts_q3WjypQZnmSHpLg9apLv2g_dFMBpFSpVi9lSRBuZf05sV1CR5ohfad7jqSG7Vc3Ea_f_tfasz9c_7t0_4ML2BNoUAbf4oWrAXTF24wHXfKb8Gs0W-67xLw/s1011/quaker.2023.28.issue-2.cover.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1011" data-original-width="711" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5sUF6JDIt6M0kskAf6RaOaqXsym0QJxUHdbKbpGptBaJkHa2bn80rZRN1nkcqts_q3WjypQZnmSHpLg9apLv2g_dFMBpFSpVi9lSRBuZf05sV1CR5ohfad7jqSG7Vc3Ea_f_tfasz9c_7t0_4ML2BNoUAbf4oWrAXTF24wHXfKb8Gs0W-67xLw/s320/quaker.2023.28.issue-2.cover.png" width="225" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table>The special issue of <i>Quaker Studies</i> devoted to John Woolman is out, just in time for me to refer to it in connection with the previous theme. Mike Heller's and Ron Rembert's article, "<b><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/full/10.3828/quaker.2023.28.2.6" target="_blank">John Woolman and 'The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth'</a></b>" includes Woolman's searching self-examination concerning the rightness of wearing undyed clothing.<p></p><p>Dyes for clothing were a product of slave labor, but would his strange appearance without colored fabrics lead to the loss of friendships ... and which friendships? In light of my concern about the intentional and unintentional signals we make with our new rules (pronouns and land acknowledgments, for example), I really appreciated pondering Woolman's reflections on his own discipleship.</p><p>I've just touched on one of the articles in this issue, but I recommend <a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/quaker/28/2" target="_blank"><b>the whole thing</b></a>.</p>
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<p>Judy Maurer in the Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends bulletin: "<a href="https://mailchi.mp/scymf.org/bulletin-of-sierra-cascades-ymf-20216696" target="_blank"><b>A Stranger in the Earth</b></a>."</p><p><a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/solzhenitsyn-gulag-archipelago-50-years-son-ignat/32709779.html" target="_blank"><b>This article</b></a> looking back on the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's <i>The GULag Archipelago</i>, fifty years ago, brought back memories. I was one of those who pre-ordered that first edition from YMCA-Press in Paris. (I tell that story <b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/05/living-without-lying.html" target="_blank">here</a></b>.)</p><p>"<a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/10/12/religion-and-humor/" target="_blank"><b>Religion and Humor: An Unorthodox Relationship?</b></a>" Lina M. Liederman tackles an interesting juxtaposition.</p><p>It's time for end-of-year favorite books lists. Here's <a href="https://bethfelkerjones.substack.com/p/my-favorite-books-of-2023" target="_blank"><b>one from Beth Felker Jones</b></a> that's full of temptations. If you publish such a list, please send me a link! (Whether or not you live in Newberg, Oregon. :-)))</p>
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<p>Playing for Change: Buddy Guy on his electric sitar, Billy Branch, the late Marty Sammon, and many others, perform Buddy's "Skin Deep."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OtU9xCbVY6I?si=ki1FsFpmPW85D2R5" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com2Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-22651922846881999412023-11-30T22:45:00.000-08:002023-12-01T18:46:06.833-08:00Retirement. (No, not that kind.)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBejhB1_qwdZ3bTT1ckR_-psHBJMh6Kz-JpYBsfoowZovDIibZe8YnswC1IBHnEeeNdpcHNz0Hyt3oInSWmFDv-o416C2QsHGSDrSHDBw7M3CukHEKMDG6oWpK_4ixc8Gti-AJoasdjnOT9Y7o2kdmQFk4CJr60SB-AOvmGQWmme9qbE7pi3QBbw/s1440/2021-07-26-Panther_Pond-ducks-mist.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1440" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBejhB1_qwdZ3bTT1ckR_-psHBJMh6Kz-JpYBsfoowZovDIibZe8YnswC1IBHnEeeNdpcHNz0Hyt3oInSWmFDv-o416C2QsHGSDrSHDBw7M3CukHEKMDG6oWpK_4ixc8Gti-AJoasdjnOT9Y7o2kdmQFk4CJr60SB-AOvmGQWmme9qbE7pi3QBbw/w640-h426/2021-07-26-Panther_Pond-ducks-mist.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panther Pond, Maine.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<p>I've never forgotten a post I read back in 2007 on Contemplative Scholar's blog:</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(255, 243, 219); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1b0431; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">On Being an Animal<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(255, 243, 219); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(255, 243, 219); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt;">July 12, 2007<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(255, 243, 219); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: rgb(255, 243, 219); color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">As a human being, I am an animal too. And so are you.<br /><br />This summer I am feeling moved not to travel much. While my main plan had been to get back into my academic writing, I'm having a really hard time with that. I think I am just profoundly tired. Plus, my support system has been seriously diminished over the past year: from the ending of my music group, to the departure of two people in my life who have been really important mentors and guides.<br /><br />After my busy year and these important losses, I'm now mostly focused on trying to reestablish a basic discipline of taking good care of myself. No one else can do that for me anyway. More and more I realize that this is a deep and fundamental animal responsibility we each have. It is exactly for ourselves, but not selfish. We are not just our own private property. We matter to others in the world. And so if we don't take good care of ourselves, we can bring considerable grief into others' lives, because they can do little to restore health and well-being if we are not ourselves cooperating.<br /><br />I have come to realize this in myself, but I also see it from another perspective in my relationships with others. Those who are good at taking care of themselves are happy and healthy and their lives are in balance, which means that they have lots of energy to attend to others as well.<br /><br />As philosopher Immanuel Kant points out, we have a basic duty to be happy, so that we are not so distracted by our unhappiness that we fail to attend to our other moral duties!<br /><br />The key marker for my own self care is exercise. Happily, I am running again. This is a very good sign. This year, I will place this as one of my highest priorities. No matter how busy my life gets, I will try to regard this as essential as eating and sleeping and going to Meeting! (Hold me too this, my faithful readers!)<br /><br />So I've made the radical decision not to worry about how "productive" my summer is. I'm going to live my days as aimlessly as I need to. I'll attend to anything urgent that crosses my desk. But other than that, I'll just do what I feel moved to do from moment to moment. I haven't had a real vacation as such in a long time. I hereby declare the rest of this summer to be the first really extended vacation I have ever in my whole life let myself have.<br /><br />I feel open and in a data-gathering mode. What gives me life? I want to experience the world in a new way. I want to let the world fill me with healing and renewing energy. I want to pay full attention to everyone I see, but refrain from agreeing to anything that establishes a controlling dynamic in our relationships. I refuse to expect anyone to do anything for me in particular; and I refuse to agree to anything that means that others expect something of me.<br /><br />(I must emphasize that this is purely temporary. When the academic year begins again, I will have no choice but to enter back into that complex network of relationships dominated by controlling dynamics going in both directions.)<br /><br />But for now, I just want to be a wild animal, quiet and shy, alert and tuned mostly into the pure present moment. I want to eat and sleep and run in the woods. I want to watch beautiful sunsets and let them work their magic on my soul.<br /><br />The summer, after all, is beautiful. The sun. The breezes. The freedom to walk straight outside without the fanfare of coats and hats and scarves and gloves and complicated shoes slipping on icy walks. This is the time store up health and hope.<br /><br />The other things I care about will come to fruition in their own good time. Let me finally honor the wisdom of the structure of the academic year. Let me finally trust in the natural rhythms of life and nature.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>At some point I posted a link to this essay on my own blog, but soon after that, Contemplative Scholar had decided to close public access. The Contemplative Scholar blog remains closed to this day, although the Scholar gave me permission to republish this post here.</p><p>(The author said that it's also possible that the blog will be reopened in the future. I'll be sure to let you know if that happens.)</p><hr />
<table align="right"><tbody><tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyPSxEtWPPIGwmrZ4hEGvG-d8ey6rn4tQgkA0iBfG7MjjNBfKroeirDtvTbqWGhtmLlIIM4EiYWBS7zZh4-8tfXckPqzl7_W4RBgaQ18EX9ph_2Me-9F3gmyLTYnHl7S6GDbVgFh-ItsQ6Fr8V6P7DHwwW_nxlX0a7sDz1wpiE4uqw48P2F6Cog/s5472/2021-07-18-Maine_Botanical_Gardens-IMG_0390.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="5472" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyPSxEtWPPIGwmrZ4hEGvG-d8ey6rn4tQgkA0iBfG7MjjNBfKroeirDtvTbqWGhtmLlIIM4EiYWBS7zZh4-8tfXckPqzl7_W4RBgaQ18EX9ph_2Me-9F3gmyLTYnHl7S6GDbVgFh-ItsQ6Fr8V6P7DHwwW_nxlX0a7sDz1wpiE4uqw48P2F6Cog/s320/2021-07-18-Maine_Botanical_Gardens-IMG_0390.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maine Botanical Gardens.</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhklWPbYUH34bklCQWu8GlJi1U_yY0J-QjsMlw9ATBuaaDAvrV99RW9xuSu0lmSjVFrUWF4ECduFPo2tnNfi1KOMH5-V58h2esswn1mMiUmTV0dEPuMoFiQmF9vF-9HA72IQcSr-BklHwYTrWyLRcW4ub7LG1SaYJiDVg4VpmPG67eVM7Tn12ntQ/s2643/Klamath_Falls-water_vole-PXL_20231113_054632282.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1643" data-original-width="2643" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhklWPbYUH34bklCQWu8GlJi1U_yY0J-QjsMlw9ATBuaaDAvrV99RW9xuSu0lmSjVFrUWF4ECduFPo2tnNfi1KOMH5-V58h2esswn1mMiUmTV0dEPuMoFiQmF9vF-9HA72IQcSr-BklHwYTrWyLRcW4ub7LG1SaYJiDVg4VpmPG67eVM7Tn12ntQ/s320/Klamath_Falls-water_vole-PXL_20231113_054632282.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water vole, Klamath Falls, Oregon.</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaSmr0LKK7ddPwzxMIfkM4ZEE03qFVXdc-bt-NwSNEcm51lAdv9nFLM5m8rZFFQ9ary68JWnEQXbMzG22hujutfodRzpcdrLezHBBGFx6SGjITT3gDYky52TMS8mt6AyJTw7lLVGUkB0gSCrTR-Tbr1l7aPXuHSz5d-DJZCbwXrwsDriPilP6bg/s5472/2021-08-03-Panther_Pond-Greeting_the_new_day-bird_on_branch-IMG_0621.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="5472" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaSmr0LKK7ddPwzxMIfkM4ZEE03qFVXdc-bt-NwSNEcm51lAdv9nFLM5m8rZFFQ9ary68JWnEQXbMzG22hujutfodRzpcdrLezHBBGFx6SGjITT3gDYky52TMS8mt6AyJTw7lLVGUkB0gSCrTR-Tbr1l7aPXuHSz5d-DJZCbwXrwsDriPilP6bg/s320/2021-08-03-Panther_Pond-Greeting_the_new_day-bird_on_branch-IMG_0621.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panther Pond, Maine.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>Maybe you've already guessed, at least in general, why I've found solace in this post at this particular moment, even though my own life cycle isn't academic anymore. For me, the winter serves as something of an equivalent to Contemplative's summer. And yet the coming winter season in the Northern Hemisphere promises even more cruelties among vulnerable people than we witness today. How can we justify ever averting our eyes?</p>
<p>On one of our online Quaker meetings for worship, with our attention focused on Ukraine and the Holy Land, one of our attenders drew our attention to this "<a href="https://plumvillage.org/articles/an-invitation-to-sit-together-for-peace" target="_blank">Invitation to Sit Together for Peace</a>," with its guided meditation in the Buddhist tradition taught by the late Thich Nhat Hanh. I found points of contact on a communal level with "On Being an Animal."</p><p>(Dear anxious members of my Christian family, I'm very willing to discuss what might make you anxious about this meditation, but not here.)</p>
<p>Another impulse to reprint "On Being an Animal" came from a letter I just got from a friend of mine in the UK. She wrote, "... I am due one of my biannual deplugs ... so from Nov 25th to Dec 25th that's it—no news or views on the present day (...history will be permissible)."</p><p>There is something in me that resists the idea of unplugging, as if I am somehow letting humanity down if I give up, for a time, my obsessive attention to the deeds and misdeeds of the Powers That Be. How much worse off everyone would be if I withheld my awesome influence for good!</p><p>If you sometimes feel the same way, but know down in your bones you really do need a time of retirement, consider some of these thoughts:</p><p>Consider that you, too, are an animal. Contemplative Scholar does not advocate inattentiveness, but a different, more creaturely kind of attentiveness. There is no break from reality, only a break from a set of stylized behaviors that we humans esteem much too highly, given that they are all elaborate variations on the same behaviors that all mammals display—data-gathering, marking territory, distinguishing friend from threat. We are wise to be aware of the ways human myths and conceits impact us and our global neighbors, but let's dedicate some time to resting quietly with our Creator, aware of the present moment, before returning to those demanding arenas.</p><p>Back in 1990, I made a tour of about thirty communities in southern India that, at the time, were active or potential partners with Right Sharing of World Resources. My first visit was to a non-governmental organization in Chennai. One of the most helpful and liberating pieces of advice that the director gave me was this: "Never believe (or allow people to convince you) that you are indispensable. The communities were there before you ever showed up and will be there after you leave."</p><p>(More about this conversation <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2010/02/intentions-and-results.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</p><p>The kind of retirement I see in "On Being an Animal" is very different from simply quitting in disgust or <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2010/12/thoughts-on-hope-and-cynicism.html" target="_blank">becoming cynical</a>. However, if you feel those temptations to quit altogether, a period of retirement from the deluge of difficult news may be just what's needed. Everything we have to offer is rooted, not in our own undoubted competence and cleverness, nor in our righteous anger (though it's sometimes exactly right!), but in the everlasting and universal love of God.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>But the Lord did stay my desires upon himself from whom my help came, and my care was cast upon him alone. Therefore, all wait patiently upon the Lord, whatsoever condition you be in wait in the grace and truth that comes by Jesus; for if ye so do, there is a promise to you, and the Lord God will fulfil it in you. And blessed are all they indeed that do hunger and thirst after righteousness; they shall be satisfied with it. I have found it so, praised be the Lord who filleth with it, and satisfies the desires of the hungry soul. O let the house of the spiritual Israel to say, 'His mercy endureth for ever.' It is the great love of God to make a wilderness of that which is pleasant to the outward eye and fleshly mind; and to make a fruitful field of a barren wilderness.</p><p>— George Fox (<i>Journal</i>, Nickalls ed., pages 12-13), 1647.</p></blockquote><hr />
<p><b>I'm still collecting responses to my survey: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank">Which term do you prefer, Friends or Quakers?</a></b></p><hr /><p>A letter from <a href="https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2023-11/ramallah-friends-school-students-congress-prioritize-ceasefire-protect-childrens" target="_blank">Ramallah Friends School students</a> to the U.S. Congress, posted by the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Related note: the three young Palestinian men shot in Vermont last Saturday, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed, were all graduates of the Ramallah Friends School. </p>
<p>An Orthodox priest writes to Christians in Russia who are not in unity with Orthodox officialdom on the war in Ukraine. (<a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/11/30/letter-to-russia/" target="_blank"><b>English</b></a>. <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/ru/2023/11/30/letter-to-russia/" target="_blank"><b>Russian</b></a>.)</p><p>And how other Russians <a href="https://carnegiemoscow.org/2023/11/28/alternate-reality-how-russian-society-learned-to-stop-worrying-about-war-pub-91118" target="_blank">learned to stop worrying about the war</a>.</p><p>The Russian Supreme Court bans the "<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-lgbt-supreme-court-rights-movement/32708163.html" target="_blank">international LGBT social movement</a>," ruling it "extremist." More coverage from <a href="https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-has-banned-the-so-called-international-lgbt-movement" target="_blank">Meduza</a>. <b>Friday </b><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/12/02/the-kremlin-outlawed-several-million-people" target="_blank">update from Meduza</a>.</p><p>One more link, in a very different direction... May we welcome Jesus as Mary did. Beth Felker Jones on <a href="https://bethfelkerjones.substack.com/p/marys-yes-the-miracle-of-consent" target="_blank">the miracle of consent</a>.</p><p>Most of these links are wildly inconsistent with observing a period of "retirement." Let's see if I do better next time!</p>
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<p>Mark Stutso's wonderful vocals, Gino Matteo on guitar, and Jason Ricci on harp: "It's My Own Fault."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fAQamh6n6Zc?si=1XiIW2IyPn50RPUd" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com4Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-54437849147289759932023-11-22T21:03:00.000-08:002023-11-22T21:15:49.620-08:00Friends and Comrades, a Thanksgiving P.S.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFxe8nZ18qS_Ry7jrs6I69HTE7OMIUtgZB6zCBVbwNe5_FyXds6kRs-5l4Zs4xn6Xh8SZcoCMW9wcowp8K9mxr1BLkLxos-DN2UbKUioWMu9bF9uE9o3duUdVXjVxqZn36qN0ljPKGn_QNEQHVRXTZqhscUIhDdhCitL3H5UJviq2L-3NOms4RQ/s1920/Golod-title.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFxe8nZ18qS_Ry7jrs6I69HTE7OMIUtgZB6zCBVbwNe5_FyXds6kRs-5l4Zs4xn6Xh8SZcoCMW9wcowp8K9mxr1BLkLxos-DN2UbKUioWMu9bF9uE9o3duUdVXjVxqZn36qN0ljPKGn_QNEQHVRXTZqhscUIhDdhCitL3H5UJviq2L-3NOms4RQ/w640-h360/Golod-title.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title frame from the film <i>Famine</i>. Screenshot from <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXi3kBXMWo8" target="_blank">source</a></i>.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FCc7x-y3Q65s1iFONGzfQrCTZGMLgOZQAmpRs5pfjZhBOdFnFJL16TOaLnack7EY3iN9vLLgOSJCJLd_SZgXj1rR_bxa39VIYpjM2RDzhQfV2plQt0kPL2vxPMUdmTYdHsuq86bhhGk9U_ZXT5KGDKLs_4JH2YEbm22qV1yFYB1HFtH1YN28QA/s1920/Golod-Yulia_Khmelevskaya.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FCc7x-y3Q65s1iFONGzfQrCTZGMLgOZQAmpRs5pfjZhBOdFnFJL16TOaLnack7EY3iN9vLLgOSJCJLd_SZgXj1rR_bxa39VIYpjM2RDzhQfV2plQt0kPL2vxPMUdmTYdHsuq86bhhGk9U_ZXT5KGDKLs_4JH2YEbm22qV1yFYB1HFtH1YN28QA/s320/Golod-Yulia_Khmelevskaya.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historian Yulia Khmelevskaya—<i>Famine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WdC-FpE_IfdijRydcaySKe-wGyitcmMCtV90Fp2yqqJxze-mQsdQUETyywV64rQCW2NJMGGJ6_IpO_jy5xG3b8IgssHjYmfOn0GWXEmVIB9ABMDg2f3dwZOxKEU5OoP2Ry7kkfL0U74bJL4rzA7eW2yi-yb3eXEqrYYcFHp3201FhYiYHNrtbA/s1920/Golod-Sergei_Nikitin.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WdC-FpE_IfdijRydcaySKe-wGyitcmMCtV90Fp2yqqJxze-mQsdQUETyywV64rQCW2NJMGGJ6_IpO_jy5xG3b8IgssHjYmfOn0GWXEmVIB9ABMDg2f3dwZOxKEU5OoP2Ry7kkfL0U74bJL4rzA7eW2yi-yb3eXEqrYYcFHp3201FhYiYHNrtbA/s320/Golod-Sergei_Nikitin.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historian Sergei Nikitin—<i>Famine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz6kjDtBZvBf2E6cUtiBfr5KI7J3vIbwSntyaS9r4nO6m4Q4Hr4Gcv_0-Lv6c1jsWkCFN9WfpVv64Z1fO1S_QS6qbkUN6bWFlcCI-ZNoPylz2qjvyZzLz8KlDpqpkUUPB-tXGcj9Pe3SKIyS1sRtHjJOkNJkuMGBA5TwDT6MsrtkzniGsBK9LXUQ/s1920/Golod-Sergei_Kolychev.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz6kjDtBZvBf2E6cUtiBfr5KI7J3vIbwSntyaS9r4nO6m4Q4Hr4Gcv_0-Lv6c1jsWkCFN9WfpVv64Z1fO1S_QS6qbkUN6bWFlcCI-ZNoPylz2qjvyZzLz8KlDpqpkUUPB-tXGcj9Pe3SKIyS1sRtHjJOkNJkuMGBA5TwDT6MsrtkzniGsBK9LXUQ/s320/Golod-Sergei_Kolychev.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historian and journalist Sergei Kolychev—<i>Famine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyM9OLQ87fQXfNDmuUoc3Z8TFe3kbEujv4CmUT8VRvDFbsDVXhnpM6LyjcbEIBbATnqzri0Zs4EqbXtOx8Jwl29w7V2xSsp1aOMOeQraBdxvtI6lvLXhc-qfkOI4Ko28Z3o1-ILdG17I9KHMdbykVvXk2-NSBw9HEDBeJUEQpkvfqdFz1hSaEmw/s1920/Golod-NYT-July_23_2021.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHyM9OLQ87fQXfNDmuUoc3Z8TFe3kbEujv4CmUT8VRvDFbsDVXhnpM6LyjcbEIBbATnqzri0Zs4EqbXtOx8Jwl29w7V2xSsp1aOMOeQraBdxvtI6lvLXhc-qfkOI4Ko28Z3o1-ILdG17I9KHMdbykVvXk2-NSBw9HEDBeJUEQpkvfqdFz1hSaEmw/s320/Golod-NYT-July_23_2021.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New York Times, July 23, 1921—<i>Famine.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin3EhOfdL6JOx9D9S2Pr4Q2ydaMtw0cNz5iWGjVxD8n4ujsy654HrkGMxAKuXAqNGdCZ04BJfALH8wG4jEIviCPqKju_KV7sIw-_4jdZme0hy3aO73HPlUvc6u-yqe0Cwi4M8mlLMWdi7jGFWPEKxqHIsUpAHVDhvEJNbiLzUFkFFOR11Rvz8ynQ/s802/Remember_the_starving.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="616" height="413" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin3EhOfdL6JOx9D9S2Pr4Q2ydaMtw0cNz5iWGjVxD8n4ujsy654HrkGMxAKuXAqNGdCZ04BJfALH8wG4jEIviCPqKju_KV7sIw-_4jdZme0hy3aO73HPlUvc6u-yqe0Cwi4M8mlLMWdi7jGFWPEKxqHIsUpAHVDhvEJNbiLzUFkFFOR11Rvz8ynQ/w318-h413/Remember_the_starving.png" width="318" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Remember the starving!" <i><a href="https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1921-2/famine-of-1921-22/famine-of-1921-22/#bwg36/347" target="_blank">Source</a></i>.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/11/friends-and-comrades-sergei-nikitin.html" target="_blank">Last week</a> I reviewed Sergei Nikitin's <i>Friends and Comrades: How Quakers helped Russians to survive famine and epidemic</i>, translated by Suzanne Eade Roberts. Working with Russian and Soviet sources as well as English-language memoirs and archives, Sergei told the epic story of British and American Friends' work in Russia—in refugee assistance, famine relief, medical outreach, and agricultural reconstruction—in the years 1916-1931.</p><p>My review had lots of words, but barely any images. Today, in honor of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday (and I'm not being ironic), I want to tell you about a documentary film that can be of enormous help with both images and context for the story Sergei tells. The film: <i>Famine</i>.</p><p>Context: The full campaign against starvation and epidemic at the height of the 1921-23 famines was far larger than the specifically Quaker mission centered on the cities of Buzuluk and Sorochinsk. Together, all the international help during those years may have saved 10 or 11 million lives. It is harder to fix the number of lives that the Quaker teams might have saved, but it is certainly in the tens of thousands. Buzuluk was the capital of a region with a pre-famine population of over 600,000. Had death rates continued as they were at the start of the famine, this region would have lost fifty percent of its population, not counting people who simply left the region. Instead of 50 percent, 21.5 percent of the population was lost to starvation and disease.</p><p>Many other voluntary organizations worked in this massive relief campaign, but the largest single contribution came from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Relief_Administration" target="_blank">American Relief Administration</a>, headed by the future Quaker president, Herbert Hoover. In December 2021, the U.S. Congress, despite the anti-Bolshevik mood of the times, allocated $20 million for famine relief in Russia. For a time, the American Quaker mission to the region became somewhat enmeshed in the ARA's work, with several awkward implications for their relationship with the local government as well as their British Quaker co-workers. They negotiated several exceptions to the ARA rules, and eventually regained their independence to manage their own work and collaborate fully with the British team.</p><p>Quakers may have been better prepared than some other groups to work on a large scale in Russia. Their presence in Buzuluk dated back to their World War I outreach to war refugees. They had already earned credibility with the suspicious Bolshevik authorities. At times they were a conduit into Russia for other relief organizations who didn't have the degree of access Friends had gained. When Russia made its global appeal for help in July 1921, Friends were able to respond quickly, thanks to their earlier experience in the Buzuluk region.</p><p>In covering the vast scale of the international response in these famine years, 1921-23, the documentary <i>Famine</i> selects several regions of Russia as case studies. The Buzuluk region is one of those case studies, featuring interviews with, among others, Sergei Nikitin and Sergei Kolychev. Judy and I knew of Sergei Nikitin's interest in this history long before we ourselves visited Buzuluk in 2008 and 2011. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2011/05/ghosts.html" target="_blank">During our 2011 visit</a> we got to know the local journalist and historian Sergei Kolychev, whose study of the famine years led him (a Russian Orthodox Christian) to envision a memorial to those Quaker workers of a century earlier.</p><p>Speaking of memorials, two of the Friends' workers died of typhus during the winter of 1921-22, Mary Pattison and Violet Tillard. Lenin's principal deputy, Leon Trotsky, paid tribute to them in a speech in March 1922, as quoted by Sergei Nikitin's book:</p><p></p><blockquote>These graves are a kind of augury of the new, future relations between people which will be based upon solidarity and not be shadowed by self-seeking. When the Russian people become a little richer, they will erect (we are profoundly sure of this) a great monument to these fallen heroes.</blockquote><p></p><p>Judging by reports of the cancellation of <i>Famine</i>'s license for screening in Russian movie theaters, Russian authorities do not welcome these kinds of historical reminders. (Here is a link to <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2022/12/22/documentary-about-the-1920s-volga-famine-is-prohibited-in-russia-but-broadcasted-on-youtube/" target="_blank">Global Voices report</a> of the ban, along with a summary of the film. And a <a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/12/19/inappropriate-for-screening" target="_blank">report from Meduza</a>.) I'm less sure than Trotsky that an actual monument will be built. For now, maybe the film <i>Famine</i> will serve as a memorial. </p><p>If you watch it (see below), be aware that there are many stark and troubling scenes and stories from the height of the famine, including reports of cannibalism. As several observers have noted, this famine may have been the first in world history to be so minutely and graphically documented.</p><p>As with many families in the USA, cooking and eating will be two of our family's main activities tomorrow. My memories of the film, of Sergei's book, and of our own visits to Buzuluk will not muffle my thankfulness during the holiday—they'll sharpen it.</p>
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<p><i>Famine</i> is available on the YouTube channels of the U.S. government-funded media outlet Current Time TV. The film itself was not funded by Current Time, but was financed through crowdfunding. Over 2,000 people contributed.</p><p>The film is in Russian, but you can turn on the subtitles, and choose the language you wish from the video settings. The English is adequate to follow, most of the time, although (for example) when Sergei Nikitin says, "We are now in the Quaker meetinghouse [he used the English word "meetinghouse"], it's translated "the Community House apartment...." Earlier, the auto-translator gave us "Gold" when Sergei Kolychev said "Volga." In general, you'll be able to keep up with the narrative.</p><p>Here's <a href="https://youtu.be/rXi3kBXMWo8?si=cUOCcCW_i_rIgQt2&t=1999" target="_blank">a separate link cued to the section on Quaker work in Buzuluk</a>. The full film is below:</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rXi3kBXMWo8?si=i2msvIyDM1T3nP6h" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
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<p>Ayaan Hirsi Ali's <a href="https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2023/11/21/ayaan-hirsi-alis-conversion-from-islam-to-christianity-such-a-big-story-so-little-coverage" target="_blank">controversial conversion</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-skochilenko-prison-dangerous/32692651.html" target="_blank">prison hazards that await</a> Russian anti-war artist Aleksandra Skochilenko.</p><p>Robert P. Jones: when (U.S.) ex-presidential rhetoric <a href="https://religiondispatches.org/with-vermin-remark-trump-crosses-fully-into-nazi-territory/" target="_blank">crosses into Nazi territory</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/who-is-abandoning-the-evangelical" target="_blank">Who is abandoning the evangelical label?</a> Ryan Burge graphs the trends.</p><p>Nancy Thomas writes about gratitude—<a href="https://nancyjanethomas.blogspot.com/2023/11/gratitude-in-old-growth-forest.html" target="_blank">and gets specific</a>.</p><p>Kate Bowler's Thanksgiving blessing <a href="https://katebowler.com/blessings/a-thanksgiving-blessing-when-you-dont-feel-terribly-thankful/" target="_blank">when you don't feel terribly thankful</a>.</p><p>Via Open Culture: a massive online <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2023/11/the-entire-manuscript-collection-of-geoffrey-chaucer-gets-digitized.html" target="_blank">digital archive of Chaucer</a>. Caution: it's habit-forming. And if you are able to escape, Open Culture can link you with <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2023/11/oculi-mundi-a-beautiful-online-archive-of-130-ancient-maps-atlases-globes.html" target="_blank">130 ancient maps, atlases and globes</a>.</p><p>What is a Quaker? Here's Micah Bales's answer in <a href="https://www.micahbales.com/what-is-a-quaker/" target="_blank">English</a> and <a href="https://quakers.ru/%d0%ba%d1%82%d0%be-%d1%82%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b5-%d0%ba%d0%b2%d0%b0%d0%ba%d0%b5%d1%80%d1%8b/" target="_blank">Russian</a>.</p>
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<p>Rick Holmstrom's instrumental version of "Oh Mary Don't You Weep."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/10TxiijTNJM?si=J57kCymNsdN92bwg" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-48696800278704540022023-11-16T23:57:00.000-08:002023-11-22T21:08:46.503-08:00Friends and Comrades: Sergei Nikitin tells the story of Quaker relief and rehabilitation work in Russia between 1916 and 1931<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xBXjrF-TXGuyMsufPtRdYOLRKJYHhjYlp34Xk3y2npd2GSpH9ldgL_aDcraZsUNpw5iwyxlv5bqoYL8F9o4YDZN-jtAplSZpsFfLwkywXHZlUwHlQj5Z5OykWerS8Rk5lOX_zJwNiWewRKJLFp-dOp7SRxfJiAlRzhgszrSI2D7R4hcomxQsTg/s977/Nikitin-2_covers.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="977" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-xBXjrF-TXGuyMsufPtRdYOLRKJYHhjYlp34Xk3y2npd2GSpH9ldgL_aDcraZsUNpw5iwyxlv5bqoYL8F9o4YDZN-jtAplSZpsFfLwkywXHZlUwHlQj5Z5OykWerS8Rk5lOX_zJwNiWewRKJLFp-dOp7SRxfJiAlRzhgszrSI2D7R4hcomxQsTg/w640-h428/Nikitin-2_covers.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sergei Nikitin's book on the history of Friends relief missions in Russia, particularly in the years 1916-1931, and its English translation, <i>Friends and Comrades</i>. Translation by Suzanne Eade Roberts.</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<p>In 1947, the Nobel Committee of Norway's parliament awarded that year's Nobel Peace Prize to the Quakers, "...represented by their two great relief organizations, the Friends Service Council in London and the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia."</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1947/ceremony-speech/" target="_blank">presentation speech</a> at the award ceremony, Gunnar Jahn cited Quakers' role in peace and relief work in many countries, including Russia: "It is through silent assistance <i>from the nameless to the nameless </i>that they have worked to promote the fraternity between nations cited in the will of Alfred Nobel." (My emphasis.)</p>
<p>At the peak of the famine relief work, over 400,000 Russians were depending on Quaker food rations to stay alive. 20,000 to 30,000 people a month were treated in their malaria clinics in Buzuluk. In the history of this campaign, many people involved will indeed remain "nameless." We will not know most of the people whose lives were saved from starvation and disease through Quakers' efforts, and most of those who provided prayer and money to this work will also remain unknown. Thanks to Sergei Nikitin's book <i>Friends and Comrades</i>, however, the full scale of this effort, and the names of many of its central figures, are made known and brought to life.</p><p>Sergei's book is organized into five broad areas, four of which correspond to the chronology of British and USA Friends' relief and reconstruction work in Russia:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Assistance to World War I refugees, 1916-1918.</li><li>Assistance to children who were suffering as a result of the post-revolutionary civil war in Russia, 1920-21.</li><li>The massive famine relief, medical aid, and agricultural rehabilitation efforts of 1921-27, centered in the towns of Buzuluk and Sorochinsk, and the ongoing official Quaker presence in the USSR that ended in 1931.</li><li>Individual Quakers' continuing involvements in the Soviet Union after 1931.</li><li>Finally, reflections on the complex relationships between Friends and the Soviet authorities throughout this history.</li></ul><p></p><p>Missions of this magnitude generate an enormous amount of archival material—logistical records and ledgers; official and unofficial correspondence among every conceivable subset of actors; public relations and fundraising materials; news accounts; photos, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOXR11evJk" target="_blank">films</a>, and graphics of all kinds; and memoirs. It is a huge challenge to make a judicious selection that can bring these voices into our own time with an appropriate mix of accurate reportage and fair analysis, all in a package of manageable length. It's my judgment that Sergei has succeeded.</p><p>Previous treatments of this story include an article by John Forbes in the <i>Bulletin of Friends Historical Association</i>, "American Friends and Russian Relief 1917-1927," published in two parts (Spring and Autumn 1952). Richenda C. Scott's <i>Quakers in Russia</i> (1964) ranges from the first Quaker contacts with Peter the Great all the way to her own time, but more than half of her excellent book is devoted to this same famine and refugee relief work. More recently, David McFadden and Claire Gorfinkel told this story in a more thematic approach, in their book <i>Constructive Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia</i> (2004), to which Sergei Nikitin contributed an introductory chapter in the form of a personal overview.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfv2fGRbnkMWQiacJmBWGwlOQjtlX5WjBrOAxJSGzbBXyi_WiMKvH357BZLBldVEMeuPAOWyjBYUvGeLP8-OtPokr3jIDyNYw5dO7xbpkcbHt5HEPusguV1o_BmE2b-Zyi18Z4Wuoj_wzCrJuexFU2ANPA23UcxFbLqDSZCxwqwMDwe0z1V8k6UQ/s3116/QL-Friends_in_Russia_Nikitin-1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3116" data-original-width="2336" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfv2fGRbnkMWQiacJmBWGwlOQjtlX5WjBrOAxJSGzbBXyi_WiMKvH357BZLBldVEMeuPAOWyjBYUvGeLP8-OtPokr3jIDyNYw5dO7xbpkcbHt5HEPusguV1o_BmE2b-Zyi18Z4Wuoj_wzCrJuexFU2ANPA23UcxFbLqDSZCxwqwMDwe0z1V8k6UQ/s320/QL-Friends_in_Russia_Nikitin-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19980612152824fw_/http://www.fum.org/QL/issues/9801/famine.htm" target="_blank">One of Sergei Nikitin's first articles on the<br />famine relief mission, Jan.-Feb. 1998</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>As Sergei explains early in his new book, he had been gathering archival materials and personal interviews ever since he first heard about the story of Quakers in wartime Russia and the young Soviet Union. During his fifteen years as head of the Amnesty International office in Moscow, he had no free time to put this material together in book form, but his retirement from that service gave him the necessary time to collect additional material and write <i>Friends and Comrades</i>.<p></p><p>Sergei took full advantage of the archives already available to previous authors, although he often made different selections from the material. All of these historians described a crucial debate among the Quakers: was their work of famine relief and medical aid in itself the main Quaker message to Russians, or was it a means by which Friends could spread their spiritual beliefs in Russia, and also build relationships with Tolstoyans and likeminded Russians? Sergei and others quote a proposed memorandum to the Bolshevik authorities that was composed by those supporting the latter priority:</p>
<blockquote>[Sergei quotes the memorandum:] ‘We are upon an active campaign to overcome the barriers of race and class and thus to make of all humanity a “Society of Friends”’. The letter’s authors were frank about the historical examples of Quakers’ dissidence due to their basic principles: ‘This has led us to follow a course, on some occasions, different from that of fellow citizens; even to act contrary to the law of our country when our legislators bid us violate our principles, particularly when called upon to take human life in warfare’. In closing, the Quakers asked the Bolsheviks openly: ‘Hence we seek to know your attitude towards us, and our concern to unite in fellowship with Russian people. With that in view we desire to ask if you will allow representatives of the Society of Friends to come to Russia for the purpose of establishing independent work for the administration of physical relief and to give expression to our international and spiritual ideals and principles of life’.</blockquote>
<p>Arthur Watts, a British Quaker based in Moscow, was viscerally opposed to this approach, believing that any stated purpose other than strictly disinterested relief work would threaten their hitherto relatively unfettered access. Nikitin takes up the story:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He [Watts] called the draft ‘A mild lecture and an explanation of our “chief concerns”’. Reasonably enough, he criticised the part of the text where the Quakers talked about social class: ‘It will be difficult for me to convince the recipients of the Activeness of your “campaign to overcome the barriers […] of class”’. On this point, Watts was right to reproach the authors of the letter of hypocrisy, reminding them that British Quakers still withheld control in industry from their workers, and that their British employees did not have control of anything. He wrote: ‘I have a strong objection to pretending to be better than we are’.
</p><p>
Arthur Watts also condemned the London committee’s apparent caution and concern that Quaker help would be interpreted as an expression of sympathy for Bolshevik methods. He wrote that he could not believe that Quakers might abstain from helping Russian children out of fear of being misunderstood. He added: ‘This is really most unworthy of you. Did you demand a statement from the Tsarist Government that our help was not to be taken as indicating approval of their aims and methods?’ He drew parallels with the parables in the Bible, asking, ‘I wonder if Christ thought of issuing a Statement of Aims before raising the Centurion’s daughter’, and made the sarcastic comment that if the Good Samaritan had drawn up a careful minute, ‘we might have admired his “Quaker Caution” but it would have spoilt the point of the parable’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Only Sergei Nikitin includes Watts's commentary on class hypocrisy.</p><p>One of the new elements that Sergei brings to his book is his research in Russian government archives. Previous histories looked at these events primarily through the eyes of the British and American participants. For example, Sergei touches on the debates between the American Friends Service Committee leadership, and the future Quaker president of the USA, Herbert Hoover, who headed the American Relief Administration and its program of famine relief. McFadden and Gorfinkel's <i>Constructive Spirit</i> goes into these conflicts in fascinating detail, illustrated by numerous extracts from letters and memoirs. Sergei gives briefer treatment to this aspect of the history, although he describes the awkward consequences of this conflict for the relationships between the British and American relief teams.</p><p>Thanks to his Russian sources, we learn far more about the Bolshevik authorities' own secret reports from the hardest-hit famine districts, their scrutiny of the Quaker teams, their generally favorable assessments of those teams, their worries about Quaker influences on the population, and the role of the secret police in infiltrating and monitoring the Quaker work. Nikitin also describes the sad fate during the Stalinist terror of some of those Russians who collaborated in the work—and, ironically enough, some of those who spied on the Quakers and were shot anyway. </p><p>Equally powerful in their own way are the numerous statistical reports provided by Russian sources. According to archives held in Buzuluk, "... in June 1922, American and British Quakers fed 85% of the population in need in Buzuluk district!"</p>
<p>Sergei's own voice and viewpoint are the other distinctive element of his book. He observes and comments as a Russian. He came to this whole history with something of the same astonishment that I myself heard from people in Buzuluk as they remembered their great-grandparents's recollections, saying in effect, "How could it be that these British and American people cared enough about us to make the hazardous journey, face all the risks of civil war and famine, and even die for us?" (Typhus killed two of the women on the teams, Mary Pattison and Violet Tillard.) Sergei reports on some of the dozens of interviews he conducted among people with first-hand experiences of the famine years, and among their descendants.</p><p>Sergei does not just focus on the heroism, but also covers the mistakes, disorganization, and discouragements that inevitably accompany disaster relief in unfamiliar surroundings, where absolutely nobody arrives with adequate preparation, and everyone involved is learning as they go. Furthermore, Quaker idealism (in some cases, taking the form of sympathy for the Bolshevik cause) could have made them "useful idiots" for the new regime. Some Quakers assumed that their Russian counterparts would be as honest as they themselves were. Sergei gives several examples of the Quaker capacity to believe what they wanted to believe despite evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, his overall assessment is generous:</p>
<blockquote>
Looking back today at the history of interaction between Quakers and the Russian authorities, the Society of Friends clearly did extraordinary work. Through incredible effort, hundreds of thousands of people were saved from death. Goodness, honesty, openness and a willingness to help–these characteristics of the British and American Quakers left a warm glow in the heart of each Russian who interacted with them.
</blockquote>
<p>Among the book's useful material is a detailed chronology of these years, as well as a roster of every team member involved in the 1916-1919 mission and in the 1920-31 mission. The author includes many archival photos and provides bibliographies of his English-language and Russian-language sources.</p><p><b><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/11/friends-and-comrades-thanksgiving-ps.html" target="_blank">Thanksgiving update</a></b>: information on the documentary film <i>Famine</i>, which is a valuable supplement to Sergei's book, and which includes an interview with him.</p>
<hr />
<p>Michael G. Azar, <a href="https://publicorthodoxy.org/2023/11/13/orthodox-christians-in-gaza-city/" target="_blank">Public Orthodoxy</a>, on Orthodox Christians in Gaza City.</p>
<p>Steve Hoffman <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodnewseveryone/2023/11/we-are-people-of-mercy-we-dont-have-enemies/" target="_blank">on being people of mercy</a>.</p><p>British Quakers brief parliamentarians on <a href="https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-brief-parliamentarians-on-climate-justice" target="_blank">climate justice</a>.</p><p><a href="https://mailchi.mp/scymf.org/bulletin-of-sierra-cascades-ymf-20215088?e=%5BUNIQID%5D" target="_blank">Safeguarding vulerable people in church</a>: Juulie Downs on the importance of clear policy and record-keeping.</p>
<hr />
<p><i>60 Minutes</i> on Clarksdale's blues heritage, and an interview with Christone "Kingfish" Ingram.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B69QcpJ3FR4?si=YVAJa_OPoZaNfan_" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-46805007221619358422023-11-09T20:58:00.010-08:002023-11-16T11:33:16.572-08:00One final post about hell<table border="2" cellpadding="5" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Concerning my <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank">l<b>atest survey</b></a> on the terms "Quakers" and "Friends"</span>—<span style="font-family: arial;">I'm doing a bit of a cheat.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">One respondent wondered why there was no category for "Hicksites" and another wondered why there was no category for "Orthodox." (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Friends#The_Hicksite%E2%80%93Orthodox_schism" target="_blank">Brief explanation of these terms</a>.) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Fair enough! I've added those two categories. If you've already responded and would have preferred one of those new categories to the "liberal" or "evangelical" categories already provided, <b><a href="mailto:johan@canyoubelieve.me" target="_blank">let me know</a></b> and I will (ahem) adjust the results. I'm glad I labeled this an "informal" survey.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Once again: the survey is here: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank"><b>blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html</b></a>. Please share it widely. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Many thanks to everyone who has already responded.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISiC4ssnfkA8tMEskcQ48F-HJ7jteT75ncfXcZaJFNwwDUK89_Rz31r0qPiLodFo6YivtFFG1iBCFlfG_uAg8X3qT1lPYKc2HQsDwpR4VFGoUgOLSDUJhdsx6oIO7Rug_HUpCli3JJPUxub_zw6CepmDmMQHJcAGcI2TaLgCHb_ynytl6MX9B8g/s1900/OCHAOPT_B3A1633.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="1900" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISiC4ssnfkA8tMEskcQ48F-HJ7jteT75ncfXcZaJFNwwDUK89_Rz31r0qPiLodFo6YivtFFG1iBCFlfG_uAg8X3qT1lPYKc2HQsDwpR4VFGoUgOLSDUJhdsx6oIO7Rug_HUpCli3JJPUxub_zw6CepmDmMQHJcAGcI2TaLgCHb_ynytl6MX9B8g/w660-h204/OCHAOPT_B3A1633.jpg" width="660" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"People leaving the northern Gaza Strip amid hostilities, following repeated calls by Israeli forces and the opening of a 'corridor.' Photo by UNRWA, 8 November 2023." <i>(<a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-34" target="_blank">Source</a>.)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<table align="right"><tbody>
<tr><td><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxxKRHJOc2tg43ZEI26XL7UacuP8b1KLdGj8cHIwr3IRa4KY4VfkpDSAt_mdvN3yL2LmEs2kg1P0rt-JRmOSjv5bmcwyW9gFLdoeTSDF1JuIpWcgeS6ehOQSlKJRQ51XYD_Hz-SI3diOMQE8YXShHgI8hFJ6gF85bIaIZ_O1w1FXK5Ei4i5CwEA/s680/heaven%20or%20hell.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="680" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxxKRHJOc2tg43ZEI26XL7UacuP8b1KLdGj8cHIwr3IRa4KY4VfkpDSAt_mdvN3yL2LmEs2kg1P0rt-JRmOSjv5bmcwyW9gFLdoeTSDF1JuIpWcgeS6ehOQSlKJRQ51XYD_Hz-SI3diOMQE8YXShHgI8hFJ6gF85bIaIZ_O1w1FXK5Ei4i5CwEA/w320-h101/heaven%20or%20hell.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(<i><a href="https://sometheologica.com/theology/the-shitty-theology-along-i-95/" target="_blank">Source</a></i>.)</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td></tr><tr><td><table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqC0Zsz8oxMB62ayQhnqyoxXMF2Em7_eykt7DnZFAlOLwOBk3bj5fcJQXaPalvLi5NwEV8bq5DDEYOh2UG3Bykp3_wSsSkSRZrESUe4Qjt4fkGftcpbo5BwkBQxVS_WLN6h6GsibKj-jCxvd5X_qPvxJsGml0LGL91-2yylSkR3pKHTtdGPNTw/s1920/dw-this%20is%20what%20awaits.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_vqC0Zsz8oxMB62ayQhnqyoxXMF2Em7_eykt7DnZFAlOLwOBk3bj5fcJQXaPalvLi5NwEV8bq5DDEYOh2UG3Bykp3_wSsSkSRZrESUe4Qjt4fkGftcpbo5BwkBQxVS_WLN6h6GsibKj-jCxvd5X_qPvxJsGml0LGL91-2yylSkR3pKHTtdGPNTw/w320-h180/dw-this%20is%20what%20awaits.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Voiceover: "For the Palestinians displaced from <br />the north, this is what awaits them in the south of<br />the [Gaza] Strip." (Screenshot from <i><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/thousands-of-palestinians-flee-northern-gaza/video-67349195" target="_blank">source</a></i>.)</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This morning, on SE 52nd Avenue here in Portland, Oregon, I saw a billboard asking "Where are you going? Heaven or <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">HELL</span></b>."</p>
<p><a href="https://sometheologica.com/theology/the-shitty-theology-along-i-95/" target="_blank">Mark Schaefer's blog post</a> about this series of billboards pretty well sums up my own thoughts on this message. But the words "Where are you going?" and the two blunt destinations made me think about the images we're seeing from Gaza. Those people walking along Gaza's main north-south road, with children in their arms, or a few possessions, some with white flags—where are they going? What awaits them there? Something like heaven, or something more like hell?</p><p>On the Deutsche Welle video from which I drew one of the photos, aid organizations are quoted as saying "Nowhere in Gaza is safe."</p><p>As I assembled these images, I remembered a passionate sermon from Munther Isaac, "<a href="https://sojo.net/articles/god-under-rubble-gaza" target="_blank">God Is Under the Rubble in Gaza</a>," which Isaac gave on Oct. 22 at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Beit Sahour and again at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, following the bombing of Gaza's oldest Christian church.</p>
<p>Here again that question—"Where are you going?"—echoes in the sermon...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are broken. The people of Gaza are suffering. They have lost everything except their dignity. Many attained glory—they attained martyrdom—even if they did not ask for it. Now, again in our history, they find themselves facing the same choice: death or displacement. Our <i>Nakba</i> continues!</p>
<p>Where are they to go? There is no place for them in this world!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You and I are praying for them, and we know that the people at the center of the storm are in constant prayer:</p>
<blockquote>
We prayed. We prayed for their protection … and God did not answer us, not even in the “house of God” were church buildings able to protect them. Our children die before the silence of the world, and before the silence of God. How difficult is God’s silence!
</blockquote>
<p>Job's words seem to ring out from somewhere in the background, from Job 13:15 ..."though God slay me, yet shall I hope in God...." Indeed, Munther Isaac calls on the faithful to remember that "Jesus is no stranger to pain, arrest, torture, and death." Furthermore,</p>
<blockquote>
We have another comfort, which is the resurrection. In our brokenness, pain, and death, let us repeat the gospel of the resurrection: “Christ is risen.” He became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. When I saw the pictures of the bodies of these saints in the white bags in front of the church, during their funeral, Christ’s call came to my mind: “Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
</blockquote>
<p>But along the way, Isaac does not dodge the agonizing question of prayers that seem to go nowhere: "We search for God on this land. Theologically, philosophically, we ask: Where is God when we suffer? How do we explain his silence?"</p>
<p>I find that, in the tragic midst of this hellish reality (a reality also experienced by the innocent victims and hostages of Hamas!), I've run out of patience on the threat of hell as an evangelistic tool. I've outlined my indictment before:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>"<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/08/they-stand-condemned.html" target="_blank">They stand condemned...</a>"</li><li>"<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/08/we-will-never-see-another-non-christian.html" target="_blank">We will never see another non-Christian</a>"</li><li><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2018/05/hell-holiness-and-jerusalem.html" target="_blank">Hell, holiness, and Jerusalem</a></li><li><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/10/gods-sweet-revenge.html" target="_blank">God's sweet revenge</a></li></ul><p></p><p>Perhaps only a cultural context of individualism, safety, and affluence could explain how a prominent evangelical writer could pose the problem as glibly as Erik Strandness did in the quotation I cited in <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/03/marion-ballysinghs-testimony-gods-sweet.html" target="_blank">God's sweet revenge, part two</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I agree with [Rob] Bell that love does win, but his conception of love is incomplete because he forgets that it takes two-to-tango. God has extended a dance invitation to all of us so when we tell Him that our dance card is full we miss the opportunity to trip the light fantastic with the lover of our souls. Sadly, many humans are afraid of the commitments inherent in divine intimacy so they opt for being wallflowers at the salvation dance rather than stepping out and cutting a rug with the Groom at the wedding feast of the Lamb.</p><p>God’s love wins! However, when it is not reciprocated, those who reject it lose. Hell isn’t about sins committed but about God’s redemptive love going unrequited.</p></blockquote>
<p>I'm serious. Where in Gaza or, for that matter, where in the real world of suffering, or shattering disillusionment, whatever the location, is God's "dance invitation" decisively evident? And through whom? Thank God, the invitation to faith is still present even in Palestine, through the honesty of people like <a href="https://bethbc.edu/Faculty/munther-isaac/" target="_blank">Munther Isaac</a>. I can't speak for these Gospel voices, but I doubt they use the threat of hell to sharpen their arguments among people who are already living in constant fear, people who surely must sometimes be asking themselves, "How do we explain God's silence?"</p><p>If some of them sadly conclude, "Maybe there is no God," can we truly say that an invitation was knowingly, obstinately, and fatally rejected? Turning the question around: How can <i>we</i> contribute to effective expressions of God's love among a people whose experience is that, in Isaac's words, "Hell is a reality in Gaza today"?</p><hr />
<p><a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/updates" target="_blank">Updates page</a> for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.</p><p><a href="https://www.fcnl.org/events/annual-meeting-quaker-public-policy-institute-2023" target="_blank">Friends Committee on National Legislation</a> (its annual meeting and Quaker Public Policy Institute) meets in person and online November 15-19.</p><p><a href="https://jollyquaker.com/2023/11/09/join-me-at-the-quaker-theological-discussion-group-2023/" target="_blank">Mark Russ gives us a peak</a> at the 2023 online gathering of the Quaker Theological Discussion Group and previews his own paper. More details on the two-day event (December 1 and 2) <a href="https://qtdg.org/2023/11/08/register-now-for-qtdg-2023-tradition-transformation/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>Matt Vlaardingerbroek gives us <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/unknottingevangelicalism/2023/10/three-reasons-why-bible-believing-christians-dont-really-exist/" target="_blank">three reasons why Bible-believing Christians don't really exist</a>. And David Williams says, yes, <a href="http://www.belovedspear.org/2023/11/yes-you-can-have-biblical-worldview.html" target="_blank">you <i>can</i> have a biblical worldview</a> without, you know ....</p><p><a href="https://www.dereklamson.org/about-5" target="_blank">Bill Jolliff reviews</a> Derek Lamson's "A Month of Sundays." You may remember that Derek Lamson is also the author of <i><a href="http://www.barclaypressbookstore.com/Recent-Books/Mark-V-The-Opera.html" target="_blank">Mark V: The Opera</a></i>, which I reviewed <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2022/11/mark-v-and-eugene-demoniac.html" target="_blank">here</a>; and Judy Maurer's interview with Derek is <a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/community-news/a-month-of-sundays-with-derek-lamson" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Here's a "needed" song. As Eric Bibb says, "Just what my soul needed." (As they get ready to play, the musicians refer to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNAXLtfQd7Y" target="_blank">Lightnin' Hopkins version</a> in the movie <i>Sounder</i>.)</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8gJix03hO2k?si=RK7Ish_hy0SR7_6l" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe><div><br /></div>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-86774462718177540252023-11-02T22:52:00.006-07:002023-11-02T23:08:30.758-07:00Weighing the true cost of travel ... how do you decide?<table border="2" cellpadding="5" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Before I get to this week's post, have you seen my latest survey? I'd like to know whether you prefer the term "Quaker" or the term "Friend"—or maybe "it depends."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The survey is here: <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank"><b>blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html</b></a>; please share it widely if you too are curious.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Many thanks to everyone who has already responded.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rWdijOkPwKtBCTZtDbbD4U3LicXt2xJ0UK6yrX5t7zeHbWNrAmZy6MJa3VlUzn8FwcxfOTEZisJg8RiqfysvLvZY-4T3s_uuxaANfyNc8_NbOyy_THCyQ7qqBe9w2nA2InirL0ZDd9AG_hUVmQ95dFnz2nOcesqguR_10oC24lBElGyyp0Sl3A/s480/vlcsnap-frasier-thank-you=global-warming.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rWdijOkPwKtBCTZtDbbD4U3LicXt2xJ0UK6yrX5t7zeHbWNrAmZy6MJa3VlUzn8FwcxfOTEZisJg8RiqfysvLvZY-4T3s_uuxaANfyNc8_NbOyy_THCyQ7qqBe9w2nA2InirL0ZDd9AG_hUVmQ95dFnz2nOcesqguR_10oC24lBElGyyp0Sl3A/w640-h480/vlcsnap-frasier-thank-you=global-warming.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An episode of the sitcom <i>Frasier</i> from 1996: It's February 29, a beautiful day in Seattle, 80 degrees F., and Frasier Crane says, "It defies you not to take a moment to acknowledge the power that created it." His father says, "Thank you, global warming."</td></tr></tbody></table><hr />
<p></p><blockquote><p><b>We are called to be patterns and examples in a 21st century campaign for peace and ecojustice, as difficult and decisive as the 18th and 19th century drive to abolish slavery.</b></p><p>— <a href="https://fwcc.world/resources_cpt/the-kabarak-call-for-peace-and-eco-justice-2012/" target="_blank">Kabarak Call for Peace and Eco-Justice</a>, Sixth World Conference of Friends, Kenya, 2012.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>This past Saturday, Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends met for its fall gathering at Eugene Friends Church. One of the items on our agenda was our participation in the Friends World Committee for Consultation's <a href="https://fwcc.world/events/world-plenary-meetings/" target="_blank">World Plenary Meeting</a> in South Africa next August. Each yearly meeting may appoint one representative to participate in person. (In addition, there will be capacity for many Friends to participate online.) Whom would we send?</p><p>I followed the ensuing discussion carefully, not just because I was serving as one of the recording clerks, but also because similar discussions must be happening all over the world. Conscientious members of geographically widespread organizations have serious choices to make: weighing the decision to continue our patterns of carbon-fueled travel to conferences at a time when, as one Friend pointed out in our discussion, the pollution generated by air travel goes directly into the atmosphere. She added, bluntly, "Our planet's carbon budget is exhausted. There has to be a point where Friends say, 'We can't participate in this destruction anymore'."</p><p>She went on to add that we do have a choice. When we choose to make an environmentally costly trip by air, we can also commit to disciplines that compensate, such as a drastic limitation of other travel, or becoming vegetarian, or abandoning carbon-fueled vehicles in favor of walking, bicycling, or mass transit.</p><p>Much of the remaining discussion centered on the question of how we decide: in any specific case, how do we balance the unique blessings of personal attendance with the cost of such attendance when we've apparently <i>already</i> used up our planet's carbon safety margin? This is my question to you: how has your organization handled this dilemma? Have you adopted any guidance that you could share with other Friends (and anyone else facing this question)?</p><p>Among the reflections that arose during this business session:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A Friend told of the life-changing impact on him of attending the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070902144924/http://www.wgyf.org/" target="_blank">2005 World Gathering of Young Friends</a> and asked us to prioritize young people in making choices of participants.</li>
<li>Another Friend wanted to know what consideration Friends World Committee for Consultation itself had given to this question. We were told that the environmental cost of travel had led to several FWCC decisions: first, to abandon the triennial cycle (that had been in place when I worked for FWCC) in favor of gathering every seven or eight years; second, to reduce in-person attendance to one person per yearly meeting plus a limited number of at-large places; third, to promote the idea of local "hubs" where people would gather from convenient distances to participate together online.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2v623l3BUVZ2XvA_nSkin7XL1-kYMBOt8T01RICq9cRPqfcEd4cgH9l7yUdBDPnoWiJfAEs1l0XSOIffpYRU1G3PyieyLEhobG2vchCBnW2cIhXDPZPw6pZqWIZtRLLLRdw3HtYNOhyphenhyphenTsGVKCBbDLG9S7ozuPfDGKv-xvInB_WyaPccP3bqNsQ/s454/1991_WCF.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="427" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb2v623l3BUVZ2XvA_nSkin7XL1-kYMBOt8T01RICq9cRPqfcEd4cgH9l7yUdBDPnoWiJfAEs1l0XSOIffpYRU1G3PyieyLEhobG2vchCBnW2cIhXDPZPw6pZqWIZtRLLLRdw3HtYNOhyphenhyphenTsGVKCBbDLG9S7ozuPfDGKv-xvInB_WyaPccP3bqNsQ/w188-h200/1991_WCF.png" width="188" /></a></div>(I had a personal experience of an earlier FWCC attempt to reduce travel. The 1991 World Gathering of Friends took place on three different sites: Honduras, Kenya, and the Netherlands. I helped staff the Honduras site, and used the opportunity to visit Right Sharing of World Resources work in Honduras.)</li>
<li>Another Friend asked us to consider the cost of forgoing opportunities to meet face to face with people whose views are different. When conflicts arise from lack of contact across divisions, this too can have environmental costs.</li><li>A proposal: Are there Friends among us who will be attending the World Plenary in any case because of their staff or committee work, and could we choose one of these Friends to be our in-person representative?</li></ul><p></p><p>We concluded the discussion without making a decision regarding the appointment of an in-person representative. Instead, we asked concerned Friends to gather the additional information we might need to make a good decision, and publish that information in our Yearly Meeting's <a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/news-letter-archive" target="_blank">Bulletin</a>. It is not too late to send us your experiences and advice!</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator/" target="_blank">The calculations you may need</a> in order to plan reductions in your carbon-based energy usage.</p><p><a href="https://www.carbonfootprint.com/minimisecfp.html" target="_blank">Carbon reduction advice</a>.</p><p>FWCC's <a href="https://fwcc.world/areas-of-work/sustainability/" target="_blank">sustainability page</a>.</p><p>Sustainability: <a href="https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/384/Sustainability-Personal-Witness" target="_blank">personal witness</a>.</p><p><a href="https://ceobs.org/how-does-war-damage-the-environment/" target="_blank">How does war damage the environment?</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ephesilogy/2023/10/christians-and-the-israeli-nation-state/" target="_blank">Michael T. Cooper</a> on claims to sacred lands: the cases of Lakota/Black Hills, Contemporary Druids/Stonehenge ... and the Israeli nation-state. (Part one.)</p><p>Jeremy Morris on <a href="https://postsocialism.org/2023/11/01/pogroms-social-psychology-and-the-falsity-of-numbers/" target="_blank">pogroms</a> (specifically the recent one at Makhachkala's airport), <a href="https://postsocialism.org/2023/11/01/pogroms-social-psychology-and-the-falsity-of-numbers/" target="_blank">social psychology, and the falsity of numbers</a>.</p>
<p>Mark Pratt-Russum on <a href="https://www.markprattrussum.com/pastor/holding-change" target="_blank">holding change</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps, the real work is confronting the finish lines we’ve created. Audre Lorde said, “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations that we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us.”</p>
<p>Micky ScottBey Jones follows up that quote with this simple reminder, “Doing the work reveals more of the work to be done in us.”</p>
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<p>Greg Morgan: no, you really don't know <a href="https://elderchaplain.com/2023/11/02/what-its-like/" target="_blank">what it's like</a>.</p><p>Tricia Gates Brown: In peace and war, <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionmatters/2023/10/listening-is-important-action/" target="_blank">why quiet listening is important action</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://thefriend.org/article/what-made-me-stay-geoffrey-durham-recounts-his-early-quaker-experiences" target="_blank">What made Geoffrey Durham stay</a>, after his first experiences of Friends?</p>
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It’s worth remembering that a person who comes with a deep spiritual hunger is primarily interested in whether Quakers might be able to help them. There will almost certainly be an urgency to their visit: will they find support here, or won’t they? And so being told about events in, say, 1652 is unlikely to be of much assistance. We need to be careful of sending our enquirers too swiftly out of the door.
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<p>Marcella Simien sings a classic Otis Redding song, "These Arms of Mine." (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA3SbP6IlA8" target="_blank">Redding's version</a>.)</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CaoYXIpvft8?si=tA0vwWQ03iXveWmX&start=1741" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-16605267089062122232023-10-26T19:54:00.001-07:002023-10-31T21:43:45.170-07:00"Quaker" or "Friend"? An informal survey<p>This is one of those times when I'm sorely tempted to explain my motives behind posting a survey, but doing so would almost certainly influence some of the responses. So I'm holding my tongue and hoping that you'll dive into the survey. It's a lot shorter than most of my surveys....</p><p>Eagerly awaiting your input!</p><p>(You can also help by spreading word about this survey. Here's the direct link: <span style="color: #0000ee;"><b><u><a href="http://blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html" target="_blank">blog.canyoubelieve.me/p/survey.html</a></u></b></span>.)</p>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="4850" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddoAefMU7deous0PhExgesMU7feMm6_p3nblQisQ_B-hjh-w/viewform?embedded=true" width="640">Loading…</iframe>
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<p>Related posts:</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2017/07/a-good-quaker-is-hard-to-find.html" target="_blank">A good Quaker is hard to find</a>.</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2010/07/quakers-believe-that.html" target="_blank">Who owns the Quaker brand?</a></p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2015/07/quakers-best-fit-market.html" target="_blank">Quakers' best-fit market</a>.</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2018/02/the-quaker-movement-decline-and.html" target="_blank">The Quaker movement: decline and persistence</a>.</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2012/02/diffident-no-more.html" target="_blank">Diffident no more</a>.</p>
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<p>Ryan Grim on <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/23/gaza-israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank">Gaza and the empathy gap</a>. (Thanks to David Finke for the link.)</p>
<blockquote>Quoting Sarah Aziza: <i>“But what about Hamas?” I grew up with this question whipped at my face every time I declared my people’s right to survive. “What about Hamas?” It didn’t matter if I’d just asked for clean water or the right to return to our stolen land. “What about Hamas?” they’d ask, holding my humanity hostage. Their smug smiles at this question, which they saw as a rhetorical coup.</i>
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<p>Charlotte Higgins: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/21/lviv-book-forum-writers-ukraine-war" target="_blank">A literary festival in Lviv</a>—and the difference a year makes.</p><p>Kristin Du Mez (author of <i>Jesus and John Wayne</i>) on <a href="https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/why-im-still-a-christian" target="_blank">why she is still a Christian</a>. ("Ask a Reformed girl, get a Reformed answer.")</p><p>Author Rebecca Renner on the Florida Everglades <a href="https://blog.librarything.com/2023/10/an-interview-with-rebecca-renner/" target="_blank">and the appeal of alligators</a>. (Meet Jeff Babauta, hunter of alligator poachers.)</p><p>Andrew Franklin in the Bulletin of the Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends: <a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/andrew-franklin" target="_blank">The most important challenge</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.micahbales.com/people-bear-fruit/" target="_blank">A people who bear fruit</a>: Micah Bales on <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A33-46&version=NIV" target="_blank">Matthew 21:33-46</a>, the parable of the tenants.</p>
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How would we be different from the wicked tenants, the devourers and thieves and murderers–the ones who occupy lofty posts, guard the fences, and sit on the watchtower to maintain their position? What does it look like to be a humble, receptive people, who welcomes the servants of God when they come to us with the Master’s message?
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<p>Konstantin Kolesnichenko: Blues from Dnipro, Ukraine. "I'm Ready."</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SaRuj4WcZg0?si=AOE_PpGf3vd8hUPM" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0Portland, OR, USA45.515232 -122.678385317.204998163821152 -157.8346353 73.825465836178836 -87.5221353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-63861282820043696722023-10-18T13:35:00.003-07:002023-10-18T13:58:37.591-07:00Al Ahli Hospital and the search for villains<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlBmKRPU3Db-PnwbNPhevq8yqqI-bZGv78iEMy2Fh7k91roa8j9xQcuDccW6rkh5t6I8I1WediKUP5yuIQM3W9kNU2XgzS3bpewfSCxuVlhcRsk-eL5dbmrKRjZkHB9qKKOuzKk1LggLMyfDiMfYk0TPO5uv9CoT5yKfXVrmlYI07WLWHErMUtw/s1920/CBC-Al_Ahli_Hospital_20231018.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1920" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwlBmKRPU3Db-PnwbNPhevq8yqqI-bZGv78iEMy2Fh7k91roa8j9xQcuDccW6rkh5t6I8I1WediKUP5yuIQM3W9kNU2XgzS3bpewfSCxuVlhcRsk-eL5dbmrKRjZkHB9qKKOuzKk1LggLMyfDiMfYk0TPO5uv9CoT5yKfXVrmlYI07WLWHErMUtw/w640-h400/CBC-Al_Ahli_Hospital_20231018.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">Screenshot from <i><a href="https://youtu.be/ZUQXsmuTKmo" target="_blank">source</a></i>. </td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJltmAINnffI8MTNNMFPoDbpTzQbMiQvU5Wlkn2nmm6NnKqE2D29ohexwWshtnbfqZMYbfmaex2Db2m33A4RLIsSEESFPSyZoBmzFUwrMYojDfLPMQTUoxK6E5dSuErJf5yqst-yDF3EVA35lrVgzj0vtU3JkN4foH86BYW48IYyBUTYAaBSEeg/s501/Jerusalem-cross.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="501" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJltmAINnffI8MTNNMFPoDbpTzQbMiQvU5Wlkn2nmm6NnKqE2D29ohexwWshtnbfqZMYbfmaex2Db2m33A4RLIsSEESFPSyZoBmzFUwrMYojDfLPMQTUoxK6E5dSuErJf5yqst-yDF3EVA35lrVgzj0vtU3JkN4foH86BYW48IYyBUTYAaBSEeg/w200-h109/Jerusalem-cross.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://j-diocese.org/wordpress/2023/10/18/mourning-civilian-victims-of-the-massacre-in-gaza-and-extending-solidarity-to-the-episcopal-diocese-of-jerusalem/" target="_blank">Statement from the Patriarchs and<br />Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Yesterday's statement from the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem, concerning the missile strike and resulting loss of life at the Al Ahli Anglican Episcopal Hospital in Gaza, is blunt:</p><p><b>"We unequivocally declare this atrocity as an egregious crime. one demanding the severest censure and international accountability."</b></p><p>I read the <a href="https://j-diocese.org/wordpress/2023/10/18/mourning-civilian-victims-of-the-massacre-in-gaza-and-extending-solidarity-to-the-episcopal-diocese-of-jerusalem/" target="_blank">full statement</a> carefully, but found no direct accusation of blame. Censure and accountability imply that those guilty must be identified. So, who are they?</p>
<p>The prevailing assumption among Palestinians is that Israeli forces are responsible for the attack. The cancer center at the hospital had already been hit by an Israeli missile several days earlier. And all of this was against the backdrop of over 3,000 casualties already resulting from Israeli air strikes against the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Israeli claims are also weakened by their own intelligence failures around the original October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel. If their constant surveillance and infiltration of radicals in Palestine proved inadequate to prevent Hamas's atrocities, why should we believe in their precision targeting now? Even if Israel has no intention to hit hospitals and schools, they're nevertheless being hit.</p>
<p>On the other hand, nobody could claim that the rockets used by Palestinian militants are accurate, and a misfire in the Al Ahri case is not at all out of the question. A significant minority of rockets fired at Israel fall short and land in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Complicating all of this is everyone's investment in one villain or another. Israel is blamed by those who <i>want</i> to blame Israel; Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are blamed by those who want to see Israel cleared of blame. Those of us who honestly don't know who is guilty and aren't willing to assign blame based on our political loyalties, do not have the resources to investigate independently.</p>
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<p>It is worth the effort to find out whose willful action or whose deadly mistake resulted in all that sudden death and destruction. Terrorism (whether by non-state actors or by governments) must not become normal. I hope and expect that the same care that went into investigating <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17" target="_blank">Malaysian Airlines flight 17</a> should be applied to Al Ahli.</p><p>However, we do know some things:</p><p>Israel chose to respond to the Hamas crimes of October 7, not by finding and arresting the culprits, as befits the role of the power controlling the territory from which the crimes were launched, but by (functionally) declaring war against that territory.</p><p>Israel uses the language of "war" as if the Gaza Strip were an independent, sovereign country, <i>which it is not</i>. The civilian population of Gaza depends on Israel for its security and well-being, and Israel's government has made it very clear that these people and their security and well-being have no priority in comparison to the rest of Israel's territory. Their lives don't count in the same way.</p><p>Israel's allies who see the danger of this moment for the people of Gaza are pleading for concessions such as the restoration of water and electricity (water alone is not enough; water pumps require electricity, water trucks require fuel) and the opening of the Rafah crossing point with Egypt. Whether or not any of these pleas get satisfied, the overall context remains: Gaza is still a zone where Israel corruptly believes it has the right to ignore international law.</p><p>Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and several other militant groups claim to provide the defense and protection that Gaza would have if it were a country. But they too do not carry out the function of a protective force within international law. In opposition to the Palestinian Authority, they reject any collaboration with Israel, and in fact claim to be pursuing the mythical goal of eliminating Israel altogether. They too show no concern for civilian life. </p><p>For Palestinians who are have little hope for a future under Israeli occupation, it's understandable that they might see the militants as the only people actually showing some resistance. For this symbolic comfort, they are apparently willing to let millions of their own neighbors suffer as the militants' fake armies poke Israel in the eye in the service of their myth. So they poke, and Israel bombs, and they poke again, and Israel bombs again, and innocent people die.</p>
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<p>There are Israelis who see the full absurdity of this spectacle, especially in light of biblical ethics, and their own history. Likewise, there are Palestinians who also are not fooled by the myths and deceptions of those who see violence as the key to a better future. My best hope is that we who follow the Prince of Peace will keep finding ways to connect these prophets and peacemakers across all the lines that separate them. In times of despair, it's especially important to let them know they are not alone.</p><p>Politically, it's important to remind our own legislators that our tax money must reflect our values and our commitment to international law. (In the USA's case, the billions of dollars in military aid that flow to Israel annually are supposedly conditional on those values.)</p><p>Spiritually, it's important to be just a bit humble. When we see huge spectacles of violence here or there, we know that the myth of redemptive violence is having a field day. But that myth is widespread. We ourselves often let it gain inroads into the ways we treat each other, our political opponents, even ourselves. If we feel tempted to despair, let's take the time to remind ourselves of God's love for us and for our enemies. Let's claim our God-given authority to demand that the spirit of violence, of revenge, of cheap shortcuts to win conflicts, be ordered to leave our bodies, our homes, our world.</p><p>Speaking of being humble... It may be easy to criticize Israel's leaders for the inhumane and vindictive spirit of their response to the atrocities of October 7. Then I had to remember how the USA responded to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The rush to violence is not peculiar to any one country or region. It's normal behavior for our species. Our challenge as peaceworkers and evangelists is to make available a whole new way of <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2016/07/regarding.html" target="_blank">regarding each other</a>, a Divine source of energy for the ministry of reconciliation, and communities near and far who support each other in this way of life.</p>
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<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9FhyphenhyphenOPV20-VXSTXDj_H0T1Jjfng0kwj-q7uuz1E_Q5O48WChDFm-tGSvwqgUMf2k11ybGUPbRMJZy-szw7wx0yRBfHkPXTOgoWXjgSX-qzKNGZVLe9_EGD0KIUDxgh-6kHtxoX5XQT-nWBlx_P980d0bMJITMhILUEv0VjHmYJM-N45IYqZ0Elg/s1500/FB_IMG_1697643052175.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9FhyphenhyphenOPV20-VXSTXDj_H0T1Jjfng0kwj-q7uuz1E_Q5O48WChDFm-tGSvwqgUMf2k11ybGUPbRMJZy-szw7wx0yRBfHkPXTOgoWXjgSX-qzKNGZVLe9_EGD0KIUDxgh-6kHtxoX5XQT-nWBlx_P980d0bMJITMhILUEv0VjHmYJM-N45IYqZ0Elg/w640-h426/FB_IMG_1697643052175.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lon and Raelene Fendall at Camp Tilikum, 2017.<i> <a href="https://facebook.com/photo.php/?photo_id=10154551428831993" target="_blank">Source</a></i>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Raelene Fendall, our wonderful friend of many years, died on September 26. Nineteen days later, on October 15, Lon Fendall joined her on that same eternal path. Their memorial meeting is scheduled for October 28, 2 p.m., at West Chehalem Friends Church, Newberg, Oregon.</p>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg5YtJ7mR-66NrZybUQ4kAdaV4T41u4NoBY84yz9l6VgqKloXYFrU3rCqKz2mvAuX9GTeK3lOa2tvf5YLyz0miKQCaEN1K_XiZFJOC0QIrdG-5WUxBphqY0DxKcjoI2dizgkEEC8ZncFWVlB0uqUOt_G1oVtcYCGPmZglfUYgaTjRmdTsJuu_A3g/s960/Japanese_Maple.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg5YtJ7mR-66NrZybUQ4kAdaV4T41u4NoBY84yz9l6VgqKloXYFrU3rCqKz2mvAuX9GTeK3lOa2tvf5YLyz0miKQCaEN1K_XiZFJOC0QIrdG-5WUxBphqY0DxKcjoI2dizgkEEC8ZncFWVlB0uqUOt_G1oVtcYCGPmZglfUYgaTjRmdTsJuu_A3g/s320/Japanese_Maple.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese Maple, by Lucy Davenport. <i><a href="https://bonsaiakira.com/japanese-maple/acer-palmatum-kamagata-japanese-maple-bonsai-2016/" target="_blank">Source</a></i>.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Friends Committee on National Legislation offers a briefing on the war in Israel and Gaza. <a href="https://fcnl.actionkit.com/mailings/view/40682" target="_blank">October 25 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time</a>.</p><p>Ahmad Amara, an Israeli Palestinian: <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/gaza-is-a-test-of-human-morality/" target="_blank">Gaza is a test of human morality</a>.</p><p>Baptist News: Unlike American evangelicals, <a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/unlike-american-evangelicals-religious-bodies-from-quakers-to-catholics-urge-care-for-palestinians-and-jews-alike/" target="_blank">religious bodies from Quakers to Catholics</a> urge care for Palestinians and Jews alike.</p><p><a href="https://peaceworks.afsc.org/palestinian-refugees-gaza" target="_blank">Gaza in Quaker history</a>: American Friends Service Committee's work with refugees in 1949. (A <a href="https://afsc.org/archive/relief-work-gaza-palestinian-refugees" target="_blank">related film</a>.)</p><p>Parker J. Palmer on <a href="https://couragerenewal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PJP-WeavingsArticle-Broken-OpenHeart.pdf" target="_blank">becoming civilized</a>. (Thanks to Faith Marsalli for the link.)</p>
<blockquote>Why do we persist in trying to “solve” problems with violence, despite the fact that violence threatens our survival? That question has several valid answers. But the one I want to pursue here has yet to get its due and takes us directly to a key function of the spiritual life: <i>violence arises when we do not know what else to do with our suffering.
</i></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://chrisgehrz.substack.com/p/why-christians-should-consider-public" target="_blank">Why Christian families should consider secular universities</a>: Chris Gehrz interviews InterVarsity's Joe Thackwell.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/remember-this/remember-this-newmarket-quakers-paid-price-for-pacifism-7671193" target="_blank">The Quakers of Newmarket, Ontario</a>, paid a price for their pacifism.</p><p><a href="https://bonsaiakira.com/general/bonsai-as-icon/" target="_blank">Lucy Davenport</a> on bonsai as icon.</p>
<hr />
<p>"I've been falling and rising all these years, but you know my soul looks back in wonder, how did I make it over?" Mahalia Jackson.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l49N8U3d0Bw?si=2OqlJi7Xgj9knYMf" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com1London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK51.520260699999987 -0.029339623.210026863821142 -35.1855896 79.830494536178833 35.1269104tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-31449313718926942692023-10-12T15:59:00.012-07:002023-10-13T03:03:40.967-07:00Listening to the bombs<table align="right"><tbody><tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXZ9hEhGW5M19yyTvDYSASY5a3iMGfBtvDAPzNReukSxp0W5_tPKwhyphenhyphen_DvjSVUaEdNIDF5zWFTeAM9eRA3N3b_GIVgn9WzqdEKQY7aqMnKgelLBsdhDM_ke-Y3FmUA5GiXaV4UhHAGfzoJNCp-VQCPCPncEPaOI6nD04LGnG8UMuPSSChTNItDXA/s2892/Memorial%20Buildings%20Tablet%20Bunhill%20Fields%20Quaker%20Meeting.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2892" data-original-width="2268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXZ9hEhGW5M19yyTvDYSASY5a3iMGfBtvDAPzNReukSxp0W5_tPKwhyphenhyphen_DvjSVUaEdNIDF5zWFTeAM9eRA3N3b_GIVgn9WzqdEKQY7aqMnKgelLBsdhDM_ke-Y3FmUA5GiXaV4UhHAGfzoJNCp-VQCPCPncEPaOI6nD04LGnG8UMuPSSChTNItDXA/s320/Memorial%20Buildings%20Tablet%20Bunhill%20Fields%20Quaker%20Meeting.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Memorial Buildings tablet,<br /><a href="https://bunhillquakers.org.uk/" target="_blank">Bunhill Fields Quaker Meeting</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrUvJpr_P52GKiW36ObYcczJ98z09bwT4JkL7wwilh129X47TLdnXi1eVu4bUbXvb3ik92Fd4Ij51aYZzicjKmTnLwd2tAzTSA7nbFX50Nrul8CLiYcusNO57jdBJmrqu5mEoO16lbgo_zOSvSb3_P2SpkRGdDTnpJSfT_u7-EEjHJi_3elyZpw/s1499/layersoflondondotorg-bomb_damage-chequer_st.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1499" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBrUvJpr_P52GKiW36ObYcczJ98z09bwT4JkL7wwilh129X47TLdnXi1eVu4bUbXvb3ik92Fd4Ij51aYZzicjKmTnLwd2tAzTSA7nbFX50Nrul8CLiYcusNO57jdBJmrqu5mEoO16lbgo_zOSvSb3_P2SpkRGdDTnpJSfT_u7-EEjHJi_3elyZpw/s320/layersoflondondotorg-bomb_damage-chequer_st.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blitz bomb damage map, area around Bunhill<br />Fields Quaker Meeting. (<i><a href="http://layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/bomb-damage-1945" target="_blank">Source</a></i>.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu288MkE9MlTXZzXT7GHLy-rZUiwWosDIX10J-SCaJ7a9gaFwvvQQkkWPqwH4JEVK_dmjXrnTKBy4PEWtK5P0FDOmgns8UGGuj9Px_LCRbu7CgF5Qkj2HcHLXIWPwiYp9oj8w7mNnhTuGzzk94ogAidCVZ_eU8mA8mhIO40tZ4AD2MSVY4FlYKlg/s906/Bunhill%20Memorial%20Buildings.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="906" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu288MkE9MlTXZzXT7GHLy-rZUiwWosDIX10J-SCaJ7a9gaFwvvQQkkWPqwH4JEVK_dmjXrnTKBy4PEWtK5P0FDOmgns8UGGuj9Px_LCRbu7CgF5Qkj2HcHLXIWPwiYp9oj8w7mNnhTuGzzk94ogAidCVZ_eU8mA8mhIO40tZ4AD2MSVY4FlYKlg/s320/Bunhill%20Memorial%20Buildings.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quaker mission buildings destroyed in blitz. <br />(Image from <i><a href="https://bunhillquakers.org.uk/files/brief_notes_for_visitors.pdf" target="_blank">source</a></i>.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Last Sunday, the weather in London was beautiful—perfect conditions for holding meeting for worship in the courtyard outside Bunhill Fields Friends' meetinghouse.</p><p>About halfway through meeting, the sun began to feel very warm on my back, and I moved to a place near the boundary wall of the property. It's the same wall that supports George Fox's burial marker and holds the Memorial Buildings tablet shown in the photo to the right.</p><p>It's likely that all of us were troubled in our spirits by the horrors (a weak word!) of the previous day's missile attacks and armed incursions on Israeli cities, towns, settlements, and kibbutzes, and a desert music festival, on the part of Hamas fighters based in the Gaza Strip. The majority of the victims of Hamas's murderous brutality were civilians, including children, making these actions a war crime. Another war crime: taking innocent hostages.</p><p>Aside from Israeli responses within Israel, air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip began the same day and continued overnight and into Sunday.</p><p>That morning, as I sat in the shadow of the wall, I listened intently. Somewhere underneath the bird calls, the traffic sounds, and the children playing in the nearby playground, I seemed to hear distant echoes of bombs and missiles.</p><p>The London borough of Islington <a href="https://friendsofim.com/2020/09/02/the-blitz-period-in-islington-1940-41/" target="_blank">suffered several Nazi bomb attacks</a> during the Blitz, and one of those attacks destroyed the Memorial Buildings housing Friends outreach missions and the large meetinghouse, located a few feet away from where we were now sitting, leaving only the narrow brick building that still serves the meeting.</p><p>The death and destruction of the Blitz bombs on Islington happened eight decades ago, but in that moment they seemed very fresh and vivid, and merged in my mind with the war being raged that very hour in Israel and the densely populated Gaza Strip.</p><p>The question came to me as we sat in peace and safety, removed by time and space from any bombs, any missiles, anyone aiming guns at innocent civilians: what do we do with our safety?</p><p>Here are a few things I <i>don't</i> want to do.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>First, as a supporter of Palestinian rights and an opponent of apartheid in all of the territories occupied and controlled by Israel, I <i>don't</i> want to minimize the cruelty of the Hamas attack in any way whatever. No matter what the individual Hamas killers thought they were fighting and dying for, they were mobilized by leaders who apparently intended to inflict pure evil on civilian populations.</li><li>On the other hand, I <i>don't</i> want to join the unseemly political competition to be the most outraged by the Hamas attack. In the heat of this competition, some have illogically and cynically blamed the attack on the U.S. president, or used it to argue against humanitarian and development aid to Palestine, or proposed banning the Palestinian flag. None of this helps Israel or anyone else.</li><li>I <i>don't</i> want to forget, in the heat of crisis, that everyone on all sides of this awful conflict is created in the image and likeness of God, but all of them (us) may all be very tempted to forget this reality—about themselves and about their so-called enemies. The principalities and powers that sanctify violence rely on our willingness to let them define who is an enemy, who must be eliminated or put behind barbed wire or denied food, water, medicine, or elemental respect. In Jesus' name, I want to say "no" to those systems, and encourage you to do so, too.</li></ul><p></p><p>I find it fascinating that Israel's near-microscopic surveillance of Palestinians, including the Gaza Strip, did not pick up advance warnings of last Saturday's attack. This tells me that the vast majority of Gazans were as surprised by the attack as Israel was. This attack was <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/polls-show-majority-gazans-were-against-breaking-ceasefire-hamas-and-hezbollah" target="_blank">not backed by popular pressure</a>, despite the miseries of living in an apparently permanent Israeli chokehold. If there had been a widespread conspiracy to mount this attack, I'm certain that Israel's sources would have found out.</p><p>I also find it bitterly ironic that neither Israel and its allies, nor Hamas, seem to have "<a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2021/05/who-wants-to-teach-lessons-who-wants-to.html" target="_blank">learned the lessons</a>" of the previous round of lethal conflict. Hamas found a way to escalate, despite the promises of Israeli leaders in 2021 to teach them a decisive lesson. And once again, Israel follows the Hamas script by raining destruction on Gaza City, exactly what Hamas seems to need to retain their hero status.</p><p>With Gaza already under the threat of a total siege and blockade, how does Israel escalate this time except by imposing measures guaranteed to cause more innocents to suffer and die—innocents whom Israel is bound by international law to protect? In my fantasies, Israeli and Palestinian law enforcement, with international assistance, would cooperate to find the Hamas leaders responsible for this bloodshed, even as they seek to respond to legitimate Palestinian grievances. That's a lesson that nobody seems to want to learn, despite all the bloody evidence that bombs and missiles and massacres of civilians do not bring a sustainable peace.</p>
<hr />
<p>Timothy Snyder on <a href="https://snyder.substack.com/p/terror-and-counter-terror" target="_blank">terror and counter-terror</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the victim, terror is about what it is. For the terrorist, it is about what happens next.</p>
<p>. . .</p>
<p>When you have been terrorized, the argument that I am making seems absurd; the terrorists can seem to you to be raving beasts who just need punishment. Yet however horrible the crime, it usually does not bespeak a lack of planning. Usually part of the plan is to enrage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lesson: "I will never lose my optimism. There are people on both sides who want peace. The real battle is not between Israel and Palestine, but between those who want to coexist and those who dream of expelling or killing the other side." — Palestinian educator Khalil Bashir, in Yousef Bashir's <i><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-words-of-my-father-yousef-bashir" target="_blank">The Words of My Father: Love and Pain in Palestine</a></i>.</p>
<hr />
<p>The "nones" (nonbelievers or people not associated with any form of organized religion) are not just a European or American phenomenon. The <a href="https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/the-nones/index.html" target="_blank">Associated Press Religion Team</a> reports on "nones" in several parts of the world.</p><p>What do Charismatics and Quakers have in common? I've covered some of this topic over the years (here's <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2007/05/why-its-hard-for-me-to-criticize.html" target="_blank">a wordy example from 2007</a>) but I highly recommend <a href="https://www.friendsjournal.org/all-the-way-back-to-george-fox/" target="_blank">this compact and thoughtful article</a> by Andy Stanton-Henry.</p><p>From the Martin Mary Center's <i>Sightings</i>: <a href="https://martycenter.org/sightings/selling-the-gospel-of-positive-thinking" target="_blank">The "salesman" as American icon</a> ... and the cost of relentless positivity.</p><p>The CBC ends a tradition that I remember well from my years in Ottawa: <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cbc-stops-broadcasting-national-research-council-long-dash-time-signal-1.6988903" target="_blank">the daily time check</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Magic Slim and the Teardrops in Italy.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3irIosKKuHg?si=cZOLyr1WsdD5xg_y" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK51.520260699999987 -0.029339629.40690553803184 -35.185589599999986 73.633615861968138 35.126910399999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-4060458399069147502023-10-05T15:59:00.015-07:002023-10-12T17:02:06.015-07:00The atheist's gift (partly a repost)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfmj9iwO7Ty83CPuC1-oqmPkrbkMh3bGjh-1PhWqFO3-1QS6P1_5JkB4j7XPtEKz2ZSogeYiOtxDEmurWYKa_2Ng6bHbuhxtDWjn4AHkvvgZl8lAYAb3k2vrKRAWjLVxTIjmy_jxKu0CRQVCMpEeX77f_w_Msds_vY9ktMl3cLGbUe2FIb5AhHQ/s3854/We_of_Little_Faith-cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3854" data-original-width="2550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfmj9iwO7Ty83CPuC1-oqmPkrbkMh3bGjh-1PhWqFO3-1QS6P1_5JkB4j7XPtEKz2ZSogeYiOtxDEmurWYKa_2Ng6bHbuhxtDWjn4AHkvvgZl8lAYAb3k2vrKRAWjLVxTIjmy_jxKu0CRQVCMpEeX77f_w_Msds_vY9ktMl3cLGbUe2FIb5AhHQ/s320/We_of_Little_Faith-cover.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><p>In an excerpt from her book <i>We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too)</i>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/10/03/kate-cohen-atheism/" target="_blank">adapted for publication in the <i>Washington Post</i></a> a couple of days ago, Kate Cohen explains crisply why she calls herself an atheist:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s not complicated. My (non)belief derives naturally from a few basic observations:</p>
<ol>
<li>The Greek myths are obviously stories. The Norse myths are obviously stories. L. Ron Hubbard obviously made that stuff up. Extrapolate.</li>
<li>The holy books underpinning some of the bigger theistic religions are riddled with “facts” now disproved by science and “morality” now disavowed by modern adherents. Extrapolate.</li>
<li>Life is confusing and death is scary. Naturally, humans want to believe that someone capable is in charge and that we continue to live after we die. But wanting doesn’t make it so.</li>
<li>Child rape. War. Etc.</li></ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Cohen goes on to point out some reasons why, in the USA, atheists might choose not to be very public about their (non)beliefs, leading to her suggestion that surveys may significantly undercount atheists.</p><p>Judging by this excerpt, she's not the strongest possible advocate for atheism, but that may not be her main mission. (I've not read the book, just the <i>Washington Post</i> excerpt. If you can't access her article behind their paywall, let me know.) One of her main points is that if atheism can have its public stigma removed, the coercive power of religion in public life can be reduced. This is most likely to happen if atheists come out from undercover: "... the more I say to people that I’m an atheist—me, the mom who taught the kindergarten class about baking with yeast and brought the killer cupcakes to the bake sale—the more people will stop assuming that being an atheist means being … a serial killer."</p>
<p>Her theological critique of faith may be weak in this excerpt, but her political indictments of religion are strong and important—namely the many ways religious people (particularly the Christian right wing) throw their political weight around at the expensive of LGBTQ people, women facing reproductive dilemmas, truth-tellers about racism and its history, and, in general, the constitutional separation of church and state.</p><p>The enmeshment of religion and politics is an old story, and by now our defense that "those Christian nationalists are misrepresenting the Gospel" might be wearing thin. To the secular or atheist observer, it's all the same self-delusion under more or less attractive sheepskins.</p><p>What responses are we left with?</p><p><b>First,</b> within religious circles, we have every right to confront the misrepresentations, heresies, and counterfeits that threaten the reputation of our faith by all methods consistent with love.</p><p><b>Second,</b> wherever we can make common cause with atheists and others outside organized religion, based on a common commitment to justice and the welfare of the community, we should do so. "Apathy in the face of preventable human suffering is radical evil." (Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy.)</p><p><b>Third,</b> as individuals, we don't have to cover all of this ourselves. Some of us in the Christian commmunity are more gifted to confront sick theology and biblical malpractice, while others are more gifted to participate in secular alliances.</p><p><b>Finally,</b> instead of marginalizing atheists and contributing to the anti-atheist stigma that Cohen refers to in her excerpt, we should engage with them with respect and gratitude. It's not just that we owe them a coherent and positive explanation of what we really believe. We also owe <i>them</i> a hearing, so they can explain their own position in their own words. As I argue in the following post from 2008, their honest and direct challenge to our beliefs is not an attack, not an insult, not "persecution"; it's a gift.</p>
<hr />
<p><b>The atheist's gift.</b> (Slightly edited from the <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2008/04/atheists-gift.html" target="_blank">April 2008 original post</a> with time references brought up to date. Includes some rambling at the end that was fun to revisit, but wasn't directly related to the topic!)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Most believers I know don't spend much time hanging out with atheists, but maybe that's too bad.<br /><br />Michael Ireland of ASSIST News Service recently <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080512150720/https://assistnews.net/Stories/2008/s08030133.htm" target="_blank">interviewed</a> Michael Shermer, founder of <span style="font-style: italic;">Skeptic</span> magazine. It's a fascinating, revealing, troubling interview on several levels, which charity prevents me from enumerating. Anyway, I began asking myself the old questions about whether our evangelism is genuinely communicating with unbelievers, or is more an exercise we go through to reassure ourselves. If there's anything that atheists do for us, it is (at least!) to provide that much-needed reality check, providing we don't go out of our way to avoid them!</p>
<p>The whole interview reminded me of a quotation from Nikolai Berdyaev that I've spent a good part of the evening trying to track down. (I read it about 45 years ago.) Berdyaev said something like this: atheism is the dialectical purification of the church's collusion with oppression. (Can anyone help me find the actual quotation?) Thanks to Yakov Krotov's online library, I did find two other relevant quotations from Berdyaev:</p>
<blockquote>Grace has nothing in common with our worldly understandings of obligation, strength, power, causality. Therefore grace is not only compatible with freedom—it is in unity with freedom. But theological doctrines rationalized grace and communicated a sociomorphized grace. For this reason, atheism ('high' atheism, not 'low' atheism) could be a dialetical cleansing of human ideas of God. Those who rebelled against God, because of the world's evil and unrighteousness, were assuming the existence of a higher truth—that is, in the final analysis, God. In the name of God they rose up against God; in the name of a purified understanding of God, they rose up against an understanding of God that had been contaminated by this world. <i>[<a href="http://www.krotov.info/library/02_b/berdyaev/1941_38_05.html" target="_blank">source</a>]</i></blockquote><blockquote>We must liberate the idea of God from sociomorphism that distorts, degrades, and blasphemes that idea. Human beings can be horribly dehumanized; just so, God too has humanness and demands humanity. Humanity is the image of God in humans. Theology must be freed from sociology, which reflects the fallenness of the world and of humanity. Apophatic theology must go hand in hand with an apophatic sociology. This means purifying our perception of God from any hint of worldly theocracy. The absolutist-monarchist understanding of God has spawned atheism as a justifiable revolt. Atheism (not the vulgar, malicious kind but a higher atheism, acquainted with suffering) was a dialectical turning point in understanding God; it had a positive mission. In this atheism, a cleansing of the idea of God from false sociomorphism was accomplished—cleansing from human inhumanity that had been objectified and carried over into the realm of transcendence. <i>[<a href="http://www.krotov.info/library/02_b/berdyaev/1939_036_02.html" target="_blank">source</a>]</i></blockquote>
<p>Once again, a century later, atheists are reminding us that our faith cannot depend on self-contained systems of ideas—the "the self-contained, internally-coherent belief system that is Christianity"... and that ultimately proved unsustainable for Shermer.</p>
<p>We are right to want to base our most intimate communities on a shared faith, but if those communities seal themselves off from any intellectual challenge, they will become micro-tyrannies, substituting group-think for actual knowledge of God, and unable to discern their drift away from the living God.</p>
<p>As Shermer points out from his own experience, "The study of comparative world religions and mythologies from around the world showed me that other people believed just as passionately as I did that they were right and everyone else was wrong about religious beliefs that are mutually exclusive...." We are followers of Jesus <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> because the church has somehow patched together a religion that's superior to all those other religions—better art, architecture, ethics, miracles, divine beings; nor did we commit ourselves to Christ because someone held a winning hand of dazzling argumentation. (Well, I guess I'm speaking for myself!) We are followers because we are called and we are in relationship to the One who called.</p>
<p>This is why discipleship is far more important for the future of genuine Christianity than any vain attempt to maintain a higher social status or privileged position in society. Grace and relationship are the closest we can come in this life to "proof" of God's promises in Jesus. I can't blame anyone or any group for not taking us seriously if our relationship with that person or group has no grace in it.</p>
<hr />
<p>It was a lot of fun going through some of my old books in search of that Berdyaev quotation. I found a dusty copy of his <span style="font-style: italic;">Slavery and Freedom</span> that I bought at the Book Exchange on Charles St., Boston, nearly 45 years ago. Next to it, equally dusty, was Nicolas Zernov's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Russian Religious Renaissance of the Twentieth Century</span>, that I bought 46 years ago with my employee's discount at Canterbury House Bookstore in Ottawa.</p><p>I had made notes in both books, mostly on notecards, and I had that odd sensation (described beautifully in Milan Kundera's <span style="font-style: italic;">Ignorance</span>) that someone else had written those notes in my handwriting. I found a Berdyaev quotation in my handwriting with the annotation "page 180"—but page 180 of what book? Not one I own. And more intriguing references with page numbers to some book somewhere: "Freedom as burden (Dost.) 28-9." "Moral action—bridge from necessity to freedom (Kant) 41." And I can see that I was already interested in the theme of objectification, which is still important to me.</p>
<p>And here are three cards with a whole sermon in my own handwriting, but I cannot remember writing or delivering that sermon, even though it's not bad. (It's hard to take credit for something I have no memory of composing!)</p>
<hr /><p>Looking through an issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Charisma</span> magazine, I saw a reference to Barack Obama as "just another pawn in Satan's kingdom who adheres to destructive liberal ideas." How those Christians love one another!</p>
<hr />
<p>As I thought about that Obama reference, a caution just hit me: to relate with grace and courtesy to atheists does not mean to run down other Christians. There's plenty of stupidity in churchianity, and we're right to point it out, but to tear down actual people—those (fill in the blank with the category of your choice)—neither demonstrates graciousness nor builds credibility. With all my heart, I believe that President Bush and the neocons made terrible choices in response to 9/11, and their methods verged on the demonic (employing deception to unleash a lethal conflict that continued to bleed us dry humanly, morally, financially, while not hesitating to use Christian celebrities to puff their case). But I will not call them pawns of Satan or any other name that implies I know more about their spiritual situations than I actually do.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Related posts: </p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2014/05/worship-and-offense.html" target="_blank">Worship and offense</a>.</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2008/10/faith-and-certainty.html" target="_blank">Faith and certainty</a>.</p><p><a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2020/02/william-barr-max-boot-and-vapor-trails.html" target="_blank">William Barr, Max Boot, and "the vapor trails of Christianity</a>."</p><p>(Last week) <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2023/09/hostility-to-christian-faith.html" target="_blank">Hostility "to the Christian faith</a>."</p>
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<p>The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize announcement <a href="https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/relevant-articles/watch-the-nobel-peace-prize-announcement-2023" target="_blank">will be streamed here</a> tomorrow morning.</p><p>Greg Morgan reflects on the <a href="https://elderchaplain.com/2023/10/05/elder-chaplain-turns-1/" target="_blank">first anniversary</a> of his Elder Chaplain blog.</p><p>Speaking of confronting bad theology, once again <a href="https://bethfelkerjones.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-seashells-and-coffee" target="_blank">Beth Felker Jones</a> shows how it can be done.</p><p>Is it legitimate to draw connections between <a href="https://theconversation.com/nazi-germany-had-admirers-among-american-religious-leaders-and-white-supremacy-fueled-their-support-213635" target="_blank">contemporary white Christian nationalism and Nazi Germany?</a> (Thanks to <a href="https://www.faithonview.com/american-religious-leaders-nazi-germany-and-white-supremacy/" target="_blank">Faith on View</a> for the link.)</p><p>Matt Rosen on <a href="https://pendlehill.org/events/awakening-the-witness-convincement-and-belonging-in-quaker-community/" target="_blank">convincement and belonging in Quaker community</a>: a First Monday lecture at Pendle Hill, available in person and online on November 6. Thanks to Chris Stern for the link.</p><p>Many Friends are grieving the death of <a href="https://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2023/09/27/mariellen-gilpin/" target="_blank">Mariellen Gilpin</a> this past summer. For twenty years she devoted herself to helping Friends share their mystical experiences through the <i>What Canst Thou Say</i> newsletter and Web site. The site will be republishing many of her contributions in upcoming months, including <a href="https://worshipsharinginprint.wordpress.com/2023/10/02/a-gift-doubly-given/" target="_blank">this powerful essay on prayer</a>.</p><p>Becky Ankeny on <a href="http://reconciliationpapers.blogspot.com/2023/09/gods-repair-shop.html" target="_blank">God's Repair Shop</a>. "Imagine God asking us, what do you want me to do with you?"</p>
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<p>The original 2008 post included this clip of Jr. Walker and the All Stars. (Another artist whose recordings I cherished as a teenager, but kept hidden from my family.) I'm surprised this clip remains online fifteen years after I first posted it.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xcask7" width="640"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcask7" target="_blank">Junior Walker and the All Stars, Shake and...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/johanpdx" target="_blank">johanpdx</a></i></p>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK51.520260699999987 -0.029339629.40690553803184 -35.185589599999986 73.633615861968138 35.126910399999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-60796048143075666612023-09-28T15:59:00.009-07:002023-10-12T17:03:35.856-07:00Hostility "to the Christian faith"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvPptVZUQdaHHD6kC4_jJkFbG-0USqpZQyTQCgNMt4AbTFNoGpX92pipAy9atFhXQkHb5mcA9HpEp3qwKXLz63xnLiad0o7NMMn-wkOLe1GFUu9Q1M5HFmGcsW-QXdCOabxpgqwbycwlS76HMHvcbFrtDSqdwKpZjwxhe_AwlSD4cpSpo6sYBYA/s1760/ChristianFlagEtc_CovenantPresbyterianLongBeach20050213_CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1760" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvPptVZUQdaHHD6kC4_jJkFbG-0USqpZQyTQCgNMt4AbTFNoGpX92pipAy9atFhXQkHb5mcA9HpEp3qwKXLz63xnLiad0o7NMMn-wkOLe1GFUu9Q1M5HFmGcsW-QXdCOabxpgqwbycwlS76HMHvcbFrtDSqdwKpZjwxhe_AwlSD4cpSpo6sYBYA/s320/ChristianFlagEtc_CovenantPresbyterianLongBeach20050213_CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: right;">American and Christian flags; </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: right;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChristianFlagEtc_CovenantPresbyterianLongBeach20050213_CopyrightKaihsuTai.jpg" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">source</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: right;">. (c) Kaihsu Tai.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Rondall Reynoso recently polled readers of his site <a href="https://faithonview.com/" target="_blank">Faith on View</a> over the question, "<a href="https://www.faithonview.com/is-america-hostile-to-the-christian-faith-poll/" target="_blank">Is America Hostile to the Christian Faith?</a>"</p><p>As you can read in his poll's introduction, "The idea that America is increasingly hostile to the Christian faith is a common one in evangelical circles." </p><p>It's not hard to find corroboration on the Internet. The <a href="https://texasscorecard.com/commentary/christians-in-america-are-under-attack/" target="_blank">Texas Scorecard</a>, for example, informs its readers, "Christians’ ability to speak and live out the Word of God is under assault from the secular left. They seek to remove any trace of God or His people from the culture." You can instantly find many other examples—although you can also find pushback from Christians who disagree.</p><p>It's hard to know how representative Rondall Reynoso's audience is, or how many responded to the poll (posted July 5) but I was intrigued by the nuances revealed in his results:</p>
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<p><b>NOTE: Avert your eyes if you'd like to <a href="https://www.faithonview.com/is-america-hostile-to-the-christian-faith-poll/" target="_blank">vote</a> without being influenced by the following numbers! </b>(As of today, the poll is still live.)</p>
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<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRZeC8vdjvSyHGQVz8IbA1ePJ4K3uEjfSLQ-750vYsaggJnQD04RPUtEx4kZkwuKq4svDQ-1ACCNGsWlqERUH8ih8icYHK7cRqddRNN3ZYvh1CkTvTkd3nVLUB-dllzIf1eAyYPmhq1zv7OW73cPc_D2NMO2b-avvn8SemNm_lt3wOrz-X1Xi-w/s988/Hostile_to_Christian_faith-chart.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="988" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRZeC8vdjvSyHGQVz8IbA1ePJ4K3uEjfSLQ-750vYsaggJnQD04RPUtEx4kZkwuKq4svDQ-1ACCNGsWlqERUH8ih8icYHK7cRqddRNN3ZYvh1CkTvTkd3nVLUB-dllzIf1eAyYPmhq1zv7OW73cPc_D2NMO2b-avvn8SemNm_lt3wOrz-X1Xi-w/s320/Hostile_to_Christian_faith-chart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>No. America is not hostile to the Christian faith. 27.93%</i><p></p><p><i>Sort of. There is hostility but it is because Christians often behave poorly. 26.29%</i></p><p><i>No. We just no longer have a culture that is "Christian" by default. 22.07%</i></p>
<p><i>Yes. It is clearly more hostile. 16.20%</i></p>
<p><i>Yes. It does seem a bit more hostile. 5.63%</i></p>
<p><i>I'm really not sure. 1.88%</i></p>
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<p>If we combine the second and third options (in order of popularity), it seems that almost half of the respondents understand that the category of people labeled "Christian" is no longer in a privileged position. If we extend the interpretation a bit beyond the numbers (admittedly risky), it's that loss of position and privilege, and <i>resistance to some Christians' attempts to reassert them</i>, that might be wrongly interpreted as persecution. That wrong interpretation could be from genuine distress or from a manipulative political agenda.</p><p>Or to put it another way...</p><p><b>Is it just possible that <i>Christians</i> are hostile to the Christian faith?</b></p><p>Consider this case study from <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2006/10/golden-age-of-evangelism.html" target="_blank">seventeen years ago</a>:</p>
<hr /><blockquote>
<p>According to a current e-mail campaign, Northwest Yearly Meeting Friends (and many other evangelicals) are being urged by the American Family Association to protest NBC's presentation of a program in November by the pop star Madonna. As the AFA's <a href="http://www.afa.net/Petitions/IssueDetail.asp?id=215">Action Alert</a> says, "NBC, Madonna Set to Mock the Crucifixion of Christ." This headline is followed by what sounds like a reasonable, even plaintive, request: "Help send one million emails asking NBC to show Christians the same respect they show other religions."</p><p>
My reactions to this request are complicated. Might it be true that Christians don't get the same respect as other religions? If so, what might be the reason? I wonder if there's an intuitive calculation going on in much of society: maybe we perceive religions as having both a Godward face (which we become aware of through glimpses of their devotional practices, personal disciplines, scriptures, and to some extent, their missions, charities, and so on) and a social/political face oriented toward their neighbors and the larger society. Briefly put, perhaps Christians have low credibility because the general public sees so much more effort put into our social/political face—our demands to be respected, to be influential—than into our Godward face.</p><p>
Os Guinness made a related point in <a href="http://www.eppc.org/news/newsID.71/news_detail.asp">this 1998 interview</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
I remember when I was in Australia, speaking on modernity, a visiting Japanese CEO came up to me and said, "When I meet a Buddhist monk, I meet a holy man in touch with another world. When I meet a Western missionary, I meet a manager who is only in touch with the world I know." You could say today that many, many Christians are atheists unawares; they are implicit, practicing atheists because they are so secular in their consciousness. So we have words like <span style="font-style: italic;">prayer, supernatural, revival,</span> but we don't actually operate in the world named by those words. To live with the spiritual disciplines opening us up to another reality, to other powers and other dimensions, cracks secularization very powerfully.</blockquote>
<p>To make an unauthorized connection between my observation and Guinness's, the secular world has figured out that we Christians are actually operating in their [secular] world, all pious pretenses aside, and therefore does not give us the respect or deference we might think we and our symbols are due.</p>
<p>
Are they right? Let's think: Wildmon is asking us to protest one program on a television network that is part of an industry delivering a profitable mix of information (a bit), drama (a bit), crass bathroom-level gratification (a lot), violence (a lot), and the culture of affluence (nearly all the time), to the very audiences who are now supposed to protest against one specific excess. Maybe the secular observer of all this is wondering, why are Christians watching <span style="font-style: italic;">any</span> of this? Why do Christians even care about what NBC broadcasts?</p>
<p>
Let's go one step further. As one Northwest Yearly Meeting pastor, Stan Thornburg, said in response to the AFA e-mail campaign,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I'm appalled beyond belief that this is what is garnering the alarm of American Christians.</p>
<p>
With tens of thousands of innocent (let me emphasize innocent) civilians being slaughtered in Iraq, tens of thousands of innocent people being raped, displaced, murdered in Darfur, unimaginable suffering in the Middle East, TV Evangelists ripping millions out of the hands of seniors citizens, all kinds of suffering supposedly in the name of Christ and what do I get all upset about...MADONNA?! A pagan who mocks Christ for a living? What else would we expect from her? Where is the outrage because CHRISTIANS ARE MOCKING CHRIST? Where are the emails pleading with our "Christian government" to stop arms shipments to Israel, to cease and desist from their 'terrorist' practices in the world. My goodness, friends, what have we become?</p>
<p>
By all means, let's turn our TV off, let's register our complaints against NBC, let's not neglect to be good and responsible citizens. We can do that in five minutes and get on with life as usual.</p>
<p>
But if we are willing to spend five minutes on that, how about focusing our outrage on what is really breaking God's heart. "You Shall Not Misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name."?</p>
<p>
Don, this is not an attack on you personally, it is just a cry of dispair over the relative silence of so many Evangelicals over the unbelievable atrocities that are committed in the name of Christianity in comparison to their reaction to the antics of some hollywood entertainer.</p></blockquote>
<p>Maybe it is just a pious fantasy, but if we Christians were as passionate about the mistreatment of actual human beings, including those outside the church, as we are about our symbols and the loss of our privileged place in Western society, maybe our Godward face would have more credibility in this world.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>For a future post: Why Christian self-flagellation isn't an adequate response to "Christians behaving poorly." In the meantime:</p><p>Talking (or not) about <a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/why-arent-we-talking-about-the-theology-that-drives-white-christian-nationalism/" target="_blank">the theology that drives white Christian nationalism</a>.</p><p><i>The Guardian</i> reviews Robert P. Jones on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/09/robert-p-jones-book-roots-white-supremacy-trump-biden-race" target="_blank">the hidden roots of white supremacy</a>. (I've just finished reading <i>The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future</i>, and recommend it.)</p>
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<p>Quakers behaving badly? ... The uncomfortable feelings some of us grappled with at our Sierra-Cascades annual sessions, <a href="https://www.scymfriends.org/epistles/scymf-annual-sessions-2023" target="_blank">according to our epistle</a>. "How could Quakers have ever discerned that removing children from their families and taking away their names was the right thing to do?"</p><p>Same category? <a href="https://www.friendsjournal.org/indiana-yearly-meeting-withdraws-from-friends-united-meeting/" target="_blank">Indiana Yearly Meeting leaves Friends United Meeting</a>.</p>
<p>John Piper will read a woman's biblical commentary but won't listen to her give a lecture. Where is gnosticism in this picture? <a href="https://bethfelkerjones.substack.com/p/complementarian-theology-and-gnosticism" target="_blank">Beth Felker Jones explains</a>.</p><p>Which Russians "never had it so good"? Let's ask <a href="https://postsocialism.org/2023/09/27/the-majority-never-had-it-so-bad/" target="_blank">Jeremy Morris</a>.</p><p>Friends Peace Teams at work: training for <a href="https://friendspeaceteams.org/cultures-of-peace-and-justice-avp-workshop-in-sevan-armenia/" target="_blank">peace workers from Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia</a>.</p><p>Scientists have opened OSIRIS-REx's <a href="https://www.space.com/osiris-rex-asteroid-sample-caniser-lid-lifted-photos" target="_blank">asteroid Bennu sample canister</a>. But we don't get a full reveal until October 11.</p>
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<p>Once upon a time ... Kirk Fletcher in Moscow.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x2AQP9UXTRI?si=0OFJYLNaECLlgq9L" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.com0London Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK51.520260699999987 -0.029339629.40690553803184 -35.185589599999986 73.633615861968138 35.126910399999986