Claim our record too
Before Quakers put Bayard Rustin on the banner (“The Gay Quaker Civil Rights Organizer That History Forgot,” QuakerSpeak.com Oct.), they should read their own files. In 1953 he was arrested in Pasadena, Calif., on a “morals charge” while on a speaking tour the American Friends Service Committee was paying for. AFSC’s response was to cancel the rest of his talks. Two years later he was one of the main authors of Speak Truth to Power, AFSC’s famous 1955 peace pamphlet. Some people objected to his name being on it, so it came off. The board didn’t put his name back until 2010, more than 20 years after he died. AFSC’s explanation is that Rustin “assented” to his name’s removal so the paper could be published. That’s a polite way of saying he was erased with his own reluctant signature on it. Speaking truth to power was apparently easier to print than to practice. Claim him, by all means. Just claim the record too.
Bruce Grant
Philadelphia, Pa., via Facebook
Chafing at obedience
The challenge of religious obedience is difficult for modern Liberal Friends (“The Law of the Lord Is Perfect” by Ron Hogan, Look to the Light on Quaker.org, Sept. 28). We celebrate our individualistic freedom to approach the Divine in ways we self-determined, and we are open to suggestions from Quaker tradition. But we rebel at any suggestion of obedience. This pride is our golden calf.
John Smallwood
Staunton, Va.
My interpretation of Isaac Penington is that he describes his own inner experience—consistent with Quakerism being an experiential religion—and tries to reconcile it with the doctrine of God’s perfection. Penington asks, “Can Christ and his light be separated?” because it is a real question he was struggling with, as do we.
Eric Sabelman
Santa Rosa, Calif.
The wingspan of time
In this era of “alternative facts,” there is so much good counterfactual work to be done. In “Restoring the Timeline” (by S.E.W. Smith, FJ Oct.), the author can find as many forms as there are Friends to envision them. Smith’s sharing of Elise Boulding’s conception of a “200-year present” reminded me of a dear friend’s similar conceit: that of “the Warm.” Essentially, this wingspan of time extends from the oldest person you meet when you are very young to the youngest person you meet at the oldest age you grow into—with whom you have exchanged a handshake, a hug, a breath shared in silent worship. Expressed in words: bodily warmth. Like hands clasping at the rise of meeting, these connections reach in many directions.
Theo Black
Ithaca, N.Y.
Author S.E.W. Smith was interviewed for our Quaker Talk podcast. Watch the video, “Living the 200-Year Present” at Friendsjournal.org/s-e-w-smith.
The potential of Friends education
I’d be curious for author Jack Tripp (“Toward a Quaker Pedagogy,” FJ Oct. online) to compare the pedagogy of what he learned when becoming a teacher with what he remembers from Quaker school. How are they similar? How are they different? What types of restrictions might a public school require of him that would limit his ability to use or follow a Quaker pedagogy?
Rebecca Lucas
Elgin, Ill., via Facebook
In my years teaching at a Friends school, I used the Harkness method to run class discussion. Students came up with the queries, ran the discussion, and tracked and evaluated their performance. My job was to take notes, listen, and occasionally ask a clarifying question or try to summarize things. These could be amazing, deep sessions. The best ones were like a gathered meeting, where each student offered something that became part of a collective truth.
Roger Reynolds
Bristol, Maine
I believe an overemphasis on Quaker SPICES can result in a sort of dilution, even an unmooring, of Quaker faith and practice, not because the values themselves are objectionable—they are not!—but because they are not just values but ways of bearing witness to the spiritual, moral, and political revolution that Christ is bringing forth upon the world. Attempting to summarize Quakerism in terms of five or six pithy, respectable values feels to me like yet another bourgeoisification of a faith that has been struggling for decades, maybe centuries, not to get swallowed up in middle-class habits of mind and living.
Cristina
Montreal, Quebec
I have come to an answer that we Friends live from the wisdom of the heart, and that we have an orthopraxis rather than orthodoxy. Our practice is to stop; be still; listen to Spirit through our hearts; and follow its wisdom.
Damian Marshall
Kalorama, Australia
Author Jack Tripp was interviewed for our Quaker Talk podcast. Watch the video, “Balancing Belief and Practice,” at Friendsjournal.org/jack-tripp.
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