Beppeblog: We are not alone

There are some pretty amazing quotes from Reconstructionist Jews and Unitarian Universalists (one leader posits out loud that the UU's near total embrace of theological diversity has been a form of "pandering!")

Whew, you know there's something in the air when the UU's start talking this way. This kind of liberal looking back into the past seems to be widespread. Indeed I suspect it's the spirit of our age (or even the age coming up) and I think this looking up from our spiritual in-groups with curiousity and respect is not just for liberals, which is why I've been using the "Post-" term of late (as in "Post-Liberal," "Post-Evangelical," etc.)

I've been turning over Johan Mauer's observation on the comments to July 13th's post, where he says:

I�ve mostly seen labels used in a mean-spirited way. But when they�re discussed in the spirit that has prevailed here [on the Quaker Ranter comment boards] (�� more important is the conversation as we try to name our experiences�), in the interests of communicating more clearly, of enlarging our shared pool of references, of intelligently appropriating a heritage � it seems possible to be more hopeful.

I wonder if the openness Johan names is part of the "post." It's not universal--over on the Plain and Modest Dress group there was a sadly typical post this afternoon that started off "Liberal so called Quakers are so far from the Christian Faith and Practice of Early Friends I find it hard to call most of them Quakers." Sigh... I know where he's coming from, but there are many times more Christians in my large liberal yearly meeting than in his. Was it a good idea for the East Coast conservative yearly meetings to reunite with the other Quakers to create blended yearly meetings with inevitable identity problems? Now there's a question for chew on. But to just say "my yearly meeting is more Quaker than your yearly meeting" is soooo uninteresting. Purity is a much a trap as any other form of pride. If Jesus could minister among tax collectors and prostitutes, then certainly we can preach among the liberals.

Anyway: there's lots of good links on the Beppeblog post, enough to keep you reading deep into the night.