Comments on: The bully, the Friend and the Christian

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Tue, 30 May 2006 08:58:41 +0000

Hi Julie, weird, one would think that a seminary is exactly the place you want to put words and specificities to the religious experience. But I’m not surprised. I too have seen well-placed Friends stumble into off over the edge coherence trying to explain a basic Christian Quaker principle without using any words that might sound either Christian or Quaker. I’m happy when Friends try to preach without using code words or loaded language but sometimes it feels like these Friends are operating out of our kind of knee-jerk culture of deliberate ambiguity.

By: julie

julie — Sat, 27 May 2006 19:55:15 +0000

Taking the analogy full circle, it’s almost as if liberal Friends today are afraid of teaching the Declaration of Independence because it might offend the Russian, Italian and Korean immigrants. We still believe in it and most of the immigrants are figuring out pieces of it hit-and-miss, but we’re just incredibly awkward talking about it since we’ve lost our language. If we just started speaking plainly again…
This rather neatly sums up my first year among Quakers at ESR. If I dig a bit in what folks are saying, it’s often as Christian as what I bring to the table. Folks won’t identify as Christian or talk plainly about Christian beliefs, though, and so many connecting points get lost in transmission.

By: Joe G.

Joe G. — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 10:59:29 +0000

Let’s say that instead there’s a gentle soul in the room who gives testimony.Let’s say that instead there’s a gentle soul in the room who gives testimony..
And I would add that Rich has certainly been that “gentle soul” over at his blog these days. I like how you extended the original analogy. Cool.