Comments on: We’re All Ranters Now: On Liberal Friends and Becoming a Society of Finders

By: Stephanie Hernandez

Stephanie Hernandez — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 14:57:00 +0000

Permanent results are made with permanent lifestyle changes, it is only fair and makes perfect sense.

By: Elena Wellis

Elena Wellis — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 13:58:00 +0000

Sharing is caring and now I read your article. Even 10 years passed the article is great. I'm so happy that I'm here being part of this piece of history. Pure extract hearts are the ones that makes us joyful

By: Martin Kelley

Martin Kelley — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:44:16 +0000

@Thomas: the interesting question is whether Friends not being faithful Friends (faithful to their own tradition/theology/understanding) or whether you had irreconcilable and differences of theology, perhaps around the source of spiritual authority. If your membership was just not a good match, then I can understand how eventually there might be that deaf ear. Of course I've been around Friends long enough to know that we often don't like anyone who asks good questions or challenges our sometimes too-easy pieties and it's a shame when we lose people who play this role.

By: Thomas Ridenour

Thomas Ridenour — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:58:58 +0000

I agree with someone way up the line there that a comparison of honest seekers with the original Ranters is unfair. Someone in another tradition labeled uncommitted seekers “Freelance Christians” some years ago. Again, it is unfair.
I was once asociated with Friends, believing that after years of seeking I had finally found my spiritual home. But the Spirit continued to lead me into truth, and that truth did not square with Quaker theology. The Quakerly response was to turn a deaf ear toward what I tried to share.
As for authority and tradition, everything I recieve as Truth must have it’s root in Scripture as understood by Christians of ancient times. I am not into novelty. The problem is, no group today practices all these things. And I am sure I have not yet arrived at the perfection of knowledge either. But i believe in being open-minded and desire a place where I can hold my convictions and express them as the Spirit gives utterance.

By: Kenn Chaplin

Kenn Chaplin — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 14:44:47 +0000

Were it not for the love of my faith community, a congregation of the United Church of Canada which is at the left side of this leftist denomination, I would more frequently attend my local Friends’ meeting — just up the street from my congregation.
I am blessed to have found your site. For more years than I can count I have thought of myself as a ‘seeker’ far more than a finder. As I read your writings I am challenged to express myself a litle more gently than I sometimes do.

By: Nancy A

Nancy A — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 14:31:14 +0000

Martin, I think it’s because we don’t talk to each other that we become so spiritually estranged from each other. And that leads to being afraid to talk to each other. There has to be silence, but there also has to be study, dialogue, exploration, and listening. I’m starting to feel very strongly that silent meeting is only half of what total Quakerism should be.
If people in our meetings have any faith at all, then they realize that whatever they style their personal religion as, it’s all talking about the same thing. Different words, same ideas. So we need to get opening our mouths and our books (and our minds).
Too many Quakers think of quakerism as a religion of individuality — but it’s not. It’s a collectivist religion. We meet to silently come together with the Eternal, to submit to it, and to do so with each other. If Quakers are doing the individualism thing, then they are way off. So then, give them some books to read.
However, this is not to advocate for any kind of written common ground. I’ve seen what the Richmond Declaration has become for some branches of Quakerism.
People arrive a various stages of their spiritual journey, and we don’t want to close the door on those who are just timidly starting out. As long as we foster growth in a collective sense, with plenty of talk and reading and a sincere submission to the nudgings of the Spirit, then people with thinly defined spirituality will deepen and grow with us.

By: Montgomery Stephen Fitzwater

Montgomery Stephen Fitzwater — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 16:19:15 +0000

"The law of faith the law of the Spirit of Life is the love of G-d.This comes by The Lord Christ". "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you only My Father in heaven"."I will put My Laws into their minds and write them upon their hearts,I will be their G-d they shall be My people and they shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother,saying,Know the Lord.""For I desire steadfast love not sacrifice,the knowledge of G-d not burnt offerings."This is the Quaker testimony to which I cling.This is the rock that hell shall not prevail against.I have witnessed an assortment of quaker rantings over these years from unitarian to evangelical.Self will and self possession prevail.m

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:07:45 +0000

I struggle with this quite a bit in my meeting. I find myself in the odd position of having a similar tendency to want to "purge" folks who aren't "real quakers" - though I myself am not a christian, or even necessarily a theist, and therefore my ideas (sense) of what a "real quaker" is doesn't fit most of what is discussed here. And I am a member of James' meeting, and another identified non-christian (I identified as an atheist for a while, but really, I find that there aren't words, or a big enough community with similar views to find words, for what I am) I think that some of us who do not center our faith / practice / ethics / spiritual life (such as it is) around christ bring as much or more spiritual openness, yearning and insight as (than) some who profess themselves christians. I am ardently in favor of laboring with each other in order to verbalize a core of Quakerism. I am very wary of drawing lines in the sand or trying to pick out who is worth worshipping with and who is not, especially based on how they access god (or awe)