Quakers, social justice and revolution

It has become clear that the real choice in this year’s Presidential election is NOT between the Republican and the Democratic nominee.  It is clear that the years of corruption of our political system have angered the public to the point that an establishment candidate cannot win.  Finally this is an election with a true choice to make.  The three options are (1) an establishment candidate, (2) Donald Trump as the anti establishment Republican, or (3) Bernie Sanders as the anti establishment Democrat.

Of the three, only Bernie Sanders wants to fix our broken political system.  As I’ve argued before,  “I believe that if you care about correcting racial, economic, environmental and social injustice, Bernie Sanders is the person we need as our next President.  The media and the Democratic political establishment are doing all they can to oppose him.  Many note that the Clinton campaign is now using Karl Roves tactics to attack Bernie.

If he is to succeed, if we are going to have a revolution, he needs us to participate in the grassroots effort.  If you believe in this, now is the time to engage.  We are the only hope there is for making this happen.”

I am writing this for those of you who have heard about Quakers (and were probably surprised there are still some of us around) and are curious to learn more.

Since I hope people who are not Quakers might read this, I think a brief discussion of language might be useful because certain words or ways of expressing ourselves can turn people off, and they won’t hear your message.  A number of words can be used to refer to the spiritual aspect of our life, such as God, the spirit, the inner light, many Eastern religious phrases, etc.  Since one of the fundamental points about spiritual matters is that they are about things we don’t have words for (ineffable is defined as too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words) it doesn’t seem to make much sense to argue about the words you choose to try to describe this.  God and inner light are terms I tend to use, but feel free to substitute your expression.

Many people are not finding traditional church services that meet their spiritual needs, and are looking for other ways to meet those needs.  These were also the conditions in England in the mid 1600’s that resulted in the birth of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Friends or Quakers.  At that time the Church of England was the official, state church and people were required to be members of it.  The backlash against that resulted in the formation of a number of different religious groups.

Reacting to the material extravagances of the Church and lack of engagement of the common people in the church services, Quakers said we don’t need a priest to handle our spiritual life for us because we can communicate directly with God ourselves.  So the early Quakers would all gather together, and worship in silence, listening to their own inner light.  But the curious thing is these group meditations often were much “deeper” than one usual experiences in individual meditation.  It is like the individual spiritual powers combine together in a group meditation.  When anyone feels they have been given a spiritual message that should be shared, that message is spoken into the silence.  People very often find what was spoken is related to what they were hearing from their inner light.

As an example of different ways to express the same thing, I could say that I have been fortunate to be involved with different groups of Quakers.  But because I try to always be in touch with my spiritual self, it helps me maintain that focus by explicitly expressing that same thought as ‘I was led to be part of different groups of Quakers’, and I do believe that.  I need that ‘help’ because it is so easy to lose that spiritual focus in my day to day living.   So here are two different ways of saying the same thing, but some people may be uncomfortable with one of them.

I guess I’m urging you to not let the language be a barrier to getting the underlying message in any circumstances.  I don’t know if this helps, but I did recently write about language impeding communication here.

So what do Quakers believe?  What Quakers believe flows from this view of an individual’s direct relationship with God.  Since we believe we are each able to hear what God is saying to us, it follows that that is true of every single person.  Which means Quakers see every person as a child of God.  One of the historic expressions of that is “there is that of God in every person”.   Believing that leads to believing in social, racial and economic justice and equality.  Believing that means you could not harm your fellow man.  You can not believe it is ever right to kill another person.  You can not believe in participating in war, or in the death penalty, or police shootings.

It means everyone should share in the bounty of the earth.  Here Friends in developed countries struggle in the knowledge that we are using far more of the world’s resources than those in so called underdeveloped countries.

That also means that one cannot simply ignore conditions where inequality and injustice exist.  You are the instrument by which God helps his children, your fellow man.  For Quakers, our goal, which we all struggle with, is to be ever more attentive to what the spirit is telling us, at every moment of the day.  If you listen closely, and are patient, because it can take weeks, months, or years sometimes for you to hear what you in particular are being asked to do by the spirit, what your particular task is in all of this will eventually be revealed to you.  Usually things seem confused at first, but bits and pieces start to come together over time.  Talking about these things with other Quakers and other people is often very helpful as well.

Rather than have a creed or set of rules, Quakers instead try to focus on where they are being led by their inner light or spirit.  It is difficult to express that while Friends give each other a great deal of latitude in their spiritual lives and practices, it is definitely NOT true that you can believe anything you want to.  Exactly how that plays out can vary quite a bit.

Friends work on these matters by having various discussions about these things, sometimes as a sort of Sunday school class before or after the silent meeting for worship.  Another common practice is that meetings have a set of questions (Queries) about spiritual subjects and practices that are usually discussed as a group.  That helps us check with each other on the subject at hand.

If you are searching for a way to meet your spiritual needs, I would encourage you to attend a Quaker meeting.  You will always be welcome, and people will encourage you, and at the same time give you the time and space to become comfortable with them.  You can find where Quaker meetings are near you at   www.quakerfinder.org.

I should mention that over time some groups of Friends have returned to the more traditional type of church service.  The “silent” Quaker meetings are referred to as “unprogrammed” meetings.

Finally, I might mention that I have tried to make others aware that Quakers might be helpful to them by publishing on this blog.  I have been greatly helped in this effort by my friend Derek Glass, who had the brilliant idea of creating a single website that people can visit to see what people are writing about today, Sustainability Scout.   I purposely use the ‘Quaker man’ symbol to identify my posts, to indicate I’m trying to write from a Quaker perspective.

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Bear Creek Meeting

Bear Creek Meeting

Midyear Meeting at Bear Creek

Bear Creek Meeting

Bear Creek Meeting

Bear Creek meeting

North Meadow Friends

Benches at North Meadow Friends

 

“Quakers, social justice and revolution” is the title of this blog because I believe a revolution is necessary.  A couple of the first posts included Calling for a Nonviolent Revolution and Nonviolence and the Revolution.

Our political system once worked well for white people, with a system of checks and balances between the three branches of government, and those few citizens who chose to do so could feel their legislators would at least hear what they had to say.  There used to be journalists, who researched facts, and wrote fair and accurate articles.  Much of the media was relatively independent of overt corporate influence.  Our political leaders used to engage with the people and wrote legislation to solve problems and protect the common good.  Compromise is essential for that to happen.

Unfortunately that is no longer true.  The trust that is essential for a participatory government no longer exists.  The controlling political party has consistently executed a policy of opposing anything President Obama supports no matter how worthwhile it might be for the American people.

THIS IS SIMPLY POLITICAL RACISM.

There are only two candidates for President who are rejecting this status quo.  The Republican candidate’s approach is to go further down this road, so all of the power is in the Executive branch, and anyone who disagrees with him will be dealt with.  Just imagine how many wars and conflicts would be spawned by that attitude.  The United States would lose any remaining respect in the international arena.  And that is precisely the attitude terror organizations would love to see.  It would be a national security nightmare.

Bernie Sanders, as he has his entire life, has the courage and integrity to call out these conditions, and calls for a revolution to fix this.  What makes me believe in Bernie Sanders is that his whole life has been a consistent example of integrity and building grassroots political movements.

As Cornel West said, “I endorse Brother Bernie Sanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over fifty years. Now is the time for his prophetic voice to be heard across our crisis-ridden country.”

I believe that if you care about correcting racial, economic, environmental and social injustice, Bernie Sanders is the person we need as our next President.  The media and the Democratic political establishment are doing all they can to oppose him.  Many note that the Clinton campaign is now using Karl Roves tactics to attack Bernie.

If he is to succeed, if we are going to have a revolution, he needs us to participate in the grassroots effort.  If you believe in this, now is the time to engage.  We are the only hope there is for making this happen.

Bear Creek Meetinghose

Peace Vigil

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

I am in no way an expert on racism.  But I would guess many of you have shared the years of frustration that I have, wanting very much to do something about this, but not knowing what that might be.  The circumstances I will try to describe here opened opportunities for me that seem to be one possible approach, and maybe you can use and improve on something here.   I just started writing a blog about a year ago, and have written a number of posts about all of this in some detail.  I’ll add some of those links here to try to keep this from getting way too long.

I’m a birthright member of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), was raised in the Bear Creek meeting community in rural Iowa, and attended Scattergood Friends School.  I then went to Indianapolis to do my alternative service for the draft (1970), although I ended up turning in my draft cards.  I’ve lived in Indianapolis ever since, and attend (unprogrammed) North Meadow Circle of Friends.

Environmental concerns were my activist calling for most of the subsequent years, including refusing to own a car for the last 35 years, and work as an Action Leader in the Keystone Pledge of Resistance.

But I always wished I could find a way to work on the issues of racial and economic injustices.  I increasingly felt an urgency about this, the more I learned how privileged my life is.  God finally gave me such an opportunity.  About three years ago 350.org organized one of those national calls to action.  When I checked the Internet site, the only event in all of Indiana was at KI, the Kheprw Institute.

KI has been in existence for over a decade now.   Things started when Diop Adisa, son of Imhotep and Pambana needed to spend the summer with his father (related to academics).  A couple of Diop’s friends also got involved, and at the end of the summer everyone could see the value of what had happened.  One of the first quotes I remember is Imhotep saying “education should never have been taken out of the community.”  From the beginning, KI has been about mentoring youth, emphasizing critical thinking and community building.  The other two leaders are Miss Fair and Alvin.

From KI’s website I saw they had a project referred to as Open Source Activism, using open source programing tools and technology for social activism.  I’m a computer programmer, so I saw this as a way for me to get involved.

As these blog posts explain, part 1 and  part 2, one rainy night I rode my bicycle to the old convenience store building KI was located in at the time.   Imhotep,  Miss Fair, Pambana, Alvin and about a dozen young people were there.   Rather than discussing computer software, I quickly realized I was being interviewed to see if I was someone they felt comfortable working with, or not.  I eventually learned KI had been keeping itself a rather protected community, having not necessarily been readily accepted by the surrounding neighborhood, and was also concerned about protecting their young people.

So providing the usual general information about myself was not nearly good enough.  Since Quakerism is such a fundamental part of my life, I said I was a Quaker, which stimulated questions.   I talked about Quakers believing there is that of God in everyone.  I made a point of saying that to several of the kids so they knew I was talking about them.

Miss Fair then did a nice job of talking about the history of Quakers and the underground railroad.  When she was finished, everyone looked at me for a response.  I talked about how grateful I was that my ancestors had done that, but I didn’t do it, and Quakers try not to take credit for other people’s work.   The blog posts go into this in some detail.  At that point, I felt I needed to show how my own life reflected my faith.  Since KI is focused on environmental concerns I talked about being led to live without a car.  At that point Imhotep smiled and called me a “warrior”, which, being a pacifist, I found humorous.   Now that I have gotten to know him, I suspect he was messing with me.  Being embarrassed, I made a joke, and, fortunately everyone laughed, and the meeting concluded.  The best part was then some of the kids shook my hand.

Well, this is already too long, so I’ll stop there for now.  Much, much more has happened since, and is available on the blog.  These people are my close friends now, and we have worked on a number of things together since.

This is how I see things.  Working together on shared projects, and just spending time together is what is important and effective.  Sharing ideas, arguing, critically thinking and having fun together allows us to grow into community together.

I keep thinking of the Nike motto, JUST DO IT!  You will probably have to look hard for opportunities like this, and when you are fortunate enough to find one, when God leads you to one, recognize it and jump in with both feet.  Listen hard for the inner light.  Recognize and respond to the inner light in others.  Be completely open and honest about who you are and what makes you tick.  Speak about your faith, but don’t pressure others to share about theirs.  You probably noticed the KI folks promoted the discussion of faith after I mentioned being a Quaker.

Always be aware you are the student.  Do NOT make any suggestions until you have spent MONTHS learning what the situation is.

I have been totally transformed.  I wish you well on your journey into this.  We are blessed.

Taken during photography during summer camp at the Kheprw Institute

KI community discussion

KI community discussion

Snow makes magical scenes for photographers.    Of course winter also brings challenges for life without a car–I’m thinking of the walk to work yesterday when the wind chill was -3.

Below are some photos from a recent snowstorm.

I made a detour on the walk to work that morning so I could get some shots from the Central Library toward downtown.

On the bus trip home to Iowa for Thanksgiving we traveled through some snow.

A folder of photos from this winter is available here.    Winter 2015

For those of us who consider ourselves white (an interesting phrase I first encountered in “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates) and who want to help our society improve how we all treat each other, for those who admire young people leading the way with Black Lives Matter, we struggle with just exactly what we can do.

Here is one possibility.  My friend Diop Adisa is a musical artist, whose album Black Dragon is now available on Spotify, Amazon, ITunes, Google Play, etc.   Here is a chance to support an artist, and learn what he has to say, as well.  My favorite is “YardWork”.

Many of the songs are labeled “explicit”.   Some time ago I wrote about language impeding communication.    Part of that reads:

” To me words are just words, and while personal verbal attacks can be very hurtful, I object to finding fault in the language used to describe injustice.  People use music and other art forms to expose injustice, and that work should be encouraged, not judged, especially from what might be a privileged perspective.  The awful situations these works expose are what is truly objectionable.

If we want to learn about others and their lives, we have to be able to listen to their stories, as they choose to tell them.  Getting past judging the language is just a small first step in learning not to judge, period.  These are some of the first small steps needed, by many of us who think of ourselves as white, in order to begin to become aware of the injustices engrained in our society.”

Professional journalism has been disappearing over the past several decades.

Professional journalism, the unbiased reporting of factual information that can be verified by sources, is essential if our political process and decisions are to be based on facts instead of opinions.  Journalism is supposed to serve as a check and balance against those who attempt to manipulate people and processes for their own ends, even when that conflicts with the truth and serving the greater good.

Much of this is the result of cultural changes.  The explosion of digital technologies which connect everyone in the world to each other have completely changed where people get their “news”.

Perhaps the gravest consequence of that is that traditional media sources have been forced to reduce their reporting staffs significantly, since the number of people who buy newspapers and news magazines has declined dramatically.   The actual numbers of people who still read articles from newspapers online means actual readership hasn’t fallen as dramatically as actual paper sales, but income has declined.

In other words, we no longer support journalists–those who do the work required to fully research ideas, and have the skills and perspective to put that in context.

Currently this is glaringly obvious in the U.S. Presidential campaign reporting.  The Republican race is a whole different issue, but on the Democratic side, almost every sentence I read states Hilary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.  It is NOT the point that I support Bernie Sanders.  What is the point is that, even though he has always led in New Hampshire and is now tied in Iowa, and polls much better than Clinton against all of the Republicans, all you have to do is read the “news” to see the truth of this.

This was what most of us feared when the media went for sale to the highest bidder.

Five community members blocked one of the explosive oil trains in Everett, Washington, in an act of environmental civil disobedience.  The trial of the Delta 5 begins today.  This trial is historic because this is the first time defendants will allowed to argue that their actions were justified by climate change, known as the ‘necessity defense’.

Pipeline fighter

Stop Keystone Pipeline

In these days filled with conflict, confusion and despair, it is good to be reminded of acts of bravery and hope from the past.

Through the magic of social media, the Facebook page of one of our Quaker meetings in Iowa reminds us of the remarkable story of the Scattergood Hostel.  Fortunately, after hearing of this from Scattergood School’s history teacher and historian Bob Berquist,  Michael Luick-Thrams has documented the story of the Scattergood Hostel years, including the creation of this wonderful video account.

Apparently, in 1938 a conference of young people at Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) resulted in a letter to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) suggesting some of the European Jews fleeing Nazi Germany be brought to the site of Scattergood School, on a farm outside West Branch, Iowa.  Over the next four years, 186 refugees came to the school.   The video does a remarkable job of telling the story.

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Muriel Bivens Mary Mendenhall Owen Crosby Helen Fawcett Ernie Beth Wilson

I recently wrote about my first meeting with the Kheprw Institute (KI) community.  Thinking back on that life-changing meeting, after Imhotep drew the initial response from me about Quakers, there were a few other things that happened.

When I mentioned that I was a Quaker, Paulette enthusiastically spoke about Quakers and the underground railroad, which was really welcome.  But when she stopped speaking, everyone looked at me…

I had thought of this many times over the years.  I greatly admired the work of Friends who helped with the underground railroad, as I likewise admired those who worked to help address any injustice or need.  These situations should be a challenge to us.  Where is the need today, and what am I called to do about it?

There is also a danger here.  Sometimes Friends point to this work of other Friends to illustrate the work of Quakers.  Noah Baker Merrill wrote a wonderful piece entitled “Prophets, Midwives and Thieves” discussing this very thing, warning us not to claim the work of others as our own.  Highly recommended reading.

Of course this was also instilled in me during my upbringing.  So I could immediately respond that while I was really glad my ancestors had done that, and it was the right thing to do, I didn’t do it.  Which led me to talk more about how Quakers didn’t see religion as something only involving listening to a sermon once a week.

Which left me at the point where I needed to provide some example from my own life.  Since KI is built on concern for the environment, I spoke of how I had reluctantly purchased a used car for $50 when I moved to Indianapolis, mainly for trips home to Iowa.  Car rental was not common in the early 1970’s.  When my car was totaled several years after that, I decided to see if I could live in the city without a car, and have since then.  I was hoping that would show how Quakers try to translate what they believe, what they feel God is telling them, into how they actually live their lives.

At that point Imhotep, with a smile on his face, said something like “Thirty years?  You are a warrior.”    I had never been called a warrior before.  It seemed a humorous term to use for a pacifist, but I liked it.

Then everyone looked at me…

Somewhat embarrassed at that point, what popped out of my mouth without much thought was “well…yes, I am really old!”, at which everyone laughed, and then our meeting did conclude.

The best part of the evening was that then several of the kids came up to me to shake my hand.

Taken during photography during summer camp at the Kheprw Institute