Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

This week, I read a series of essays by Paul Rosenberg, who has been a prolific author. Paul is widely known in the world of electrical contracting and fibre optic cable installation as the author of the go-to books on these topics. In the crypto-anarchy community he is best known for his novel A Lodging of Wayfaring Men. In the theological community where he is known to some, it is for his novel The Breaking Dawn. Buying these works using the Amazon links provided helps support this publication and pays some funds to our editor, Ken Holder, who works hard for you every week.

Paul's most recent essay in the series is about believing Jesus and following his path. Everything he wrote resounds with the choices I made last year to follow the path of George Fox which, as William Penn wrote in the 1696, represents a revival of "primitive Christianity." Following are some thoughts that occur to me which I don't think are widely known outside the religious society of Friends of the truth, the people known as Quakers. These are my views, my understanding, and should not be taken as authoritative - I am just one man.

George Fox

Let me take a moment to mention a few facts about George Fox. He believed in "that of God" in everyone, he believed he was called by the voice of Jesus to minister to "a great people to be gathered," and he was persecuted for his beliefs. George was against government-established religion and in favour of peace. George heard his calling at Pendle Hill in England at about the same time as an executioner was taking a sword to the neck of Charles the First. Even so, George was persecuted quite a bit by the followers of Cromwell in various parts of England as well as by the restoration government of Charles the Second.

It was during his stay in prison under the supervision of the aristocrat Gervaise Bennett that George mentioned the idea that one should tremble before the word of God. Bennett mocked this statement, saying words to the effect that if George were quaking perhaps he should be called a quaker. Bennett then made sure that word got around, and so to this day, the Friends are known outside our faith as "the people known as Quakers." As George used that phrase, so shall I.

What We Do

I have not encountered any Quakers who baptise in water. Jesus came to baptise in the spirit, so baptism in water stopped being needed after Jesus began to baptise in spirit. In the gospels we're instructed that if we wish to receive Jesus into our hearts, we need only pray for that grace.

We do not "take communion" in the sense of passing around hunks of bread and a cup of wine. We have no confessional room, no exclusive priesthood, nor, in the Friends General Conference, any pastors. Our meetings are not programmed, in the sense of having a particular leader. Last week someone at our annual session for the Ohio Valley regional group of Friends (the yearly meeting for my local group) said that rather than getting rid of the priesthood, the Quakers got rid of the laity, in that each of us ministers to the others at meetings and in other ways.

So many of the outward ceremonies that others seem to feel are vital to their understanding of "Christianity" are left out of our approach. It is not the outward appearances that matter, of course, but the inward guiding spirit. It is following the path of Jesus, whether that appears to others to be what we're doing or not.

One of the things I really like about our faith is our approach to "the collection plate." There is none. We don't pass a plate around at our meetings and watch people putting in funds. We have a simple box in the foyer of our meeting house and any who have funds to contribute do so in a private moment.

People don't show up in fancy dress to our meetings, a necktie is a rare sight. It is not about being seen, or looking good, or appearing to donate heavily. It is about being quiet and listening for guidance from God.

All of which is to say that there are only a few hundred thousand of us Quaker sorts in all the splinters of our faith. Perhaps it isn't very popular trying to follow in the path of Jesus. The visible obligations are few, but the inward guiding spirit shows you just how much you might be doing if you would.

About the only thing we do that is observable besides gathering at our meeting house of a "First Day" morning (as we like to refer to Sunday, rather than using the pagan day names) is showing up at the community shelter to serve food to the poor. We do have a meeting house committee and I sometimes do a bit of work in the garden or a bit of carpentry for the buildings we maintain.

One of our inward ceremonies is called a "clearness committee" which means that anyone applying for new membership, seeking guidance on whether to marry, or seeking guidance on any other life event, can ask the members of the meeting to bring together a number of people to meet and discuss the matter privately, meeting as many times and as long as needed to gain clearness in the matter.

Whenever two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, we feel his presence is available. We are often moved to speak by the inward spirit, so when we have a clearness committee it involves spiritual as well as temporal guidance. The same is true in our meetings for worship, as well as in what we call our meetings for worship with attention to business.

We meet in silience. We say, "Silence is a natural demand born of a need for God, felt by young and old, in all the world's religions. In silence we may worship together, sharing our search for life, sharing our quest for peace, sharing God's gift of love."

For over 370 years we have testified for peace and against war.

Finally, I'd like to share a poem which includes some thoughts about our diversity, in that we sincerely do not refuse the participation of anyone who is seeking truth. If you've heard that Quakers are all one thing or another, in politics or society or views on economic matters, you've heard mistaken information. Some Quakers don't even like oats.

This poem is by Sydney Bailey who wrote it in the 20th Century. I've excerpted it from a book on Quakerism by Leonard Kenworthy. Modified it a bit to suit my ways.

Are you looking for people who are against war, against torture, against institutional oppression? Stop by a monthly meeting of the religious society of Friends of the truth. You'll find some such people inside.

 

Jim Davidson is an author, entrepreneur, poet, actor, and dancer. He is currently working with Chris Boehr on the ScienceOfSociety.net and with Carl Mullan on DigitalGoldMag.com among his other projects. You can find him at his spiritual home, the Dayton Friends meeting.