Warfare for God

Christiane Amanpour's documentary on "God's Warriors" is quite difficult to watch if one is spiritually inclined. Why militancy has a part in anyone's religion is quite beyond me, but to have it becoming associated with spirituality literally defines blasphemy: offense against the sacred.

Part of my long ambivalence about organized religion stems from the imperialism of large organizations. Humans have again and again proved themselves incapable of organizing large groups of people without creating equally large opposing groups of people. Maybe that's why we have periodically had Prophets, people who would remind us of this fact, offer an alternative, and try to demonstrate this alternative.

But as a species, we're just not so smart. So far, we have not shown that much capacity to listen and learn.

A wit once said that human history is "just one damn thing after another." Yes, well, recorded human history is a catalogue of repeated and massive warfare, a record of just how far we are from the sacred, of how we have repeatedly damned one another and ourselves through violence and expediency (which are probably identical).

For some reason, there are lots of people who think that we should continue on this path.

So, I would say that, if one is truly searching for the sacred, run, run quickly from compelling speakers of any persuasion. Reject emotional appeals to self-serving causes like religious partisanship, any activism that creates divisions between people, and all hierarchies of people. Even patriotism is suspect. Reject any cause or creed that excludes anyone.

Now that's a challenge I can get excited about.

After All This Time

Madame Blavatsky makes the statement: "You are not your body." For some reason, this simple sentence, heard in various forms many times before, set off a new line of thinking for me.

It occurred to me that vanity, attachment to one's physical traits, is discouraged in most religious traditions because it literally attaches one to the physical form, impeding spiritual development. Thus, Biblical commandments might be pure statements about direct spiritual peril.

My, oh my. I have spent my life hearing things about being a nice person, having good character, and not having vanity as, ho hum, moral statements about being a 'good person.' Never occurred to me that this rather political surface layer could be stripped away to find a fresh, direct and vital spiritual heart.

Still Small Voice

I wanted to call this blog "Still Small Voice," but of course that name has already been taken up. The pun appeals to me: even after many years as a Quaker, I feel I am still a small voice, yet the beauty and mystery of that other still, small voice which emerges unexpectedly and randomly forms the ground on which I stand.

Several years ago I came across some information about an ancestor who lived during the time of George Fox. His name was Stephen Horsey and he had emigrated to the Eastern Shore of Virginia (and later Maryland) where he had been elected to the House of Burgesses. Even before he had taken up his seat, though, he was dismissed for acting "after the manner of a Quaker."

This is also a delightful pun: I have long hoped and wished to be able to find in myself the immense quiet and wisdom of the Friends who gave me respect and dignity during my Young Friends years decades ago. You could say that I search after the manner of a Quaker.