Quaker Universalist Conversations

“The New Lamb’s War,” a blog post by Steven Davison

from Through the Flaming Sword: Exploring Quaker Spirituality, History, Faith and Practice

Quaker blogger Steven Davison writes of himself :

I’ve been a Friend since the mid-1980s and I’ve always had a passion for the study of Quakerism—its history, its ‘theology’, its approach to the life of the spirit, both personal and corporate, its community dynamics and governance, and its distinctive language and practices….

I also am a serious student of the Bible, and I invite you to visit my other blog, BibleMonster.com, which explores contemporary issues under the light of a radical Bible.

Friend Steven’s post for June 21 st is “The New Lamb’s War—The Language and Worldview of Quaker Prophetic Witness.”

Here are some excerpts, but I urge readers to look at the whole post:

Lamb's War iconWe Liberal Quakers have an altogether different approach to the threat implied in prophetic witness and we need a new rationale for why that threat matters.

Many Liberal Friends are inclined to think like Hindus or Buddhists in this regard, to see the consequences of evil action in terms of the law of karma: you will reap what you sow….

But in effect, the threat of natural consequences is no more effective than that of final judgment at the End time or of hell awaiting the sinner in the afterlife. We just are not hard-wired to act upon distant or deferred threats. We are hard-wired to act upon immediate danger….

To be meaningful and effective today, Quaker witness must present a real and present danger to the evildoers of the world. Yet the threat must represent a Third Way—not the violence of the oppressor or the violence of the resister, but the emergence of the Truth, meaning a presentation of a truth that is not merely inconvenient but that makes you squirm under its Light….

And so it is.

Blessèd Be,
Michael


*Image Source”

Borrowed from The Lamb’s War – Christ is here to teach his people himself, the blog of Micah Bales, a founding member of Friends of Jesus, a new Quaker community in Washington, DC. A communications and web strategist by trade, Micah is employed by Friends United Meeting – an international Quaker denominational body.

Comments

Might we start with the simple truth of personal integrity for duplicitous (“It’s complicated”) humanity? Why should your public persona not be recognized by your private character as they pass on the street of life?
I hope that the truths spoken at the Earth Quaker Action Team last Thursday in Pittsburgh made at least some of the PNC bank leadership squirm in the Light.
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