It's Bigger Than Hip Hop

So I innocuously mentioned some time ago that Quakerism, as an ism, is particularly well suited to being a systematic challenge to the world as we presently know it- as well suited as systems can be to challenging other systems. If you don't remember reading that, take some time to skim my other posts, they're quite amazing. Even if you never come across that particular statement, it will be time well spent. Look especially for those instances that I'm a crybaby.

By that, I didn't mean that Quakers had nothing else to offer the world or that's all Quakers were "about". I meant, that as a systematic method of resistance, as opposed to emergent (not TM) or tactical methods of resistance it presents a method of subversion, or transformation if you prefer, that recognizes and challenges the aporetic (if I may anachronisticly say) tension of being- especially that collective being. Now I am careful to say, it "presents" that rather than it "is" that. That is important. If it was a matter of "is" that, it couldn't "be" that.

Christianity might be that possibility in itself, but even that possibility requires some coming into being that needs to be challenged. That is, Christianity isn't some thing until it is some thing in the world. In becoming that thing in the world, though, it becomes reified and destroys the sense of what it is meant to be: the Word confronting world. Sure, it must become actual to mean anything and we can call that anything Christianity, but let's remember that it's not any thing- certainly not any thing fixed and forever. It's an amalgam of much else, much else that we often miss because we are so suited to existing.

So at some time and place, some form of Quakerism has the appropriate features to offer some sense of undermining some type of world and itself. However, this being Quaker is not for everyone. That is, it is not applicable to everyone though it could, I suppose, be for anyone. It is particularly suited to challenge Modern Liberalism, and that includes Western Christian Capitalist hegemony.

Goodness what a load- I suppose to put it more palatably: Quakerism offers the means to challenge the dominating idolatrous tendencies of Christianity as a religion. In that sense it can help keep Christianity Christian.

So?

So...

It is purposefully self-destructive. Take the anti-symbolic act of silence. Silence can be any number of other things that I don't intend to make the case for or against, but will say that as a demonstration it follows from an awareness of contingency and as a symbol of the same. If the infectious tendencies of worldly power were isolated or Western Christianity were not Western Christianity, the act of silence might mean something else, but here we are confronted with the possibility of sin in the world and our religious expression is a part of that world.

I know that in some instances, this silence is tied to the sense of immediacy of revelation and the great Quaker contribution is that of an egalitarian sort of mysticism wherein God speaks to everyone. At the risk of being unpopular, I don't think the Quaker tradition of mysticism is all that rich or unique- at least in the big picture. The greater contribution, as long as mediated and unmediated are understood correctly, is in this unmediated sense of revelation wherein God can be known inwardly but it is acknowledged that we actually exist, so that inward knowledge is sensibly expressed. That is, what we do ultimately reveals what we say about God.

This idea of practice following from that sense of God (rather than leading to it) is also an important understanding in our present context. Especially as it follows silence. The idea that what we say and do is a demonstration of our commitment to what is true is a necessary challenge to the sense that what we do is what we do because it is fixed and right.

Again, so?

So, what we have is the possibility of what we do following from our sense of God rather than serving as the conduit piping God into our buildings where all we need to do is open the tap to get our fill of the divine. I would hope, in that case, that what we do is an act of worship that is done in accordance with what we say God is (which it is anyway, only in this case there is a sense of intentional devotion rather than irresponsible blasphemy). I do such and such because it makes sense to do so if I say so and so is true about God- in much the same way that it makes sense to do certain things and not others if I love my wife. Doing it doesn't "make" it true and following some rigid protocols of love would certainly be a worthless sense of love. Rather what we might have in something called Quakerism is the framework to acknowledge how we sensibly demonstrate that idea of the divine. In that way faith is not only a matter of faith (thankfully, again, after that horrible stint with self-justifying metaphysical nonsense), but also challenges the dominating or spiritually coercive forces at work in religion.

Of course, the challenge may be offered that Quakerism in some circles, many circles perhaps, does not actually live that self-reflection or build that critical perspective necessary to being some people worthy of being called a church so the point is quite literally moot. Eh, well, we do what we can.

List of April Fool's Foolings
Place Compressed Condiment Packets Underneath a Toilet Seat
Steal a Newborn from a Maternity Ward
Change Your Density
Hum with Your Mouth Open
Place Expired Dairy Products into New Packaging, Leave in Refrigerator
Ask Someone Who Wants to Marry You to Marry You, See How Many Years You Can Keep This Gag Going
Tell Your National Team Coach He's Fired (Applies to Femexfut Head Only)
Poop in the Sink
Chop Off Your Head
Randomly Insert the Word "Gland" into Sentences
Make Calculations Requiring Pi Using Exactly 3
If You're a Republican, Donate to the "Obama for President" Campaign