Less talking about God, more listening to God

Q: Is there a problem with proselytism overseas by U.S. religious groups? Isn't sharing one's faith part of religious freedom? When does it cross the line into manipulation and coercion?

OK.. I'll have to don the broad-brimmed hat and respond to this question as a Quaker, rather than as a generic person of faith. There is an historical response to this from Quaker tradition, but I must be quick to point out that I cannot speak for all Friends! We have no bishops or ordained clergy, and where there are two or three Quakers gathered, there are four or five opinions on any given subject! But, that said, normative in Quaker theology is the belief that Gd speaks to each and every soul that Gd has made, and that each person has direct and unmediated access to that Ultimate Truth. In different times and in different places that Truth has been called by different names, but it is One and the Same, though perceived differently through the lenses of our different cultures, faith traditions, and even racial circumstances. So, what does this have to do with the question about proselytizing overseas?

First, a joke told among Friends - and probably shared in other traditions, with the names changed to reflect their own distinctives: "What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Quaker?" "Someone who knocks on your door and then stands there in silence."

Silence is traditionally used among Friends in worship because of the belief that Gd does speak to us, and we'd better be silent and listen! Gd is a "Real Presence" in all people's lives and will lead, guide, and direct in the paths of Truth if people will "be still, and know!" Thus, George Fox, one of the founders of the Quaker movement, encouraged Friends to "be patterns and examples....walking cheerfully over the earth, answering that of Gd in everyone."

We all have an inherent Light and Life which connects us with the Divine Source. When Fox was traveling in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina in the 1670s, he was nursed in his sickness and guided through the swamps by Native Americans. He asked them, "Is there that within you that, when you do wrong, reproves you?" They said, essentially, "Duh, of course!" Fox asked them what they called it, and he told them what Friends called it. No necessity in telling them they had the wrong name! He "answered" their experience with his own, and the two shared how they experienced Truth.

When Mary Fisher appeared before the Grand Sultan in Turkey in the 1650s, seeking to share her experience of being opened to Truth as a Quaker, she was told that what she shared was good, but "What do you think of the Prophet Mohammad?" Her response was that "One can be judged by the fruits of their faith." The answer was found agreeable.

In a previous post, I have shared that I am currently teaching at a Quaker school in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Quakers have been here since 1869, the first Friends coming with an "evangelical Christian" message, but primarily establishing schools for girls - who had very little access to formal education under Ottoman Turkish rule. Those Friends may have "proselytized" in the usual understanding of the word, but mostly they sought to share their experience of a Life and Power that brought liberty and meaning. And they did enormous good. The schools they established now educate 1,100 Palestinian students annually, the graduates all going on to colleges and universities around the world, many returning to help build a civil society among their people. Many are involved in the work of nonviolently working towards a just peace and solution to the conflict that will result in two states for two people, living side by side in mutuality.

The Quaker values of the schools are credited with producing such citizens: an emphasis on peace, equality, integrity, simplicity, community, and "that of Gd in all people." The Muslim principal of the Upper School has instituted a Quakerism curriculum in the School that emphasizes the traditional Quaker testimonies just mentioned. And he has had me develop this year a curriculum for a world religions course that will teach the commonality of the world's "wisdom traditions," including a section on Judaism equal to sections on Islam, Christianity, and other world religions. A Muslim teaches the Quakerism curriculum. A Muslim will teach the world religions curriculum.

But, that said, Quaker "proselytizing" also did historical harm. Early missionaries sought to replace native culture here (and elsewhere, as in Africa) with Western notions of dress, relationships, behavior, and attitude. It did great damage to many individuals who sought to conform to the will of those early Friends, damage that continues to reverberate down to contemporary generations.

I have rambled long enough. For "silent" people, we Quakers can go on! The upshot of it is that "proselytizing," as a shared experience of listening and sharing, is the way we all advance in Truth. The greatest advances in science and society have been collaborative. Can we seek together to know Truth - each of us sharing our own insights, our own necessarily partial grasp of that which is inherently Transcendent and Unknowable fully? Maybe together, like two partially-sighted travelers, we can grope towards the goal, helping each other along the way.

By Max Carter  |  March 2, 2010; 1:41 AM ET Save & Share:                 
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