One of the conversations I didn’t get to have at NEYM this year was with Will T., who said at one point that he’d like to talk with me about my relationship with Herne. I’m pretty sure Will is not looking at converting to Paganism anytime soon. Instead, I suspect that his me. Mountain Lion. by Julie Langford interest was meant as a friendly conversation-opener, since he knows that Herne is important to I like Will, and would be happy... Read more
“…[T]he diminishment of spiritual fulfillment – serious though it may be – is not a ‘substantial burden’ on the free exercise of religion.” (9th Circuit Court of Appeals) What do you suppose the reaction would be if someone wanted to pour treated sewage onto the steps of a Catholic church, a Protestant mega-church, or a consecrated cemetery? Outrage, perhaps? Well, but those actions would be offensive to actual spiritual beliefs of, um, you know, like, actual religions. As opposed to... Read more
I’ve become quite lax in the last few weeks about throwing around the word “God.” I talk about “the light of God” and I don’t really stop to ask which God. Quaker worship and Quaker conversations tend to encourage that. The Light that we experience in meeting really doesn’t announce itself by name, and the Biblical names for G*d that Christ-centered Quakers like to use simply do not map onto Quaker experience (at least not onto my experience) or onto... Read more
(Note: this entry may be of little interest to non-Quakers, unless you find the ways Quakers do business of interest. It also may make little sense to anyone who isn’t somewhat familiar with the story of the tensions with and within Friends United Meeting over its position on the hiring of gays and lesbians. I have posted a separate summary of how I see that situation to fill you in if you are interested.) So, sessions is over and done... Read more
On the floor of New England Yearly Meeting Sessions, in the middle of a discussion of the ongoing controversy over NEYM’s affiliation with Friends United Meeting, someone rose and read a passage from the Richmond Declaration of Faith, written in 1887 and recently reaffirmed by FUM. It included the line, “We disavow all professed illumination or spirituality that is divorced from faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” The speaker pointed out how this directly contradicts the Quaker testimony of continuing... Read more
Skip this entry, please, if you’ve heard all you care to for the next hundred years on the FUM personnel policy. Or read it if you’d like a somewhat simplified and subjective primer on the issue. It is intended as a companion piece, a sidebar and footnote to my first set of reflections on NEYM. Here’s a mini briefer for Pagan readers and Quakers who may not be familiar with this controversy: Friends United Meeting, or FUM, is a large... Read more
Part I: A freaky little bookPart II: A Convergent Conversation / Small GodsPart III: The Human Face of God / And the LORD saw what He had made…Part IV: A few things missingPart V: An Evolving Covenant / The Initiatory ChallengePostscript: The Expulsion from EdenAfterward: Why does it matter? I’m writing this from New England Yearly Meeting Sessions 2008. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind for the last two or three days, so I’ve been away from the blog... Read more
Part I: A freaky little bookPart II: A Convergent Conversation / Small GodsPart III: The Human Face of God / And the LORD saw what He had made…Part IV: A few things missingPart V: An Evolving Covenant / The Initiatory ChallengePostscript: The Expulsion from EdenAfterward: Why does it matter? Some readers questioned my describing the punishments of Adam and Eve as “relatively light.” Marshall Massey and Tiffany both point out that compared to the easy life in Eden, a subsistence... Read more
Part I: A freaky little bookPart II: A Convergent Conversation / Small GodsPart III: The Human Face of God / And the LORD saw what He had made…Part IV: A few things missingPart V: An Evolving Covenant / The Initiatory ChallengePostscript: The Expulsion from EdenAfterward: Why does it matter? This will be the last in the series of posts about Genesis, and I’m a slow enough reader that you shouldn’t expect my posts on Exodus until Christmas at the earliest.... Read more
Part I: A freaky little bookPart II: A Convergent Conversation / Small GodsPart III: The Human Face of God / And the LORD saw what He had made…Part IV: A few things missingPart V: An Evolving Covenant / The Initiatory ChallengePostscript: The Expulsion from EdenAfterward: Why does it matter? Here are a few things that are flatly missing from Genesis: There is no definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Most of the patriarchs either had two... Read more
Quaker Pagan Reflections
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