Page 11 - NewsandViews 2023 whole publication

Now, Ben claims, we have the language of diversity. Belief is not central - we can be diverse and that is
okay because we are united by our methodology, such as 'Let your life speak'. The method of being
Quaker - our behavioural creed - is there to protect the experience.

Our attitude toward language and theology is 'always seeking' and not necessarily about 'finding'. This is
exemplified by the 'Towards a Quaker View' group. There is a 'prescriptive' attitude toward seeking. In
contrast to Fox's original insight, Quakers now believe that God hasn't given us the final answers and
furthermore that he hasn’t given them to anyone else either. Therefore Quakers also cannot accept that
any other church is right.

Now 'Quakerism is absolute about its perhapsness'. In this uncertainty we still believe we are the true
Church because no one has had the full revelation. Ben believes that Quakerism is now saying 'We have
found the answers don't come easily - come and be uncertain with us!'

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Are Quakers ‘Christian’ enough? Tom Saunders

This started as a response to a letter in which a question was posed.
Are Quakers eroding their Christian roots?

The challenge presented by the life of Jesus remains with us, as it should.
This has three (or more) manifestations:
The teachings of Jesus,
Events ascribed to or surrounding Jesus (and the authority of the scripture that records them),
Doctrines of the Christian church (and the requirement that members assent to them).

If you were to ask Quakers about the extent to which they ‘believed in’ these you would be most likely
receive a positive response to the first, hesitation about the second and a negative reaction to the third.

I think all of us would say that we were guided by, inspired by and challenged by the teachings of Jesus as
a most remarkable man.

Most of us, if we were honest, would say that we keep an open mind about Jesus’s miracles as recorded,
whilst acknowledging the value of the events that followed. For example, is it more of a miracle to create
food for 5,000 people or to inspire 5,000 people to share what they had? Questioning the virgin birth (and
the necessity for it) is commonplace. The resurrection is seldom discussed amongst Quakers, I guess
because it raises just too many questions.

These days, most Quakers are where they are either because they are uncomfortable with being told
what to believe, or because they have witnessed the damage caused by oppressive belief systems. Or is it
because they have been so startled by the depth of their experience in Quaker worship that they have
come to view doctrinal structures as restrictive and Truth-quenching.

I have considerable sympathy with the view that the Society of Friends is slowly eroding its own Christian
roots. It is as if our collective insecurity, uncertainty or unhappiness with the second and third of those
manifestations prevents us from talking openly about the first in conventional religious language. This is
not to say that our entire ethos is not firmly rooted in the teachings of Jesus, just that we do not say that
it is.

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