Speaking Truth To Power

Recorded 2/5/14 
A note from the author:  I would not like to see the structure of our meetings dissipate.  I feel that our structure is in progress and it is held carefully by anyone who chooses to find refuge in the Quaker Way.  It seems counter intuitive to practice speaking truth to power within our own system.  Quakers mostly are a humble bunch of folks willing to look honestly at our own shortcomings.  That Friends give space for this woman to speak is amazing to me.  It is also concerning that she doesn't know the other more appropriate ways to express this kind of message.  

The following is a vision I had of a woman who stood to share her struggles in vocal ministry at a silent un-programmed meeting for worship with the Religious Society of Friends. 


"This Friends meeting speaks to me of the Inner Light.  People share how they can feel it, that it leads them to good places if they follow. I feel it, too. 

The light we are seeking has long been against the darkness in Abrahamic Theology.  The dark is what hides our ugliness.  It is the place where the beasts are waiting.  Darkness is the blanket of mystery before the dawn of understanding.   It is the original sin, that was eating of the tree of knowledge.  Imbedded in this story is a theology that blames the cravings of the human body for violence, separation, suffering, and death.  Worshiping the night, the Earth, and all that comes from it and returns to it, is considered Pagan.  For Pagans, the sin is not in the flesh or in the earth.  It is in our disconnect from the earth and the forms of living elements  without which we cannot exist.  

I Love You: Morning at the Grotto, Portand Oregon, 2013, by Glee 

I would like to see Friends come closer to this notion of earthly experience and the goodness of this connection as a spiritual practice.  Many un-programmed Friends practice expectant waiting worship.  To do this, we often still our bodies and minds together.  Our bodies, our flesh, is our connection to this Kingdom, it is the open vessel giving space for the light to shine.  Our bodies and our communities and the meetinghouses where we worship cannot exist without the ecosystem in which we live.  Our bodies and our ecosystem feels sacred to me.  

Shall we stand up right now, quietly, speaking, all as One, doing, and convinced, that taking coal, and oil, and natural gas from the Earth in the way that we are is hurting our own bodies? Shall we stand up and express how dirtying our water and our air, waisting resources, hurting human bodies, raping women for war, torture, bombs, military defense, and the denial of the rights of children are all connected to how we see The Body, our Earth, us?

Speak directly to corporations and to the people who continue to buy things from them.  
Make space for the voices of those who are rarely heard. Share the vision we have of a world without war.  And tell the world that it can be gentle.  We all know how we would like to be treated.  Witness to this and ask people to consider it quietly.  Answer questions lovingly.  Create challenging conversations and use our peace keeping skills to show it can be done.

And the woman sits down.  Calm.  Relieved. 

                        Learn More: 
                        Read Something You Wouldn't Normally Read: Jeremiah Project
                        George Fox (An Interesting Take)
                       James Turrell "Spirituality" (Art 21 Video Segment)
                       

Being Friends (A Poem)

Birds of a feather

Be not silent!

Flock together

In a kaleidoscope of chaotic interconnectedness    

Sink into the comfort

Of your mother’s arms

Birds of a Feather, Chalk Pastel, gesso, india ink, on brown paper, 36X40"
1-10-14 by Glee Lumb 

And sing the body electric

Carry your limbs lightly

Upon the hard stones

Down into the cold water

Of your deepest fears

And listen for the quiet song of your awakening

1-10-14

by Glee Lumb