Quakerism

[Guest guest]

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The Stewarts

 

> Then there can never be new Quakers?

 

Of course there can be, and are, new Quakers. The point was simply that

trying to explain Quakerism to non-Quakers may be pointless. I don't know

that I agree with that, but I do find explaining it to be quite a difficult

task. To some people, clearly, it " speaks to their condition " , but for

others, all they can see is what they see as confusions or hedonism (neither

of which I find in Quakerism, btw).

 

> It was the Shakers who decided to end things gracefully and with dignity,

> though.

 

Totally unrelated. Shakers didn't believe in sex or reproduction. That

gives it a built in obsolescence to some extent both because without new

people being born into the group, it requires outsiders to swell its numbers

and because people don't actually like to give up sex, even within marriage.

Quakers don't share this attitude to sex, generally speaking and as a whole

(although, they may differ in their understandings of how it is right to

express sexuality).

 

> As a Xaoist, this sounds as if Quakerism is being presented essentially as

> a kind of Zen, then?

 

My Lady might be able to speak to that because she has an interest in Zen,

but I simply don't know enough about Zen to be able to say.

 

Lady Sappho