The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #35448   Message #484524
Posted By: Mrrzy
15-Jun-01 - 05:00 PM
Thread Name: Creeping Friends, Quaker Creeps?
Subject: RE: Creeping Friends, Quaker Creeps?
I guess what I remember about the little Quaker teachings I picked up as a child, I like. My grandfather had The Inner Light, big time. The Quaker meeting house across from Mom's does gay "weddings" when no other "church" will. They do a lot of memorial services for AIDS deaths, by virtue (and I do mean virtue) of basically refusing to be prejudiced about anything. I also understand them to consider violence Not An Option, with which I heartily agree (in a perfect world). But even if there aren't a lot of quaker jokes, the quakes (as we called them) we knew had a sense of humor. I remember at my grandmother's memorial service, an old lady was talking about some picture of my great-grandfather that had hung in some college president's office and then vanished, and she was trying to get my Uncle Greg to chase it down. She described it as "very Quaker: deadly dull" and the whole congregation laughed. But nobody, not even my father, ever brought any god into any of it. It was more Do Right Because It's The Right Thing To Do, than Do Right Because I/God/some priest/... Said So.