QuakerInfo.com Forum

[Stuart Hartley]

I have introduced this new topic for use by liberal Quakers so that we may have a forum in which to discuss our insights without having to be concerned about the sensitivities of those who are Christ-Centred Quakers and who appear not to consider us to be real Quakers.

However, if you are not a Liberal Quaker and yet still wish to discuss this topic, please feel free to do so but from the Liberal Quaker perspective only. I hope that this is acceptabel. Lets see what happens.

[Themis]

Why create a new Forum? Beliefnet is Liberal and the majority of the Quaker groups on Yahoo are also. By the way this is thy right and I won't upset thy conversations here. This will be my only post on this thread I just thought thee might like to learn that there are many groups for liberal Friends on the net. Quaker (Yahoo! Groups), Quakerism (Yahoo! Groups), etc. Beliefnet (dominated by Liberal Friends).

Have a nice discussion!

Themis
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Christ is our Lord, Saviour, and Friend. He is EVERYTHING!

[servant]

Well, I'm liberal and Christ-centered. Can I still participate?
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abdul muhib

Life *is* the parable.

[Stuart Hartley]

[Stuart Hartley]

Did you spot the deliberate error "Christ-cantered"?

[wsamuel]

This is not a place for discussions that are limited to a certain variety of Quaker, or that must be carried on within the framework of a particular wing of Quakerism. This is a place for dialogue open to all varieties of Quakers, and those interested in Quakerism.

While I know of no forum specifically restricted to liberal Quakers, there are several forums where most of those posting are liberal Quakers. There are forums specifically for evangelical Quakers.
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Bill Samuel, Webservant, QuakerInfo.com

[servant]

[wsamuel]

Well, Friend, I wonder if you are using the term somewhat differently than others are. I think most have been using it in the sense of a non-orthodox (either in the Quaker context or the more general Christian one) view of Jesus. I don't think this forum has been heavily weighted towards one side or the other in that context. If you are using "liberal" in the political sense, that's a different story. But that's not what I intended.

I am suspecting this because you referred to yourself as a liberal Quaker, yet the views you have expressed about Christ are not those normally associated with liberal Quakerism.
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Bill Samuel, Webservant, QuakerInfo.com

[servant]

[John]

We must make a distiction between political liberalism and theological liberalism.

We are all aware of the differences between liberal and conservative politics. But we are not all (apparently) in agreement on what being theologically liberal or conservative means as it applies to Quakers.

Some examples:

Liberal Quaker - non-Christ centered, unprogrammed, generally politically liberal, theologically liberal.

Evangelical Quaker - Christ centered, programmed, generally politically mixed, running from liberal to conservative, theologically conservative.

Conservative Quaker - Christ centered, unprogrammed, politically liberal on some issues (i.e. peace and non-violence), and politically conservative on others (limited government), theologically very conservative.

We'll have big problems if we don't keep track of whether we are talking about political and theological issues when we use the L and C labels.
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John Price

[servant]

And I'd add:

Christ-centered Quaker - programmed, generally politically liberal (not having to be though), and theologically liberal generally (but not having to be).

I find most of those in our Yearly Meeting that I meet do not hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible on all points, do not hold it as *the* thing that rules our lives (as opposed to the Spirit), do not express in words or thought hatred towards gays and those committing abortion, do not believe the Bible is inerrant, care about the poor, care about peace issues. All of these are theologically liberal concerns. Just because the extreme left wing theologically of the Christian church has so distorted the message that it ceases to be Christian doesn't mean they get to steal a very healthy term as well! We are not like the extreme Episcopalians, but we are much further from the Southern Baptists in thought. Again, not all of us, and that is just fine (indeed, quite wonderful)- but a majority of us in our meeting.
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abdul muhib

Life *is* the parable.

[Stuart Hartley]

[wsamuel]

Well, not everything posted clearly identifies people by where they are on the Quaker spectrum. Some people who have posted here I know are quite liberal Quakers because I know them from other forums, but it may not have been evident from what they have felt to post here.

I think it is true that Quakers in general are liberal theologically compared to fundamentalist Christians, for example, but there is a usage which is internal to Quakerism. Things like "liberal" are relative, and so in the Quaker context many of us refer to it to mean on the relatively liberal (theologically) side of the Quaker spectrum. That's quite a different context than relative to the Christian community as a whole.

I noticed when I visited yearly meeting sessions of Evangelical Friends Church-Eastern Region, a body generally considered to be about as far from the liberal end of the Quaker spectrum as any yearly meeting, that Friends would talk about having come to Friends because they weren't comfortable with the rigidities in the churches from which they came. What they would say was not much different from what I hear people in liberal yearly meetings say were the reasons they left other churches. So the point about Friends in general being "liberal" in some respects compared to the larger church is well taken.
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Bill Samuel, Webservant, QuakerInfo.com

[eLUCID8]

Dear Stuart

Be of good cheer. I sense from your posts I have read so far that I share a fair amount of your liberal theological trends

Jeff

[Frank]

Stuart,

Please don't be alarmed, but you may be a Christ-centered Quaker who merely doesn't realize it yet. God does move in mysterious ways.