Requiring membership dues?! and a minute on racism and white supremacy

NOTE: This post is based on something I put in a Facebook group in Eleventh Month 2017. 

For weeks, I have been shaking my head in sadness and disbelief at the fact that at least two monthly meetings in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have insensitively sent letters to low-income Friends, asking (telling?) them that they owe membership dues of several hundred dollars or more. How is this in keeping with the practice of not requiring tithes?

Then I went looking for the "dues" of Abington Meeting, since that is one meeting where I've heard of these letters going out. (I don't know if these fees are called "dues" or something else.)

Before I found what I was looking for on the meeting's website, I had to click on the link about Benjamin Lay. I was so glad to see an excerpt from an approved minute from Quakers in North London in the U.K., naming racism and white supremacy! Such minutes are a start.

Once we name an injustice, we can see the injustice--and vice versa. Once we name and see an injustice, we can begin to respond to it. Once we respond to an injustice, we can begin to work to prevent it. Once we prevent an injustice, we can work toward healing. As we work toward healing, we can build the treasured multiracial community we yearn for.

• See injustice --> Name it
• Name the injustice --> Respond to it
• Respond to injustice --> Work to prevent similar injustice
• Prevent similar injustice --> Work toward healing 
• See, name, and build on the healing --> Build multiracial community

But if we are conditioned by our Quaker communities and by the wider society to ignore or make invisible an injustice, let alone never name it and to stay silent around it, we will have lost a bit of our shared humanity.

Here's the language of the minute from North London Area Quakers.

"In the UK, the North London Area Meeting minute, Agreed on 18 November 2017 reads as follows:

Quakers are proud of the times in history we have been ahead of our time on progressive social issues – but preceding those moments, there have often been long periods when we have not walked the path we would later understand to be the just one. At a time when racism seems as present and ugly as ever – both globally and nationally – and the structures of white supremacy are being defended and strengthened by powerful forces in our societies, this seems a timely moment for North London Area Meeting to reflect on its involvement in the struggle for racial justice.

"North London Area Meeting recognises Benjamin Lay’s dedication to equality – and his willingness to repeatedly speak his messages of Truth. We also recognise Benjamin Lay as being a Friend of the Truth – and as being in unity with the spirit of our Area Meeting. We ask our Clerking team to write to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Abington Monthly Meeting and Southern East Anglia Area Meeting (successor to Colchester; Coggeshall Monthly Meeting) to clarify that Lay is in good standing with North London Area Meeting (successor to Devonshire House Monthly Meeting).”

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A little more digging turns up the "Basic guidelines for giving" at Abington Meeting. That said, this is such a clear case of good intention ("for the upkeep and continued vitality" of the meeting) and harmful impact (lower income Friends feeling either pressured to give beyond their means or feeling/believing that if they cannot contribute at the "suggested" level, their membership could be revoked--if already a member--or blocked/slowed if they wish to pursue membership in the future.)

It is not lost on me that one meeting within Philadelphia Yearly Meeting listed as an excuse that they terminated its only Friend of Color's membership in part because the Friend didn't contribute financially to the meeting. That sounds to me like requiring a form of tithes, which Friends have eschewed; it goes against the Quakerism I have practiced in the midwestern United States; and it goes against the oft-quoted Scripture about how we are all of one body, and all that we bring to the community are gifts of the Spirit.

The more I see and name injustices, such as implying that members of our meetings "ought" to contribute financially at a certain level, the more I see how Friends carry out injustice in a manner that is not so very different from what occurs outside of our Quaker communities.

Blessings,
Liz

Queries that help me dig deeper

A few weeks ago, I posted about the queries that Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) uses.  That post was prompted by some writing that my Quaker friend Jeff Kisling has done, especially about the possibility of updating the regional body's treasured queries. On Facebook, as part of a go-around that a few of us were doing to put words to queries that might be more appropriate to today, I replied with this:

When God and I query myself during times of struggle or of spiritual desert, many times the query is 

“Have I experienced something like this before? If so, what helped and what hindered? Am I able to do more of what worked and avoid what didn’t?” 

Another go-to query for me, especially around justice work, has been 

“If I am not clear on the Way forward and yet there is a clear injustice being committed [including inaction/absence of witness], where is the Way open that I might act or address the injustice?” 

One Conservative-leaning Quaker friend of mine often lifts that sort of query up as “What is mine (or ours) to do?”

I also want to be explicit that these personal queries I’ve written here seldom appear/occur/are Given to me in this manner. More often, they are Given to me as a singular piece, in my heart, wordless, until I sit long enough and they exercise me and convict me inwardly.

Along those lines, another query that rises in me from time to time is 

“Where do I understand that my good intentions have had harmful impacts, across race, social class, gender, ability, age, and the like? What is required of me to repair the harm and to help me avoid such behavior and transform such attitudes going forward?”

I’m also aware that queries that work for me and are Given to me may not speak to the condition of anyone else. I think that may go without saying.

So many important, life-giving considerations to hold, reflect on, and act upon, as Way opens...

Blessings,

Liz

Sexual harassment, Al Franken, and a Quaker view

Amidst revelations about sexual assault by one of our Minnesota senators, I stand with Al Franken. Here’s my first go at explaining why.*

In my life, Native Americans ask us white people to return the stolen land to them, to safeguard it from the Black Snake, and to honor the treaties. More and more of us white people are acknowledging our complicity in widespread oppression of indigenous people and are working to do as the Native community asks, as part of our penance and reconciliation. We don’t do it perfectly or immediately or all at once. We begin and keep going.

In my life, Black Americans ask us white people to turn up when there’s police brutality and another Black person is murdered by cops; to work to end mass incarceration and predatory lending, to address systemic disparities in education, employment, and home ownership. More and more of us white people are acknowledging our complicity in widespread oppression and are working to do as the Black community asks as part of our penance and reconciliation. We don’t do it perfectly or immediately or all at once. We begin and keep going.

As a Quaker, in my faith tradition, we believe in continuing revelation—the ability to understand more and more of how we are intended to lead our lives and are able to see more and more of God’s Truth as time goes by. We begin and keep going.

We also believe that it is the Loving Principle that brings a person into redemption, and that we are required to “answer that of God” in anyone we come in contact with who is falling short, has “missed the mark.”

I stand with Al Franken because his actions today—admitting his sexual misconduct; asking for an ethics probe; and working on a bill to address rape—indicate to me that as a man, he is working to repair the lives of women harmed by his and others’ sexual misconduct, rather than remain complicit in male supremacy.

Personally, I believe that we women want men to be sharing the burden of addressing and challenging sexism, don't we?

Could Al Franken have done more? or done better sooner? Yes.

So could I, in my anti-racism and anti-classism work.

I seem to be in a different place around Al Franken than many other Minnesotans. As I see it, we are all on our journey of accepting, rejecting, or delaying redemption, reconciliation, and repair for the harm we’ve caused.

I can be mad at and disappointed in Al Franken, and at the same time, I can hold him accountable and press him to do more, to do better, to keep going.

Blessings,
Liz

*This post is based heavily on my own post on Facebook about this topic. 

Renewed justice work (Fall 2017)

There are two justice-related issues I am dedicating some time and energy to currently.

One is related to what a queer Black UU [BLUU] organizer is calling "returning stolen wealth," in this case to African American organizers and activists who are carrying crushing student loan debt. (My spouse and I are also participating in other, less organized activities for reparations related to stolen land and the indigenous community.)

The other is exploring role Quakers could play, if any, in ending the practice of corrupted and inhumane solitary confinement--since solitary confinement--and penitentiaries themselves--are cruel distortions of what they were originally intended for. I heard that a Jewish group to which I'm connected in the Twin Cities might begin to tackle this issue, and this might be an important opportunity for local Friends to engage and partner in as well.

Thanks to Friend Marshall Massey for sharing with me his knowledge of some of the early history of Friends with prison reform and solitary confinement. Much of his remarks to me in an email are mirrored in the story about solitary confinement, from 2006, linked above.

I'm hoping my energy keeps going, though with our government's extreme dysfunction the way it is, I'm in and out of slogging my way through the days and weeks, staying connected mostly through social media and a few face-to-face visits with justice-oriented F/friends.

Blessings,
Liz

Guest post: Quakers, anti-racism work, and accountability partners

In 2015, Friends General Conference (FGC) began an anti-racist experiment during its large, week-long annual summer Gathering, which is mostly geared for "unprogrammed Quakers"--Quakers who worship without any paid or appointed clergy (because we're all clergy and we're all laypeople, both) and without any planned liturgy, hymn singing, or other elements that are typical in a mainstream religious worship service.  The experiment was to hold daily afternoon sessions that were for white (European American) Friends who wanted to address racism or who already were doing that work.

I was on the team of facilitators for the first two years, 2015 in North Carolina and 2016 in Minnesota. We did a lot of experimenting with format and activities. We covered everything from microaggressions to white fragility; from talking in pairs to identifying useful resources; from discussing topics in one large group to identifying how systemic racism shows up in our Quaker communities.

It seemed like the Spirit was quickening, and that perhaps a critical mass of Friends was developing a greater sense of what an anti-racist Quaker could be; how we could enact anti-racist principles in our faith communities; and how we could hold ourselves accountable more reliably while building on the work that had already begun when Friends of Color first lifted up their concerns to the staff and governing body of FGC and the Friends they serve.

This past summer, I didn't attend the Gathering, which was held in New York. I did, however, have some contact with this year's team of facilitators, both before and afterward.  Earlier this week, I received an email from a white Friend who participated this year.  She's given me permission to share excerpts from her email.

I just wanted to thank [the co-facilitators] for the most excellent idea of having an accountability partner [AP] for doing my work around understanding and eliminating racism.  You had suggested it that Friday afternoon at FGC Annual Gathering as one of the items to put on our list of 32 things to do.* (Which, technically, I haven't really finished yet because I am constantly adding to it and I don't do them in any particular order.  Plus, that particular page has gotten quite messy, which I guess is actually fitting, since this work is messy, isn't it?)

I just finished my weekly phone call with my accountability partner, and we are both so richly blessed by sharing this together.  I am fairly certain that, if I was just going at this alone, I'd be berating myself all the time about how I didn't cross off the correct number of items from the list this week.  She has helped me to see that it's not about crossing items off a to-do list, but about the extent to which I am engaging in the work. Sometimes I read an article, and then I keep tying it in with other things for the next three weeks, and then I am talking to somebody else about it, and it enters my prayer life as well.  Does this only count as one item from the to do list?  Maybe, but look at how rich it has been.  I have learned so much.  My accountability partner says, "Growth is not linear!" and "Check whether you are allowing the Inner Teacher enough space to work."  I am able to make progress that I never would have without this partnership.

I find myself energized and drawn in as Baltimore Yearly Meeting engages more broadly and more deeply about what it means to be anti-racist, and how to be so.  I have been going to the Working Group on Racism [WGR] meetings for about a year, but in June began to get more serious about it. On Sunday, I sat in on a Growing Diverse Leadership Committee meeting, and offered to help prepare for a workshop and called Interim Meeting that will take place this Saturday, which features this work.  It feels like the balance that I get from my AP's wisdom, and checking in weekly, enables me to move forward faithfully with less effort and stress than I used to.  You so understated how powerful this can be!!!  Thank you--thank you--thank you for suggesting this.

I think that you'd actually given out your email address so that we could ask you to send links to resources.  I would happily take those.  I can also send you what I have... [New England Yearly Meeting] has a fabulous collection, with an index. [Here's one I found on the NEYM website. --Liz]  At WGR we are always sharing what we have read or discovered, like 1960's housewives trading recipes.  You can be added to the list if that would help you.

...Thank you for spending your afternoons the whole week of Gathering making space for working on this.  May you be blessed for your faithfulness.

In the Light,
Donna Kolaetis, Menallen Meeting

Blessings,
Liz

*One of the facilitators in 2016 brought to the group an activity where you number a page from 1 to 32, and on each line, you write one anti-racist activity that you'll do that day. (The initial prompt, as I recall, was to answer the question "What will I do today to end white supremacy?") The facilitator explained that he had learned a new behavior is more likely to stick if we carry it out for 32 consecutive days.

The push and pull of a query on justice work

As I consider returning to the practice of “slow writing” on The Good Raised Up, I affirm my growing intention to focus on the intersection of well-intended Quakerism and the systemic oppression within this faith tradition. 

Here’s one item I want to explore more deeply already, thanks to my friend and fellow justice-seeker Jeff Kisling. He and I are part of the same yearly meeting; we struggle with similar musings of how to inspire more white, middle class, “comfortable” Quakers to get involved in the business of bringing the Kin-dom of God here, on this dying planet.

Recently, Jeff wrote about the yearly meeting’s queries, which in turn inspired me to do so. Now he’s written a second post, referencing a helpful metaphor from fellow Conservative Friend and former blogger Marshall Massey, who wrote about queries that “push” and have a note of obligation or presumed right answer, or “pull” with an intention of exercising our spirit into greater listening for the Inward Teacher. 

Jeff includes this statement in his recent writing:

I can see the query I suggested [in my my recent piece], “Do we spend time in a diversity of communities, especially those experiencing injustice?” is pushing, and would be better if phrased in a pulling way. Pushing tends to keep people from even considering the intended idea.

For me, though, I believe Jeff’s draft query does have a “pull” quality and the query ought to be built upon, especially when coupled with the relevant Advice, such as on social change, economic and racial justice. I say this because I resonate with the lived experience he and I have had: having close and regular interaction with members of a community different from our own has given us a tiny, temporary bit of access to another worldview, and that in turn has shown us—or at least me—how this faith tradition has got some parts of justice work wrong. 

“Do we spend time in a diversity of communities, especially those experiencing injustice? How do we build connections with people whose life experiences differ from our own? How do we know when we are taking their concerns seriously? Why might it be important to lay aside or decenter our own shared or individual preferences in times of urgent need?”


Blessings,
Liz

Queries

There is at least one online discussion group on Facebook for Friends in Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative. Currently there is a lovely thread about the Advices and Queries and our corporate, historical practice of answering them throughout the year.

Every month. Every year.

I’ll want to add links [now added] and formatting to this post when I’m at a “real computer,” but for right now, I’m  wanting to share my own comment on that thread. It’s in response to a Friend asking what are the sorts of queries we ask ourselves that “pull” us into a sort of inward conviction, rather than “push” us into a semi-obligatory but non-transformative response or outward action? Well, that’s my interpretation of what was asked.

My post:

When God and I query myself during times of struggle or of spiritual desert, many times the query is “Have I experienced something like this before? If so, what helped and what hindered? Am I able to do more of what worked and avoid what didn’t?”

Another go-to query for me, especially around justice work, has been “If I am not clear on the Way forward and yet there is a clear injustice being committed [including inaction/absence of witness], where is the Way open that I might act or address the injustice?”  One Conservative-leaning Quaker friend of mine often lifts that sort of query up as “What is mine (or ours) to do?”

I also want to be explicit that these personal queries I’ve written out here seldom appear/occur/are Given to me in this manner. More often, they are Given to me as a singular piece, in my heart, wordless, until I sit long enough and they exercise me and convict me inwardly.

Along those lines, another query that rises in me from time to time is “Where do I understand that my good intentions have had harmful impacts, across race, social class, gender, ability, age, and the like? What is required of me to repair the harm and to help me avoid such behavior and transform such attitudes going forward?”

I’m also aware that queries that work for me and are Given to me may not speak to the condition of anyone else. I think that may go without saying.

Blessings,
Liz

PS. I once again feel a nudge to get back to blogging. This time, though, I’m letting go of “needing” to post links and the temptation to use bold and italics to make it all look pretty. I’ll be curious to see what happens this time around.

Native Nations Rise & Standing with Standing Rock March 2017

This past Saturday, I returned from my whirlwind 48-hour trip to Washington DC with my cohort of the Justice Ministry Education program that I'm in. 

What follows is the itinerary and schedule we had, and some initial reflections...  

Unfortunately, one of the members of my group decided at the last minute not to make the trip because of health concerns, including issues with mobility and keeping her energy up. Given the cold, rainy-snowy weather we had during the 2-mile, 3-hour march and rally on Friday, we all thought of how miserable our colleague would have been, had she been with us. 

Also, another member of our group is Oglala Sioux and had traveled with her family, so we seldom saw her.  It seems she and her family were heavily involved in the indigenous-centered activities...  She and two others from our cohort had gone to Standing Rock in North Dakota last fall, including the supervisor of the cohort, who had been twice. They all provided us with a bit of context and history of Standing Rock--nothing beats first-hand experience!  Another of us had gone to the March on Washington as a boy when Martin Luther King Jr had given his "I Have A Dream" speech. So among us, we have a lot of history of involvement in movements for social change. 

ITINERARY:

Thursday, March 9

• Depart just before 9:00am; arrive Washington DC around 1:00pm. 
• Grab lunch. Leave our luggage at where we would be staying.
• Head to the office of Al Franken, who is one of Minnesota's U.S. senators and sits on the Indian Affairs Committee.  We met with his aide for about 10-15 minutes and spoke with him about Standing Rock and the need for the federal government to receive *consent* (not just have consultation) before proceeding with the construction of pipelines that would cross/desecrate indigenous land.
• Head to the National Cathedral for the interfaith prayer service. A video of the 3-hour service is here: youtu.be/r7QCD8Ir-Lo

Friday, March 10

• Head to breakfast at First Trinity Lutheran Church, with brief program about Standing With Standing Rock before the march
• 10:00am-1:00pm Native Nations Rise/Stand With Standing Rock March & Rally.  (This was a "permitted" march, meaning that there would be minimal disruption to the city and its traffic, and cops would be prepared ahead of time to redirect traffic.)
• FREE TIME the rest of the day
• We had lunch near where the rally was held at the end of the march. Then we walked to the Mall in front of the Pentagon where the indigenous community had set up (with permits) large tipis for events, ceremony, presentations, etc. 
• We also walked to the new African American Museum nearby and took photos of ourselves in front of it. Tickets currently go on sale--and sell out--3 months ahead of time.
• Then those of us who were wiped out went back to where we were staying, in order to rest for a couple of hours (including me). Others went onto the American Indian Museum nearby.
• A few of us went to dinner at the Langston-Hughes inspired restaurant/bookstore/bar Busboys & Poets. Others got together with friends or just stayed put. 

Saturday, March 11

• Depart Washington DC at 5:30 am to catch our flight home

REFLECTIONS:

Thankfully, we all seemed to get along alright with one another, although we have met together only 5 times in the month we've been together.  

We have different gifts:  One person recently had moved from Washington DC, so he knew all the good spots to eat and how to get around. The supervisor of our cohort is super-connected, so she had made plans for us as to where to be when, and with whom.  She's also an experienced traveler, so she was familiar with the various forms of transit we'd be using.  Another of us has a great sense of humor and tremendous stamina, so their easy spirit at times lifted us up. And then two of us were more like shepherds (that was my role/gift), keeping our eyes on the small flock of us and doing what we could during the march to keep us together, checked in with everyone, texted each other when any of us wandered off, etc.  

I think because of my organizer training and my experience in Ferguson, I grew concerned when one person from our group--the person most familiar with DC--really did just go off on his own, without saying anything to any of us, and we lost track of him for about 45 minutes or so.  Then I had the idea to text him, tell him we noticed his absence, and asked him to find a place to settle when he was ready and just let us know his whereabouts.  A little while later, he replied and said he had gotten too cold and needed a restroom, so he took care of himself.  Then I suggested he think of a place for us to eat lunch, so we could head there right after the rally, which worked out great. And we reconvened at the rally without too much difficulty, once he found an easy spot to meet him at.

During the interfaith worship service on Thursday night, it was a challenge for me to be still.  There were a lot of speakers; sometimes it was hard to hear because of the enormous space that is the National Cathedral--lots of echoes, and using a microphone didn't always help. And yet, to be in that holy space--holy because of our purpose together and because of the people gathered--with hundreds if not more than a thousand people gathered for the purpose of inward preparation for the next day's march... to hear from the father of Dallas Goldtooth, and the young adults, and the elders, and the women... about the history of Standing Rock, the vision of the people, spiritual well-being of the wider community... the drumming, the singing, the Native flute, the burning of the sage...

The most powerful part of the evening for me, personally, was when four elders--some of whom were dressed in clergy garb--and two young people carrying candles approached the center of the worship space. (This is at the 2-hour 10-minute mark of the video, I think.)  The elders lit the sage sticks they were carrying from the candles and walked around the entire room, allowing the 1000 worshipers to bless themselves with the smoke of the burning sage ("smudging")... The last time I received such a blessing was maybe 15 years ago, when I was in Milwaukee... It took about 20 minutes for the 4 elders to smudge everyone, and it was all done in silence and with great respect.  To me, it felt like an affirmation that we can practice abundance and generosity of Spirit; that there is enough time for everyone to receive a Blessing; that there is no need to rush.

Our indigenous colleague was also part of the clergy procession during that interfaith worship, and she likely knew many of the indigenous speakers. She seemed very peaceful and at rest...  whereas I myself could not help but stiffen up each time I saw the outward Christian symbols that Friends traditionally don't use:  lit candles; large wooden crosses; tall steeples; prayer books and hymnals...  Being both from a Jewish family and worshiping now among Friends, these customs unsettled me for a while...

Other times, I relaxed into receiving the prayers that were offered in an indigenous language.  Something deep among us seemed to be healing, as these Native people and their languages were honored and invited into and lifted up in such a colonized, Christianized space... Remember: The U.S. and its boarding schools--including Quaker-run schools--had all but criminalized and obliterated Native American spirituality, ceremony, traditions, culture, and language. 

One speaker invited us to look around at the enormous holy space we were in, the National Cathedral... to reflect on how long that steeple house had been there, and how many religious events and sacred communions with the Spirit had taken place over the years... and then to imagine what our response would be, if the country had found valuable mineral deposits and other critical resources beneath where this sacred space had been... Imagine how we'd respond if the government told us that the whole thing would have to be torn down, razed, and dug up...  How would we feel?  "Well, that is what is happening to our sacred sites..." he said.

And then a few minutes later, we were being smudged in the Holy Silence.

. . . . . . . . .

It was a long day of travel, followed by a long worship service. I wasn't able to meet up with members of Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) who had some gatherings that day, but after the worship, I had a few minutes of time to visit with a Facebook Quaker friend from Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Tina has been active there in that city's version of the Occupy Movement (they called it UnOccupy, out of respect for the indigenous people who lived there before European settlers occupied it).  She had also traveled to Standing Rock last fall; and she and I have called on each other for support around whiteness, white privilege, and racial justice issues.  It was a gift to connect with her and with her daughter in person.  Her daughter told me she has written online about her experiences:  thatasianactivist.weebly.com;  Look at her posts from March 9-12, 2017: she writes about events that I hadn't known about or wasn't able to get to...

I don't have much to say about the march:  our group was in the middle of the thousands of people, so we couldn't see or hear what was happening at the front of the march-- we stopped in front of the controversial Trump Hotel, where apparently a temporary tipi was erected and a Black Snake danced outside the lobby-- but smelling the burning sage and hearing the drums and chants around us, while also having some fellowship with the folks in my group kept me going.

I'm glad I went, despite it being such a short trip.  Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. 

Blessings,

Liz