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.