James
The Quakers are considering turning their back on Christianity as it is reported that Quaker members will discuss dropping god from their “meetings” and introducing new topics such as same sex marriage and transgenderism instead.
The Quakers formally known as the Religious Society of Friends or Friends Church was established in England in the 1650s.
The movement started from the Legatine-Arians and other dissenting Protestant groups, breaking away from the established Church of England. The Quakers, especially the ones known as the Valiant Sixty, attempted to convert others to their understanding of Christianity, travelling both throughout Great Britain and overseas, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of these early Quaker ministers were women. They based their message on the religious belief that “Christ has come to teach his people himself”, making sure to put a big emphasis on a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and a direct religious belief in the universal priesthood of all believers
To this day most Quakers still hold true to these beliefs and the movement has grown to having more than 210,000 members who attend meetings and services worldwide to discuss a wide range of things including Christian theology. What brought the Quakers together and kept them together for so long is god. However according to reports at the annual get together being held in London this weekend Quakers will be talking about dropping god from “guidance to meetings” because god “makes some Quakers feel uncomfortable”. It is also reported that the Quakers are considering adding transgenderism, same-sex marriage, climate change and social media topics to the meetings instead. Something the original Quakers would be absolutely appalled by.
It is evident that those in charge of the Quakers are more concerned about being a slave to this world by trying to be relevant and trendy rather than serving god and spreading the message of Jesus Christ.
The guardian a beacon of immorality, deceit and hypocrisy have been more than eager to express their delight with the news that the Quakers are considering dropping god, writing “Clear God from the room, and the Quakers are indeed on to something” and that “Religion is a tiring business”. The guardian have shown little interest in the Quaker movement prior to this news breaking and are only using this story as part of their obsession with trying to undermine and attack Christianity. THEY WILL FAIL.
In my opinion, the Quakers stop being religious a long time ago and just transformed into a free masons “cult”. Shame because back when it all started it really was all about Christianity but lost their way.
I do not think it is an approach to Christianity.
I think it is more a philosophy than a religion. I think Buddhism is similar.
I am going to learn more.
The only downside is Quakers meet on a Sunday when I go running, whereas Buddhists meet on midweek evenings. Maybe thats why I know more Buddhists than Quakers.
There is nothing I disagree with here.
https://www.quaker.org.uk/about-quakers/our-values
“I think it is more a philosophy than a religion. I think Buddhism is similar. ”
I don’t know much about Quakers, really, beyond that the few I’ve known have seemed very decent people.
But Buddhism is definitely a religion – indoctrinating young boys into their temples, teaching scripture, and having faith in certain concepts and ideas – and even in gods depending on the particular flavour of it. And even the occasional religious war.
It’s a pretty contemplative religion, and there are plenty of different versions of it; I suspect the notion that it’s ‘just a philosophy’ comes from Westerners ‘bringing back’ the elements of it they liked from those quaint foreign places far away, and creating systems of philosophy based on it…
There’s long been a secular end to the ‘Quaker belief spectrum’. The other end sees people (like my mother) who mix her Friends participation with attendance at the village parish church.
For me, the important thing about being a Quaker isn’t what you believe, but how you act. It’s paramount above all else to ‘walk the talk’, or even the silence.
I met a Cumbrian Quaker serving tea and cake at the Mosedale Friends’ meeting house one Saturday afternoon a few years ago and she was indeed something else, enough to cause an immediate conversion on my part.
The few quakers I have knowingly met have impressed me with their peaceful manner and genuine charm. If I had to embrace a philosophy it would be that one.
My brother went to a music school with Quaker roots (he eventually concluded after our Catholic upbringing that religions exist because of a human need for religion – rather than anything other worldly), and he was struck by what he came across enough to go to the Quaker meeting house in Sheffield when he was older and no longer attended the school. With the ‘live and let live’ qualities, and focus being on how one actually lives. He used to like the meets on Sundays when he occasionally went, where people would talk about whatever came to mind and others would listen.
He’s the kind of guy who while other people in their early 20’s might have avoided talking to people in the 50’s + in favour of other people his age at a mixed gathering, he concluded that older people are people too, and one might as well talk to them.
I had a broadly Quaker upbringing, attending meeting about once a month until in early teens, and my mum is still heavily involved.
My adult view of religion is very much that it meets a human need, and I’m close to atheist, but do still consider attending meeting occasionally, and feel it would benefit our kids.
The reason I still have significant sympathy for it as a religion/philosophy is the lack of heirarchy and dogma and its enduring ability to take what I view as the positive parts of religion such as tolerance, caring and contemplation while avoiding the human tendency towards power struggles and corruption.
And that’s more like it – anti christ i guess