'TIS the season
Christmas card I got the other day:
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled.
We seek an earth restored.
Now, I know these are a couple of well-meaning, harmless dolts trying to say something profound.
But a couple things puzzle me. Now the first two are just basic horsehockey. No need to state the obvious.
The third is vaguely threatening. Never in the history of the world has any community provided for more fulfillment than the United States of America. And, knowing the origin of the Christmas card in question, I'd say that particular couple prove that any f*king thing is possible in America. So you gotta wonder what the heck they want and what they are willing to do to get it. In other words, there is a vague threat there.
But the fourth item is downright mysterious. Will someone please tell me what in the hell they want the earth restored to? Maybe an earth that existed before those dumbasses came to live on it -- or what?
I googled this crap and found out it is some sort of quaker motto. Too damn bad that Quakers have never stopped slavery, nazism, or oppression of any kind. Too bad they never restored any earth to whatever it was before they got here. Indeed, Quakers have never done a damn thing for mankind. That is left up to people who don't mind threatening you if you take slaves, kill jews, or oppress people.
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled.
We seek an earth restored.
Now, I know these are a couple of well-meaning, harmless dolts trying to say something profound.
But a couple things puzzle me. Now the first two are just basic horsehockey. No need to state the obvious.
The third is vaguely threatening. Never in the history of the world has any community provided for more fulfillment than the United States of America. And, knowing the origin of the Christmas card in question, I'd say that particular couple prove that any f*king thing is possible in America. So you gotta wonder what the heck they want and what they are willing to do to get it. In other words, there is a vague threat there.
But the fourth item is downright mysterious. Will someone please tell me what in the hell they want the earth restored to? Maybe an earth that existed before those dumbasses came to live on it -- or what?
I googled this crap and found out it is some sort of quaker motto. Too damn bad that Quakers have never stopped slavery, nazism, or oppression of any kind. Too bad they never restored any earth to whatever it was before they got here. Indeed, Quakers have never done a damn thing for mankind. That is left up to people who don't mind threatening you if you take slaves, kill jews, or oppress people.
posted by Walker at 4:03 PM
7 Comments:
I've done quite a bit of geneology - and I think my ancestors in Putnam Valley New York in the late 1600's may have been Quakers.. giggle.
But I can't prove that. I just wondered because there were womens name like: Thankful
However, the later generations fought in the revolutionary war.
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
Then kill all the warmongers
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
First, eliminate human nature
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled.
So does every illegal sneaking into this country. They know such a community already exists
We seek an earth restored.
Then tear your house down, remove any driveways or manmade materials from the site, let nature reclaim it, and move off the Earth
Amen to what Fish said. That is very well put!
Uh, well actually, some of us f*ing Quakers have tried to restore the earth -- like my planting 10 acres of former farmland in prairie grass and trees rather than sticking another mall or subdivision in. And Quakers led the "fight" against slavery through legislation and abolition and ... oh well, you really wouldn't be too interested I guess since your mind is made up.
Actually, eveangelicals led the fight against slavery, world wide . . . like the British evangelicals who forced trade routes with slaving countries closed and spent blood and treasure shelling the ports where human beings were bought and sold like property. The philosophy of these barbaric evangelicals eventually led to the illegalization of slavery in Britian, and making it illegal for British merchant ships, etc., to participate in the slave trade, and (in the long run) the end of slavery in the United States. These folks weren't Quakers. They saw slavery as a sin against God and were more than willing to put bullets, blades, and cannon balls to use to put an end to it.
This has nothing to do with someone's mind being made up on the issue, it's just history. On the other hand, planing 10 acres of former farmland with prarier grass and trees sounds like a great thing for someone who owns private property to do with their private property. Kudos to you on that.
Quakers did play a role in the end of slavery, and in easing the human suffering causes by that pernicious institution, but the folks willing to expend blood and treasure to end it are the folks who actually put and end to it. Nazism and the atrocious barbarity of imperial Japan was not ended by pacifism, but with guns and bombs and a whole lot of civilian casualities.
Kevin needs to do some history homework... Quakers did indeed lead the "fight" (especially since evangelicals as they are known today, didn't exist). Wilberforce, the Wesleys, et al considered themselves religious reformers -- they were evangelical in their theology, but with a small "e," not a big "E" like folks today. The first anti-slavery document written in North America was in 1688 by Quakers. Entire Quaker communities moved from the slave states so as not to participate in a slave economy. They also worked, unarmed, on the Underground Railroad. And it grew out of their faith -- they saw slavery as a sin against God, too. Quakers certainly have their failings. But to tar all of us as a bunch of unthinking, godless, leftists. Most pastoral Quakers (which the majority are) are Republican and very evangelical Christian. Others of us, like me, believe Jesus was the son of God, the Bible is scripture, and have no doctrinal issues with the Nicene or Apostles creeds. It's because I take Jesus seriously that I am a pacifist. I'm living by the Light I've been given -- as I expect other Christians are.
Anonymous,
I can only go back to the insipid, socialist, leftist, mottos on the Quaker Web site to point out the obvious: Quakers are leftists.
Most hilariously, the pacifist Quakers say they can't decide what position to take on abortion. But, oooh! There's no doubt that capital punishment is wrong!
All I can say is that it is a freaking miracle that the Quaker philosophy so closes mirrors leftist philosophy if most of the Quakers are Republicans.
Now, to go back to Kevin: He said nothing in contradiction to what you are saying. You seem to be splitting hairs over whether the Wesleyans called themselves Evangelicals when they merely acted as evangelicals. Big deal.
The fact remains that pacifism is not noble. It is not effective, but it is, most clearly, leftist. Just like the Quakers.
Interestingly, it looks like from the comments made on this and the thread above, the Quakers get a lot of mileage out of mythology. People don't bother to find out who they really are today.
Post a Comment
<< Home