Virtual Quakerism
I didn’t end up going to the Quaker meeting like I thought I might. I did read up on Quakerism, though, and am convinced that these were the first postmodern Christians. Really, everything they’ve been doing for centuries is what emerging church people are trying to do now. The Religious Society of Friends seems to have a spiritual ethos pretty close to mine, but I’m not a strict pacifist. I understand why most (in theory, all?) Quakers are, and I understand that there are many kinds of Quakers and that there’s a large diversity within Quakerism. I also know that I’d take up arms to fight if I felt like my children were being threatened. Compulsion by the state wouldn’t be enough, but feeling a need to protect my family or to protect certain things I value would. Quakers, how welcome is that kind of sentiment in your circles? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
My family is of Quaker decent, although my Great-Grand Father was one of the last. During WWI he served with the doctors, although I do not know what he did. Even today, if you can prove Quaker ancestry, you can avoid combat in the military, even if drafted.
The Quakers had a very different mindset, and no business sense at all (well this was my family). At one point they owned large amounts of land near Philadelphia and present day Delaware County. From what I heard this weekend, it might have been as much as 10% of the total land that now makes up Delaware County, as well as the entire area now occupied by the Philly Airport and parts of present-day Chester County. I guess that’s what they give you to move to the new world in the late-1600’s.
Most of this land was virtually given away. They sold it for what it was worth to them (grazing land for farm animals), not what it was worth to others (prime property just outside of a city).
I remember you telling me once about the land holdings, and every time I go by the airport I think about that. I didn’t know that those were Quaker ancestors, though. They must have been friends with William Penn?
They were given the land by William Penn. How well they knew each other is a detail I don’t have.
They arrived in what is now Delaware County, PA in 1683 (they being 5 brothers and their wives and any children they had at the time). In 1983 there was a large gathering/party out in Media, PA. Since I was about a year and a half old, I don’t remember it.