POPEYE POOPED OUT??? With autumn weather here, we are again in the "hot cereal season," when oatmeal makers go all out to sell their grey glop to America's youth. But according to a statement by a Quaker Oats Company spokesman last month, Popeye the "Quaker Man" will NOT be returning. The two-fisted sailor is going back to spinach; he was out-slugged by Quaker Power. A Friendly Letter

DOUBLE ISSUE: #114 & #115 ISSN #0739-5418 TENTH & ELEVENTH MONTHS, 1990

Dear Friend,

If you find the article in this issue valuable, I institutions, agencies and media able to look and speak have a request to make of you. But first, there is some across these yawning cultural gaps is increasingly explaining to do. important. The case could even be made that the longterm health of our society may depend on how well A Friendly Letter is usually four pages long. The such institutions are maintained and how effectively they article in this issue, however, is three times normal size. function. It wasn't planned. that way; the subject--Witchcraft and Quakerism--simply would not fit into the standard format. This is where my request comes in. In our small It was too complex, too emotionally freighted, and, I Quaker comer of the world, A Friendly Letter has tried to came to feel, too important. If you are among those who fill such a cross-cultural function. If you are a regular prefer the shorter length, I hope you will take a deep reader, chances are it has worked that way for you, at breath and press on through the extra pages anyway. least to some extent.

This is also the first double issue ever. This too And if it has, then my request is that you take was not intentional; the research and writing just took the gift subscription flyer inserted in this issue, and that long. In preparation I read six books, totalling 2500 seriously consider sharing A Friendly Letter with at least pages; spent ten-plus hours in long distance telephone two F/friends this holiday season. interviews(the MCI bill will be horrendous); and traveled seven hundred miles to upstate New York and back. I ask this in part for a reason of mutual self- There was much more that could have been done, had interest: a desire to avoid a subscription rate increase. there been more time and budget. The article itself has Production costs continue to rise; postal rates will soon been through almost a dozen drafts. jump substantially; and as that looming phone bill underscores, reporting is expensive. In the face of these I did all this because the involvement of some facts, the only sure defense is a broader circulation base. unprogrammed Friends in witchcraft seemed to highlight in a special way many key issues facing Friends today. But to my mind these are, if inescapable, still Moreover, as it developed, the story seemed to become secondary considerations. I seek your help primarily to a kind of parable of the condition of society at large: be better able to work at seeing, understanding, and increasing fragmentation into mutually ignorant speaking across the gaps within the Society of Friends, subcultures; the growth of media images as a substitute and through it to the world outside. for real contact and communication among them; their vulnerability to the manufacture and exploitation of fear In pursuit of this mission, you are the ultimate for commercial, political and religious purposes. judge of my performance. And if the extraordinary effort that has gone into this issue seems worth it to you, It is my sense that many of the hottest disputes sending gift subscriptions to Friends and Friends is one of that inflame our political landscape--abortion, obscenity, the most effective ways to express that confidence. school textbook censorship and more--are as much cultural conflicts as much as anything else. Americans I hope you will come through for me, and for understand this, just barely anyway, when it comes to Friends. race. But it is equally true of religion, though there the cultural partitions are often harder to see. And Quakers are as subject to these trends as any other group; it is wishful thinking to imagine otherwise.

If this reading of the signs of the times is at all accurate, one implication is that the need for bridging

Copyright

New York Yearly Meeting Despite continuing differences, the but were horrified by the opening (NYYM)is a kind of field laboratory for committee members were upbeat; they session, which included chanting the an ongoing experiment in institutional planned to report that they had names of various ancient goddesses. Quaker ecumenism. Unfortunately, in maintained a Friendly spirit, and this at During the chant the Clintondale recent years, many of the results of this least seemed reason for optimism. women huddled in a comer, reciting test have not been promising, and the Lords Prayer, then packed hurriedly never more so than at its 1990 session. But on 7/24, the Tuesday night of and went home. Clintondale Meeting the 1990 Yearly Meeting, all hopes for soon resolved to take its protest of this New York is one of the a peaceful session suddenly went to the full Yearly Meeting. reunited YMs, knit together in 1955 aglimmering, when a minute was read from Hicksite and Orthodox groups from Clintondale Meeting, a small Once it was read on the YM floor, which had separated in 1828. The pastoral church in the Hudson Valley. there was division about what to do Orthodox YM brought into the union The minute was short and stem: with this minute. A move was made to several pastoral meetings, and some send it to Ministry and Counsel Com- members who are strongly evangelical, "Clintondale Friends Meeting rejects mittee for consideration and guidance. even fundamentalist in their views. the teachings of Goddess and Many approved of this; but the Clinton- The Hicksites' religious outlooks range their correlates of paganism and dale Friends present emphatically did from liberal tohumatiist, atheist and witchcraft, ana callsonNew York Yearly -n-ot. They -wanted to be heard, and beyond. (For a survey of liberal Quaker Meeting to do the same. Paganism and they wanted to be heard now. This was , see AFL #28.) witchcraft have no place in the life and not a time for procedural finagling; to teachings of the Religious Society of them it was a matter of life and death. The 1980s were not easy for Friends .•• NYYM. While many other unprogram- MAKING SOMETIIING CLEAR med yearly meetings were growing, WHERE BOMBSHELLS ARE BORN New York's membership declined by Walter Eichler was one of the about ten per cent; the body struggled Paganism? Witchcraft? The Clintondale Friends. He had not been to meet its budget; and worst of all, its minute, although it came as a surprise to Yearly Meeting before, and had annual sessions were wracked by to many Friends, had considerable driven for several hours specifically to chronic wrangling over doctrine and history behind it. It began with an attend this session and voice thi~ morals. An effort to rewrite its Faith announcement the previous fall of a concern. He repeatedly tried to speak, and Practice has been a major focus of women's weekend workshop at Powell but the Clerk did not recognize him. NYYM's recent divisions. By last year, House, NYYM's conference center. The Finally his pastor, Dan Whitley, this process had become so acrimonious topic was the Quaker experience of the intervened and he was given the floor. that the Yearly Meeting put it Goddess, and in the announcement for temporarily on hold. Initially this was it the workshop leader, Carolyn As he recalls it, Eichler told the to be for a year, but it could well Mallison, described herself as, among group, in sum, that it didn't really continue indefinitely. other things, "a student of Wicca," the , matter what they thought about this name for certain forms of modem minute, because God had already DON'T GIVE PEACE A CHANCE witchcraft. decided the issue: Yall can't be a Christian and believe in things like In this impasse, the moral sticking -This was not the first such witcllcra ft and Goddess worshi p-: as points are what one Friend calls the workshop Mallison had led at Powell evidently many here do. Some things in "pelvic issues" --abortion, homosexuality, House; she had also led interest groups the are complicated, he insisted, and sexual/family issues in general. At on Goddess spirituality at NYYM for bllt some things in it are clear, and this the other pole are perennial doctrinal several years. But a few Clintondale is one of them: the Bible condemns questions: How Christian is or should Friends, seeing the reference to Wicca, sorcery. witchcraft, and the worship of Quakerism be? What, and who defines felt such a session should not be held goddesses. It's not mysteriolls; it's a "Christian"? What are the limits of on NYYM property. After much labor, matter of the First Commandment. Quaker fait;h and fellowship? And and not without dissent, the meeting underlying them all, though few will agreed, and protests were sent, first to Eichler is a big man with a gruff ask it openly: has NYYM's experiment Powell House, then to the YM Ministry voice, and he spoke brusquely about failed--was reunification a mistake? and Counsel Committee, and finally to these things. Both his words and his the YM representative Meeting, all tone were offensive and frightening to An Ad Hoc Committee on Love, unsuccessfully. many ::>fhis listeners; as he spoke, one Discernment and Community, after another began to stand, in silent representing most of the conflicting The workshop was held as angry, fearful protest. Carolyn Mallisor, viewpoints, had worked this past year scheduled, but Mallison invited was one of them. to find a peaceful way forward. Clintondale women to attend. Two did, This confrontation crystallized

2 more than a theological disagreement; Then at Thursday's business The novel is tantalizingly coy about it also showed that Friends like Eichler session, another blow fell: A letter this, but his human vehicle, a man and Mallison inhabit parallel but from Joshua Brown. Brown is no named Kaseph, is portrayed as "a strikingly different cultures, cultures fanatic; he has lived and worked perfect cross between the ultimate guru without a common language on such among both programmed and unprog- and Adolf Hitler {who] makes Al matters. These cultures lack visible rammed Friends. His letter noted that Capone look like a Boy Scout. Even the landmarks at their borders, like the he had tried to play a bridging role Mafia is afraid of him." French signs in Quebec to the north; so among New York Friends. But they are easy to miss, and stumble Tuesday's events, Goddess worship and To gain their ends, the demons are over. But they exist nonetheless, both witchcraft were things he could not not above murder and mayhem. . But inside and outside our Society. stretch to cover. Thus he was resigning usually they use subtler devices, above his Yearly Meeting appointments forth- all New Age seduction. A character And that night, these two with, and had already left for horne. explains that this term covers, besides cultures clashed like half-submerged There were gasps when this letter was Jungian psychology and its archetypes, icebergs colliding in a murky sea. The read, and business was brought to a '''Eastern meditation, witchcraft, depth of the differences between these halt; several Friends were in tears. divination, Science of Mind, psychic two Friends can be seen in the wildly healing, holistic education--oh, the list different and yet eerily parallel PEERING INTO THE DARKNESS goes on and on--it's all the same thing, accounts of their perceptions at that nothing but a nlse to take over people's moment: What produced such a sharp clash? minds and spirits, even their bodies. '" To approach an answer, let's look at The book is full of people who have FEAR COMES CENTER STAGE the cultures involved. Walter Eichler is been seduced by New Age techniques, a citizen of America's evangelical taught by a beautiful woman Walter Eichler sensed the presence subculture. He says he listens only to psychology professor at a nearby and work of demons, minions of Satan, Christian radio stations, and besides college. They are then possessed by all around him, a presence that cried worship at Clintondale, he attends a hideous, vividly-described demons, who out to be named, rebuked and banished midweek charismatic service as well. sink long claws invisibly into them, like in the name of Jesus Christ. Carolyn He also reads evangelical Christian giant predatory insects with their prey. Mallison, on the other hand, heard books, in particular a novel called This frightening echoes of the Inquisition; Present Darkness, (Crossway Books, A NEW DOORWAY FOR DEMONS she could almost smell the smoke of 1986) by Frank Peretti. fires that consumed tens of thousands But the hapless victims of this vast (or was it millions, as some say?) of This book demands our attention supernatural conspiracy are not, suspected witches, most of them here, because it has shaped much of fortunately, alone. In the town is a women, women like herself. the current concerns of people like little evangelical church--not unlike Eichler, Dan Whitley, and millions of Clintondale Friends Meeting--whose The atmosphere of the business others. If you have never heard of it, pastor is a young but brave and true session abruptly thickened with that shows your isolation from the Christian. And above him and his hostility. To one shocked Friend, what subculture it speaks for, because beleaguered congregation are a platoon followed was a total disintegration of Darkness has sold almost 1.5 million of watching angels, who see the plot Quaker process. Another saw "fear, copies in the U.S. since 1986, has been taking shape and rally their own forces anger, pain enter center stage very widely discussed, and translated for a decisive battle on behalf of the uproariously ...we were brought to our into 11 foreign languages. A major believers and their heavenly Master. knees." A third said it seemed the movie will be made of it soon, says the Yearly Meeting was suddenly, publisher; and a sequel has sold nearly Despite the fact that a reader soon astonishingly facing schism. Joshua a million copies already. figures the good guys will win in the Brown, the respected pastor of end, the tale is quite suspensefully told. Adirondack Meeting, was so upset that In the novel, which unfolds like a More important, for many readers, it is he walked out of the session and began thriller, a small town in the American only half fictional. The characters and packing his bags. heartland--not unlike Clintondale, New the town are made up; but their predic- York--is targeted by a vast horde of ament is real, and is common to all be- After that night, Friends struggled demons. They want it to be the nerve lievers. The New Age, witchcraft, etc., to salvage the week. Ministry and center of a plot to take over the United are really out there. Through them, Counsel did end up with the Clinton- States and make it the keystone of a many evangelicals are convinced, dale minute, and made plans to meet New World Order. In this Order, every satanic beings are in fact possessing with partisans on both sides in the human will be part of a Universal more and more people every day. corning months; or as one Friend put it, Consciousness, all controlled by a Most ominous of all, the demons' the Committee said, 'We can't fix it for super-demon, who once ruled ancient most prized conquests are true you. We can't do it in a week." . Is this ex-Babylonian demon- Christians and their churches. That's prince the Antichrist? Satan himself? because these are the only real

3 bulwarks against the demonic forces; most visible spokeswoman for many of these quiet resisters are they are the source of the "prayer witchcraft in NYYM? What shaped her Quakers, even though the sect is cover" the angels must have to throw equally fearful reaction? subjected to frequent police roundups the demons back. It is these believers as heretics and subversives. who must, and can, drive demons from Ignorance, for one thing. Mallison their victims in Christ's name, as they has not been to Clintondale; she avoids The Handmaid's Tale and This do repeatedly in Darkness' pages. pastoral meetings. A retired librarian, Present Darkness are in many ways she came to Friends at Westtown in mirror images of each other. When This Present Darkness provides the Pennsylvania, a mainline Walter Eichler and Carolyn Mallison key to the fervor of the Clintondale unprogrammed meeting. Later, moving stood in confrontation at that NYYM delegation. They were not being to Richmond, Indiana, she was appalled business session, it was almost a case mindlessly judgmental and intolerant; by pastoral Quakerism. After settling in of duelling potboilers. But how they were fighting Satan for the very New York, she was slow to transfer her accurate are the portraits each has soul of New York Yearly Meeting-- membership from Philadelphia YM, drawn of the "other side"? fighting and, they greatly fear, losing. because of the presence of programmed meetings in New York. She has stayed It is easy to take aim at Peretti and If you doubt this interpretation, within the liberal, feminist subculture, Texe Marrs, especially when comparing then move on from Darkness to and had only vaguely heard about This their work to a book like Margot another widely-read book from the Present Darkness. "I Ruess I've been Adler's first-rate survey of modem Neo- same publisher, and based on the same lzidinR out from all that," she Paganism, Drawing Down the Moon , Dark Secrets of the New Age, acknowledged. (Beacon Press, 1986). Adler, who some by Texe Marrs. This book is presented readers may recognize as a veteran as a nonfiction expose; yet its THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY correspondent for National Public depictions of the perils facing believers, Radio, has visited literally hundreds of and the infernal schemes of the New But she has images of such people; Wicca and neo-pagan groups in the U.S. Age conspirators, are more lurid than and there is another novel which and Britain over a IS-year period, and any of Peretti's inventions. helped shape them: it is The is thoroughly familiar with the best Handmaid's Tale (Fawcett paperback, scholarship on its history and sociology. TilE SEEDBEDS OF FEAR 1985) by Margaret Atwood. This Tale Her book is an exemplary piece of likewise was an international bestseller serious reporting; it is also one, "Documented" with hundreds of (the paperback alone has been through unfortunately, which Walter Eichler and footnotes, Marrs warns that "a multi- twenty-one printings), and was made Dan Whitley have not read. headed, invincible, conspiratorial network into a major motion picture. It too is is the goal of the New Age." This plot regarded by many readers as only half- A NOSE FOR NONSENSE centers on what he calls "The Plan." fictional. In it, a fundamentalist And "Once New Agers ascend to world conspiracy overthrows the American Marrs, on the other hand, deals power, they will undoubtedly consent to government and establishes the almost entirely in second- and the plans of the Antichrist to rid the Republic of Gilead, a regime which thirdhand sources. His whole New Age world of the inferior 'rabble' that combines South African apartheid and super-conspiracy notion is repeatedly prevents universal Cosmic Consciousness Nazi anti-semitism with a high-tech, contradicted by his own data, which .... The New Age war on .jesus and the puritanical, misogynist theocracy . points instead, as does Adler's, to "New Bible is vile and vicious." He makes Age-ism" and Wicca being riotously frequent references to Hitler and the Women in Gilead have no real shapeless thickets of thousands of holocaust as New Age prototypes. status outside patriarchal families, and disparate groups, including numerous many, like the novel's protagonist, are competing would-be messiahs. Is it any wonder that Walter Eichler forced into slavelike concubinage for and Dan Whitley pressed their case breeding purposes. This practice is "The Plan most definitely includes with urgency? The paranoia level based on a passage in Genesis 16, ominous provisions for Christians," about everything dubbed "New Age", where Abraham's childless wife Sarah Marrs declares, and the very lack of among evangelicals influenced by this offers him her "handmaid," Hagar, in evidence for this is itself evidence: literature--and most are to some degree- order that he might have a male heir. "even if they exist, it would be dif ficult- -is difficult to overestimate. And the -perhaps impossible--for us to gain angry reaction to Eichler's testimony Abortion and feminism have, of access to the actual documents that reveal seemed like proof, solid evidence they course, been made capital crimes in outright a hideous, hidden intent to were in enemy-occupied territory. Gilead, and executions for these and persecute, purge, or kill all the Bible- But what of Carolyn Mallison, who other offenses are frequent, the believing Christians .... " Got that? was among those who stood, and mangled results left hanging in public. Journalists have words for what whose leadership of the disputed Yet there is, it turns out, a dangerous Marrs passes off as reporting; among workshop thrust her into the eye of the "Underground Femaleroad" helping the printable ones are:. hogwash, storm over Clintondale's minute, as the women escape to Canada. Naturally, malarkey, poppycock, balderdash, and

4 crap. century-old clapboard church in its not well represented in NYYM at large. The real source of Marrs' thesis is setting of autumnal apple groves, now For instance, the Ninth Month issue of an 1853 tract, The Two , by heavy with their harvest. Behind it is NYYMs newsletter, Spark, included , which argued that a the little original 1811 meetinghouse, brief comments on the YM sessions by purported "mystery religion" of ancient and behind that a hillside leveled and nine Friends, and two long Letters to Babylon was the original of all satanic, ready for construction of a baseball the Editor. The issue was evidently anti-christian cults, and that its marks field. (If you build it, I couldn't help intended to dampen the polarization, were the true indicators of satan's rule. thinking, will they come?) but the attempt backfired: none of the But Hislop "proved" that the Catholic nine Friends was from Clintondale or Church was the new Babylon, and the The morning I attended worship, the strongly Christian group; and one was the Antichrist. Marrs discards on 10/7, the sanctuary was well-filled, of the letters spoke snidely about Hislop's now unfashionable anti- the service programmed but a little "evangelical types" while the other Catholic bigotry and substitutes "New haphazard too, the children numerous muttered darkly about "power seekers" Ageism". Anyone relying on such and occasionally noisy, the singing using "fear and ignorance" in a manner drivel is not only seriously, dangerously heartfelt. The group was also mindful similar to Hitler, as if Gilead already misinformed about the facts; their of its silent heritage, devoting a full had a beachhead in the Hudson Valley. theology also needs revamping. fifteen minutes to "open worship". To say that Clintondale Friends ALAS, BARYLON ••AGAIN Mter meeting, talk with Clinton- felt this issue of Spark was grossly dalers made plain that their primary biased against them is an understate- The same outlook shapes This concerns centered, not on some state- ment. For Walter Eichler in particular, Present Darkness: "Universal Con- wide witchhunt, but on their own it was the last straw: Mter reading it, sciousness," says an angel in awe, when spiritual and personal struggles and he resigned from the meeting, and his the apocalyptic nature of the plot at achievements. For instance, the most wife followed his example. "I'm going last becomes clear. "TIle H'orld religion. prominent literature in the fellowship to look for a church where I can be a the doctrine of demons spreading among room was not some anti-New Age Christian," he told me bluntly. all the nations. Babylon revived right screed, but brochures for Alcoholics before the end of the age." This works Anonymous. Their next big program OLD RELIGION, NEW MYTH better as fiction, where Babylon's will be, not a purge of Hicksites, but a resurgent Prince can be decked out in fellowship dinner for Jamaican apple Spark's bias is too bad, especially the latest apocalyptic fashions. In sum, pickers. Here, it was abundantly clear, given the basically non-threatening "New Age-ism" might be an unqualified is a real church, made up of real character of Clintondale as a church evil, but it is not the monster Marrs people, and that meant it had plenty of community. On the other side, I and Peretti think they see. home-grown problems to worry about. doubt if some Clintondalers would be pleased to hear it, but my exposure to Evangelical journalists of greater A TIME TO MOVE ON Wiccans among Friends, once I pushed integrity have said this, more than past the fears the term evoked, aroused once. Christianity Today ran a major No wonder then that pastor Dan many similar sympathetic responses. article on witchcraft in its 10/21/1983 Whitley's sermon that morning focussed Most come to it the way described by a issue. It was judicious, well-informed, on their famous minute, but not to call woman in a recent letter, via concerns and definitely non-hysterical. And a them into more Gileadite combat. "about sexism: in society as a whole, in recent book, Another Gospel: Alternative Rather, he exhorted the handful of the church, and among Friends. " She Religions and the New Age Mo~'ement, activists who had pushed it (including speaks of "alternative religious activities by Ruth A. Tucker (Zondervan, 1989) himself) to lighten up, to leave it in that Quaker women are using to express also refutes the grand conspiracy God's hands, and tum their attention our experience .... when god is male, male nonsense. But Darkness seems to have back to their own community and its is god--and this is what I see." drowned out these evangelical voices of many physical and spiritual needs. reason, at least for now. (For that As Carolyn Mallison says, "the matter, its presence among Friends was Overall, despite my confirmed organized church has much to answer mentioned in AFLs #27 and #31, that preference for silent worship, I found for." which is true enough. Some find same year, without causing a ripple.) Clintondale Meeting very appealing, more adequate symbols outside it, in and wished other Friends, especially Wicca. The most interesting and But let's get back to our some of New York's liberal zealots, detailed accounts of these symbols and stereotypes. On the other side, what would visit there; if they are to have their appeal came in Margot Adler's about The Handmaid's Tale and pastoral groups in NYYM, they won't Drawing Down the Moon, and Dreaming Clintondale Meeting as the spearhead do much better than this. Sure, you the Dark (Beacon, 1988), by Starhawk, of Gileadite fascism? can find fear and prejudice there, but a leading contemporary witch. no more than in some liberal Most Wiccans believe they are The best antidote to such paranoid unprogrammed meetings I've seen. exploring something older than Judaism feminist canards would be a visit to the Clintondale and its viewpoints are or Christianity. They often refer to

5 their "Craft" as the "Old Religion", hierarchy; and for Starhawk at least, religions; neither is adequate, m my which preceded Christianity in Europe commitments to peace and nonviolence. experience and observation. and particularly England. Yet Adler shows that this "Old Religion" idea is How much closer to liberal Carolyn Mallison surprised me by ~ almost entirely a myth, a modem Quakerism can you get? In Starhawk's agreeing with this. "Many of these invention which makes use of ancient case, pretty dam close. She 'Ncw Agc' witclres are just blissing out symbols. But few Wiccans are literal- recommends Quaker dialogue tech- and don't know thc dangers involved." ists: "Traditionally. religions with inde- niques she learned from Friends in jail she said. "But there are people in fensible histories and dogmas cling to during an antinuclear protest that occult circles wlro want to use power for them tenaciously." she writes. "The Quakers helped organize; most of her selfish purposes." She compared magic Craft avoided this through the realiza- activist colleagues, she says, are not to prayer, and believes both can be tion, often unconscious. that its real witches: "they are as likely to be used for God's work or against it. sources lie in the mind. in art. in creative Quakers, Buddhists, radical Catholics, or work." For many adherents, "belief' in atheists."(Note who gets first billing.) Mention of God brings up another these symbols as actual gods or their She even comments that the Quaker point. Despite their affirmation of rituals as invoking objective forces is "doctrine of the 'Inner Light' reflects a Wicca's pagan roots, Adler and not necessary; old or new, Wicca is Clrristian conception of immanence," Starhawk mention numerous instances meaningful, Adler says, because it and this is the highest compliment she where this identity has been diluted. works for them. pays to any Christian group. Adler tells of witches who joined synagogues or became Catholics. Even THEY COULD RE COUSINS Given these many Quaker/Wicca Starhawk, in the revised edition of her affinities, it is no wonder that some book, tells of reaffirming her own (And by the way, both Starhawk evangelical Friends consider liberal Jewish identity: "1 am comfortable and Adler firmly reject, both in practice Quakerism little more than paganism in being botlr a Jew and a Pagan .... " and in principle, Satanism and all the a bonnet. They have also been noticed tenifying violence and child molesting in Friends General Conference: When THAT EMRARRASSING FOX /sacrifice stuff that Marrs and others FGC's plenary planning committee met accuse such movements of. In all her to pick speakers for the 1991 FGC For her part, Carolyn Mallison years of travel and research, Adler Gathering, Starhawk was their first, insists that, notwithstanding her Wiccan never ran into a Wiccan group involved unanimous choice. (She was unable to studies, she is still a Christian, albeit an in either of these. She argues that accept, but it's the thought that counts.) unorthodox one. She does not like to Wiccans and other neo-Pagans are no read the writings of anti-Christian, anti- more likely to be child molesters and NEW MYTHS, OLD COMPLAINTS male radical feminists. "Everybody's killers than are Christians or Jews, and involved in the problems we Irave," she those who do such things are as Even the criticisms of the new "Old maintains. And she sees in Wiccan aberrant in the one tradition as in the Religion" that come to mind also apply symbols a partnership of Goddess and others. But to be safe, she includes a rather well to liberal Quakers generally: God. Such mixing of traditions is an Cult Checklist which can alert spiritual Their complaints about the Judeo- ancient phenomenon, condemned by explorers to dangerous tendencies in a Christian tradition, while containing many theologians as syncretism and group or leader--Pagan, or Christian.) much truth, typically reflect a narrow heresy, but persistent for all that. It and stereotyped view of it; in fact, also shows that the Judeo-Christian It would be easy, reading accounts there is more of immanence in traditions may not be as easily shed as of Wiccan rituals, to dwell entirely Christianity, and more of a divine fem- some neo-Pagans would wish. on(and be dismayed by) their pagan inine, than they think (See AFL #111). features, such as the use of various Mallison even thinks George Fox ancient god and goddess figures, And there is often a tendency to must have been something of a magic- oracular tools like Tarot cards, and the attack Christianity, as more than a few ian, for instance, by the way he shook habit some have of doing some rituals Christian Friends, including this one, many people up just by looking at in the nude. Despite all this, as I can attest. The phenomenon of anti- them. She may be right, too; Fox worked my way through their books, Christian prejudice among liberal published a Book of Miracles detailing familiar phrases and ideas kept leaping Friends was considered at length in many amazing and terrible things that out at me. The relevant quotes could AFL#37; this is a real problem, because happened during his career. (It was fill several pages; among them are an Christianity, with all its faults, remains suppressed by embarrassed elders.) emphasis on seeking the divine within; Quakerism's heritage and context, and continuing revelation and aversion to it isn't going away. Such talk hardly reassures more creeds; improvisation in ritual which Also, they do not take evil evangelical Quakers, however; in fact, often amounts to an ''unprogrammed'' seriously enough, in my view. Where it makes them nervous. And I don't worship; women in equal or leading liberal Friends tend to ignore it, blame them: Fundamentalists aren't thE. roles; decisionmaking by consensus, Wiccans prefer to see it as an illusion only ones who carry psychological with minimal organization and no or a manipulative tool of patriarchal baggage where witchcraft is concerned.

6 As Adler herself says, "The mere words and is supposed to host its 1993 latch, ready to open it and loose the witch and witchcraft unlock a set of international Triennial session. Stories monster upon us. War will make every explosive associations that inspire of witchcraft in eastern Quakerism were other problem, including intramural unease if not fear." While attempting soon circulating on FUMs pastoral Quaker quarrels, harder to solve.) to learn enough about witchcraft grapevine. Add to this that FGC invited among Friends to write about it a witch as a major speaker at its next Personally, I have seen little in intelligently, I found I had to deal not Gathering, and you have plenty of fuel Quakeish Wiccan spirituality that only with others' fears, but my own as for the fires of fear and divisiveness threatens Christian Friends, once we get well: it gave me nightmares and other among Friends at large. over our fright. Following Gamaliel's physical symptoms. It made me ill. counsel (Acts 5:38-39) is probably the Can New York Friends recover wisest response:"Leave these men [sic] This response was both cultural their balance and handle the issues alone!...For if their purpose.~.is of and personal. I may scoff at Texe entangled with Wicca in a Friendly human origin, it will fail. But if it is Marrs' paranoia; but I have my own, spirit? Can they work through the from God, you will not be able to stop the unconscious deposit of centuries of many levels of fear involved? Can .these men [sic]. '" One scholar told conditioning about the dark evils of they learn enough of the realities that Adler that '''The Craft is really the witchcraft. It echoes from as far back lie behind their images of each other Yoga of the West'''; and some liberal as the book of Exodus, which coldly to make judgments based on reality and Friends have practiced yoga for years commands that "Thou shalt not suffer not on fearful fictional stereotypes? without causing any great calamity. a witch to live. "(22:18) Just the word for the resulting. terror campaigns, SPIRITS IN METAPHOR Yet it would not be unthinkable if which now has a generic meaning, still many in New York YM, after informed, strikes a chill into me: witchhunt. I wonder. It won't be easy. empathetic consideration of all the Despite my scorn for fundamentalist implications of this new "Old Religion" REMEMBERING OLD FEARS pop demonology, I am not a skeptic among Friends, decided they were about spiritual combat: There are indeed called to be separate from it. In And then there is the personal forces out there which won't fit in a that case, the groups could part side of it. It was well into this study test tube but which can wreak broad amicably and in right ordering, still able that my wife reminded me of havoc. To speak of them as "spirits", to cooperate where appropriate. something I had "forgotten": my own entities with a kind of autonomy is at encounter with a kind of witchcraft in least a useful metaphor, one George RELEARNING AN OLD LESSON 1968. The details are for another time; Fox often used. Here evangelicals and suffice it to say that it did not involve Wiccans are in substantial agreement, But New York Friends are far anyone connected with this present more than they realize, though they from any such informed and peaceable article, that much of what happened is argue about which spirits are which discernment process, not to mention the still mysterious, but that in the end I and how to deal with them. mutual regard it implies. And if they was left with a family member nearly ever achieve it, they may well discover killed, and myself shaken to the roots. The spirit of fear is surely one of that the kind of fellowship and com- them, as we have seen here only too munity created in the process out- I mention these autobiographical vividly. The spirit of division is another. weighs their theological and cultural items because reporters have their This force, loosed so abruptly by the differences. If this seems fanciful, personal and cultural histories, their minute on the YM, is always a double- consider that it was just such a convic- fears, which cannot be wholly edged sword: after worship at tion that led the old Orthodox and disconnected from their work. And in Clintondale, the first people to speak to Hicksite YMs to reunite in the .first many ways this essay comes down to a me were those anxious to say they place. story about fear: Fear of witchcraft, were against sending the minute and fear of witchhunts, fear of the unhappy about its impact. And even Maybe these old Friends were unknown, fear of each other, fear of Dan Whitley noted that the dissension deluded; maybe cultural/doctrinal ourselves. it generated had produced a dropoff in conflict leading to separation is the attendance. This is a shame, but it permanent fate of our Society, and And as New York YM's experience could have been predicted; it was Paul, society at large as well. But then shows, our Society, and our society, are not a witch, who observed that we reap again, maybe they knew something we increasingly vulnerable to being driven what we sow (Galatians 6:7). have forgotten, something William Penn by fear, especially fear of each other, put this way: "Love is the hardest lesson or of what we imagine each other to (And looming over these lesser in Christianity, but for that reason it be. New York's travail may be but the demons is another one, previously should be most our care to learn it." beginning: Present at the fateful unmentioned here: the spirit of war. I And if the Christian Friends can Tuesday night session were observers visualize it as growling beast, crouched learn it, perhaps the Wiccan Friends from Friends United Meeting in in a cage. A few men in Washington can too. And New York's Quaker Indiana. NYYM is a member of FUM, and Baghdad have their hands on the ecumenical experiment could continue.

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THIS MONTH I QUAKER HISTORY

Two obscure books, published in 1960, stand as the This seemed to him far preferable to the noisy and monument to the Quaker godfather of peace research. often simplistic rhetoric of pacifist activist groups. 'There They are Arms and Insecurity and Statistics of Deadly are many antiwar societies," he lamented much later, "but Quarrels. Their almost equally obscure author was Lewis they are concerned with propaganda, not research." Fry Richardson, born 10/11/1881 in Newcastle, England. Most of his research consisted of tracking down and Trained as a meteorologist and chemist, Richardson quantifying statistical data associated with arms races and served in the Friends Ambulance Unit in World War One. hostilities, to provide the basis for a mathematical theory He came away from that experience confirmed in his of warmaking. This was lonely work, but he didn't seem Quaker distaste for war; so much so that he left a job to mind: "1 hardly know what loneliness feels like," he with the Royal Meteorological office in 1920 when it admitted. 'When solitary 1 am usually serene; when in became part of the military air ministry. Thereafter, a crowd 1 am often embarrassed ...." He acknowledged Richardson worked quietly as a teacher and chemist, until that this temperament "does prevent its possessor from his retirement in 1940. collecting disciples and founding a 'school.'" His essays are full of complicated charts and formulae, unsuitable But in these same years he pursued a growing for use on a picket sign or protest leaflet. concern, which after retirement became a solitary passion: To discover whether the causes of war could be modeled His books were not published until seven years after mathematically. As he explained, "1 have a prejudice that his death. But they left their mark: peace studies is now the moral evil in war outweighs the moral good, although an established field, and Kenneth Boulding has written the latter is conspicuous. This prejudice is derived from that "Richardson's equations will be changed by future the Quakers, who brought me up. 1 am not ashamed of investigators, some of his conclusions will be abandoned, it; indeed, it has been one of the two principal motives but his work will remain forever as the first step made in for (this work). The other principal motive is my the right direction ....Whatever the shortcomings of (his prejudice that scientific method is more trustworthy than work), it will have to be studied by every investigator rhetoric. 1. am not ashamed of that either." who delves into the causes and origins of war."

QUAKER CHUCKLE

Anne Thomas, the distinguished General Secretary While a travelling mmlster was visiting a farm in of Canadian Yearly Meeting, recently asked for a button Ohio, there was a flood. She joined her hosts on the to be made bearing the motto, "Question Authority ....But roof of the house as the waters rose. Looking down, she not your mother," to wear at Yearly meeting sessions and was amazed to see a large hat moving back and forth in committee meetings. the water across the front lawn. When she pointed this out to the farmer, he said, "Good Lord, it's George, the Her daughter Helen then asked for a companion hired man. He said he would cut our grass today come button, to read "Question Authority ...But not my mother." hell or high water, and I guess he meant it."