tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1517892305917115037.post889928805199898196..comments2023-09-19T10:03:27.883-06:00Comments on New City of Friends: How to be a Quakerly Buddhist (maybe)Dayamatihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04125167790936883271noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1517892305917115037.post-71658376490720043742008-10-12T18:01:00.000-06:002008-10-12T18:01:00.000-06:00I have never met a Quaker who was opposed to votin...I have never met a Quaker who was opposed to voting. Most I know are heavily involved in getting out the vote, canvassing for candidates, driving people to the polls and monitoring the counting of votes. It may be worth mentioning that in the United States there are two very different branches of Quakers. Some are almost fundamentalist and quite evangelical. It's possible your reports are of Quakers of that stripe. (Richard Nixon was of that persuasion.) The other branch is pluralistic and ecumenical. That is the only kind I have known personally.<BR/><BR/>All the Quakers I have known personally are Darwinists, scientifically rather than biblically oriented. Those who read the bible at all tend to read it is myth and allegory rather than as history. Almost all Quakers I know take the bible with more grains of salt than can be found in the state of Utah.<BR/><BR/>It is likely that you are right in saying you could not be a Quaker of the ilk that Richard Nixon belonged to. Neither could I be one of those. They wouldn't have me anyway; I'm a Buddhist. You might, however, find the more liberal, ecumenical and pluralistic Quakers, the so-called unprogrammed Quakers or Hicksites, more to your liking.Dayamatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04125167790936883271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1517892305917115037.post-66494513027658976632008-10-10T11:29:00.000-06:002008-10-10T11:29:00.000-06:00Wonderful post. I am Buddhist with great sympatic...Wonderful post. I am Buddhist with great sympatico for Quakers.<BR/><BR/>I probably know less about both religions than you, but for me I cannot be a Quaker.<BR/><BR/>For one thing, based on the very few Quaker sermons and informationals I have gotten, I understand that the Quakers do not believe in voting; they believe that God does the choosing.<BR/><BR/>There also is the underlying belief in Book of John- and Revelation-based Christianity that Jesus was not mere mortal, as the other books in the New Testament and the gnostics believe.<BR/><BR/>Too there is this believe in becoming a tool of Jesus whipped about by Satan's evil influence and wish-thinking gifts that come to one from God. I much more so believe in science and randomness.<BR/><BR/>Also, I have to believe in evolution and not the Genesis account of the beginnings of human life. On this issue, I don't know what Quakers believe.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13718601770472939313noreply@blogger.com