Bad Quaker
Roland Carn reviews a book by American Friend J Brent Bill
‘I’m not proud; I’m a bad Quaker. But I don’t deny it,’ says J Brent Bill.
At first I thought: ‘I can relate to this. I’m a bad Quaker.’ From time to time some aggrieved Friend tells me I’m un-Quakerly. So, I guess I must be a pretty bad Quaker. Well, not a very good one, anyway. Bad is catchy, to hook in the reader. Did it catch you, too?
I dipped into Brent Bill’s new book, Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker: A Humble Stumble Toward Simplicity and Grace, as one does. It was a vegetable stew of classic nuggets in a warm broth of teen-speak. I put it down and left it – for a while. A ‘bad Quaker’ sounds like a contradiction in terms. How can you be a bad Quaker? Brent spells it out in 126 pages.
I admit a prejudice. Brent Bill is a pastor to a Quaker meeting in Indiana. Enthusiastic evangelism disturbs me, as a Brit from an unprogrammed Meeting. I suspect Quakers in Britain could usefully learn something from our successful evangelical brethren elsewhere in the world. Brent Bill takes evangelism enthusiastically to younger Quakers. I read for quite a long way before I realised that Brent is a grandfather, like me. He’s about my generation and perhaps his teenage grandchildren are as alien a species as mine.
He does more than that. Brent Bill writes on two levels: the surface, easy-to-relate-to, everyday, chatty level, and a deeper level of traditional spiritual Quakerism. He is entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. Quite an achievement! In each chapter he deals with an issue of concern to present day Quakers, applying classic quotations to personal action.
The author writes for Friends. Like most of us dyed-in-the-wool Quakers, he takes for granted the basic notions of Light, Truth, God, Meeting for Worship, and how Quakers do their business. ‘Quaker speak’ is part of our identity, but a barrier to others. In an appendix Brent discusses a dozen Quaker phrases but he does not translate them into terms that a non-Christian or a person of no religion might understand.
Brent Bill asks penetrating and challenging questions in this book: ‘Have I ever heard God speaking? How did I know it was God?’ ‘What does it mean for me to be a peaceful person?’ ‘What daily life conditions overwhelm me?’ ‘Do I spend my time in ways that reflect my values?’ ‘In what ways do I respond to prejudice and injustice?’ ‘Are these words and actions really true and necessary?’ ‘Do I strive to practice active ways of living in harmony with the earth and all the people in it?’
These, and many more, are peppered throughout each chapter. He points out that Quakers are very good at asking questions. It is a brilliant way to avoid dogmatic statements but can give the (wrong) impression that we have no commitment, core beliefs or sound practices. We are vanishingly inclusive.
Brent Bill’s questions are not rhetorical. He prompts me to look at how I behave in daily life. Do I really live my beliefs every day? He treats this very personally. His life is like mine. I relate to his experience.
Like most of us, from the cusp where daily action meets spiritual experience, Brent Bill bounces back into the spiritual stratosphere, instead of moving under the glass floor to deal with the detail of specific actions in particular situations. Principles, aims and guidance are so much more comfortable than specifics – hence the glass floor. Not bad enough!
Life Lessons From a Bad Quaker: A Humble Stumble Toward Simplicity and Grace by J Brent Bill is published by United Methodist Publishing House at £10.99. ISBN: 9781630881313.
