‘In our struggles against the inequalities that so mark our communities we should draw on populist practice.’ Photo: John Hain / Pixabay.
‘If this is not the truth of Quakerism, why not leave control of the Meeting to a panel of experts.’
Last month’s article on populism drew a number of responses. This week, Laurence Hall argues that it is actually at the core of our faith
A man began shouting over the sermon. The well-connected and progressive preacher had been starting to wrap up when a voice of dissent sent an echo around his church. The wealthy congregation turned suddenly, in anger, toward this ignorant populist whose clear intolerance had led him to disrupt their ordered religious service. The congregation didn’t listen to what he was saying as they threw him out, except for his initial words: ‘You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say?’
He was part of a populist movement which attacked so-called experts – be they spiritual or temporal – as part of a corrupt elite who stood in the way of empowering the people. A populist movement that stated that the direct experiences of the people should trump all attempts at restricting the expression of that experience, in all its power and range. A populist movement that demanded the people take back control by removing the intermediary structures restricting their power.
If you haven’t guessed already, this populist movement is Quakerism, and that ignorant populist is George Fox. But surely this description of the founder of our faith as a populist is just wrong. The image of populism that probably comes to mind – as indeed was well rendered by Tony D’Souza in this magazine just a few weeks ago – is one of racist demagogues inciting the ignorant masses to embrace an ideology of hatred and exclusion. One that stands against a phantom liberal elite and vulnerable minorities.
Friends quite rightly fear this ugly face of modern bigotry and want to stop it. We know that the majority of people don’t really have the knowledge or know-how to see what is really going on. These people so easily fall for lies and can’t tell the difference between the truth and fake news. We can’t let the reactionary masses lead us into chaos and hatred. They must be saved from themselves and their irrational authoritarian desire. We progressive Quakers can see the truth unlike this ignorant mass. We have the superior critical skills to know what the true interests of the people are, as we can’t be fooled by such falsehoods, unlike the reactionary mob. We follow the experts, the ones who know what is really going on and what the right path forward is. Our preachers of the truth know how to separate who is and isn’t speaking that truth – how to separate who should and shouldn’t have a voice – in truly reasoned discernment. This priesthood is rightly at the top of a hierarchy of knowledge that we know should be the central force in shaping our society. We will not let some ignorant populist disrupt our ordered community with their idiotic talk of equality and the plurality embodied by the inner light within all.
I hope you can see how easy it is slip into a priestly hierarchy that runs contrary to the populist ideas inherent within the fundamentals of our Quaker beliefs. The basic egalitarian foundation of our faith – that the inner light in each of us can shine equally brightly – is populist to its core. Ministry is open to all, with no attention paid to the educational or social status of the person ministering. Within our Quaker Meetings we do not restrict an opportunity to speak to those with recognised accreditations on the subject being discerned. The collective will of the Meeting is informed not by an elite few but is made by the silent and vocal ministry of the many. There is no hierarchical arbiter stating who can and who cannot come into our Meeting and minister. Quaker discernment has no intermediaries to restrict its ministry, and no hierarchies to alter its decisions. If this is not the truth of Quakerism then why not leave control of the Meeting to a panel of experts – be they spiritual or temporal? Quakerism certainly values specialist knowledge but these are an aid to the radical, open processes of Quaker discernment, in which the collective knowledge of all present seeks the truth. This is populism at its purest. We are all people of the light who come together in all our plurality through our commitment to the practice of equality. This enables all to shine. To put it simply, Quakerism is spiritual populism enacted.
To be a Quaker is fundamentally to be a populist. In our struggles against the inequalities that so mark our communities we should draw on this populist practice – one that that lies at the heart of our faith. Quaker populism can be the foundation of an inclusive movement that brings together that great plurality of people who feel excluded and repressed by our current world systems. Together we can, without violence, build an egalitarian present and future. A community in which the structures of hierarchy and exclusion are rejected totally as the values of equality and plurality govern all. To live for this is the aim of Quaker populism, and all the people that follow it.
