Letters - 15 November 2013
From 'that old lie' to George Fox
That Old Lie
‘Grandparents’ day’ at our grandchildren’s primary school is where we tell the children about our school days; before mobile phones, computers and even television but not, in my case, as one child asked, before electricity!
I have written before on what I believe to be some positive aspects of military values but I was concerned, on grandparents’ day, to see a video of a visit to the school of soldiers in camouflage fatigues teaching the children (ages six to eleven) to march – in effect, teaching them foot drill.
I went to an army boarding school in the days when there were such things overseas for the children of military personnel. Discipline, as I remember, was strict but army uniforms had no place within the school and we were never drilled.
There is, I feel, a serious ethical problem with the military visiting schools, especially primary schools. I sense an increasing and unquestioning ‘heroification’ of the military, which borders on an unpalatable form of jingoism. This fails completely to consider the, sometimes very high, cost mentally and physically to the individual soldier.
We ought, especially, to remember the sacrifice, the pity of war and what Wilfred Owen termed ‘That Old Lie’ (Dulce Et Decorum Est) – that it is sweet and right to die for one’s country. There is nothing heroic or celebratory about that.
I recall other soldiers in other countries teaching young school children to march – that didn’t turn out too well.
Robert Steele
God
Since joining the Religious Society of Friends, I’ve discovered two streams of thought. One defines ‘that of God’ as a purely human instinct heading toward perfectibility. The other defines ‘that of God’ as a supra-natural Spirit infusing human experience and aiming us toward a good purpose. Historically, the Religious Society of Friends is founded on the latter stream. According to George Fox, Margaret Fell and Robert Barclay, God transcends humanity, yet indwells us with the Spirit when we actively seek the Will of God. The resurrection of Christ is a spiritual resurrection in which each believer is elevated to a place not found on one’s own.
That is why I do not understand the desire to eliminate God-language from the Religious Society of Friends or from Quaker faith & practice when the concept of God is the primary reason for our existence as a community. With respect, I would join an atheist organisation if I did not believe in God. Atheists also work for peace and provide community to their members. Why insist on eliminating the very concept that, distinctly, makes Friends religious? It makes about as much sense as insisting atheists insert God into their manifestos.
The concept of God makes people uncomfortable. It is supposed to. By adhering to it, we hold ourselves accountable to something larger than our own rationalisations; we hold ourselves accountable to a community guided by a common faith and method. Perhaps the Society’s dwindling numbers testify to the slow extinguishing of the very Spirit that supplied its growth in the first place.
Ann Webb
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