Ouch – don’t block me!
George Macpherson reflects on his uphill struggle to keep ‘up to date’
The temptation to block erstwhile Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or WeChat ‘friends’ is strong when they post, what I find to be, objectionable opinions, photos, or YouTube clips about their hates, loves or beliefs.
For example, when a British republican unfairly defames the British monarchy, I want to expunge that source of dissent from my smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop: ‘Out, damned spot!’ They trouble me – as do Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen, Bashar al-Assad, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and even Theresa May.
Then, recently, someone – on radio, or was it in the Friend? – suggested that blocking dissent from one’s consciousness leads to ever-distant opposing groups. They suggested that we should at least take note of what is being expressed and then be prepared to understand why we found it ‘disagreeable’ and challenge it, without rancour, venom, sarcasm, or antagonism, but constructively and in true Quakerly fashion.
What an effort! So much easier – just this once – to take on board what has appeared but, without blocking the contact, simply delete it until next time…and perhaps one day, when feeling stronger, to launch a proper response.
Now the confession: recently, in a presentation to Minehead Friends, I presumed to suggest that perhaps we should call ourselves ‘The Christian Society of Friends’. This was based on my 1966 discovery of Friends – coming from my vicarage upbringing.
They didn’t let me get away with it: I was under attack very quickly – all right, ‘challenged’. I had not understood that many seekers felt they could not call themselves Christian because they could not accept traditional ‘Christian’ terminology and a Christian interpretation of Christ’s preaching. They did, mostly, consider themselves ‘followers of Jesus’ or ‘of the Way’ – while some included ‘… and Buddha, Confucius, Saraswati and other saints’. But, so far, those Friends have not blocked me – thank Goodness (or ‘God’, if you prefer). On the contrary, they have been working on me with great kindness.
I realise that George Fox and early Friends started from where they were, with current inherited beliefs; and that the Quaker movement continued what they had started, moving forward with understanding, adopting different ideas and practice, as human knowledge expanded. Maybe I am not alone in being at risk of getting stuck where I started in 1966 – now resisting change and development. OK, I now understand why we are ‘The Religious Society of Friends’, although I don’t fancy becoming a veggie or a vegan, but Quaker Concern for Animals have got me worried at their slaughterhouse vigil (and my conscience agrees with them since my first visit to Harris’ Bacon Factory as a farm student in 1955, and later, in Botswana, seeing cattle, shot in the head, clatter to the steel floor).
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