Who’s for Balby?
Bob Johnson considers a Quaker rule not to run your life by
A hundred and sixty one years ago a small Quaker group penned a quiet proclamation that I believe is more relevant today than Martin Luther’s articles. In 1656 the elders at Balby wrote a famous ‘Epistle’. It was a list of points – but not ‘a rule to walk by’. They stressed that Friends should follow them ‘in the Spirit’ and ‘not from the letter’. Today, we all look for rules – what, perforce, should we do about this, or what about that? Whose authority do we follow in conducting our business, our taxes, our economy or our social behaviour? Let’s have a rule, for preference a ‘scientific law’, which everyone can (or must) follow, regardless. There aren’t – at least to me – any obvious such laws. Indeed, most of those laws purporting to be scientific ones – neoliberalism, for example – aren’t. The hope, which is often tacit, that ‘science’ will provide all the answers is doomed. Those Quaker elders offer the only viable solution. How long will it take for humanity to catch up with Balby?
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