Letters - 03 May 2024

Anger and mercy

Elizabeth Coleman’s article of 12 April traced the development of the Israelites’ understanding of YHWH’s identity, and their purpose as his chosen people, commissioned to be ‘as a light to the world’.

Walter Bruggemann (theologian) suggests that the early focus on YHWH as a God of Anger/Justice, dispensing retribution and punishment on wrongdoers, helped the Israelites to build a dependable, predictable and socially stable structure. The introduction of YHWH as the God of Mercy/Compassion, however, meant uncertainty as to the outcome of wrongdoing, recognising that it could result in liberation from punishment with surprising and unsettling results for society.

This tension is powerfully displayed in the Book of Jonah where the prophet – who enjoys ‘success’ not attained by other prophets – wrestles with his desire for certainty and predictability in the face of the merciful action of YHWH to the city of Ninevah. His search for personal certainty/eternal protection is demonstrated by the references to Tarshish, the ship’s hold, the fish’s belly, the Temple and the booth – all of which are overthrown by YHWH, whose concluding dialogue asks for Jonah to turn away from his exclusive ways and sectarian mindset to learn a lesson about ‘Divine Pity’. Jonah seeks death (Jonah 4: 3,9) rather than live under a God who forgives enemies and whose actions of mercy reveal that his love is for all creation is universal in nature and not limited to a chosen people.

It is my understanding that for all other religions of the world that hold the idea of a supreme deity, mercy is always exercised at the expense of justice – that the penalties for a broken law are set aside.

With the current conflict between Israel and the Arab nations I find myself wondering how the Book of Jonah might ‘speak’ to the parties today – and how the question posed by YHWH to Jonah (4:4) ‘Have you a right to be angry?’ could/should be answered by all of us.

Heather Kent

Meeting for Worship

Gabriel Lester (19 April) asks that, while Meeting should be open for everyone. are there not some types of people that should not be allowed to join in? Our Meetings for Worship are public meetings, open to all. This allows us to register as places of worship and not pay business rates and so on. There are very limited grounds for excluding someone from a Meeting for Worship, mostly linked to serious safeguarding issues. Even then we should make every effort to enable someone to access our Quaker worship.

We say in Our Faith in the Future that our Meetings should be places where ‘all are heard, valued and supported both in our needs and our leadings… All are welcomed and included’.

George Fox tells us to answer that of God in everyone. And how many of us have had our own views changed through Meeting for Worship?

Who are these types of people that Gabriel thinks we should not let in? Are we just a cosy club for ‘nice’ people, people like us? I have a close relative with a serious mental health condition and I am only grateful that he has found a warm welcome at the local evangelical church, where all really are welcomed and included.

Ingrid Greenhow

Baby and bathwater

I note that there is to be a conference in October; ‘The Future of British Quakerism’. The information says we are ‘at a critical juncture’. My message to those involved is don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Nearly every week in this journal Friends go on the offensive to criticise things that Friends have been involved with historically. Quaker schools for example. Henry Lawson (5 April) and Alison Leonard (19 April) say that these schools break up families and local communities, are unsafe environments and deprive children of parental guidance.

Those who are anti Quaker schools should make arrangements to visit one before they make these accusations. I visited Bootham last year, fifty-three years after being at school there. I was so impressed in what I found: the Quaker ethos was so apparent. What an excellent method of outreach for our society.

One of the things I learned at Bootham was independence, which gave me skills to go out and cope with what life can throw at us. I felt that I got the best of both worlds being in the school environmental as well as the parental/home environment during holidays.

Another example is that apparently we should have a testimony against capitalism, writes Paul Hodgkin (5 April). So where does that put all the Quaker chocolate manufacturers, bankers and many other Quaker entrepreneurs of the past and all the good work they did both inside and outside the workplace?

We need to use resources more responsibly, but if we are to make advances in, for example, better modes of transport we need inventors and those ready to take on the risk of setting up a business to make them available.

I am so glad that Stephen Petter (5 April) wrote reminding our central organisation that their ‘responsibility is to ensure our Religious Society continues to be a religious society’.

Yes Friends we are at not only a ‘critical juncture’ but on a precipice: let’s not fall over it. We need as George Fox said to ‘stand still in the light’ and then refocus our raison d’être. I hope that the outcome of the conference is that we can proudly come away and with justification still call ourselves ‘The Religious Society of Friends’.

David G Bower

The Gaza conflict

I feel moved, at this time especially, when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has grown so much worse, to share my thoughts and emotions, speaking as an Israeli Jewish Quaker and veteran of the Israeli army.

I am deeply ashamed of what Israel, in the course of its struggle against Hamas, is permitting to happen to the civilian population in Gaza. I cannot understand it. This is not the country and people I know. I join in the now almost universal call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. This unfortunately means that Hamas will remain in Gaza; and this, to my own limited understanding, means that there will never be peace and wellbeing for the people of Gaza, or for Israel.
Let us make no mistake about Hamas: it calls for the total destruction of Israel, the annihilation of the Jews living there, and the extermination of the whole Jewish people worldwide. It is hard to see how such an ideology can be brought to the negotiating table in any meaningful way. Nevertheless, I pray that their hearts and minds will be changed fundamentally. I pray God to forgive them, to put forgiveness into the hearts of Israelis, and into my own heart also (which I have been finding very difficult).

Clive Gordon

Let us dream

My answer to Paul Hodgkin’s inspiring article on the need to replace capitalism (5 April) is a resounding ‘Yes’. And if we do, we shall be in good company. 

In Let Us Dream: The path to a better future, Francis, the current pontiff, wrote, ‘We need an economy with goals beyond a narrow focus on growth, that puts human dignity, jobs, and ecological regeneration at its core. The dignity of our peoples demands an economy that does not merely enable the accumulation of goods, but allows all to access good work, housing, education and health.’ And: ‘In the absence of social goals “profit first” economic growth has fed a crony capitalism that serves not the common good but speculators… creating historically unprecedented levels of inequality.’

Howard W Hilton

Peace and justice

For the Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) to be forcibly split from Yearly Meeting over the ‘Salter matter’ was wrong, and I think completely avoidable. I would imagine that this lecture could now fill a 50,000-seat stadium if that was the QSS’s intention.

There could (and arguably should!) be 50,000 calls for resignations at ‘Quakers in Britain’ management level over this matter, because peace and justice must prevail.

Dan Gmaj