A few years ago, our Quaker Meeting got a call asking if we would like to participate in fundraising for the Student Atheist club at the university. The club’s idea was that churches and religious groups could “sponsor” a young atheist to come attend a service. It cost just $10 to sponsor a visit from one of them.
I was intrigued, so I shared the request with our Meeting for Business, and we agreed to sponsor five students to come worship with us in Silence. We sent them a check and invited them for a Sunday we were having potluck. When the day came, they showed up (some on their skateboards), and sat with us in the Silence, then happily shared food and conversation. It was a wonderful exchange; we lingered a long time discussing God, theology, doubt and belief.
None of them became Quakers, but that was never the point. We only wanted them to learn a bit about Quaker thought and to show them other possibilities. The young atheists were surprised to discover that some of us Reno Friends also had doubts about God, and that part of why we attended Quaker Meeting was that it was a safe place for those unsure about their faith. Because Quakers have no set creed or pledge of beliefs everyone must share, it’s okay to wonder if God exists. We also have no set liturgy. Instead, we ask ourselves “Queries,” questions that help us explore what we believe and what our faith means in our lives. We understand that everyone is on their own spiritual journey and must make their own way.
Recently, a regular attender of our Meeting decided to become an official member, which meant discussing with other Quakers why she wanted to commit to being affiliated with Quakerism and Reno Friends. She told me she did it because she realized that what the Quakers stand for – Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Stewardship – was what she stood for. And it was time, for her, to make that statement to the world.
This made me think about my own Quaker experience. I’ve attended Quaker Meetings for nearly forty years but have never felt like I could become a formal member if I couldn’t say that I believed in God. To honor the Quaker testimony of Integrity, I didn’t want to pretend to believe. When someone in our Meeting asks me why I am not an official member, I usually say that I believe in science, not necessarily in God.
And yet – I knew that no one in the Meeting had asked or required our newly minted member to profess a belief in God. One older member of our Meeting said to me once: “It doesn’t matter what you believe; you should become a member because you are doing everything Quakers do. You are already a Quaker.”
There are times when we may be asked to take a stand, to define who we are and what is important to us, and this is beginning to feel like such a time in our nation’s history. Because of that, I deeply admire our new member for taking her stand. I know that most Quaker Meetings have only a handful of official members and many faithful attenders – people like me who, for many years, have helped run the organization and supported the work of the Meeting. Reno Friends has many people who are already doing what Quakers do.
So, at the end of the day, does it matter if I believe in God? I’m fond of the idea that man invented God, and I can understand the usefulness of the God idea. Sometimes, when I am sitting in Silent Worship, I ask myself: “If there was a God, what would he be saying to me today?” It’s a mental trick that helps me escape my own spiraling thoughts and instead just listen and wait for an answer. And when I do that, the would-be God often says something surprising, something I hadn’t thought of yet, that wells up from that still small voice inside me that is the heart of Quaker faith. And that’s how I know where I stand.
Will I become a member of my Quaker Meeting? I’m not sure yet but I may be getting close. Until I’m ready, I will wait for that still small voice guided by the would be God.
By Wendy Swallow, Blog Editor, Reno Friends Meeting
The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of Reno Friends Meeting