A Friend After 50 Years

A record of one journey into a peculiar type of Quaker Christianity, and a bit of silliness to boot.

Name:
Location: Arkansas

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Stakes, steaks, jackals & judgments

Kwakersaur asked: "How then do we disagree with each other's interpretation of scripture without threatening to burn each other at the stake?"

I'd like to offer some suggestions:

Unacceptable: "I disagree with your position on atonement, therefor I shall burn you at the stake..."

Acceptable: "I'd be glad to burn you a steak" (in the case of vegetarians such as myself, this could be a Tofu-Steak).

Another approach: "I seem to recall a scriptural passage reciting, '"vengance is yours, Dave," saith the Lord....' Or was it 'vengeance is MINE...' (flipping pages), ah yes, it was indeed the latter. I suppose that would also agree with "judge not" as well as "resist not evil" and even "love one another."

Ive been watching copious amounts of Marshall Rosenberg (of Nonviolent Communication renown) videos lately. I like his approach of dispensing with moral judgments of one another in order to concentrate on what each other feels and needs about a situation. On the surface this may seem amoral, but anyone who's studied it to any degree will find that its really aimed making heart connections that rarely occur in our normal argumentative, diagnosing and blaming mode of conversation(which he calls "Jackal language.") I suppose this method would work just as well discussing theology as marital or tribal disputes.

I do have a reservation or two about NVC - mainly around the problem of a potential over-emphasis on "I" & "my", but I'll save that for another time.

5 Comments:

Blogger ef said...

Nothing specific to say, but I wanted to let you know that I'm reading and enjoying your blog.

It's weird, how many people might be out there reading our blogs and nodding to themselves, but not saying anything, and then again, maybe no one is.

Just thought I'd let you know I am appreciating your writing.

peace
Pam

11:28 AM  
Blogger David Carl said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:35 AM  
Blogger David Carl said...

Thanks, Pam. I've also been pondering your previous comment on what it means to Christians to be one. I can't really speak for others (and the number of potential answers may be infinite) although I have some as yet uncooked ideas of my own, which may or may not ultimately get posted. Thanks for stopping by.

David

11:40 AM  
Blogger Lorcan said...

I love thy apreciation of burning stakes. I have a story for thee about this, but first, I am, on this topic, (how we blog with each other, and not burn each other at the stake, or force burnt steaks into each other... tofu or otherwize) proposing the development of an on line Faith and Practice for Blogging, see my blog, for today... NOW
To being burned at the stake...
As thee might know, I work with the Romany community in the US. One of my Roma friends grand aunt was arrested in ... I think Maryland... Delaware, one or the other, for telling fortunes. She pled guilty. The judge read the statuet several times, then shook his head. "I can't let you plead guilty... in fact, I don't intend to try you at all! The only penelty listed here, is burning you at the stake! I'm not going to do that! Go home, and stop telling fortunes, will ya?!"
Well, this might be a piece of Romany oral history or myth, but it came to mind, also, the Rom who told it to me, had a wonderful turn of faith, as is common among pre-literate people... in his telling he says the judge's phrase was to be burned to a steak. Well, let's hope no other "Gypsies" get tried for fortune telling in THAT state, unless they get the same judge!!!!!!
Thine
lor

11:53 AM  
Blogger David Carl said...

Lorcan,

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Nothing about Tofu, to my chagrin, but its not a perfect world. I've heard Wal Mart supercenters are going organic however, so perhaps it won't be long.

Other than that, your post brings to mind the joke about a "small medium at large" anent a wee fortune teller on the lam. As you are a musician yourself, perhaps you've heard Emily Kaitz's song by that title.

But why reprint the gmail ads? I dunno, bro. It just seemed like the thing to do.

Take care,

Dave

1:11 PM  

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