E.G.

All traditional religions should be abandoned, but if we are going to participate in any traditional religions at all, it seems to me that Quakerism is a pretty good choice for a typical American person.

What I find most enjoyable is the way that meetings are conducted. Here is how it works in what are called "unprogrammed" meetings (which are the only kinds of Quaker meetings that I've attended; I suspect I would not appreciate the other kinds). On Sunday morning, you show up to the location where the meeting is scheduled to occur. You take a seat, sit down, and be quiet. Everyone else does the same. Then you and the others just sit there quietly. Minutes pass with no one saying anything. During this time, anyone is free to speak, but most choose not to say anything at all. Occasionally, someone does stand up and say something, e.g., a small prayer. But for the most part, everyone is quiet. All that there is to hear, for most of the service, is people shifting in their seats, road noise outside, etc.

I am not sure why I like these silent gatherings so much, but I do feel that there is something very good about the practice.

There are many other situations where you can sit silently with other people, of course. For example, in a doctor's waiting room, it is often the case that no one is saying anything, but that has none of the magic of a Quaker meeting. I think what's special about a Quaker meeting is not just that everyone is being quiet but that the people have come together deliberately in order to sit silently together.

Maybe the idea is something like this: The purpose of a religious gathering, any religious gathering, is for people to come together and find a way to respond to the world, I mean the whole world, with all of its horrors. And Quakerism, in practice, is the religion according to which silence is an appropriate response to the world.

As I said, Quaker meetings are not normally completely silent, because everyone is free to speak, and usually a few people choose to speak. These little disruptions are sometimes jarring to me, but I don't experience them as unwelcome. Almost always, the things that people choose to say are at least somewhat interesting. And a rule against speaking would be bad, because it would mean that the silence that mostly prevails is less than voluntary. The occurrence of these little speeches helps to make it really true that, as Quakers say: "We didn't abolish the clergy. We abolished the laity."

In addition to the silence that is Quakerism's speciality, there are several further features of Quakerism that make it recommendable as a good alternative to standard-issue American Christianity:

(1) Pacifism is built into Quakerism.

(2) Quakers throughout history have often been on the right side of many moral issues. For example, Quakers opposed slavery in America.

(3) Quakers are activists and, unlike all of the most popular forms of American Christianity, are largely on the right side of most of the big issues of our day.

(4) Quakers freely speak of moral obligation.

(5) Quakers believe that each of us has an "Inner Light," and that we should be listening to it and should use our own best judgment in interpreting it. It is reasonable to understand this talk as talk of conscience. And it is very good, in general, for people to be encouraged to pay attention to their own conscience (rather than to listen to authorities).

(6) It is not clear that Quakerism is a form of Christianity. I suspect that most Quakers will say that they are Christians but there are non-Christian and non-theistic Quakers, and care is often taken in Quaker messaging to avoid presupposing Christian perspectives. I think it is best to understand Quakerism as "Christ-haunted" and, as others have recognized and have said, it is also the case that American society as a whole is not exactly Christian but is "Christ-haunted." This is one of the reasons why I suspect that Quakerism or something like it might be a viable alternative to the main forms of Christianity that still dominate and cause tremendous havoc in American culture. I suspect it would be easier to get American people to embrace something like Quakerism than to get them to embrace a tradition further removed from the Christianity of their upbringing.