The heart of The Quaker Way

I'm still discovering answers to the question, "Why are you moving on from being a Quaker minister?" It took an intervention (of sorts) by my closest mentors and my partner to realize the depths of my burnout. I found myself stuck in a passionless, uninspired, and frustrated state, not entirely sure how I ended up there.

I suppose aha moments will arrive as little revelations for years to come. I share them here because these revelations demand to be held and wrestled with together.

I'm realizing that a considerable part of my growing dispassion and frustration was witnessing progressive-liberal communities appealing to a spirit of placidness, volleying for a morally high and unchallengeable "middle of the road" orientation. Quaker communities, in particular, often herald pacifism and peacemaking as a morally superior ethic, but in practice end up empowering systems of oppression and marginalization for the sake of compromise and consensus, or preemptively steering around conflict to maintain a sense of “harmony." In seeking to honor the inner Light in each person, we fall into a gentleness that slips into complicity, as if the Light could not bear us naming the shadows that are actively concealing it.

It makes sense why we want to turn down the temperature. Polarization and extremism are legitimate things for us to avoid, critique, and prevent. But like most beautiful and worthy things, we are asked to be creative, nuanced, and imaginative in our efforts, stepping outside the norms and expectations established by systems of power, and what they deem "legitimate" means of peacemaking and change.

Quakerism, and other spiritual-religious traditions, have the possibility, much like journalism, to be an alternative or outside voice that challenges and disrupts narratives that lead to complacency. Christianity in America has almost entirely lost its legitimacy in this regard. Conservative Christians have poured themselves entirely into certain socio-political ideologies that they've lost all ability to know when they are being manipulated to serve the aims of empire.

And yet, I'm equally as concerned about progressive-liberal circles pouring themselves entirely into placid, lukewarm, middle-of-the-road theories of change. We can speak and act decisively, with conviction, clarity, and passion, without slipping down some imaginary slippery slope into extremism or polarization. We can be a thorn in the side of governments and institutions, not because we despise them, but because we dare to hope they might yet become vessels of justice, mercy, humility, and good for all.

At the heart of the Quaker way is a process of listening to the Light of Truth and Love that exists within us and our experiences. In that listening, we come remarkably close to our core convictions, unadorned and real. I would love to see us speak from that place with love for our neighbor but also from those convictions that encourage us to hold the powerful and mighty accountable. I encourage not dulling the Light for the sake of digestibility for the masses but communicating with wildly prophetic, real, and plainly spoken words.

Mark Pratt-Russum is a former released minister who is now pursuing his masters in clinical social work at Smith College School of Social Work. He lives in Portland, OR.