The Relentless Pursuit of Hope

Let’s talk William Penn and Native American history. Let’s consider how the Quakers applied what they learned when they sat together in silence, listening for the God of their understanding. The news is mixed.

Penn himself believed that Native Americans should be treated fairly. He befriended the various tribes both near and far (including the: Delaware (Lenni Lenape), Erie, Honniasont, Iroquois (Iroquois of mixed ancestry were called Mingo), Saluda, Saponi, Shawnee, Susquehannock (Andaste), Tuscarora, Tutelo and Wenrohronon tribes.

In fact, Penn himself orchestrated a peace treaty between the various tribes and insisted on paying a fair price for their land. This treaty was signed in 1755. But the state of Pennsylvania never recognized Native American rights to land within its borders and by the 1790’s, only one small community remained.

How do we make sense of such good intentions and the demise of friendly co-collaborators for a peaceful and just society? This stuff just keeps happening!!! Maybe that’s why sometimes I lose all sense of hope; I keep hoping we humans will get our s*** together and learn how to respect each other and share. Try entertaining two toddlers in quarantine and see how you feel about mankind’s capacity to share! Today my granddaughter said, “Meme, stop. Mine body.” (She’s a genius.) Good boundaries? Yes! But I was rescuing her from her own willful ways as she tried to ride her tricycle down a sliding board! Life is hard.

Nevertheless, whether we succeed or fail, I am reminded of the author of Ecclesiastes concluding that in spite of everything, it’s important to run hard after God. Of course, Proverbs teaches us that God loves to be caught. Spend quality time with two toddlers during quarantine and see how you feel about mankind’s capacity to love! Today I watched Pops crawl into a tent thingy with Norah and Christian, his long legs dangling out of the tent flap. Little toddler giggles trilled through the air as they enjoyed their Granddaddy in the middle of a work day, because, well, quarantine. I keep returning to hope. No matter how grumpy I get, hope pursues me with relentless determination.

The Inconvenience of History

I love everyone who loves me, and I will be found by all who honestly search.

Proverbs 8:17 CEB

Did everyone leap and shout a hallelujah chorus over finding this light? Nah. According to Paulette Meier, this is what happened:

“The Quaker movement was seen as a huge threat to the state and Church of England, and later to the Puritans as well. The Quakers—also known as the Religious Society of Friends—had no use for the hierarchy, nor the rites and rituals of the church, and believed they were re-igniting primitive Christianity. They refused to pay the church taxes or to carry out social norms that put one class of people higher than another, such as tipping one’s hat to a person of nobility. They were also opposed to war and violence, which did not help their situation with the state. It was their deep conviction and inner peace that allowed them to withstand the brutal oppression that came down on them in the form of long jail sentences, confiscation of property, and torture. Thousands were imprisoned and hundreds died there. William Penn was owed a big debt by the King of England, and he managed to acquire land in the American colony, which is how so many Quakers were able to flee English persecution and come here, where they played a huge role in establishing freedom of religion in the formation of the U.S.”

And...in so doing, they eventually displaced the indigenous people who had claimed this same land as their own long before the Quakers needed a sanctuary. I’m not sure that those folks felt the same enthusiasm for this move as the Quakers fleeing persecution.

History is so inconvenient.

And yet, whether we are reading about history or living it, this is what we have to work with. How do we center ourselves in a world that so often requires one person’s gain to be another’s loss? How do we love others? How do we imitate a God who is eager to be found and recognized by the light of his love?

Using History to "Judge" Someone's Character

For the past few days, we’ve been exploring a case-study about character assassinating, get caught up before reading today’s post.

Too often we will character assassinate a person because we’re feeling hurt as a result of our pasts, and not a result of our past history with that specific person.

Our goal, our ideal, is to treat a person in accordance with who they have proven to be over the course of time. One moment, one action, does not make a person. It does not define their character and it does not describe the totality of who they are.

And yet, how often will one action, one moment, one situation, cause us to doubt everything? He (or she, or whatever) isn’t who I thought he was, we might say.

So let’s just start here, because this may just be a new idea. One action alone cannot erase a person’s entire history. If a person has proven to be reliable, trustworthy, dependable, honest, upstanding, generous, and kind, and they have one bad moment where they act mean and nasty, this doesn’t mean they were secretly mean and nasty that whole time. It means they had a bad moment.

Everyone has bad moments. We all lose our heads from time to time. The fact that someone’s head flies off does not mean that their character is substantially different from what you thought. It’s much more likely to mean they’re tired, stressed, or distracted. Perhaps they are grieving silently.

Who knows? That’s the point. Who knows?