What Will Quakerism Look Like In 30 years?
Jim Roush I grew up in a vocal Meeting. People liked to speak their mind about a variety of things that they were struggling with at that moment, whether it be religious, personal, social, or political. Struck by how often the messages seemed to relate to social and political issues, and specifically, the need for peace in the greater world, I’ve begun to think about why the messages seem to flow from this particular aspect of Quaker tradition. Of course, the Peace Testimony is a central component of modern Quakerism. That being said, it makes intuitive sense to me that the relative importance of the Peace Testimony is because many influential Meeting members/attenders are of the Vietnam/peace movement generation. This statement begs the question of what Quakerism will look like when many of its leaders grew up without a real peace movement. To this, I have no idea. But I think it will look different. As a 20-something, I have no experience of the “march on the Capital” style movements
