Why Did Quakers Stop Quaking?
By David Yount My question is not of my own invention. It was a challenge posed to me in Summer 2000 when I gave the millennium lectures on religion at the Chautauqua Institution. My challenger was a Pentecostal minister, who was annoyed at my characterization of contemporary faith in America as fuzzy, personal, emotional, and largely detached from the imperative to love God and serve one’s neighbor. He argued that Quakers of George Fox’s time were more like his own Pentecostals are today fervent, emotional, evangelical, Christ-centered, empowered by the Spirit and devoted to mutual service. He was politely implying that we Friends have lost the fervor of our forebears. I’m not good at thinking on my feet, but I believe the response that popped into my head that day was pretty good. I suggested to him that Quakers stopped quaking when we stopped being persecuted. George Fox himself reveals why Quakers started quaking: “Justice Bennet of Derby was the first that called us Quakers, becau
