{"id":2911,"date":"2020-03-08T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T21:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2020-03-08T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T21:10:18","slug":"should-we-leave-politics-at-the-door-of-the-meeting-room-by-doug-bennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2911","title":{"rendered":"“Should We Leave Politics at the Door of the Meeting Room?” by Doug Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 8, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should we keep politics out of Meeting?  Is it something we should leave outside, for\nanother day and another place?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we certainly have to acknowledge that Jesus was a political\nfigure.  He was \u201cborn a king\u201d in a land that already thought it had a\ndifferent king.  And he was executed for treason, for claiming to be a\nking.  (Crucifixion was reserved for punishing treason.)  In between\nhe advocated all manner of things that run against the policies of the current\ngovernment.  How can I follow Jesus and exclude politics from this room?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what to\ndo?  I\u2019m still thinking in terms of what do I lay down<\/strong> when I come\ninto this room, and what do I pick up<\/strong> and carry away from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I come into\nthis room, I have to lay down everything, and that includes all my worldly\nallegiances and commitments.  As Paul says in Galatians (3:28), \u201cThere is\nneither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,\nfor you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d  Nor is there Red Sox or\nYankee.  When I come into this room, I\u2019m not a Democrat.  I\u2019m not for\nBernie or Joe or Elizabeth.  I have to lay down my slogans. I have to even\nlay down my certainties about gun control, climate change and a woman\u2019s right\nto choose.  They may still be there waiting for me to pick them up when\nMeeting is over, but for the moment I have to lay them down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m only with God.\u00a0 No, that\u2019s not right.\u00a0 I\u2019m also with all of you.\u00a0 We\u2019re all sharing in the work of helping each other settle deeply into worship.\u00a0 We\u2019re making each other welcome.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking at each other expectantly.\u00a0 Perhaps you, or you, or you, will be who channels the voice of God today.\u00a0 I\u2019m not dismissing anyone because of their politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re making a\nplace for God, and that means we need to be tender with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand,\nwhat do I take from this room? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to expect\nthat what I hear in this room, what I take in, will make a difference in every\naspect of my life.  It will shape my politics.  It is here in worship\nthat my most basic commitments are forged, and sometimes re-forged.  I\nhave to expect that this is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to carry\nthe commitments formed in worship out of this room and let them influence\neverything I do.  My personal relationships.  My finances. \nEverything.  Even my politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quakers sometimes say, \u201cLet your life speak.\u201d\u00a0 That goes for politics as well as for everything else.\u00a0 But it\u2019s what we carry out of worship that lets our lives speak, it\u2019s not what we smuggle into worship.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire message can be found at Riverview Friend<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 8, 2020 Should we keep politics out of Meeting?  Is it something we should leave outside, for another day and another place?  I think we certainly have to acknowledge that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[153],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-KX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2912,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2911\/revisions\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}