quakers on the edge

today i read some letters by sarah grimke (that's her in the picture), a 19th century quaker who, along with her sister Angelina, started speaking out against slavery and got in trouble for speaking in public as women. so sarah started writing (and speaking) about the equality of the sexes. she bases her arguments on the bible, and the intro for the text i read said she wrote the first feminist treatise on equality in america. you can read more about them and some of sarah's letters here.

it makes me proud that we have such a great heritage as quakers--that all semester when we've talked about progressive groups in church history we've talked about quakers. it's great that our forebears were willing to step out of line, speak up, leave their comfortable lives and speak and act for justice.

but i wonder, what are we doing NOW that will be positive church hisory in the future? how are we as quakers standing up for anything? where's our prophetic voice for change now? the world certainly isn't perfect yet! the lamb's war is still going on, as the early quakers liked to call it. and yet it often seems like we're sitting around congratulating ourselves about a few great battles that we won and letting everything fall down around our ears as we fight amongst ourselves now.

so what is it that God is calling quakers to be about here and now? i hope we can continue to listen to the Spirit together. feel free to post your ideas...