Abstract
Why do Quakers avoid addressing and healing shame? The underlying fear is that if we are not seen as “good,” we will lose our sense of belonging in a community that places immense pressure on its members to uphold certain standards—or so it is widely believed. The perception that one is powerless to fully embrace one’s identity due to the fear of rejection is rarely articulated directly; instead, it manifests as dysfunctional behavior within the system, a topic I’ll delve into further later on. I would also like to posit that goodness is often conflated with innocence, the idea that we are incapable of power imbalances.2 This, I argue, does not serve the Quaker community today: we do experience power imbalances that result in real harm to our members, but because we have a taboo around discussing them, for fear of losing the currency of “goodness,” we cannot address them. This is the root cause of many crises in the American liberal Quaker community today.
Recommended Citation
Cooler, Windy
(2023)
"Breaking The Unwritten Rule That We Do Not Talk About Power: Claiming Religious Creativity, Vibrancy, And Right Relationship In Quaker Community By Living In That Life And Power,"
Quaker Religious Thought: Vol. 141, Article 2.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt/vol141/iss1/2