Friday, May 30, 2025
Sunday, April 20, 2025
I wish everyone a joyous Easter. I am writing this from my heart.
I went to announce the Cloud Quaker meeting on the facebook site, and. ended up with a desert road. No flowers, no bunnies, no green grass, no nothing. I realized that my heart had become angry, barren, spiteful toward the Christian Easter-hat spectacle. The death camps were the last straw.
I have a few friends who are pastors or are involved in churches. They've been asking lately, where are all the people? Rows of pews are sitting empty. It's fairly easy, I'd tell them. To the young, the churches are too closely associated with evil - the man, the fascism, the death camps, killing all the birds, the eagles and whales, hate, stripping people of rights, etc. In other words this man that they support is the exact opposite of what they believe in or are looking for. The young are not coming back. Those churches will only get emptier.
When it's all over they'll break into the death camps and notice that this is where all the killing happened. It may not be the six million that they counted in Auschwitz, Berkau, etc. but then again it could be that many or more. Brown people, gay people, dissident people, innocent people, citizens, they don't care. Why do powerful people just want to kill people? Because they can. They can use their power, and make people disappear, and that makes them feel powerful. It's evil, and we can see it, and it looks evil to the world. Years after they liberate the camps they ask how it was that people could know this was happening and do nothing. It's wrong and it's obviously wrong. And in this case the churches not only know and approve, they encouraged it from the start.
The pastors themselves may not have been to blame. They may have focused on Jesus and Redemption, and the union of the divine and the human spirit, much as what we should be thinking about on this holiday. They may have been so focused on their message that they didn't see that the church basement and all the social events had turned into a political battleground where gullible people were being convinced that Zelensky was just as bad as Putin, that all that matters is that abortion be made illegal. In fact many of them have an unclear idea of the difference between Putin and Zelensky anyway. Sell out the free world? They're just doing what they're told.
"Doing what they were told" is what the nazis said years later, when asked how anyone could participate in a system that systematically kills people because of their race, in spite of innocence and legal rights. It's pretty clear that those who support him would support him no matter what, no matter what they were told, no matter who died in the process. It could be that racism is the driving force. They see America becoming brown and they're afraid. He's the man who can clear the deck and make it white again. So if there are some photoshopped pictures of people in El Salvador, and somebody makes up some whitewashed story about them, people are perfectly willing to believe that they are being protected by a strong hand of a savior. I think they felt that way in Germany too. They didn't know what was happening in the camps, but they suspected it, and still they did nothing because basically they had racial discomfort anyway and just wanted to live among other pure Germans.
For that reason I've become a little alienated from my fellow neighbors - I live in a somewhat German area, though my town itself is diverse and more open-minded. Racism is a universal scourge. It seems there will be this problem as long as there are different races trying to live together.
But the church has a job in this situation, and it's not to divide, to raise suspicion, to pass along false information and photoshopped pictures, or to justify death camps. It's not to encourage boys to go fight in the invasion of Greenland or the annexation of Canada.
To get back to the problem of low attendance, yes there are churches that are doing the right thing; they are the minority but they are out there. People still need God, and community, and the connection between the divine and the human spirit. These things have to start over, start at the bottom, start free of political concerns to the point that maybe I ought to shut up on a site like this and stick to holier content. Rest in peace to the churches, we can't solve that problem.
Nevertheless it's Hitler's birthday, and Easter. He is risen indeed.
I went to announce the Cloud Quaker meeting on the facebook site, and. ended up with a desert road. No flowers, no bunnies, no green grass, no nothing. I realized that my heart had become angry, barren, spiteful toward the Christian Easter-hat spectacle. The death camps were the last straw.
I have a few friends who are pastors or are involved in churches. They've been asking lately, where are all the people? Rows of pews are sitting empty. It's fairly easy, I'd tell them. To the young, the churches are too closely associated with evil - the man, the fascism, the death camps, killing all the birds, the eagles and whales, hate, stripping people of rights, etc. In other words this man that they support is the exact opposite of what they believe in or are looking for. The young are not coming back. Those churches will only get emptier.
When it's all over they'll break into the death camps and notice that this is where all the killing happened. It may not be the six million that they counted in Auschwitz, Berkau, etc. but then again it could be that many or more. Brown people, gay people, dissident people, innocent people, citizens, they don't care. Why do powerful people just want to kill people? Because they can. They can use their power, and make people disappear, and that makes them feel powerful. It's evil, and we can see it, and it looks evil to the world. Years after they liberate the camps they ask how it was that people could know this was happening and do nothing. It's wrong and it's obviously wrong. And in this case the churches not only know and approve, they encouraged it from the start.
The pastors themselves may not have been to blame. They may have focused on Jesus and Redemption, and the union of the divine and the human spirit, much as what we should be thinking about on this holiday. They may have been so focused on their message that they didn't see that the church basement and all the social events had turned into a political battleground where gullible people were being convinced that Zelensky was just as bad as Putin, that all that matters is that abortion be made illegal. In fact many of them have an unclear idea of the difference between Putin and Zelensky anyway. Sell out the free world? They're just doing what they're told.
"Doing what they were told" is what the nazis said years later, when asked how anyone could participate in a system that systematically kills people because of their race, in spite of innocence and legal rights. It's pretty clear that those who support him would support him no matter what, no matter what they were told, no matter who died in the process. It could be that racism is the driving force. They see America becoming brown and they're afraid. He's the man who can clear the deck and make it white again. So if there are some photoshopped pictures of people in El Salvador, and somebody makes up some whitewashed story about them, people are perfectly willing to believe that they are being protected by a strong hand of a savior. I think they felt that way in Germany too. They didn't know what was happening in the camps, but they suspected it, and still they did nothing because basically they had racial discomfort anyway and just wanted to live among other pure Germans.
For that reason I've become a little alienated from my fellow neighbors - I live in a somewhat German area, though my town itself is diverse and more open-minded. Racism is a universal scourge. It seems there will be this problem as long as there are different races trying to live together.
But the church has a job in this situation, and it's not to divide, to raise suspicion, to pass along false information and photoshopped pictures, or to justify death camps. It's not to encourage boys to go fight in the invasion of Greenland or the annexation of Canada.
To get back to the problem of low attendance, yes there are churches that are doing the right thing; they are the minority but they are out there. People still need God, and community, and the connection between the divine and the human spirit. These things have to start over, start at the bottom, start free of political concerns to the point that maybe I ought to shut up on a site like this and stick to holier content. Rest in peace to the churches, we can't solve that problem.
Nevertheless it's Hitler's birthday, and Easter. He is risen indeed.
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Intro to Quakerism
The following arrived in an e-mail from Quaker Religious Education Collaborative. I assume it's ok with them if I simply copy it and put it here. We've been talking a lot about how to get the newcomers a better view of what Quakerism is. Needless to say, we do a bit of this in Cloud Quakers and I have a pamphlet myself (last post). It's useful to me to just collect all Quaker intro material and I'm interested in any comments or other info out there.
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Sunday, February 23, 2025
Beginner's Guide to Quakerism
At the moment they are $.65 each plus postage. Postage is about $5 to send 20, much less to send a single one. Inquiries can be made to me here or you can communicate directlly on paypal at tlevsp @ gmail.com, no spaces.
The batch from the printers is really nice, well done, but underpriced, according to him. I told him to make me a sustainable price so that we can fix the price permanently. Also I will work on ordering more than 200 (requires more money than I can take out of the family budget) and that will lower the price further. Our goal is to keep the price as low as possible.
The batch from the printers specifically is a little more than 60 cents each. I round up to make sure I cover envelopes and gas to the post office. I do not charge for my time.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Beginner's Guide to Quakerism
by Maurine Pyle, Margaret Katranides, Thomas Leverett, and Fernando Freire
$3.83 + postage on Amazon
$0.99 on Kindle
Followers of this blog and the press will recognize this as the pamphlet, published in 2021 and printed at home by me for $0.80 each + postage. It will still be available in pamphlet form, printed more professionally, and possibly cheaper; stay posted. This Amazon version is at least available now, here from this site.
It was intended to give the average outsider a good general overview of what Quakerism is. It is, after all, a discipline to live by Truth and integrity, and to have as your community people who may feel differently about the exact role of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the literal doctrines of mainstream Christianity. Many Quakers today do not call themselves Christian; if so, what do they have in common? This pamphlet will explain.
Stay current here.
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Five years of community
I said that I would do a soul-searching review on our five year anniversary, which just came and went. What I would ordinarily do is a lot of reflection followed by going back to how it always was. I'm trying to figure out a way to make it not same-same.
The problem we are struggling with is the same as many Quaker communities: we are getting older and are not attracting young families or anyone else for that matter. Sometimes they come and stay a while - a few weeks, or many weeks - and then they drift off. I may be the wrong kind of host for such a group. I've come to be somewhat Quakerly in my approach, taking a long time to decide anything and making sure there is consensus when in many cases consensus can't be found or won't make itself clear.
There are many possibilities for an online meeting: starting a business meeting, leaning toward social change, taking an active role in resolving national crises, making more of a community that shares music and social hours, making a First-day school online. Let's just say these are on the table for the coming year. I am paying the Zoom fee and hope to use it to its full extent.
Speaking of money, here's an annual report. The zoom fee is our only expense (I could surreptitiously slip in on another account but have chosen to have a personal account that is basically only used for the Quakers). I have published two books that advertise: All profits go to Quaker organizations. That money nowhere near covers the zoom fee but when it does I'll contribute profits to QVS or somewhere. In the meantime I am glad to pay most of the monthly fee myself. It's less than $20/mo. and I've actually forgotten how much exactly.
I would LOVE to see the whole thing grow exponentially though I imagine there would be a price to, for example, selling out to someone who had the money, had the people, but wanted us to change our stubborn Quaker beliefs just a little bit. I've often thought, it's a wonder someone like that hasn't come along. Quaker meetings nationwide have become small enough that I would consider them endangered, but, we cling tenaciously to survival, and we don't sell out. That's definitional, I guess.
The problem we are struggling with is the same as many Quaker communities: we are getting older and are not attracting young families or anyone else for that matter. Sometimes they come and stay a while - a few weeks, or many weeks - and then they drift off. I may be the wrong kind of host for such a group. I've come to be somewhat Quakerly in my approach, taking a long time to decide anything and making sure there is consensus when in many cases consensus can't be found or won't make itself clear.
There are many possibilities for an online meeting: starting a business meeting, leaning toward social change, taking an active role in resolving national crises, making more of a community that shares music and social hours, making a First-day school online. Let's just say these are on the table for the coming year. I am paying the Zoom fee and hope to use it to its full extent.
Speaking of money, here's an annual report. The zoom fee is our only expense (I could surreptitiously slip in on another account but have chosen to have a personal account that is basically only used for the Quakers). I have published two books that advertise: All profits go to Quaker organizations. That money nowhere near covers the zoom fee but when it does I'll contribute profits to QVS or somewhere. In the meantime I am glad to pay most of the monthly fee myself. It's less than $20/mo. and I've actually forgotten how much exactly.
I would LOVE to see the whole thing grow exponentially though I imagine there would be a price to, for example, selling out to someone who had the money, had the people, but wanted us to change our stubborn Quaker beliefs just a little bit. I've often thought, it's a wonder someone like that hasn't come along. Quaker meetings nationwide have become small enough that I would consider them endangered, but, we cling tenaciously to survival, and we don't sell out. That's definitional, I guess.
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Pamphlets
I've been altogether way too quiet on this blog, and it definitely has not turned out to be what I envisioned, but I guess I'll keep you posted on the pamphlet.
The pamphlet, as you may know, is about a quarter piece of paper folded such that it has forty pages, four on each side of five different sheets of paper, and a piece of cardstock cut in half and folded over, printed on one side. It's a little funky but it has served St. Louis well for years and has also been sent out a couple of other places.
The price I came to, 80 cents each plus postage or a dollar a piece (I worry about postage) for domestic US, was based on price of paper and ink, price of going and getting it, etc. I found myself putting in an enormous amount of time for nothing or for very little remuneration (sp?). I justified this as fine with me as an ongoing contribution to Quakerism, but it meant that often dealing with the pamphlets got shoved behind other money-making enterprises in my household, or behind my writing, which was more fun but which sucked up infinite time. In other words, I'm not as aggressive as I could be in getting them out there and getting lots of buyers. It takes me about ten minutes to make a single pamphlet and often the problem is dealing with ink for my tiny printer, or going out and buying more paper or staples. I just tried to make sure I didn't lose money on it, and I didn't. But I didn't really succeed with it either.
When I moved to Galesburg I took it around to several printers in town. One gave me a quote of about $1.60 per pamphlet. It was probably a competitive quote. Another got all confused about what I described; I couldn't seem to explain, even showing it to him, what I wanted. A third I never actually tracked down, and I finally gave up and went back to doing them myself.
It's called Beginner's Guide to Quakerism, and it's a classic. It needs to be maintained.
The pamphlet, as you may know, is about a quarter piece of paper folded such that it has forty pages, four on each side of five different sheets of paper, and a piece of cardstock cut in half and folded over, printed on one side. It's a little funky but it has served St. Louis well for years and has also been sent out a couple of other places.
The price I came to, 80 cents each plus postage or a dollar a piece (I worry about postage) for domestic US, was based on price of paper and ink, price of going and getting it, etc. I found myself putting in an enormous amount of time for nothing or for very little remuneration (sp?). I justified this as fine with me as an ongoing contribution to Quakerism, but it meant that often dealing with the pamphlets got shoved behind other money-making enterprises in my household, or behind my writing, which was more fun but which sucked up infinite time. In other words, I'm not as aggressive as I could be in getting them out there and getting lots of buyers. It takes me about ten minutes to make a single pamphlet and often the problem is dealing with ink for my tiny printer, or going out and buying more paper or staples. I just tried to make sure I didn't lose money on it, and I didn't. But I didn't really succeed with it either.
When I moved to Galesburg I took it around to several printers in town. One gave me a quote of about $1.60 per pamphlet. It was probably a competitive quote. Another got all confused about what I described; I couldn't seem to explain, even showing it to him, what I wanted. A third I never actually tracked down, and I finally gave up and went back to doing them myself.
It's called Beginner's Guide to Quakerism, and it's a classic. It needs to be maintained.
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