Earlier in the week, I learned an important lesson. The effect was an abrupt about-face that revealed my own flaws and also granted me an opportunity to gain greater wisdom. For over a year, I have been actively involved in almost every aspect of the Young Adult Friend group at my Monthly Meeting. Being so closely invested in the process has provided me a sense…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 6th mo. 15, 2011 at 2:30pm —
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A couple weeks back I spotted a post on my meeting's listserve, soliciting personal anecdotes from people of faith who have disabilities. I've long been willing to be vocal about having a chronic illness. This is partially to negate the still-potent stigma of bipolar disorder, and partially to ensure that insurance companies cover mental…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 5th mo. 23, 2011 at 9:00am —
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Soon to be released through FGC's Quakerbridge Press, Build It!: A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community contains common sense strategies for building a Young Adult and Young Friend presence. Along with practical solutions is straightforward logic that many Friends have vocalized but few have felt the need to document until now. To cite…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 5th mo. 6, 2011 at 9:00am —
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I have wrestled and gone a full twelve rounds with my own angel in writing this. How does one express indignation, hopefully of a righteous quality, in a fully Quakerly sense? Am I making too much of this? Am I making not enough of it? Will my words wound, rather than correct? Discerning that, yes, this needs to be said, I have proceeded. But seeking to…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 4th mo. 17, 2011 at 7:30pm —
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Last night, in memory of a Friend who died suddenly, shockingly earlier in the week, we held a small Memorial Service for those who knew him best. One Friend in attendance noted that, in addition to the worship, there is a certain group therapy aspect present. I…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 4th mo. 8, 2011 at 9:30am —
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I've often been interested in genealogy, and have recently discovered that I have some first generation Quaker relatives. A Friend from my Meeting recently asked about my family history after worship, so I thought I might provide that which I know. The people described here all hail from from a village named Hunsdon, which is in Hertsfordshire, north of London. If you need…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 3rd mo. 23, 2011 at 9:30pm —
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I think I read the first ten pages of the late fifties UK classic The Comforters about ten times over before I really got it. As it turns out, my reaction was not uncommon. The reader is supposed to be initially confused. Spark’s novel deliberately scorns omniscient narration, opting instead for a grand experiment in…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 3rd mo. 12, 2011 at 2:00pm —
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I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. John 15:15, NLT.
For white liberals of a certain generation, the Civil Rights Movement will always be front and center. A struggle for racial…
Added by Kevin Camp on 3rd mo. 5, 2011 at 8:30am —
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I have watched the violence and the revolt in Egypt with a heavy heart. On one hand, I am overjoyed to see a people long held in shackles struggling to attain freedom. I hope this sentiment will someday encircle the world, so that, as it is written, the wolf and the lamb will live together. As a pacifist, however, it causes me much distress to see police…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 1st mo. 31, 2011 at 10:30am —
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On this holiday devoted to Martin Luther King, Jr., I hope that we do not forget his full legacy in the proper context. In Meeting yesterday, a Friend's message rather bluntly noted that she is growing tired of the way that King's life has been increasingly presented. Starry-eyed optimists have reduced the man to some sort of inoffensive Santa Claus…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 1st mo. 17, 2011 at 10:30am —
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The impetus for this post was a most unlikely subject. I've been recently deconstructing my own uneasy feelings towards disgraced NFL Quarterback Michael Vick. My partner, a native of Philadelphia, is a huge fan of the Eagles professional football team and is thrilled at the its recent success with Vick at the helm. When the dog fighting revelations surfaced, I admit that I wanted to see him banned from the league for life. Instead, Vick served nearly two years in jail, filed for bankruptcy,…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 12th mo. 27, 2010 at 4:18pm —
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At Meeting yesterday, the subject of raising children found its way into the messages of many. Prompted perhaps by the presence of happy children singing Christmas carols early into worship, vocal ministry focused on the dual blessing and challenges of parenthood. Many moving, emotionally rich stories were shared. Each of them had a common thread, but each also…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 12th mo. 20, 2010 at 10:00am —
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The Quaker artist Edward Hicks is well known among the Religious Society of Friends, but less so among others. Though an adept and respected minister in his own faith, it is for his series of paintings that he is now largely remembered. The reverse was true in his own lifetime. One often considers folk artists like Hicks either charmingly…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 12th mo. 13, 2010 at 9:36am —
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At my Monthly Meeting, a Faith and Practice from Baltimore Yearly Meeting is regularly read before worship. "The experienced speaker should be careful not to speak too often, or at undo length." Curiously, no mention of an inexperienced speaker is mentioned at all. As constructed, or at least presented in isolation from other qualifying statements, the sentence implies that only
experienced messages…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 11th mo. 29, 2010 at 9:00am —
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So many of our causes, passions, and movements could be characterized in terms of David versus Goliath, requiring superhuman strength to set right. At the outset, the odds are stacked against us. Business corruption must not be allowed to metastasize, lest the country be utterly eviscerated by it. Environmental pollutants must not destroy our fragile ecosystem.…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 11th mo. 22, 2010 at 8:00am —
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A year or so ago I wrote a post that referenced the Sleater-Kinney song “Sympathy”. I return to it here for a slightly different reason. Its poignant, profound lyrics are written from the perspective of a mother whose newborn son’s survival hangs in the balance. In her desperation and fear, she calls out to God.
I know I come to you only when in need
I’m not the best believer,
not…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 11th mo. 14, 2010 at 3:00pm —
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In recent days, I have recognized yet again that some people crave surety and certainty. They believe in, and seem to need a definite answer phrased in absolute terms. Beyond the biological and even theological implications of this system is the reality. Rational sense alone has frequently been disregarded for stubborn need. Thought it may not be our role to pass judgment, lest we be judged in kind, we eagerly take it in any case. When we are…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 11th mo. 7, 2010 at 5:30pm —
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At meeting this past Sunday a Friend's message asked for help. Specifically she described a particular situation that was troubling her, namely the latest development of our militaristic society, the way that technology-based warfare can create atrocities just as easily as human hands. In so doing, she asked for specific prayers from those gathered for worship. I believe she was lamenting, in part, how human achievement can be so useful and so destructive at the same time. Many Friends rose to…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 10th mo. 26, 2010 at 8:00am —
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Right-brained people like me, by turn, have often experienced that which cannot be explained by human thought alone. Few of us find the mystical to be an abstraction. The world is full of experiences that words and concepts cannot accurately reproduce or reflect. We often see the analytical concepts so useful to others as mere constructs of the human imagination. Absolutes are few and a variety of interpretations can answer the same query.…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 10th mo. 18, 2010 at 9:30am —
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"I was to bring people off from all the world's religions, which are in vain."
A bold pronouncement for any age, this is George Fox in his own words. My respect for Fox is immense, but I must admit I simply can’t agree with it. Put this way, Fox comes across as something of an agent of intolerance, not an inspirational leader.
Last week, I spoke at some length to a friend who has expressed…
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Added by Kevin Camp on 10th mo. 11, 2010 at 3:59pm —
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