Liz Oppenheimer
Liz Oppenheimer is actively resisting her socialization into whiteness. She greatly appreciates the community organizers and racial justice activists who have traveled this road ahead of her. To support her in her racial justice work, Liz has a care-and-accountability committee through Bear Creek Meeting of Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative, and worships with Laughing Waters Friends Preparative Meeting. She is a Conservative Friend living in Minnesota and she is the editor of the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web: A Quaker Blog Reader.
by Liz Oppenheimer
We are cautioned in the letter from the elders of Balby that “these things [which we have shared with you] we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all with the measure of light which is pure and holy may be guided . . . and fulfilled in the Spirit,—not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” (Emphasis added)
Our current books of discipline, our yearly meetings’ books of faith and practice were conceived of and written largely by white Friends with limited or no direct experience, or analysis, of the cumulative harms of racism, white supremacy, and implicit bias. Year after year, generation after generation, although our good intentions as white Friends have carried our predominantly white worship communities through racial tensions, we have failed our Friends of color, whether they worship with us on First Days or not. We must begin to consider the possibility that our Faith and Practice may be flawed or that we have begun to rely too much on guidance from the printed word, rather than on the Spirit that brought them forth. The words and advices contained therein may reinforce patterns, behaviors, and worldviews grounded in unexamined whiteness, unknowingly cultivating attitudes that favor compliance or conformity to worldly norms rather than encouraging unity with the Living Spirit.