A kinship with the Quakers

Will Rogers said he never met a man he didn't like.

I've probably met enough men I didn't like to fill the phone book of a small town.

But I have never met a Quaker who annoyed me. So to correct that oversight, I dropped by a Quaker fundraiser last week. I figured with the focus on money and a lot of hustling and glad-handing going on, I'd surely find someone in the Society of Friends I'd cross the street to avoid.

It cost me $30 just to get in the door. A good sign.

But, alas, it was not to be. The Good Shepherd could not have done a more gentle job of fleecing me. Quakers simply don't do "obnoxious."

But then I knew that would be the case when I went.

I'd been reading about John Woolman.

A few weeks ago, a friend got me reading the journal of Woolman, a pre-Revolutinary War Quaker whose heartfelt observations make up a great deal of the heart and soul of the religion. I read the book deep into the night, as if it were a suspense novel. And, in a way it was — in a quiet, Quaker sort of way. Would Woolman's talk with a man help him to "see the light" and free his slaves? Would Woolman feel inspired to stand in "meeting" and express the feelings of his heart?

Woolman left the business world and became a tailor so he'd have fewer distractions from his faith. He wore plain white clothes to protest slavery (the dyes used at the time were produced by Africans). As with the Confessions of St. Augustine, the spiritual insights of Woolman feel as fresh as this morning's milk. When a person speaks and writes from the heart, it's amazing how timeless their words can sound. At one point Woolman writes:

"Through the goodness of our Heavenly Father, the well of living waters was at times opened, to our encouragement and the refreshment of the sincere-hearted."

Welcome to Woolman's world.

Jessamyn West, the Quaker who wrote "The Friendly Persuasion" — the novel that became a film starring Gary Cooper — was even more impressed with Woolman.

"John Woolman was a moral and religious genius," she writes. "One Woolman in a hundred, one Woolman in a thousand, might be enough to change the face of the earth."

Not that he didn't have failings. In his biography "The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman," author Thomas Slaughter says Woolman's sense of right and wrong could make him rigid — even harsh — at times. And Woolman could be oblivious to the people and events around him. But like most people who read the journal, Slaughter also feels glowing admiration for the man.

In short, one suspects Will Rogers would have liked him very much.

As for that Quaker fundraiser I attended, they not only got my $30 at the door but gently got me to participate in a silent auction.

Apparently 250 years after Woolman lived, the Quakers are still persuasively friendly.

E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com