Let's start by setting some context. I don't want
to see Quakers stop using the word God, let's get that clear. I do
think sometimes we should think about whether it's the right word to
use in any given situation, especially in corporate statements, but
I'm all about using the full range of language in our collective
writing. I think there's lots of other words and phrases we can use,
and they should more or less all get a look in.
Except “good”. Especially when people are
trying to make the classic quote, “that
of God in every one” less theistic. I've written before about
the problems with that most well-loved phrase, especially our use of
it out of context, but even setting that aside, “that of God (or
good) in every one” twists it even further. It can't help but do so
– even if we can construct a non-theist understanding of “that of
God” (which we can, of course), “that of good” isn't it. Isn't
within a mile of it.
If we're going to try to express the concept in a
way which makes clear that it can be conceived of under wildly
different theological bases, let's do it in a way that tries to
capture as much of the meaning as possible. “There's some good in
everyone” is a very different idea than “there is some divine
essence in everyone”, and pretending otherwise only perpetuates
most egregious misunderstandings of the phrase.
Even taking “that of God” in a way that is
divorced from its original context, it's not about there being some
goodness in everyone. It is certainly not, as some seem to suppose,
suggesting that everyone is in some way expressing either goodness or
godliness, even if it is dwarfed by some selfishness or evil. People
sometimes say, and I've heard and read many variations on this, “I
struggle to see that of God in Hitler”, and I have to say that
reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the idea. For starters,
the original quote does not call on us to look for “that of
God” in every one, much less to see it. It calls on us to speak
to it, which is not the same –
but if I continue down that path, I'll regurgitate my previous post
in a different tone, which would be of little value.
“That of God”
isn't part of us, ourselves, at least not in the usual sense. It's
not part of our personality, our emotional make-up, or our behaviour.
It's not our knowledge or our conduct, our inclinations or aversions.
Some Quakers might see that it's fundamentally “us” rather than
fundamentally “not-us”, and some will say very much the opposite,
and I won't call one right and the other wrong. I will say that,
whichever might be right (and it might be neither), to whatever
extent it is “us” it's a very deep, deep part of us that we don't
have conscious ownership of, and that we can usually ignore if we
choose. For that matter, that choice can be quite unconscious.
Was there good
in Hitler? I don't know. Probably was once, at least. Frankly, there
were far worse villains in the Third Reich; Hitler was just a good
figurehead, more than anything else. I rather think that, misguided
as he was, old Adolf did think he was doing good for “his people”,
skewed as his understanding of that term might be. There was mostly
certainly something of God
in him, though, no doubt buried deep where he could best ignore it.
By any
conventional understanding, there was far more good
in Martin Luther King Jr than in Hitler, or Augusto Pinochet, or any
number of villains – always bearing in mind that many villains
don't see themselves as such. There was no more of God
in him, though. The presence and essence of the Divine is not
reflected in our acts or demeanour; those, rather, reflect (among
other things) the degree to which we have allowed it to guide us,
consciously or unconsciously. Our goodness is diluted or sullied by
the wrong things we do, and we all do some things wrong (it's not
hard to find explanations of the sullied nature of such lauded
figures as Mohandas Gandhi or Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, even though they
be called “great-souled” or “saint” by their communities).
Our godliness cannot
be sullied.
Even from the
simple, almost crass standpoint of rhetoric, of choosing language to
communicate powerfully – to move people – so much is lost by
saying good rather
than God. God is,
fundamentally, a great mystery, a mystical concept. Whatever words or
conception we have for the idea, it is intuitively felt to be beyond
our grasp. It is far easier to think about, to have a feeling that
one understands, what it is to be good. It is even a matter we feel
capable of judging in others. God, though, is a matter of Divine
mystery.
Most importantly,
I feel, when someone said or wrote something, let's quote it – if
we quote it at all – faithfully, and not put words in their mouth
that they never said, not add words that were never there. “That of
God in every one” is a much-loved phrase, and most of us nontheists
don't want to get rid of it. We shouldn't try to twist it into
something that suits our experience better. It came from the
experience of a certain person, in a certain time and place, and we
should let it be faithful to that. Let each of us find our own way to
say it, and not try to replace anyone else's. We can all be true to
our own experience of the Divine without treading on anyone else's
experience. Let us live our lives faithfully, and let that Divine
essence in each of us reach up and out and be expressed in our own
ways, and see how it flowers in others, and celebrate it all.
The Light comes
in many shades, and is made more beautiful by the myriad changes it
experiences as it shines through one surface, and reflects off
another. Let us love and value all of them, and learn all we can
learn, understand all we can understand, experience all we can,
witness all we can. Then we can be friends to one another, as well as
Friends of the Truth – and perhaps, ultimately, Friends of the
whole World.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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