Learning how to behave and not just believe

 Sam Smith – I’ve finally figured a way to describe my religious status: I do not relate well to any religious belief system but can be quite comfortable with a religion’s behavior values.

This occurred to me after a conversation with a nephew with whom I shared a high school.  I noted to him that I had gone to Harvard University and Germantown Friends School and if I had only been able to attend one, I think I would have chosen GFS.

He agreed  that he would have preferred GFS to the University of  Pennyslvania  where he went for college.

Even at our weekly Quaker meetings – where anyone could arise and share their thoughts – there was far more emphasis on decent behavior rather than on righteous belief.

As Quaker.org puts it:

A Quaker meeting is a simple gathering. Because Friends believe that Spirit may reveal itself to anyone, we don’t have priests dispensing grace to a congregation of followers; instead, everyone arrives at the meetinghouse as equals, and seating is usually arranged so everyone faces each other in a square or a circle….

My high school classes were not religious but quietly taught values. Among the most striking was a ninth grade course in anthropology – one of only two such high school courses in the country back then. It was powerful enough that half of the six anthropology majors at Harvard when I was there came from my school – including me.

This was not a new matter for Quakers. Back in 1688, a few members of our Germantown meeting wrote one of the first public protests against slavery.

And despite my indifference to religious ritual, I made a number of minister friends involved in issues like civil rights. I had found the value of discovering what you have in common over what might drive you apart.