Outreach?

There's a social network known as QuakerQuaker, aka QQ. It appears to be a sort of Facebook for Quakers with an eye on outreaching to new Friends. It's mission statement of sorts is here.

Until about an hour ago, I was a member. What prompted my withdrawal? Well, I was all but asked to leave.

It all started on Ms. Yaxley's blog post which asked "Why call yourself a Quaker?" At some point in the comments discussion, Martin Kelley, who seems to be the primary administrator of QuakerQuaker, and who does his own independent blogging at QuanterRanter, made the following comment: "At some point I should put out that none of you are the primary target audience of QuakerQuaker."

Somewhat taken aback, another commenter and I asked what he meant by that. It turns out that Martin is "concerned that QQ's demographic profile isn't right for outreach (it's skewing way old) and that most of the active users of the interactive features are long-time Friends hashing out inter-Quaker issues that in some cases might turn off the very people I'd like to appeal to."

Fair enough.

I then asked (and pardon the lack of exact language, deleting my account deleted my comments, too) whether he didn't want us there at all, to which he ultimately replied:

Hi all: I'm not commenting here anymore. This whole conversation has gotten incredibly annoying, academic and confrontational. The breath of fresh air with the blogging subculture is that we weren't having these kind of internet battles, fighting over words and definitions and getting all mock-offended about everything. I have no interest in facilitating this kind of polarizing debate.

QuakerQuaker is an outreach effort, which by definition means I'm most interested in people who are not already Quaker. I think I've been clear about the focus: primitive Christianity revived: looking positively at the Friends tradition (yes, which is Christian) and looking positively at the fresh winds in mainstream Christianity. If this isn't your bag, that's fine, I love you, you can come visit any time but please hold back on commenting five times per post. I'm asking for self-control here. I'm asking that everyone sit back and spend a moment in discernment whether their comment is really helpful or whether it's merely trying to score zingers against someone you disagree with.

What did I take away from this, other than sincere doubts that Martin truly "love[s]" me? Here are a few things:

(1) I'm confused about who was being confrontational with whom? Why was it necessary to tell us that "none" of us were the target audience.

First, that type of language strikes me as purposefully exclusionary. What goal was he trying to achieve? I don't know.

Second, what audience does he think he is going to attract on such a network? Does he sincerely think that "people who are not already Quaker" are going to find this site appealing or welcoming? How many such members does he have, I wonder?

I'm not the only one confused about this. Ask the many Quakers who are members now. One of Martin's friends on QuakerQuaker named Chad, described QuakerQuaker on his blog this way:

QuakerQuaker: So here comes QuakerQuaker, revised into a new shape and form, to bring Quakers together online using the social media network of today (aka the
Internet).

(2) Martin seems oddly touchy about the suggestion that Quakers can be anything but Christian. Putting aside that many people consider themselves Quakers who don't necessarily consider themselves Christian, one gets the feeling that it's not the old-versus-new Quakers that are really bothering Martin, it's the non-Christian Quakers that are bothering him.

It seems that more than Quaker, Martin considers himself an "Emergent Christian" (here's a link to a Wikipedic explanation he suggested to us; hopefully you'll have more luck understanding it than I did). So there it is. I read in Martin's comments, here and elsewhere, a general frustration over Quakers who don't align themselves with Christianity. While acknowledging that Quakerism is not monolithic, he seems to wish that all Quakers could at least agree on Christianity (or else shut up).

(3) Most surprising is this: As a 29-year-0ld Christian who only has been attending Quaker meetings for less than two years now, you would think that I was exactly the type of person Martin would want on QuakerQuaker. Alas, I guess not.

Is this outreach?