Kalistan

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Brethrenism in Kalistan
The unofficial State faith that permeates society
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
April 5, 5717


Lolla Monthly Meeting in Kaliburg is one of 8 Monthly meetings in the Capital alone

The Empire of Ananto and Kalistan doesn't have an official state religion. Officially, the law is agnostic regarding faith or belief, and all agree that Kalistan has a very high level of religious freedom. According to the last cultural censuses, Hosians, Yeudis, Ahmadists, Daenists and multiple other faith traditions, who collectively make up about 1/6th of the population, freely practice their faiths in Kalistan without hindrance by the state in any real way, save that they are not allowed to openly proselytize and they must pay taxes on all church income that is not used for direct costs of maintenance of the congregation or charity to others.

One group, however towers above all others in terms of attendance, adherence, and prevalence in society. Curiously, unique among nations, Kalistan happens to be the only nation in Terra where Brethrenism is at least acknowledged by wide majorities. Most recently, it was reiterated that nearly three quarters of the population of the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan claim to be Brethrenists. Most are birthright members of meetings across the nation, and nearly all follow the denomination known as New Branch Brethrensim organized under the All-Terra Conference here in Kalistan. Governed (government is a loose term in this case) under the All Terra Conference Faith and Practices, the Kalistani Annual Meeting organizes six quarterly meetings, dozens of monthly meetings, and more than a hundred provisional study groups and prepratory meetings across Kalistan, Ananto, Athosia and Gaduridos.

Brethrenism is so ubiquitous in Kalistan that it has more or less joined the long list of civic institutions that Kalistanis take for granted as just being part of daily life. The Meeting one attends weekly is the locus of social interaction. Kids often grow up in their meetings and remain with them after reaching adulthood, and even if they leave and move to another part of the country, they are greeted warmly when they return to their "Home Meeting," while meetings will consider time spent with other meetings to be a "sojourn" rather than a hard transfer. The Meeting is at the center of much of a persons social community in Kalistan, and to leave or worse, to be kicked out of a Meeting for violating the laws or norms of society often provides such a strong social disincentive that desire to remain within the good graces of one's meeting actually has a measurable effect on crime rates in the Empire.

"Sociologists have studied this in Kalistan," said Religion and Ethic scholar, Dr. Jenn Dawson of University of Vrassa. "The rate of criminality among Kalistanis tends to be less in the nation compared to other nations because nearly all crime of necessity is resolved by several features in our law and structure, but just looking within, we see that 'being a Brethrenist' significantly decreases criminality even further. Crosstabs indicate that the reason why is strong aversion of Meeting disapprobation of specific deviant behaviors, like dishonesty, theft, profligacy, and causing harm to others. Brethrenists tend to be more law abiding because of the social pressure they experience in their key community, their Meetings, and more law abiding also means, quite frequently, more inclination to support authority--a finding which is quite ironic given Brethrenism's teachings about authority." For these reasons, Brethrenists tend to have lower levels of criminality per 1000 than any other religious group in Kalistan or indeed those who have no faith affiliation.

The Brethren themselves have had to square this in a number of matters: Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto, along with her entire family, are devout Brethrenists. Even the avowed epicurean, almost hedonistic Princess of the Empire, Lady Nicolette Ananto-Collins has returned to her meeting in Luxon after years of sparse attendance. How can a faith that promotes the absolute equality of all human beings, nonetheless accommodate both a tendency to support absolute monarchy and a natural tendency to obey authority by those who experience intense social pressure to observe the law?

The answer could be as simple as "Brethrenists in Kalistan prefer to view community as paramount and will argue that all, even Empresses, are welcomed in their midst," said Dawson. "The natural symbiosis between Brethrenist faith, which claims the support of three quarters of the population and the Institution of the Monarchy is a long standing marriage of convenience, albeit a very happy one. The Empress is known to regularly seek advice from her Home meeting in Eveari, as well as the Wilson Meeting in Kaliburg where she and her family attend while in Kaliburg, on matters that are absolutely consequential, and doesn't often make capricious or whimsical choices, but runs nearly all of her weighty decisions past clearness committees to test her leadings, and she is very sincere in her desire for clearness and her meetings know that she takes their voices seriously. She may be the Empress, but of this Empress, it can be said she is a Brethrenist first."

Brethrenism in Kalistan therefore provides a very direct connection between the people and the Empress that the political regime itself cannot accommodate. Within both the Eveari Meeting, and the Wilson Meeting, protocol is almost always modified to a Brethrenist form of address, where Her Imperial Majesty is referred to as "Friend Carolina" rather than Her Imperial Majesty, even though calling each other "Friend So and So" is considered to be plain speak and is generally considered to be antiquated. She and the Royal Family are provided with a special bench in the back of the Meetinghouse so that others are not tempted to focus on her specifically, and she regularly speaks in meeting, referring to herself as "This friend" rather than using the plural personal pronouns. She has never sought to be clerk, but financially supports her Monthly Meetings as well as the Ananto Quarterly meeting.

In exchange, people regularly offer their feelings on matters of community interest while she is in attendance. The Brethrenist Meetings do not become a public forum, for certain: back and forth exchanges are discouraged as part of Brethrenist practice in general. But they are opportunities for Citizens to come and express their feelings about the choices the Empress has made, to offer some suggestions for needed legislation, or to make a plea to consider a cause. And the Empress, it is known, has followed up with many of the members after the meetings. The Clerk does have his or her hands full though by helping the community police attenders who just show up at the meeting to lobby the Empress, reminding them gently that meetings are to listen for the still small voice of God, not rail against the political system. There are very few such outbursts as Brethrenists are very sensitive about maintaining community norms within their meetings, as noted above.

But Brethrenism, especially during the reign of Empress Carolina II Ananto, has become something of a conduit for the voice of the people to completely bypass the normal legislative process and reach the ear of Her Imperial Majesty. She is known to regularly travel to different monthly meetings around the Empire to perform similar listening sessions, all within the space and time of a Brethrenist Meeting, and the access this provides Kalistanis is enough to even further suppress any desire for democratic institutional reform in the Empire. "The Meeting attended by Her Imperial Majesty acts as a pressure valve of some sorts," said Dawson. "It allows Her Imperial Majesty to interact with commoners in a very controlled setting. She knows that no matter where she goes, she will hear the authentic voice of the people, because at any time, 3 out of 4 people in any community will attend that meeting as Brethrenists. The people know what sort of conduct is permissible within the Meeting, and the Empress is able to indulge the people with audiences that they would not otherwise gain any access to. Her presence at whatever meeting she happens to attend is always welcomed, and Clerks report they are always the best attended meetings of the year."

The norms of the Brethrenist meeting then carry over into society, are endorsed by all classes generally from Empress to commoner, and inform a lot of Kalistani activity. "Brethrenism is fundamentalist in one sense," said Dawson. "It boils down the religion of someone like the Aurorian Patriarchal Church to first principles. It strips away all that man added to the ethical principles, and just lays the ethical aspects and the moral aspects of the belief bare for people to interpret and debate over and implement on their own. Brethrenists are taught that this sort of deconstruction is an excellent use of one's time from a very young age. In our society that finds its expression in the simplicity of the Kalistani diet, of Kalistani homes and dress and attitudes. Kalistan is very, some would claim excessively, community oriented. We are a communal society that sees our own benefit in isolation as a detriment to someone else, but our own benefit in community as a benefit to the whole community, including us. So Kalistanis can be generally relied upon to help one another, up until (but usually not including) the point of starving ourselves and in turn finding ourselves in need too. We would rather see the entire community where we live prosper so our lives may be that much better than build a castle in a landfill."

This adherence to Brethrenist principles, which eschews formal leadership, formal clergy, formal doctrines, and instead embraces ministry from the membership, access to religious and philosophical texts from across the world and the ages, and tolerates heterodoxy like Unitarians, ironically can be seen in our politics. "And in our government, we find Brethrenist Principles expressed as a unitary, absolutist hereditary monarch who is the singular source of all law and authority, and the reduction of all other nominally political institutions to the mechanism of her will. It's very simple and quite elegant- She governs, she does her one single solitary duty to her community, so we don't have to get into the messy and divisive business of politics, and we follow the law because we are not interested in facing the very strong social shunning we expect if we deviate from the common good for selfish reasons. And ironically, in this we can find something like unity on political and social questions, even though it may not be consensus, or anything resembling a liberal democratic majority."

Due to its ubiquity in society, and the hegemonic nature of the Faith's testimonies (Integrity and Honesty, Simplicity, Peace, Equality and Social Justice, and stewardship and Community) as being present in Kalistani society, from top to bottom, is it possible to argue that Brethrenism and the Anantan State are one and the same thing? "We are definitely there from a defacto perspective," said Dawson. "Kalistan is the society a Brethrenist would design. In all aspects, from music to culture to the economy, to our government, Kalistan shines Brethrenist principles. Yeah, we still have our criminals. Yeah we still have our exploiters and our liberals: Only 74% of the Population claims Brethrenism as their faith after all. But on the whole, nobody would disagree if you said Kalistan was an Annual Meeting in charge of a State."

In law, Kalistan remains an explicitly secular state, but we are almost forced to ask ourselves if that's really even true in practice anymore. "When the Empress is a birthright Brethrenist, when nearly the entire government are Brethrenists, and less than 6% of those are Convinced Friends, when most of the main economic elites are associated with the Brethrenist faith, and 75% of the workers, and 75% of the consumers, and just one and on and on, are you really not a Brethrenist Nation? There is no legal advantage to being a Brethrenist, and no legal disadvantage of not being one."

That said, Dawson does state the clear advantages one has by being an attender of a Brethrenist meeting. "Bretherenist hiring networks still exist in Kalistan, however, where the meeting you attend may not matter, but if you do not attend a meeting, you won't even hear about a specific job. A lot of deals are done by handshake at a Brethrenist Meeting. Being a Brethrenist is shorthand for being 'trustworthy' in Kalistan and non-Brethrenists also face additional scrutiny that non-Brethrenists don't have to put up with. It may not hurt one to be secular or some other religions but membership and attendance at Meeting sure provides a number of informal advantages that encourages people to want to join a community and then stay within that community, while shunning can be worse than a prison sentence because it is being cut off from one's entire social structure."

In the end, Dawson stated that it was a good thing that Kalistan did not have an official state religion. "Given that Brethrenists think that we are all equal, and all people have a piece of the truth in them, stifling conscience by enforcing an established religion would be profoundly anti-Brethrenist. Especially given Brethrenism's history of being among the repressed religions of the world. The government, I think is correct to keep Kalistan secular, to allow all people to be free to worship, or not, as they like. Monarch after Monarch clearly agrees. Besides: There is no need to codify what enjoys such a strong defacto support on the national, Ducal, and local levels already by itself."

@TheModa