These Voices, Advices and Queries have yet to be approved by Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Your comments to the Faith and Practice Revision Committee would be appreciated.
8. Peace
Peace: Queries
What does it mean to live in the virtue of that life and
power which takes away the occasion of all war?
Where there are hatred, division, and strife, how are
we instruments of reconciliation and love?
How do we communicate to others an understanding of
the basis of our peace testimony?
As we work for peace in the world, are we nourished by
peace within and among ourselves?
How do we think of those we believe have harmed us or
others? How does our way of thinking about them affect our
spiritual lives?
Peace: Advices
Since its founding over 300 years ago, the Society of
Friends has testified to the worth of every individual by refusing
to participate in war. We repudiate war because it violates
the primacy of love, destroys lives that God has given, and tears
the fabric of society. Members of our Society have traditionally
refused to serve in the armed forces. The Peace Testimony is,
however, more that a mere refusal to participate in war. Fox's
assertion that he "lived in that light and power that takes away the
occasion for war" and Woolman's advice that we "examine our lives to
see that the seeds of war are not contained therein" firmly
establish connections between this and other testimonies. As we work
for peace in the world, we search out the seeds of war in
ourselves and in our way of life. We refuse to join in actions that lead
to destruction and death. We seek ways to cooperate to save
life and strengthen the bonds of unity among all people. We work
to create the conditions of peace, such as freedom,
justice, cooperation, and the right sharing of the world's resources.
Our faith calls for us to be fully present to the person
before us. History has shown that when a future outcome, however
noble, seems of greater worth than the human being before us, any
means, any atrocity, is possible. To work for peace without being
divisive, we need to work out of a place of faith, truly trusting in
the movement of the spirit. We need to bring into God's light
those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in ourselves which lie at
the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging our need
for forgiveness and grace.
Peace is the state in which we are in accord with God,
the earth, others and ourselves. We know that true, lasting
peace among us flows from unity in the life of the spirit.
Peace: Voices
I told [the Commonwealth Commissioners] I lived in the
virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of all
wars…I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which
was before wars and strife were.
George Fox, 1651
A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever
do evil, that good may come of it…it is as great presumption to
send our passions upon God's errands, as it is to palliate them
with God's name….We are too ready to retaliate, rather than
forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no
man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: for
if men did once see we may love them, we should soon find
they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and
he that forgives first, wins the laurel.
William Penn, 1603
How shall we as Quakers sustain ourselves as a people of
peace in the midst of worldwide war? By living in that covenant
of peace which was before wars and strife were … by living in
the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all
war. It is not our Quakerism, or our pacifism, or our
knowledge, or skill, or emotion that overcomes hate and violence. We
shall surely fail if we become proud of our virtue and traditions
and become vain in our witness. We shall fail if we think the
power that may move through us is our own. The power is not ours, it
is God's. This is the foundation of what we must do in our
testimony of peace in this time of war. The foundation is faith in the
power of God's love to transform us and our society and to bring
justice to the poor and the oppressed. Our task is to act, as best
we understand what we are led to do, in obedience to that power.
Mary Lord, 2002
We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting
with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretense
whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world. The spirit of
Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to
command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we
do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of
Christ, which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and
war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the
kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
From A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of
God, Called Quakers, presented to Charles II, 1660
We actively oppose all that leads to violence among
people and nations and violence to other species and to our
planet. Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not
passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, the
unjust. We will struggle to remove the causes of impasse
and confrontation by every means of nonviolent resistance
available. We must start with our own hearts and minds. Together, let
us reject the clamour of fear and listen to the whisperings of hope.
New Zealand Quakers, 1987
Universal peace is an active movement toward the
oneness of all humanity and the realization of the Kingdom of God
on Earth. The Testimony for Peace is not an artificial appendage
to our faith, which can be dropped without injury to the
whole. Our central faith requires that we should proclaim, in deed as
well as word, that war, with the whole military system, is
contrary to the spirit of the God whose name is Love. The same spirit
must animate our business and social relations and make us eager
to remove oppression and injustice in every form.
London Yearly Meeting, 1912
Why are we here? If I understand the message of God,
his response to that question is that we are to take part in the
creation of the Peaceable Realm of God. Again, if I understand
the message of God, how we take part in the creation of this realm
is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength and
to love our neighbors and enemies as we love God and ourselves.
In its essential form, different aspects of love bring about the
creation of the realm.
Tom Fox
Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a
means by which we arrive at that goal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
…There have been a number of times that I have been
in some real or potential danger - at peace actions, working in
the ghetto, or confronting irrational or violent people. In those
times I have not been without fear, but I have never since felt the
fear I felt when I first made the commitment to give up reliance
on violence to protect me. I believe that when I became
convinced of the peace testimony, I was given a leading which, in
effect, immersed me in terror and the stuff of violence so that I
could know my condition and work with it. I was tested
and strengthened in conditions of safety before I was ever tested
in real conflict.
Paul Lacey, 1985
The activist who seeks explanations based on outer
facts declares that our restlessness is due to the terrible state of
the world at present. If we could just get the outer world in order
we could then feel inward peace. But perhaps he has not the
whole truth, perhaps the more fundamental difficulty is with our
inward world. As long as there is inward chaos, all outward actions will
be contaminated by this chaos. In such a case all that we do
will promote rather than allay confusion. We seek to bring peace
in the world when there is no peace in our hearts and as a result
we infect the outer world with our inner conflict.
Howard Brinton, 1948
When speaking of "direct action for peace," I am often
told that one must never do things that make men angry. Now
for many years I had the idea that this was true, and a basic part
of nonviolent resistance. But I am no longer of this opinion. It
is true that, when one is resisting an evil, one should do it
without anger on one's own part. The manner and spirit in which a
protest is made is of paramount importance. But one should
be straightforward, frank, and clear, and not evade issues
because they are controversial and people are touchy on them.
Wilmer Young, 1961
When Joseph Hoag in 1812 was pleading his peace
principles a man in his audience said, "Well stranger, if all the world was
of your mind, I would turn and follow after." Joseph replied,
"So then thou hast a mind to be the last man in the world to be
good. I have a mind to be one of the first and set the rest an
example." (Hoag's Journal, 1861, p. 201.)
Howard Brinton, 1967 Ethical Mysticism
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins;
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nation,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart.
Howard Thurman
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every
rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who
hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of
its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to
work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Nelson Mandela
I hope…that mankind will at length, as they call
themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to
settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion
there never was a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin
I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I
want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller
May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our
houses, and our garments and try whether the seeds of war
have nourishment in these our possessions.
John Woolman
We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with
peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain
way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack the way of life.
A.J. Muste
We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the
cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.
There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.
Albert Einstein
Therefore we proclaim this peace testimony to us and
our people in love and responsibility before God. It calls on us
to object to everything which leads in the direction of
war, preparation for it, or supporting it. Our faith challenges us
whether to allow ourselves to become a divided people swept along by
the stream of mistrust and fear, arrogance and hatred which
produces tensions in the world; or whether by our own decision,
confidence and courage, we can become a bridge linking those
elements which promote truth, justice, and peace.
German Yearly Meeting, 1948
War leads to a vicious cycle of hatred, oppression,
subverse movements, false propaganda, rearmament, and new
wars….We call on people everywhere to break this vicious
circle…to substitute the institutions of peace for the institutions of war.
Let us join together throughout the world to grow more food, to
heal and prevent disease, to conserve and develop the resources
of the good earth, to the glory of God and the comfort of
man's distress. These are among the tasks to which, in
humility…and in faith in the power of love, we call our own Society and all
men and nations everywhere.
World Conference of Friends, 1952
But we must do more than stand the waterspouts which
break over us and rage around us. Our task is to bind up
the brokenhearted, to be a cup of strength in times of agony, to
set men on their feet when the foundations seem to be caving
in, and to feed and comfort the little children amidst the
wreckage of war and devastation.
Rufus Jones, Rethinking Quaker Principles
The vision for wholeness and peace, which shines like a
beacon of light through the Old Covenant, gives us important
insights into Christian simplicity. This theme is wonderfully gathered up
in the Hebrew word shalom, a full-bodied concept that
resonates with wholeness, unity, balance. Gathering in (but much
broader than) peace, it means a harmonious, caring community with
God at its center as the prime sustainer and most
glorious inhabitant….We are in harmony with God _ faithfulness
and loyalty prevail. We are in harmony with our neighbor _
justice and mercy abound. We are in harmony with nature _ peace
and unity reign.
Richard J. Foster, 1981
These Voices, Advices and Queries have yet to be approved by Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Your comments to the Faith and Practice Revision Committee would be appreciated.
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