Ask
anyone, Quaker or otherwise, about the essential beliefs of the
Religious Society of Friends and chances are you will hear something
about Friends historic peace testimony. "Quakers don't fight in
wars" is something specific that people can say about this
peculiar sect which steadfastly refuses to be defined by creed or
dogma. Moreover, in a world where it is considered acceptable, indeed
praiseworthy, to go to war and kill one another for the sake of peace
or justice, in a world where we have learned to define successes,
amass our fortunes or win our arguments at the expense of others like
us (our enemies) who lose out, the perception that 'Quakers are
peacemakers' sets Friends apart and makes them visible.
But Friends' peace testimony is not a creed, in the sense of a
statement of belief true for all time. Nor is it a code of behavior, a
set of rules to which all Quakers individually and corporately must
adhere. On the simplest level, "testimony" means
"bearing witness" and Friends' long heritage of witnessing
to peace can be found in public statements and personal reflections,
in their refusal to bear arms in times of civil and international
conflict, in acts of prophetic confrontation and of quiet, reconciling
diplomacy. But these are merely outward and visible signs of inward
conviction. This conviction springs from a living Spirit, mediated
through the human experience of those trying to understand and follow
its leadings. It grows afresh in every life, in every worshipping
group, in every generation.
At the heart of this conviction is Friends' experience that there
is something of God—the seed of the Spirit—in all people. Quakers
believe that more can be accomplished by appealing to this capacity
for love and goodness, in ourselves and in others, than can be hoped
for by threatening punishment or retaliation if people act badly. This
is not to ignore the existence of evil. It is to recognize that there
is no effective way to combat evil with weapons which harm or kill
those through whom evil is working. We must turn instead, in the words
of early Friends, to the "weapons of the spirit," allowing
God to reach out through us to that of God in those with whom we are
in conflict. "Spiritual weapons"—love, truthsaying,
nonviolence, imagination, laughter—are weapons that heal and don't
destroy.
All this sounds grand indeed; its consequences are for the most
part very ordinary. The peace testimony is not something Quakers take
down from a shelf and dust off only in wartime or in times of personal
or political crisis. Living out a witness to peace has to do with
everyday choices about the work we do, the relationships we build,
what part we take in politics, what we buy, how we raise our children.
It is a matter of fostering relationships and structures—from
personal to international—which are strong and healthy enough to
contain conflict when it arises and allow its creative resolution. It
is a matter of withdrawing our cooperation from structures and
relationships which are unjust and exploitative. It is a matter of
finding creative ways of dealing with conflict when it does arise,
with the aim of freeing all concerned to find a just and loving
solution.
Like everyone else, Quakers live in the real world. Insights which
are gloriously clear in the spirit translate into words or actions
which seem muddled and imperfect. From time to time we fail, we fudge,
we are hurt, and hurt others. To accept as a certainty the spiritual
conviction which underlies the peace testimony is not to be certain of
the outcome. We cannot guarantee that we will never kill, far less
that we will never do violence to those with whom we share the earth.
Nor can we, by refusing to do harm and seeking always for a creative
response in conflict ensure our own personal safety or the triumph of
the causes we support. We can only choose to live day by day as if it
were possible always to defend what we value and to resolve conflict
without deliberate harm—in such a way that if damage does occur,
healing is possible.
If we choose to attempt this, we are not alone. Those who have
lived and witnessed before us (by no means all of them Quakers) have
left examples for us to find and follow. Those of us alive now who are
struggling with the same dilemmas can offer each other comfort,
courage and support. And we are many. We are beginning to realize that
security is common, indivisible, and cannot be assured by military
means. To seek to live at such a time in that life and power that
takes away the occasion of all wars is no longer (if it ever was) a
saintly, other-worldly alternative. It is now an urgent and practical
imperative.
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