Our Witness for Peace

Because of the belief that all people are precious children of God and potential vessels for God’s truth to enter the world, God’s people refrain from all forms of violence and warfare and instead choose to transform the world through peaceful forms of struggle.

Spiritual Roots

Peace Be With You: A Study of the Spiritual Basis of the Friends Peace Testimony is a startling in-depth exploration by Sandra Cronk of the many ways peacemaking is at the heart of our Quaker faith & witness.

In his Pendle Hill pamphlet Sources of the Quaker Peace Testimony, Howard Brinton not only discusses historical roots but how it is rooted deeply in our present experience of Quaker worship and Meeting for Business.

A Covenant of Peace is a 1960 pamphlet by former Pendle Hill teacher Maury Friedman. He talks about pacifism as an outgrowth of an outgrowth of a biblically grounded covenant relationship with God. “We cannot fail to do our share as God’s partners in the covenant of peace. Though we live under the shadow of the hydrogen bomb, we stand under the cover of the eternal wings.”

Learning to Go in Peace is a talk given by Colin Saxton to the annual sessions of Philadelphia YM in 2008 exploring the spiritual roots of our peace witness.

Historical background

Many people have come to associate peacemaking and opposition to warfare and violence as one of the most distinctive things Quakers today. Opposition to violence, however, was the very earliest witnesses of Friends. Many first Friends including James Nayler fought in the English Civil War in the army fighting on the side of Parliament against King Charles I.

After the monarchy was restored and Charles II was crowned in 1660, Friends were anxious to make clear that they had no intention of being involved in violent resistance to the new king. In November 1660 a group of Friends including George Fox issued a public statement: Declaration of 1660 to King Charles II.

Friends made it clear that when they spoke or wrote about the Lamb’s War they were talking about a different form of struggle than the world’s means of struggle with outward weapons and fighting. In 1678, in the 15th Proposition of his Apology for True Christian Divinity, Robert Barclay describes How war is contrary to the Spirit & doctrine of Christ.

John Woolman picked up the first Friends’ reliance on the letter of James description that the cause of wars was lust for things. He asked whether to look whether the seeds of war existed in their possessions. This sentiment has put to music on Paulette Meier’s round Seeds of War.

Friends withdrew from government in the mid 18th century in Pennsylvania rather than raising militias to fight in the French and Indian War on the side of the crown and other English colonies.

There was a small schism from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting during the US War of Independence by Friends who wished to participate in the war effort. Again, some Friends chose to participate in the Civil War, although many purchased exemption from the draft.

Friends are considered one of the Historic Peace Churches along with Amish, Mennonites, Brethren, Hutterites, and Moravians. At least during the two world wars a much higher percentage of Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren refused to go to war than Quakers. Jehovah’s Witnesses also refuse to go to war

Biblical roots

Barclay lists many biblical teachings both by Jesus and from Hebrew scripture to practice peace and avoid all violence. See On how war is contrary to the Spirit & doctrine of Christ. Here are some key passages in the Bible:

Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 They will beat their swords into ploughshares… And they shall study war no more. Two songs are based on these passages: The round Vine & Fig Tree and the African American spiritual Study War No More.

Zechariah 4:6 “Not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit.”
The Jewish cantor Linda Hirschhorn has written a powerful song based on this passage called Not by Might.

Matthew 5:5 and 5:9 Blessed are the meek and blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed Are the Peacemakers is a musical setting (chant) of Matthew 5:9 by Bev Shepard.

In Matthew 5:38-48 Jesus calls on his followers to return good for evil and love their enemies. The passage ends with a critical passage for Fox: “Therefore you shall be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 26:52 and Revelations 13:10 He lives by the sword shall die by the sword.

James 4 The 1660 Declaration to King Charles cites this passage in which James says that wars are caused by wanting more than we need. This is the same message as Woolman’s statement about the seeds of war being in our possessions. How many wars today are caused by coveting of others’ resources.

Loving Our Enemies is a talk by Jim Fussell that focuses on biblical invitations to love our enemies.

20th-century Quaker peacemaking

During the 20th century, Quakers became active in peacemaking efforts that extended beyond personal non-participation in war.

A.J.Muste (1885-1917) was an early leader in the 1920’s of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. After becoming a Marxist Leninist he disavowed pacifism in the 1930’s & early 1940’s but returned to pacifism and Friends in the 1950’s. In his second period as a Quaker pacifist leader, he was a leader of the Committee for Nonviolent Action. Of Holy Disobedience is a 1952 pamphlet he wrote on how individuals must exercise holy disobedience to war and military conscription.

Cecil Hinshaw wrote a Pendle Hill pamphlet Nonviolent Resistance: A Nation’s Way to Peace in 1956 outlining the ways of overcoming evil on the national level.

In his 1961 pamphlet Visible Witness: A Testimony for Radical Peace Action, Wilmer Young describes why he believes Friends today are called to nonviolent direct action to end the scourge of militarism and the imminent risk of nuclear holocaust.

A national Quaker gathering was held in Richmond in 1968 and issued the 1968 Richmond Declaration on the Draft & Conscription which called on Friends to actively support Young Friends facing conscription including those facing prison for draft resistance.

Around the same time 15 Friends wrote an Epistle to Friends Concerning Military Conscription that urged Friends to refuse to cooperate with military conscription, drawing inspiration from the courage of early Friends’ resistance to tithes and oppressive laws at great risk to themselves.

21st Century voices

Statement to the Court was made by a Scottish Quaker Helen Stevens when she was on trial for destroying computers that guided Cruise nuclear missles. 

Quaker voices today

Adria Gulizia talks about discovering how we are being led by God to act for peace in our lives in her QuakerSpeak video Examining the Quaker Peace Testimony

The witness for peace and criminal justice

Many first Friends suffered terribly in the jails of England for their faithfulness to truth, with many dying there from the unhealthy conditions. Four Friends were hanged in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1659-61 for refusing to obey orders of banishment on pain of death for preaching about their beliefs.

When Friends played a central role in the legislature of Pennsylvania colony they attempted to establish more kind and therapeutic treatment of criminals held in Pennsylvania prisoners. They built “penitentiaries” where prisoners would be able to have quiet cells where they could reflect on their own condition and seek God’s assistance in mending their harmful ways. Needless to say, people working for criminal justice today would question whether solitary confinement was either humane or conducive to healing. Whereas there were many capital crimes in England in the 17th century, the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania abolished capital punishment except for murder and treason.

John Bellers (1654-1725) was a early Quaker reformer and friend of William Penn’s. He became the first European advocate for the abolition of capital punishment.

Elizabeth Fry was widely regarded for her visitation with prisoners in England in the early 19th century. She came from two wealthy English Quaker families in banking. She was shocked by conditions that women’s prisoners experienced and became a strong advocate for treating women prisoners more humanely.

Prison Visitation. The imprisonment of Friends for refusal to enter the military led to increased concern for prisoners in general in New Zealand and England during and after World War I. Friends in the U.S. also became involved in visiting and working with prisoners in the 1970s through the development of the Prisoner Visitation and Support, focusing on visiting and assisting prisoners in military and federal prisons including prisoners of conscience during the Vietnam War.

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). Because severe mistreatment of prisoners and rampant racism among correctional staff there was a major prison takeover in 1971 at Attica Prison in upstate New York in which 47 people died. This led to a major movement by prisoners for better treatment. Prisoners at Greenhaven (another New York state prison) reached out to the Civil Rights Movement and Quakers known for nonviolence training. This led a series of workshops that eventually became to Alternatives to Violence Project. Quakers played a central role in developing the techniques used in AVP which have since been applied to community and youth work as well as programs inside prisons in forty countries around the world.

Inmates of prisons and others who have been involved in a culture of violence learn new personal and interpersonal skills that help create change in the individuals involved and in larger systems and communities around them.

Restorative Justice is another transformative approach to criminal justice.One of its important roots is ingenious approaches to repair of harm and conflict resolution. Another source is Biblical principles of repair of harm, such as Isaiah 58:12. Mennonites in Canada played a major role in its entry into mainstream justice systems in the 1970s.. It emphasizes an approach of taking responsibility for harm and developing healing relationships between offenders and victims. Quakers have recognized this as a far more helpful approach that reflects Quaker values and have supported it through many yearly meetings, American Friends Service Commitee, and Friends Committee on National Legislation. It has also been applied to work like the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that have taken place in many countries where there has been systemic harm such as apartheid and genocide. Quakers in the World article Wikipedia article

Prison Abolition Movement and work against mass inarceration. Quakers have also been active in the prison abolition movement and work against mass incarceration in the U.S.

All of these approaches are based on the principle a retributive approach to harm violates the principle of responding to that of God in another and minimizes the possibility of prevention of further harm, healing of personal experiences and social conditions that foster acts of harm to others, and repair of injury to victims.

Friends Peace Teams.

Friends Peace Teams is a Spirit-led organization that develops long-term relationships with communities in conflict around the world to work for justice and healing, and to create enduring cultures of peace.

Quakers from several North American Yearly Meetings established Friends Peace Teams in 1993. After witnessing the suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they wanted to make every Friends Meeting and Church a center of peace and reach out to people suffering from war and violence everywhere.

There are now Friends Peace Teams working in many parts of the world, including work to heal the aftermath of genocide in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, working in the U.S. to build right relationship with Indigenous peoples, and to de-escalate conflict in many conflict zones.