Quakers & Politics

Excerpts compiled by Western Friend Online (2017) Quotations Concerning: Quakers and Politics Compiled by Mary Klein It is important that we take the time to envision the community, nation, and world we would like to live in, and create for our children and grandchildren. This long-term view, or vision statement, will be a continual source of inspiration. Then we can explore practical ways we can work with others who share our vision to create that kind of world. [And] if we want to bring about fundamental change in our society, we need to create long-range goals that build toward our vision for the future, and then develop good strategy and sustained campaigns to achieve those goals. – David Hartsough (2014) Much of what is valuable in our lives happens in community. We are born of the union of two people. We grow up as members of a family. We have a neighborhood, a nation, a history and a future. If our conception of religion fails to acknowledge the social dimension of life, we shall not do it justice. Important though our private relationship with God may be, we are called into a kingdom, into fellowship, into dependence upon other people. The central act of Christian worship is an affirmation of these things. – John Punshon (1987) The pioneering quality of Quaker social work is largely due to the character of the meeting for worship. Silent waiting worship permits a fresh and direct facing of facts under conditions in which the conscience becomes sensitized. There is no screen of words and abstract concepts between the soul and reality. The worshiper finds a certain condition in the outside world presented to his mind at the very time at which he is seeking God’s guidance for his actions. A concern develops and with it a sense of uneasiness over a situation about which something needs to be done. This uneasiness persists until the required action is undertaken either successfully or unsuccessfully. – Howard Brinton (1965) If a concerned Quaker (or any man or woman committed to an absolute religious ethic) decides to enter practical politics in order to translate his principles into actuality, he may achieve a relative success: he may be able to raise the level of political life in his time . But he can apparently do it only at a price – the price of compromise, of the partial betrayal of his ideals. If, on the other hand, he decides to preserve his ideals intact, to maintain his religious testimonies unsullied and pure, he may be able to do that, but again at a price – the price of isolation, of withdrawal from the main stream of life in his time, of renouncing the opportunity directly and immediately to influence history. Let me call the two positions the relativist and the absolutist. And let me suggest that perhaps each one needs the other. The relativist needs the absolutist to keep alive and clear the vision of the City of God while he struggles in some measure to realize it in the City of Earth. And conversely, the absolutist needs the relativist, lest the vision remain the possession of a few only, untranslated into any degree of reality for the world as a whole. – Frederick B. Tolles (1956) Quakers and Political Polarization – Quotations 2 Excerpts compiled by Western Friend Online (2017) It is not, I am persuaded, political compromise that is the enemy of religion, but the method by which such compromise is reached, the method that is falsely called democratic, of reaching an agreed end by immoral surrender of principle, and by voting down and coercing one another. There is a wide difference between Quaker method, which includes but transcends compromise, and the method of a party deal and a political coercion. – Carl Heath (1922) “Politics” cannot be relegated to some outer place, but must be recognized as one side of life, which is as much the concern of religious people and of a religious body as any other part of life. Nay, more than this, the ordering of the life of man in a community, so that he may have the chance of a full development, is and always has been one of the main concerns of Quakerism. – Lucy Fyer Morland (1918) The free institutions under which we live give many of our members a direct share in the responsibilities of government and in forming the healthy public opinion that will lead to purity of administration and righteousness of policy. This responsibility belongs to them by virtue of their citizenship, and our members can no more rightly remain indifferent to it, than to the duties which they owe to their parents and near relatives. – London Yearly Meeting (1911) The glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and end of government, and therefor government in itself is a venerable ordinance of God. – William Penn (1682) We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other . but we are for Justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound. – Edward Burrough (1659) The elders and brethren send . these necessary things following; to which, if in the Light you wait, to be kept in obedience, you shall do well. 14 – That if any be called to serve the commonwealth in any public service, which is for the public wealth and good, that with cheerfulness it be undertaken, and in faithfulness discharged unto God. – Meeting of Elders at Balby (1656) And what does the Lord require of you? To act Justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8 .

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