November 2002 • $3 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today A Perspective on the Peace Testimony Humility: The lamb that Roars The FGC Gathering in Normal, Illinois Annual Books Issue An Among Friends independent magazine serving the It's Tlllle to Witness to Truth Religious t is no secret that Saddam Hussein has stayed in power for many years with the Society of tacit approval of our government. According to Newsweek (9123102), the Reagan Friends I administration provided his regime the key military intelligence and possibly means of access to military hardware that enabled Iraq to win its war with Iran. Then we Editorial allowed Iraq to buy much equipment from U.S. suppliers that could be converted Susan Corson-Finnerty (Publisher and Executive Editor}, Robert Dockhorn (Senior Editor), Lisa Rand from peaceful domestic uses to very threatening ones, such as creating biological {Assistant Editor}, Judith Brown (Poetry Editor}, Ellen weapons or a crude nuclear device. After decades ofsupport for one whom U.S. Michaud (Book &view Editor}, J. Brent Bill (Amstant Book Review Editor}, Joan Overman (Book Review officials have regarded as a psychopath since the '70s, the current Bush administration Assistant), Christine Rusch (Mikstones Editor), Julie has been strident in its insistence that Saddam Hussein personifies evil. But isn't this an Gochenour, Robert Marks, Cameron McWhirter (News Editors), Kara Newell (OJlumnist), Marjorie evil to which our shortsighted foreign policy has largely contributed? A year ago, we Schier (Copyeditor}, Amber Graven, Elizabeth were hearing nearly the same story about Osama bin Laden and the T aliban­ Markham, Nicole Perry, Juliana Rosati, Christina Weber, Molly Wilson {Interns) "monsters" we created by training bin Laden and arming the Taliban to assist us in our Production efforts to repel the Soviets from Afghanistan. Is our current administration's foreign E. Jane Spencer (Summer Art Director}, Alia Podolsky policy any less shortsighted? (Assistant An Dim:tor}, Martin Kelley (Web ManAger) Do not misunderstand my intention. There never is justification for brutal, Advertising, Circulation, Development Nagendran Gulendran (Advertising ManAger), repressive regimes or terrorist groups that target civilian populations and prey upon Nicole Hackel (Circulation Assistant}, Melissa those who are weaker-such as the women ofAfghanistan. Clearly, such regimes and Heyman (Project and Database ManAger}, Lawrence Moore (Circulation and Marketing ManAger}, Gretta groups must be resisted and dismantled. The question of our time is how to do this in Stone (Development CoordinAtor}, Kay Bacon, Ruth a way that does not plunge the global community into Armageddon. Peterson (Volunteers) On September 19, a full-page ad in the New York Times declared, "Not in Our Administration Marianne De Lange (Office Manager), Tom McPeak Name." More than 4,000 individuals signed a compelling statement that said, in part, (Accounting Services), Tom Hartmann (Volunteer) "Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government Board of Trustees declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression .... We Barbara Andrews, TylaAnn Burger (Treasurer), Katharine Clark, Linda Coffin, Karen Cromley, believe that people ofconscience must take responsibility for what their own John Darnell, William Deutsch (Assistant Clerk), governments do--we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own Mary Ann Downey, Walter Evans, Marsha Green (Recording Clerk), Dan Hewitt, Linda Houser, name.. We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk ofa Linda Lyman, Larry Miller, Julian O'Reilley, war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are Ruth Peterson, Jonathan Tamez, Ann Trueblood Raper, Lynn Waddington, Elizabeth Yeats (Clerk), confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that Anne-Marie Zilliacus manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights. There is a deadly trajectory to the FRIENDS j OURNAL (ISSN 00 16-1322) was establish«! events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in 1955 as <hesuccessorto TheFrinu/(1827-1955) and Friends lntelligmcer (1844-1955). in history people have waited until it was too late to resist ...." • FRIENDS jOURNAL is publish«! momhty by For more than two decades, I've been a member of the same monthly meeting as Friends Publishing Corporation, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835. Telephone Stephen G. Cary, former chair of the board of American Friends Service Comminee. (215) 563-8629. E-mail [email protected]. A few months before his death, Steve met with a group from our meeting to discuss his Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, Pa., and additional mailing offices. article, "A Response to September Eleventh" (F]Mar.). I've been inspired by Steve's • Subscriptions: one year $29, two years $54. Add spoken ministry for many years and have had the opportunity to hear him express his $6 per year for postage to co untries outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $3 each. concerns with varying degrees of intensity. It was very sobering, therefore, to hear such • Advertising informacion and assistance is available on a seasoned peace worker and Friend say that he's never felt more alarmed for our request. Appearance of any advertisement does not imply endorsemem by FRIENDS jOURNAL. nation than now. He also said he felt he ought to be openly protesting our • Postmaster: send address changes to FRIENDS government's policies, perhaps engaging in civil disobedience. joURNAL, 1216 Arch Street, 2A, Philadelphia, PA 19107- 2835. I am moved by the personal witness ofJohn Gallery fearured in our cover photo • Copyright C 2002 by Friends Publishing Corporation. and in his article, "A Perspective on the Peace Testimony" (p.6). The uner simplicity Permission should be receival before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. of his weekly vigil for peace with others at Independence Mall in Philadelphia speaks Available on microfilm from BeU and HoweU Information and Learning. for itself-and could easily be replicated anywhere. Friends, Steve Cary was losing his PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER struggle with cancer when he spoke to us with such concern about the times in which Min. 20% post-<:<>nsumer we are living. But, unlike Steve, most of us are still quite healthy and able to mount the resistance of which he spoke. Now is the time to become quite visible and to speak Moving? Let us update your truth to power. We are living in definitive times-and the future will be shaped by our subscription and address. ability to resist imperious and destructive policies as much as by presenting clearly FRIENDS jOURNAL, 1216 Arch St., 2A Philadelphia, PA 19107-2835 • (215) 563-8629 bette< >lte<nativ" fut o;rabli<hing la<ting !"""'· ~ CN,. ~ Fax: (215) 568-1377 • [email protected] Web: www.friendsjournal.org 2 November 2002 FRIENDS JouRNAL November 2002 FRIENDS Volume 48, No. 11 JOURNAL Features 6 A Perspective on the Peace Testimony John Andrew Gallery Is the difference between the "peace ofmen "and the "peace ofGod" the absence ofanger? 12 Humility: The Lamb that Roars Keith R. Maddock Although often not valued in the culture around us, humility can be a component ofhealing. Departments "To Be Gathered Still": The FGC Gathering in Normal, Illinois 2 Among Friends 4 Forum 14 Random Glimpses from a Gathering First­ 5 Viewpoint Timer, James Arnold Baker justice and respect for people with 15 The High School Gathering, mental iUnesses Andrew Esser-Haines 23 Special Books Section 15 A V1ew from the Junior Gathering, Melaura Homan-Smith 39 Reports and Epistles Slavery in Mauritania 16 The Black Cats Taught Me Mindfulness, JoAnn Seaver 42 Quaker Profile john Munson 16 The Healing Center, Jan Stansel and Jim Palmer 44 News 1 7 A Glimpse of FLGC in Transition, Response to threat ofwar with Iraq Wendy Sanford 45 Bulletin Board 18 The Friends Committee on Unity with Nature Center, Louis Cox 46 Milestones 18 Racial Wounding at the Gathering, 48 Classified Vanessa Julye 20 Divine Noises, Lucinda Antrim 22 Missing Link Found, Amy Gomez Cover: John Gallery and Pat Parkman at the vigil near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pa. Photo: Charles Fox, Philadelphia Inquirer FRIENDS jOURNAL November 2002 3 Forum Hope for peace and justice to make, I believe (my Latin is 70 years old). it represents not pacifism, but passivism. Pacifism is making peace. In the Quaker Friend Johnson has apparently missed the Thank you for the article entitled "Can tradition, pacifism is living "in virtue of the whole point of my letter. A pacifist can and Love Really Overcome Violence and Hate?" life and power which [takes] away the must raise not only a hand, but a body, (F]July). It put into words so many of my occasion of all wars." mind, and soul to prevent suffering. In his own thoughts on the subject. And it offered As a matter of fact, while Buchenwald and response to my letter, Friend Johnson argues great comfort in its own way. There are Hiroshima were happening, the great not against pacifism, but against passivism, a those of us, still, who hope for peace and majority of Forest Service firefighters in the philosophy that I also reject. universal justice at a time when our leaders western states were pacifist conscientious Friend Johnson's letter assumes that the and government seem hell-bent on objectors. Many of the men's wards in mental pacifist must choose between either passive vengeance and war. hospitals were staffed almost entirely with acceptance of evil, or the active evil of war. Maggie Davis pacifists. COs in prison were trying to make This oversimplifies the options open to the Sarasota, Fla. conditions better where they were, helping pacifist.