July 1991 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today I WAS IN PRISON, AND YOU VISITED ME IS IT TIME, ONCE AGAIN, TO BECOME A 'PECULIAR PEOPLE'? SOUTH AFRICA: WAGING THE LAMB'S WAR Edltor-lleneger Among Friends Vinton Deming Assoclete Editor Melissa Kay Elliott Art Director Barbara Benton Asking the Hard Questions Advertising lleneger Catherine Frost Clrculetlon end Promotion ach month we receive a number of letters from prison inmates. Nagendran Gulendran Occasionally it's a request for a copy of our magazine, sometimes ~pesettlng Services James Rice and Voodoo Jordhamo E for a subscription. Often, too, we're asked to publish an ad under Secreterlel Services personals, something like "Sincere young man, lonely, wants to correspond Jeanne G. Beisel Bookk-per with female [preferred age mentioned], all letters answered promptly. '' James Neveil Such requests for "female pen pals" are not accepted, but we seek to Volunteers respond to all letters and answer as many requests as possible. Jane Burgess, Burgess Ekman, Anders Hansen, Emily Conlon, Catherine McCulley, Becky Young Several things come through clearly in these bits of correspondence. First, Boerd of llenegers and primary' we feel the loneliness and sense of isolation expressed by most 1989-1992: Jennie Allen (Secretary), Richard Eldridge (Assistant Clerk), Bernard Haviland, prisoners. In many cases, we learn, individuals feel abandoned by family Eric Larsen, Marcia Mason, Janet Norton, David Samuel, Carolyn Sprogell, Wilmer and friends; there is little personal contact with the outside world. The Tjossem, Alice Wiser letters are often written very well and with great care. Many writers are 1990-1993: Clement Alexandre, Marguerite Clark, Peter Eccles, Leonard Kenworthy, Lee curious about Quakerism, want to read more about Friends' beliefs, desire Neff, Mary Ellen Singsen contact with local Friends and meetings. In such cases we may send an 1991-1994: Frank Bjornsgaard, Emily Conlon, Nancy Cocks Culleton, Barbara Dinhofer, Dian article or pamphlet, encourage someone we know to make a Friendly visit Fatula, Sam Legg (Clerk), Parry Jones, Richard Moses (Treasurer), Harry Scott, Larry Spears to the person, provide a JoURNAL subscription. Honorery llenegers Just a year ago the Washington Newsletter of Friends Committee on Eleanor Stabler Clarke, Mildred Binns Young National Legislation featured a particularly good article on our national FRIENDS JOURNAL (ISSN 0016-1322) was established in 1955 as the successor to The prison system. It pointed out, for instance, that the U.S. rate of Friend ( 1827 - 1955) and Friends.lntelligencer incarceration is the third highest in the world-surpassed only by the Soviet (1844-1955). It is associated with the Religious Society of Friends, and is a member of the Union and South Africa. By the end of 1990, FCNL predicts, about a Associated Church Press. million people will be incarcerated in federal and state prisons and in local • fRIENDS JOURNAL is published monthly by Friends Publishing Corporation, 1501 Cherry jails. Other sobering facts: St., Philadelphia, PA 19102-1497. Telephone (215) 241-7277. Accepted as second-class postage • Most individuals in federal prisons are there because of drug related paid at Hanover, PA 17331. offenses and property crimes-only 7 percent for violent crimes. • Subscriptions: one year $18, two years $34. Add $6 per year for postage to countries outside • Blacks serve 20 percent longer sentences than whites for similar offenses. the U.S:, Canada, and Mexico. Individual copies $2 each. • The number of women being incarcerated is growing at a much faster • Information on and assistance with rate than for men-a 20 percent increase between 1988 and 1989-and 70 advertising is available on request. Appearance of any advertisement does not imply percent of them are mothers. Sixty percent are African American, Latina, endorsement by FRIENDS JouRNAL. or Native American. • Postmaster: send address changes to • The cost of new federal prison construction for five years is expected to FRIENDS JOURNAL, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102-1497 exceed $70 billion. This does not include the cost of maintaining prisoners • Copyright © 1991 by Friends Publishing in confinement, either. "A 30-year prison sentence is equivalent to a Corporation. Reprints of articles available at nominal cost. Permission should be received $1 million investment in an individual," says the FCNL article. before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. Available in microfilm from University Many Friends are active with prison work. When visiting Denver Meeting Microfilms International. this spring I learned of Leanore Goodenow's tenacious work in the state PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER prison of Colorado. For many years she involved Friends and others in prison visiting, starting new programs, and opening the minds of prison officials. Herb Ettel's article in our current issue pays tribute to Friends Moving? Bob and Kay Horton's valuable work with prisoners. Federal prisoner Adam Starchild says it well in his article: "It is time to Let us update ask the hard questions . wherein we rely on imprisonment as virtually the your subscription only way we deal with crime." and address. Write or call: FRIENDS JouRNAL, 1501 Cherry SL, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1497 (215) 241-7277; FAX (215) 568-1377 2 July 1991 FRIENDS JOURNAL July 1991 FRIENDS Volume 37, No. 7 JOURNAL Features Departments 8 Time to Become a Peculiar People 2 Among Friends Priscilla Berggren-Thomas Our role in the world is to share our experience of God. 4 Forum 5 VIewpoint 11 The Peace Testimony Mamie Miller-Outsell 30 Quaker Crostlc One Friend asks the hard questions about faith and 32 Reports accountability. 34 Witness 13 Unitarians as friends 35 FCNLNotes Mary Barclay Howarth Quakers and Unitarians form a bond offe llowship and wor­ 36 News of Friends ship in a corner of The Rockies. 36 Nonsense of 16 I Was In Prison and You VIsited Me the Meeting. Herb Ettel 38 Bulletin Board/ Bob and Kay Horton's prison ministry lives on in the lives it touches. Calendar 19 Pucho 40 Then and Now Mario DiBlasio 42 Books A prisoner moves on to a place of hope. 44 Resources 21 Make VIctims the Focus of Law 44 Milestones Adam Starchild Is it time to change our focus to restitution? 46 Classified 22 Nonsexist Language In New Bible Poetry Translations Wallace Cayard 7 Tribute There are now gender-inclusive ways to state old truths. Helen Weaver Horn 24 Waging the Lamb's War James Fletcher Soweto Friends stand solidly in a sea of troubles. 27 Srt Lanka: Unresolved Conflict Elizabeth Salter Cataclysmic events can obscure-ongoing tragedies. Cover art by Lowell Naeve FRIENDS JOURNAL July 1991 3 Forum A Message in Meeting ugliness. But in worshipful living, God for business provides an opportunity to lets us know the difference. practice the principles of nonviolent One of my grandfathers, John Baird, Jesus taught us to love God, and to conflict resolution, to experience personal was born in 1852, in Scotland. He came love others as much as we love ourselves. growth, to really get to know other to this country in his late teens, became a Not only will there be enough love, but Friends, to deepen one's spiritual life. cheesemaker in Herkimer County, N.Y., lots more neighbors to share it with. Sometimes in a meeting for business, and married a school teacher, whose I pray for us that we live in the Spirit, quite marvelous resolutions happen, quite grandparents had lived through the which will preserve as much of the world unexpected openings occur. Sometimes it American Revolution in the Mohawk as possible for our great-grandchildren. feels as though "the Spirit is truly valley as small children. I remember him Let us be worthy of the life and love that working among us." letting me help him take the feathers off God has given us. For example, once the clerk of the a chicken he had killed for dinner the Charley Brown Friends General Conference Central next day. I remember watching him hitch Wiscasset, Maine Committee introduced a matter that he up the buggy, and I have a picture of knew to be very difficult for the gathered him with my cousin and me in that Friends. He was tense with anxiety buggy. I remember my grandmother's himself, perhaps not free of a personal hand on mine as she kept me from bias on the issue. The discussion got churning too fast, as I tried to help make increasingly difficult when, pausing for a butter. moment, he experienced something quite This spring I drove from Maine to get unexpected. He suddenly felt a kind of to my son's home in West Chester, Pa., light flow over his body from head to for my grandson's seventh birthday. The foot. He relaxed into quite a different whole family went out to dinner. When mood and was able to lead the meeting we got back, the children and I were to a gentle resolution of the issue. tired and went to bed pretty quickly. Later this man learned that just at the The next morning, about 6:15 a.m., time of })is amazing experience, three when he heard me moving, Joshua, a day Friends had gone together into an over seven, came in and stood next to my adjoining chapel with the explicit bed. I pulled the covers back, and he Flower power intention of "holding him in the Light." climbed in with me, and we whispered The Business Meeting Resource Group, together for a few minutes till the rest of I was touched by Jessica Robie's letter which first met in Richmond, Ind., on the family started getting up. (FJ April) so generously sent to a soldier April 12, invites you to share If Joshua lives to be as old as I am calling him "brave" and "courageous." I "testimonials" about rewarding now, he will be my age in 2058.