Quakers and Series

“Who comprises mankind?” Everyone, men, women, and children.

“Who comprises womankind?” Women.

“Why the separate-but-equal term womankind, as if women were a sub-species?” Why, indeed?

“Why not use humankind to mean men, women, and children, and mankind only as the equivalent of womankind?” Why not?

“In a large southern city I noticed in some of the older public buildings that there were separate washrooms still labeled ‘colored women’ and ‘white ladies’.” Separate but never equal.

“Didn’t that seem to black women like an insult?” It surely did.

“If the signs had read ‘colored ladies’ and ‘white women,’ wouldn’t black women have felt just as much put down?” Maybe more so.

“Then what about the washroom signs I saw in a large modern building—these signs read ‘Men’ and ‘Ladies’.” Same kind of put down, by sex instead of color.

Being a Quaker lays on one the responsibility for engaging in a continuing internal process of finding out what one really believes in, and relentlessly tracking down one’s own bigotries, prejudices, inconsistencies, blindnesses, and refusals to recognize truth and accept it as such. Conversations with oneself like the above are part and parcel of that process.

If we consider the spiritual message of the Society of Friends apart from its social message we must realize that "spiritual" and "social" are as intimately related as the two sides of a door; you can 't have one without the other. However, as in the case of a door, it is possible to concentrate attention on one side or the other. We can think of the "spiritual" as primarily concerned with our relation to God and the "social" as primarily concerned with our relation to our fellows. Each is dependent on the other. In Quaker writings the phrase "joined to the Lord" seldom appears without the corresponding phrase "and to one another. "To be" joined to the Lord" results in being joined to one another, and being joined to one another results in being "joined to the Lord."

For when I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power among them which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up.
- Robert Barclay

Friends are conservative radicals. They are conservative because they are religious, and religion, as the origin of the word indicates, suggests binding together. Religion binds the present with the past and it binds diverse people into communities. Quakers, because of their deep Christian roots, are bound into the past history of humankind. The words and actions attributed to Isaiah, to Jesus, to Saint Francis, to George Fox and to John Woolman come down through the centuries and are bound into the life and witness of today. In the meeting for worship Friends seek to break through the here-and-now into that which is eternal. Here, that which is beyond time and in every time becomes part of the present.

Two of the most treasured concepts of our time are the method of scientific inquiry and the values and practices we understand as democratic. Both of these are most congenial to the spirit of the Society of Friends.

The method of scientific inquiry involves first of all an emphasis upon experience. Scientists take no answers for granted. They must experiment, test each hypothesis in the light of experience. Friends have had a similar emphasis. Friends have been unwilling to accept blindly creeds and formulae written down centuries ago. They have preferred to try to share the experiences which produced such insights as those recorded in the scriptures. They are fond of saying, "It is not true because Jesus said it; Jesus said it because it is true."

The Jewish and Christian writings in the Bible are part of the Quaker “religious” inheritance shared with other churches. Because of their long currency they have entered the general cultural stream, even on a secular level. Although they represent a great variety of views, they have often been treated as a homogeneous whole. Actually, those who used them did so with an unconscious selectivity—ignoring parts and emphasizing parts.

From its beginning the Religious Society of Friends has stressed the conviction that marriage is a binding relationship entered into in the presence of God and of witnessing Friends. Before the day of the wedding, when the commitment is made public, the proposed marriage receives the approval of the meeting through the careful consideration of an appointed clearness committee.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) began in 17th century England during the time of turmoil between Royalists and followers of Oliver Cromwell. As the earliest Friends gathered in small groups at individual homes rather than worshipping in the churches of the day, they were often suspected of plotting the overthrow of the government. Thus, Friends were moved to declare their position on violence and armed conflict.

George Fox, founder of Quakerism, made strong statements to the commonwealth and subsequently to the crown regarding Friends' position on war In 1661 he told King Charles II in an often quoted statement:

We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.

For when I came into the silent assemblies of God's people, I felt a secret power among them which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it, I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up.
- Robert Barclay

I was once asked by a woman about the Quaker approach to life, and I began to tell her what Quakers believed about the nature of people and their relation to God. But she cut me off abruptly with the assurance that she had heard a similar ideal theory expounded by every religious group she had ever met. "What I want to know," she insisted, "is what you Quakers do!" What then do we do in Quaker worship? I can only speak for myself as a member of the Society of Friends, and I shall put it very informally and very personally.

The basis of Friends concerns is the same as the basis of Quakerism as a whole—the belief in the within-ness of God. This is not original with Friends. Many other groups have believed that God is within as well as above and beyond human beings.

However, the emphasis on the within-ness of God in everyone, in the capacity of the individual to communicate directly with God, to experience the spirit of Christ and express it in every aspect of life, has led us to adopt patterns of behavior which may be considered characteristically Quaker.

In this time when we constantly interact with people of other cultures and nationalities, the Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee (CIRC) of FGC invites Friends to consider the challenges and opportunities inherent in a world in which the many religions confront each other daily. Religious differences play a role in many contemporary wars. Religion is too often used as a weapon to frighten or a tool to incite violence and hatred. Friends must demonstrate a different way.

Friends recognize the living Spirit of God as a Reality that transcends all names and forms. Our avoidance of creeds and simple manner of worship testify to this. Our form of worship is open and unstructured because we recognize that the Spirit cannot be contained! We cannot therefore dismiss the possibility that the Reality we worship is present under a name and form that is unfamiliar to us and present in other religions.