Friends and Violence
By Marjorie E. Nelson
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.
From the beginning then, we have clear statements on Friends' position towards personal violence or participation in war and the reasoning for this. Friends' testimony on violence is often equated with refusal to bear arms or personally inflict suffering on others, yet their opposition to violence extends much further. Living in a society that accepts and supports institutionalized violence presents one with a moral and spiritual dilemma: how does one discern and honor the legitimate functions of government and also bear witness against and resist those activities of government which violate the ultimate loyalty of a Christian to God's law and authority?
During times of open conflict Friends have often suffered heavily, sometimes from both sides, for their neutrality and resistance to participation in war During the American Revolution, William Rotch, a leader of the Quaker whaling community of Nantucket Island, was asked by the Americans to give them some bayonets which had been removed from muskets he had received in repayment of a debt some years earlier William Rotch refused, saying "I can put no weapons into a man's hand to destroy another that I cannot use myself in the same way." He continued,
It made a great noise in the country, and my life was threatened. . . . A short time after I was called before a Committee appointed by the Court . . . and questioned respecting my bayonets. I gave a full account of my proceedings and closed it with saying, "I sunk them in the bottom of the sea, I did it from principle, . . . and if I am wrong I am to be pitied." The chairman of the Committee, Major Hawley, . . . then . . said, "I believe Mr. Rotch has given us a candid account, and every man has a right to act consistently with his religious principles, but I am sorry that we could not have the bayonets, for we want them very much." The Major was desirous of knowing more of our principles on which I informed him as far as he enquired. One of the Committee in a pert manner observed "then your principles are passive Obedience and non-resistance." I replied, "No, my friend, our principles are active Obedience or passive suffering."
That member of the Committee expressed a common misconception that Quakers and other pacifists are passive or non-resistant. William Rotch spoke accurately when he countered that Friends believe that they must actively obey the teachings of Christ to resist evil and violence. Rather than inflict suffering on others, they accept the suffering -including government-imposed penalties -that frequently results from this activity. Such active obedience often takes forms of refusal such as conscientious objectors refusing induction into armed forces or citizens refusing to pay war taxes, yet it also leads to activities and programs designed to prevent or ameliorate the suffering caused by war Thus, Friends Ambulance Units made up of conscientious objectors operated behind the front lines of two World Wars, insisting on the right to help those in need on both sides of the conflict. During World War I, British Friends formed an emergency committee to befriend and shelter enemy aliens stranded by the outbreak of war. The British Friends War Victims Relief Committee undertook medical work, epidemic control, and feeding programs in France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, and North Africa. In 1919 this group cooperated with the American Friends Service Committee in a massive program of feeding children and nursing mothers in war-devastated Germany suffering from a merciless blockade imposed by the Allies -a blockade which continued seven months after the armistice was signed. Many German children came to use Quaker as a verb meaning to feed
On December 2, 1938, shortly after the "Day of Broken Glass," when Jews throughout Germany were attacked and arrested, three Friends set sail from New York to call on Hitler with a proposal for emergency feeding and more rapid emigration of the Jewish population. One of them, Robert Yarnall of Philadelphia, 14 years earlier had worked in the "Quakerspeisung" in Germany. Ultimately this trio met with two chief officers of the Gestapo in the headquarters of the German Secret Police. After hearing the Friends' proposal, the officers left to consult with Richard Heydrich, the Chief of the Gestapo, promising to return in half an hour. Rufus Jones, chairman of the AFSC, later recounted that "During this awesome period we bowed our heads and entered upon a time of deep, quiet meditation and prayer -the only Quaker Meeting ever held in the Gestapo!. . . It proved to be rightly ordered. The two men returned at the announced time and the leader said,'Everything you have asked for is granted.'"Who knows but what the memory of the "Quakerspeisung" of World War I may have touched the minds of those men in their decision?
Back home again, Friends attempted to persuade U. S. officials to increase the immigration quota so more might flee Germany and to augment the U. S. consular staffs in Germany and Austria so that those eligible could be processed more quickly. They failed in both efforts. Eventually emigration ceased and extermination became the solution for the Nazi regime.
We very readily attribute evil motives and deeds to our adversaries and good motives and deeds to our friends. It is very difficult for people to avoid the "good guys versus the bad guys" mentality. . It is far more difficult to face the evil and complicity in ourselves and to hold the faith in "that of God" in our adversaries. .
I remember a conversation some years ago with a minister of Calvinist persuasion who asked me to explain Quaker views. I replied that Friends believe that alongside a person's immense capacity for evil, there is an equal potential for good often referred to as "that of God" in every person. Rather than resort to violence Quakers appeal to people by word and deed, to heed inner promptings of the Spirit of God and do good rather than evil. The minister looked at me rather quizzically and said, "Don't you think you are in danger of underestimating the power and influence of evil with that approach?" "No," I replied, somewhat startled, "I don't think so." The crucifixion of Christ testifies to what may happen when one is steadfastly loyal to God's calling. There is no guarantee of safety or success in the conventional sense in this approach toward violence and a person's capacity for evil. However, the resurrection of Christ stands as God's testimony and promise that ultimately the way of sacrificial love will prevail over the powers of evil and darkness.
As I reflected further on that minister's question my mind turned to many scenes I witnessed and stories I was told during my two years of service with an AFSC medical team in Quang Ngai, Vietnam in the late 1960s. Our project was located six miles from My Lai. We treated at least one survivor from that massacre. Vietnamese friends told me not only of that event but of five similar incidents perpetrated by American or Korean troops in our province alone. I saw children injured by NLF rockets which exploded near their orphanage. I treated patients in our rehabilitation center who had extremities blown off by land mines planted by both sides in that conflict. Do I underestimate the power and influence of evil? I think not.
And yet I also saw American GIs caring for wounded Vietnamese in the hospitals. On their days off they would spend their time making equipment for our patients to use in the rehabilitation center. I saw a young Vietnamese officer adopt a little orphan amputee patient of ours although he was no relative. And in 1968, taken prisoner by the NLF in the Tet Offensive, I experienced good treatment and tender concern by "the enemy." When I fell ill with dysentery, a North Vietnamese doctor walked for several hours through the mountains to my camp to treat me. The soldiers collected from their meager belongings such things as powdered eggs, a little sugar, and a can of sweetened condensed milk which they gave me "to help you regain your strength." The cook of the camp started rising at 4:00 a. m. to catch small fish in the stream to supplement my rice and vegetable diet. No one else in the camp had meat. Never in my life have I been more uplifted and sustained by a sense of the power and loving presence of God than in those two months in the mountains of Central Vietnam. Yes, throughout the years, Friends have found repeatedly that reaching out to "that of God" in others can be very creative in situations of conflict and violence.
Friends continually face a dilemma in dealing with institutionalized violence. Though they may not accept Friends' alternative approaches, few would disagree that war is violent. However, the diagnosis is much more difficult in other cases. A medical analogy might be helpful here. If a person is given a potent poison such as cyanide, the result is quick, certain death. Other poisons, such as alcohol, work much more slowly so that cause and effect are not so apparent, but persistent application leads just as surely to the final outcome. Friends have found many institutions to be violent in this more slow and subtle way
For example, as early as 1688 some Friends in the colonies were distressed by the institution of slavery and called upon Friends to free themselves of involvement in it. But slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of colonial society. Many Friends not only owned slaves but were also involved in the slave trade. To be free of slave-holding and trading would be financial ruin, some protested. Others maintained that they treated their slaves kindly so that it could not be wrong for them.
It was John Woolman, a Quaker minister from Rancocas, New Jersey, who was chiefly responsible for awakening Friends to the need to clear themselves of slave-owning. As a young man his employer asked him to write a bill of sale for a slave. He wrote in his journal,
My employer, having a Negro woman, sold her and directed me to write a bill of sale. . . . The thing was sudden, and though the thoughts of writing an instrument of slavery for one of my fellow creatures felt uneasy . . yet I remembered that I was hired by the year, that it was my master who directed me to do it, and that it was an elderly man, a member of our Society who bought her; so through weakness I gave way, and wrote it.
This resulted in his decision to leave the business and travel extensively throughout the colonies, visiting Friends and others, speaking to them "in good will" that they should be free of slave-holding. On trips to the South he took along a bag of silver with which he paid Negro servants for their services when he stayed with slave-owning hosts. Although he dreaded these embarrassing ceremonies, his gentleness and obvious concern for both slave and master enabled him to get through them without angry arguments. Many Friends became convinced through this type of living ministry by Woolman and other Friends. This method says something very important about Friends' approach to issues. . One does not accept a belief or an action because it is an article of faith or because some ecclesiastical body has decreed such. Rather it springs from convincement -an inner moving of the Spirit which impels one to that position. Woolman died in 1772 and did not live to see the Society of Friends finally free of slave-holding in 1784 -nearly 100 years after the concern was first raised. Although this was a slow and painful process, the Society of Friends became the first religious body not only to be free of the institutionalized violence of slavery but also to advocate abolition as a national policy
Today Friends are also struggling with institutions that do violence to our fellow creatures and are just as much a part of the given and accepted fabric of our society as slavery was in the 1700s. Today, Woolman's counterpart could easily be an employee in a large firm awarded a contract to manufacture anti-personnel bombs for sale to friendly allies.
Although not all Friends are convinced on any given case, some of these activities are:a never-ending arms race that consumes precious resources; sales of arms around the world; a world trade system that increases the misery and degradation of many of the poorest people in the world; multinational corporations which seek out cheap labor in poor countries, taking out in profit many times what they invest while leaving no lasting technology appropriate to that country's needs; racial and sexual discrimination; a prison system which often brutalizes but seldom rehabilitates -the list goes on and on. So Friends continue to wrestle with the difficult tasks of acknowledging the violence and power of evil in ourselves and our institutions while affirming the potential for good -for responding to God's leading. In various and diverse ways Friends seek to follow the admonition of George Fox to early Friends:
. . . be obedient to the Lord God and go through the world and be valiant for the Truth upon earth. . . . Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.
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