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I have excerpted these passages from the "Friends and Violence"
pamphlet, because I think they show quite clearly that men are not
*always* violent and war-mongering. I have tried to remove most of
the religious aspects of the pamphlet, except where to do so would
make the passage meaningless for lack of context. I have done this
for two reasons. First, I do not want to offend anyone. Second, I
do not want the fact that the pamphlet is an informational pamphlet
designed to answer questions about the Society of Friends to obscure
the fact that nearly _all_ of its references are of *men* who worked
for peace.
Reprinted with permission of Friends General Conference.
-------------------------
"Marjorie E. Nelson lived in Indiana as a child.
After receiving her MD degree from Indiana University Medical
School in 1964, she served as a physician on the hospital
ship USS Hope."
"Later she worked at the Quaker Rehabilitation Center
in Quang Ngai, South Vietnam with the American Friends
Service Committee team. She was taken prisoner by the Viet
Cong while on visit to Hue and was released eight weeks
later."
---------------------------
FRIENDS AND VIOLENCE
Marjorie 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 worshiping in the
churches of their 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 on 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. 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
soughing 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?"
........
There follows a brief description of Dr. Nelson's experience in Viet
Nam, caring for casualties from both sides, which I have deleted.
........
"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 patients 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."
"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
Ranocacas, New Jersey, who was chiefly responsible
for awakening Friends to the need to clear
themselves of slave-owning. As a young man, he was
asked by his employer 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."
As can clearly be seen, 3 of the premier "heroes" of pacifism are men;
obviously, not *all* men are pro-violence.
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