The Religious Society of Friends came about in England during the mid-1600s, with George Fox emerging as one of the major early leaders in the movement.
Quaker History, Notable Quakers, and a Legacy of Activism However, although the words may sound alike, “pacifism” is often anything but “passive.” From the refusal of many in the Society of Friends to take part in the horrific violence of the slave trade in the 1600s, to those who put their lives on the line by refusing to participate in wars or by speaking out for the humane treatment of all in our society, Quakers have a long legacy of confronting injustices and actively advocating for equality and the betterment of humanity. After a while, he realized that he had done the correct pacifist thing by tackling the person.With “peace” as one of its guiding testimonies, Quakerism is often associated with pacifism. Chase broke up the fight, perhaps saved someone's life, and suffered a great deal of spiritual unrest. If I recall correctly, Chase was a life long pacifist until one day, while getting ice cream at the mall, he tackled a person who was fighting with someone else.
There is a Quaker anecdote that I'd like to share, since I feel that they better represent my view of things.Īnother anecdote is from Steve Chase's Letters to a Fellow Seeker contains a very instructive story. Moreover, you'll probably feel sorry for whoever does get it since you don't like the idea of it yourself. You're not going to use the mace unless you really feel that you must. In my mind, that's a good reason for you to carry mace. Your post makes it seem that you would rather not have to use mace. It's my opinion that the peace testimony is an attitude about 'avoidable violence'. At present, you might need to carry some kind of pepper spray to feel safe. It's my view that one should always feel safe. I can't imagine having that kind of courage, but then, I don't have his level of faith. The primitive pistol fuze even caught fire, but failed to ignite the powder inside the gun, so no bullet came out. Indeed, the man walked right up to him in the street, pointed the gun directly at him, and pulled the trigger. I just read the entry where he went to a town where a man had made it very clear that he would shoot Fox if he showed up. Even when threatened - or it seems, especially when threatened - he'd go unhesitatingly toward his destination. It is astounding how he'd walk into any situation with total trust in God. In the meantime, I take some small measures for self-protection.
I wrestle with this, and hope that I can grow in my faith. Yet I do not have enough faith to believe that I will be protected by God in every bad situation. I know that most reasons for initiating violence are due to the lusts of the ego. I've been a Quaker and i've studied martial arts (though I stopped the latter in part because I didn't like spending so much time every week consciously rehearsing and planning violence.thought as a sport and exercise I got a lot out of it, and often martial artists are among the least violent people, especially when threatened.) Few Quakers would argue against your being, and feeling safe, and if God forbid it had to come to that, doing anything you could to escape harm. Others didn't, and often paid heavy penalties for refusing to pick up weapons. Many Quakers struggled with the question a long time and then went off to fight in WWII and probably the Civil War and other wars as well. Perhaps he really meant what he said, that the only right answer would be the one that fit, felt right, for Penn. Fox replied that he should wear it "as long as you can."īut the caution in quoting Fox like that is that we read that thing and are pretty sure we know that Fox was just using a roundabout way of telling Penn that eventually, he will decide to get rid of the weapon. Your question reminded me of an old Quaker story: William Penn, new to Quakerism, asked George Fox whether he should stop wearing his military sword if he were to become Quaker. Possibly, more important than checking with the tenets of an externally constructed philosophy (e.g., "pacifism" or someone else's notions of what is "real, official Quaker beliefs"), a traditional Quaker response might be to attend as best you can to "that of God within." In asking, in listening, perhaps in considering this with a clearness committee at your meeting or among trusted friends, this answer will evolve for you.
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