What We As Quakers Can Do

How shall we as Quakers sustain ourselves as a people of peace in the midst of worldwide war? By living in that covenant of peace which was before wars and strife were….by living in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all war. It is not our Quakerism, or our pacifism, or our knowledge, or skill , or emotion that overcomes hate and violence. We shall surely fail if we become proud of our virtue and traditions and become vain in our witness. We shall fail if we think the power that may move through us is our own. The power is not ours, it is God’s.

This is the foundation of what we must do in our testimony of peace in this time of war. The foundation is faith in the power of God’s love to transform us and our society and to bring justice to the poor and the oppressed. Our task is to act, as best we understand what we are led to do, in obedience to that power. Our Meetings and Friends Churches, if they have grown lazy in their faith, need to "get ready". The time is now.

I cannot claim wisdom as to how God will have us act. I have some suggestions of things we can usefully do now.

First, we can make sure that our young adults are counseled about conscientious objection. We are already in a time of persecution of CO’s and war tax resisters. Young men who do not register for Selective Service in the US, and there is no way to indicate conscientious objection on the form itself, lose student loans, federal employment opportunities, and in some states, drivers’ licenses. Young men must think about their registration for Selective Service, and be sure to be on record with the Meeting or Friends church as COs in the event of the draft’s reinstatement.

Meetings and churches also need to counsel the young men and women who are not Quakers, but who need our help thinking through the realities of military service. We should be helping young people who are poor to find alternatives to military service as a path of advancement and education. There are a number of Friends organizations with good information on youth, militarism, and conscientious objection. Counseling young people on this topic also lends reality to the Meeting’s discussion of the war because the youth at risk are our own children.

Second, we can begin the work of non-violent resistance. Militarism and injustice may seem very strong, and they are, but nonviolence is "a force more powerful." One of the dangers of the myth of the power of violence is that it robs us of the memories of effective nonviolent resistance.

How can we say that bullies and unscrupulous people cannot be defeated when we have the successful examples of the Mahatma Gandhi, of the Solidarity movement in Poland against Soviet domination, of the Danish resistance to Hitler’s Germany that saved thousands of Jews, of the end of legal racial segregation in the United States with Dr. Martin Luther King’s inspired leadership, of the astonishing peaceful transfer of power in apartheid South Africa and the equally amazing truth and reconciliation commission that followed, of the "people power" movement in the Philippines which toppled Marcos’s corrupt and brutal regime, and of the nonviolent people power movements in Eastern Europe that brought down the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, of the popular demonstrations in Chile that ended Pinochet’s rule, and many, many more stories of active, disciplined, nonviolent change.

A first step in the formation of a nonviolent movement in the United States against this war may begin on April 20^th with a student led mobilization in Washington. The mobilization will, for the first time, begin to bring together the Colombia Mobilization, an anti-war demonstration, and concerns about the global economy. All have pledged nonviolence. Let us hope the police and other authorities are also nonviolent.

Third, we in the US can ask the prayers, help and support of Friends throughout the world. We are not used to asking for such help but we need it. Some of you Friends in other countries are living through or have lived through violent struggles or wars in your own countries and have much to share with us about what it means to be faithful in difficult times. You can also help US Quakers to "see ourselves as others see us." Most people in the US do not know what our country is doing in your lands. We need to learn, and we need to have the strength to try to change it. You can help us. Friends should also remember that we have much to learn from those who are poor and from people of color in our own country. Here too we can benefit from the prayers and insights of those whose experience of life in this country may be different than our own.

Fourth, Friends and Mennonites and Brethren, as the "historic peace churches, have an opportunity to begin to articulate a new vision of a peaceful world that does not rely on military force to solve problems. This is partly the story of the road not taken on September 12^th. It is also sharing the vision of how nations and NGOs and people of faith can work together to build the institutions that can prevent most armed conflict. There is much to be learned from experience and the literature. It is at least a whole other speech. It is in fact the one I intended to give, but instead the Spirit needed us to remember that war is a terrible thing, and that our peace testimony is realistic, not naïve.

Finally, let us put on the whole armor of God. The forces of culture and wealth and nationalism and fear against which we contend are very powerful. Our protection is the power of the love of God to sustain us through what may be the dark days ahead.