Quakers and Peace
Quakers and Peace
At least one of the web sites in the links on this page, raises questions of war and peace, and I am led to offer the following. Quakerism is not an outcome, it is a journey. There is much -- much, MUCH in my life which is unfinished on the path. I am totally convinced of peace. Why. (period not question mark)!
I have come to this separately as a tactic and a matter of faith. Every war humans have fought, most people have been led to kill for one reason while their leaders hold secret their own reasons, mostly a large scale mugging.
This has not led to a world of peace, but a world of more and more war. In order not to fall for this lie, as a tactic I will not fight. The method for this tactic is to see that of God in each other so fully that we cannot, more than may not fight.
A dear Friend and friend after the event of the ninth month and eleventh day a few years back, said that he had lost his certainty of the Peace Testimony, as -- "the world has changed forever." Having seen war up close, I assured him that the world is the same, it is only come to New York, and now we are called on to be the Quakers we expected people in other lands to be.
War has never done more than continued the cycle of revenge.
The time to stop war is before the war begins.
Once the shooting starts, humanity has lost the war.
posted by Lorcan @ 5:06 AM
5 Comments:
The time to stop war is before the war begins.
I tried saying that at Yearly Meeting once. I was told that I was undermining the good work of the peace and social action committee.
Good grief, 'Saur.
:/
Well,... Kwakes... I can see their point, Damn boy! You stop wars what the HELL is that committee going do the money from their bake sale? Next you'll be feeding and clothing the poor...get with the program... out of line that one... back bench bast****.... (walks off mumbling...)
A lot of history has passed under the bridge since Fox ... and all our wars have not brought peace. Terrorism is nothing new.
In Fox's time England brought terror to Ireland. War did not bring peace to Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter. Thank God George Fox taught us to look within, not to his pen.
Thank thee for thy direction, and I think we should read much written in the past, but live in the present and weigh history against what we have seen since.
I was told by a Marxist who had never been to occupied Ireland, where I had been a photographer in the 70's that I should read Marx and Engles on Ireland to understand what was happening in the 1990's. I thanked him and assured him I had, and in fact had taken very to heart all that was said. However, I also read NATO reports, newspapers, books written this year and walked through the war with a camera, and that added some perspective as well.
Elias Hicks reminded us, as was written in the bible, that fear is the greatest barrier to love. Love the terrorist completely and disarm that person. I will post in a bit, a story which illustrates this... I believe...
Thy Friend and friend
Lor
fear is the greatest barrier to loveFear seems to be at the heart of a war response, be it offense or defense, especially the fear of death. When we respond from such places, I fear, that we only perpetuate death rather than sitting long enough to respond from G-d's will rather than our own. This is not a virtue in U.S. American society or most churches, unfortunately. I was deeply saddened when the U.S. chose not to sit with our suffering on September 11, 2001 long enough to turn our hearts outward in compassion and our consciences inward to examine how we have hurt other peoples; instead, we chose to lash out and strike back, and our leaders have used our willingness to so chose as a pretense for avarice and greed and domination.
A First Nations proverb says that "evil can only enter the human heart through fear." Or to reverse 1 John: Perfect fear casts out love.
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