Messages

  • Conscientious Objection in Japan

    “On my third or fourth attendance at the Sunday service with Friends, an American young Quaker who was on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee working in Tokyo came to talk about his own experiences of having been a conscientious objector during World War II and about the ideas of conscientious objection (CO) in relation to Quaker beliefs. It really was an epoch-making shock to me to know such a thing as CO existed in this world. I had never heard nor dreamed anything like that even though I had been brought up in a devout Christian family. This person had lived ‘love your enemy’ in the US at the same time that I had been caught up with the mad notions of nationalism and of winning the ‘Holy War’ in Japan…”

  • Pulling Free, Out of the Wreckage

    Some nerve-jangled imp or claw-hook cat / turned these hanks that lay smooth – / gray lambs, bassinet babies, risen loaves – / into a snarl that spills over the table, / smoke curling thick over a ruined town.

  • We Are Here for All of Us

    “Let’s talk about our part / My heart touch your heart / Let’s talk about, let’s talk about living / Had enough of dying, not what we all about / Let’s do more giving / Do more forgiving, yeah / Our souls were brought together so that we could love each other”

  • Commemorating International Conscientious Objectors’ Day

    “To commemorate men & women
    conscientious objectors to military service
    all over the world & in every age

    To all those who have established and are maintaining the right to refuse to kill

    Their foresight and courage give us hope

    This stone was dedicated on 15 May 1994
    International Conscientious Objectors’ Day”

  • Witnessing for Peace in WWII

    “At that time we didn’t know hardly anything at all about what was happening in the concentration camps. Had we known, would it have been different? But after knowing all the horrors of Nazism, one can understand people taking arms to get rid of Nazism for the world. But even then, side by side with that, it was so very important that there was a very, very small separate section of us who would give a peace witness. I never questioned that.”

  • Ukrainian Quakers React to the War

    “Though our faith community of Ukrainian Quakers, being advocates of nonviolent action, finds regrettable that nonviolent resistance to Russian aggression, marked by such impressive and heroic deeds as unarmed repulsion of Russian tanks by a crowd of civilian protesters in Koriukivka17, remains a matter of spontaneity and limited efforts of enthusiasts [….] The Government of Ukraine does not see nonviolent action among priorities in any short-term or long-term planning, does not provide any significant support to it, and attempts to subordinate it to the army, which undermines the ethical integrity and safety of nonviolent resistance.”

  • The System is Designed to Deter Conscientious Objectors

    “Virtually every male living in the United States, even illegal immigrants, need to register for selective service 30 days before or after their 18th birthday. That process has become pretty much seamless and hidden in that, in about 45 states across the country, it’s now automatic when people sign up for a driver’s license. So young people, young men really aren’t even aware that they are signing up for selective service.”

  • Bayard Rustin’s letter to the Draft Board

    “Gentlemen,

    For eight years I have believed war to be impractical and a denial of our Hebrew-Christian tradition. The social teachings of Jesus are: (1) Respect for personality; (2) Service the ‘summum bonum’ [Latin: ‘the highest good’] (3) Overcoming evil with good; and (4) The brotherhood of man. These principles as I see it are violated by participation in war.”

  • A Quaker’s Refusal to Pay War Taxes

    “Joshua Evans, an associate of John Woolman’s, came to his decision to refuse paying war taxes in 1756. Some told him that Christ said to pay Caesar his due, ‘but I saw through their groundless arguments, for there was nothing in the text about War.’ Moreover, Joshua Evans had always paid taxes to maintain government, ‘though not to pay for killing men, women, and children.’ 

    He was sure his path was rightly led, because ‘when my goods have been taken it has seemed as though I had never possessed them and could in my heart love my Opposers and magnify God.’ Joshua Evans and his wife found the way of war tax resistance to be costly in the loss of possessions. Nonetheless, he cheerfully remarks: ‘I saw those who would be the followers of humble Jesus must be willing to suffer.'”

  • Beware Lest by Our Example We Lead Others Wrong

    “To conform a little to a wrong way strengthens the hands of such who carry wrong customs to their utmost extent; and the more a person appears to be virtuous and heavenly-minded, the more powerfully does his conformity operate in favour of evil doers… what expressions are equal to the subject, or what language is sufficient to set forth the strength of those obligations we are under to beware lest by our example we lead others wrong.”

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