February 2025: This month examines how Friends throughout history have stood up to authority and worked for justice. Quakers speak truth to power when we advocate for what is right despite opposition from kings, presidents, and institutions. We also investigate how Friends maintain their integrity when they are the ones in power.
“George Lakey was arrested during a 2013 demonstration in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT). EQAT was opposed to PNC Bank’s financing of mountaintop removal coal mining. After a five-year campaign, they were successful in getting PNC to change their investment policy.”
“The word ‘testimony’ is used by Quakers to describe a witness to the living truth within the human heart as it is acted out in everyday life. It is not a form of words, but a mode of life based on the realisation that there is that of God in everybody, that all human beings are equal, that all life is interconnected. It is affirmative but may lead to action that runs counter to certain practices currently accepted in society at large.”
“For conscience’s sake to God, we are bound by his just law in our hearts to yield obedience to [authority] in all matters and cases actively or passively; that is to say, in all just and good commands of the king and the good laws of the land relating to our outward man, we must be obedient by doing … but … if anything be commanded of us by the present authority, which is not according to equity, justice and a good conscience towards God … we must in such cases obey God only and deny active obedience for conscience’s sake, and patiently suffer what is inflicted upon us for such our disobedience to men.”
“Quakers have always believed it was necessary to speak truth to power. Our concern is to reach all men, the great and the humble, and though power in America ultimately rests with the humble, the great wield it, and must, therefore, carry peculiar responsibility.”
“Remember your responsibility as citizens for the government of your town and country, and do not shirk the effort and time this may demand. Do not be content to accept things as they are, but keep an alert and questioning mind. Seek to discover the causes of social unrest, injustice and fear; try to discern the new growing-points in social and economic life. Work for an order of society which will allow men and women to develop their capacities and will foster their desire to serve.”
“The primary function of a religious society is to ‘speak truth to power.’ The truth is that war is wrong. It is then our duty to make war impossible first in us and then in society. To cooperate with government in building morale seems inconsistent with all we profess to believe… The greatest service that we can render the men in the armed forces is to maintain our peace testimony.”
“I realized that being in nature does give me spiritual nurture, even if I don’t seek it out all the time. Seeing myself as a tiny part of a whole earth community keeps me humble and gives me perspective. The outdoors has a quiet that’s different from silence, which invites me to regulate the rhythm of my body. And the immediacy of nature encourages me to set my urgent life aside and be present, if just for a moment.”
“Whatever situation we face, we can choose our response. When facing overwhelming challenges, we might feel that our actions don’t count for much. Yet the kind of responses we make, and the degree to which we believe they count, are shaped by the way we think and feel about hope.”
“Our planet is seriously ill and we can feel the pain. We have been reminded of the many ways in which the future health of the earth is under threat as a result of our selfishness, ignorance and greed.
Our Earth needs attention, respect, love, care and prayer. In comfortable Britain we are largely insulated from the effects of the environmental crisis. It is the poor of the world who suffer first.”
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