Quakers & Peace
Quakers may be better known for their stand against war than for any other of their 'testimonies'. Certainly, violence has no place in their interpretation of Christian behaviour.
Quakers would say that violence is a confession of failure, failure to respect other persons, failure to understand and to love. And violence includes the flick-knife as well as the megaton bomb, psychological cruelty as well as the hangman's noose.
What pacifists sometimes forget—and Quakers try to remember—is that pacifism is not quiet acquiescence in injustice, but a willingness to pay what may be the tremen- dous price of righting the world's wrongs, or of seeing the 'enemy's' point of view.
No man whose religion looks back to the cross of Christ can pretend that pacifism
will always succeed as a policy, but that same cross may convince him that love which offers itself to the uttermost will be vindicated in God's good time by a new beginning.
In the meantime Quakers work away at what may seem pathetically small efforts
like international work camps, reconciliation of opposing groups, relief projects and so on. But even now it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
If this or other aspects of Quaker thought interest you, we will most gladly send you further information, and if you wish the address of your nearest Quaker Meeting.
The Friends Home Service committee
THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
Room T, Friends House, Elision Road, ,V. II'. I
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