From: rbear@donald.uoregon.edu (Richard Bear)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker
Subject: Re: What do they do?
Date: 6 Nov 92 23:12:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: donald.6NOV199215125437
Organization: University of Oregon
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

> 
>>The most common unifying belief is religious pacificism (non-participation in
>>the military.)
> 

Very long comment follows. "N" now for the impatient. :-)

Friends do have differing views on the "Peace Testimony"; the differences tend
to parallel those that would be expected from the political orientation of the
branch of the Society to which they belong. Liberal Friends are nearly all
pacifists, with some exceptions; in line with leftist politics, though, many
support Marxist "liberation theology," if not for themselves, certainly for
oppressed peoples: i.e. it is wrong for a Quaker to shoot a U.S.-equipped
Salvadoran soldier who is storming a  peasant village but right for a villager
to do so. Emotionally I share this view, but for me the Sermon on the Mount
must take priority, and I have to try to live accordingly, and pray that
everyone will some day  be able to live in love, without force being required
to achieve this. How's that for pie in the sky?  

Many Evangelical Friends, on the other hand, come from an evangelical 
Protestant tradition in which "just wars," particularly _against_ Marxists, 
are permissible. Quite a few "church" Friends served in Vietnam, although  many
others joined with unprogrammed Friends on the vigil lines and in  protest
marches. When asked why they are doing so, Friends in general give  articulate
and impassioned answers based on the idea that war is  destructive and
horrible, that governments must give it up as a barbarous  practice, etc. These
views are commendable but they do reflect a lack of  awareness of Quaker
history. At one time the Testimony reflected an idea  that _refusing to seek
revenge or to defend oneself_ is specifically  required of Christians by Jesus,
and is simply an expression of Friends'  obedience to that requirement. The
origins and intent of the Testimony have  become obscure with the passage of
time, but the essential information is  available from the _Journal of George
Fox_.  

During the time in which George Fox was kept for a year in prison in  Derby,
1650-51, there was massive upheaval and unrest in England. The King,  Charles
I, had been beheaded two years earlier, and the Puritan experiment,  the
Commonwealth, was still a new thing. The Irish were in upheaval, and  Royalist
armies were on the march from Scotland with aid from the  Continent. The
Puritan army passed through the environs of Derby on its way  to the great
battle at Worcester, and sought for recruits wherever they  might be found, not
overlooking the House of Correction.  Because of his reputation for strict
honesty, Fox was brought before  the Commissioners and soldiers in the market
place:  

   . . . and there they proffered me that preferment being made a Captain 
   because of my virtue, as they said, with many other compliments, and  
   asked me if I would take up arms for the Commonwealth against the King.  
   But I told them I lived in the virtue of that life and power that took 
   away the occasion of all wars, and I knew from whence all wars did rise,
   from the lust according to James's doctrine. Still they courted me to 
   accept of their offer and thought that I did but compliment with them. 
   But I told them I was come into the covenant of peace which was before 
   wars and strifes were. And they said they offered it in love and kindness
   to me because of my virtue, and such like flattering words they used, and 
   I told them if that were their love and kindness I trampled it under my 
   feet. Then their rage got up and they said, 'take him away gaoler, and 
   cast him into the dungeon amongst the rogues and felons'. . . 
   (_Journal of George Fox_, Nickalls edition, 65).

     What did Fox mean by the words "life and power"? Earlier in the same 
imprisonment he had written "a paper, to be spread abroad." In it he 
exhorted Friends everywhere to 

     mind the faith of Christ, and the anointing which is in you to be 
     taught by it, which will discover all workings in you, and as he 
     teacheth you, so obey and forsake, else you will not grow up in the 
     faith, nor in the life of Christ, where the love of God is received 
     (Ni 59).

According to Fox, the life to be lived is life in Christ. It is an 
active process, not merely on the part of the Christian, but of Christ, who 
"will discover all workings" in us, that is, show us our own sinful nature, 
and how far short we are of his Kingdom without his help. He then 
"teacheth" us," that is, instructs us in the right way to live. We must 
then obey as we are taught, and forsake our old ways, else we remain in our 
old life, unable to take up the new. God loves everyone, but the _receiving_ 
of this love is our acceptance of the active guidance of Christ. 
To one of the justices who had imprisoned him, Fox wrote:

     Mind the prophets, and Jesus Christ and his apostles, and all the holy 
     men of God. What they spoke was from the life; but they that had not 
     the life, but the words, persecuted and imprisoned them that lived the 
     life, which they had backslidden from (Ni 55). 

Those who possess the scriptures yet fail to "lead their lives according 
thereunto" are those who "had not the life"; it is necessary to "mind the 
prophets, and Jesus Christ and his apostles" if we are to do so. 
     When Fox first came before the magistrates of Derby, he "told them they 
were not to dispute of God and Christ, but to obey him." He then reports 
that "the power of God was thundered among them and they flew like chaff." 
(Ni 51). 
     According to Lewis Benson, there are at least 850 passages referring to 
God's power in Fox's writings (Benson, _Notes on George Fox_, 1054-1089). It 
is "unchangeable," "universal," is that which "overthrew Pharaoh," is the 
Word, the Cross, is Christ. One of Fox's favorite Bible quotations is 
reflected in this exchange which took place in 1652: 

     . . . I declared to the people the Gospel, the Truth, the light of 
     Jesus Christ in their own hearts, which he had enlightened them that 
     they might all come to, that let them see all that ever they had done, 
     and said, and acted, and that would be their teacher when they were 
     about their labours. The priest told me Matthew, Mark, Luke and John 
     were the Gospel, I told him the Gospel was the power of God (Ni 115). 

Fox is here thinking of Romans 1:16 (KJV): "For I am not ashamed of the 
gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation for every one 
that believeth."  
     "Life and power" as Fox meant it, then, means life in Jesus Christ and 
nowhere else; it means that there are to be no half measures, no mouthing 
of the words without accepting the cross of obedience. 
     This obedience Fox was in the process of exemplifying by his presence 
in Derby jail. His relatives and friends had offered surety for him, but he 
refused all assistance as one who must look to God alone for his freedom. 
Innocence needs no bail. His captors understood his intent, "for they had a 
belief of me that I would not go away" (Ni 65). He saw that there was much 
that he could do in prison as a witness to life in Christ and to the power 
of God, the Gospel: ". . . the Lord had said to me before, that I was not 
to be removed from that place yet, being set there for a service which he 
had for me to do" (Ni 67). He was set there as an instance of God's 
manifestation of power in the world, for it was God's power that enabled 
him to bear constant harassment, threats, and physical abuse for an entire 
year in Derby without returning a single word of anger; his own jailor, who 
had abused him fearfully, was convinced of this instance of power. and came 
to him and said, "I have been as a lion against you, but now I come like a 
lamb." He asked if he might stay with Fox in his cell (Ni 57). 
     That such a life and power, and none other, "took away the occasion of 
all wars" was for Fox self-evident, both from his close reading of scripture 
and his experience of Christ as present teacher. In support of this insight 
he quoted to the commissioners and soldiers from the Epistle of James; the 
relevant passage is: 

     From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, 
     even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye 
     kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye 
     have not, because ye ask not (4:1-2 KJV).

This usage of "lust" refers to worldly greed. It can mean desire for 
material things, or desire to satiate the appetites. It can also mean 
desire for glory, or even the feeding of one's vanity. As Fox pointed out 
in his "paper to be spread abroad," 

     . . .evil is but one in all, but worketh many ways; and whatsoever a 
     man's or woman's nature is addicted to that is outward, the Evil One 
     will fit him with that, and will please his nature and appetite to 
     keep his mind in his inventions, and in the creatures, from the 
     Creator (Ni 59).

For George Fox, "inward" does not mean inside one's self, nor does 
"outward" mean outside one's self; the outward things are simply all that 
does not originate in, nor acknowledge, God. Fox uses "inward" as 
standing for "spiritual," and "outward" as a synonym for whatever falls 
short of the Spirit of Christ. Everything that is left behind when a soul 
is joined to Christ is "outward." 
     The most important part of the peace passage is not Fox's first, more 
famous refusal of a commission, but his answer to their second offer: ". . . 
I told them I was come into the covenant of peace _which was before wars and _
_strifes were_ [emphasis added]. This is Fox's answer, not merely to war, but 
to the sinful nature of which war is but a symptom. He is saying that he is 
in the state in which Adam was before he fell. In other words, that for 
which Fox was imprisoned in Derby in the first place, his doctrine of 
perfection (Ni 52), is the basis of his "peace testimony." This usage of 
"before" is common with Fox. He says that he was 

     . . . sent forth to declare the word of life and reconciliation
     freely, that all might come up to Christ, who gives freely, and who 
     renews up into the image of God which man and woman were in before they 
     fell . . ." (Ni 39)

That is, the state of obedience to Christ is accessible. This is the 
meaning of the New Covenant, the Good News of the Gospel: the Gospel is the 
power of God unto salvation, not after we have died, but immediately. The 
meaning of salvation is that Christ has the power to save us not merely 
from the consequences of our sins but from our enslavement to our sins, 
_here and now_. These are the words of the Gospel of John: "But to all who 
received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of 
God" (John 1:12 RSV). And these are the words of the first Epistle of John: 
"Beloved, we are God's children now . . . . No one born of God commits sin; 
for God's nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of 
God" (1 John 3:2,9 RSV). 
     Jesus said, "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father 
is perfect" (Matthew 5:48 RSV). And to make clear that the sermon on the 
mount, of which this saying is a part, is not merely good advice, he capped 
the sermon with a severe warning: "Everyone who hears these words of mine 
and _does_ them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock,
 . . whereas everyone who hears these words of mine and _does them not_ is
like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand . . ." (Matthew 7:24-27 
RSV, emphasis added). 
     So, according to Fox we who seek peace must begin by abandoning our 
old foundation of sand, which is our reliance upon the outward things: 
material goods, emotional crutches, physical and "spiritual" 
appetites. Now we must build on the new foundation, Christ, not by 
disputing of him or making a trade of his words, but by doing them, and 
growing inwardly into him and becoming the children of God. It is by hearing 
his voice and doing his will that we enter the Kingdom of his promise, and 
this is the first step toward the only lasting peace. This is the fresh 
approach, the one that is so seldom tried. . 
     Social action is surely required by a conscience grounded in Christ. 
Yet such action can never lastingly _substitute_ for this direct path. It 
is significant that Fox did not tell the recruiters to lay down their arms. 
He understood that in their condition they must act as they did, and he spoke 
in reproof of their sandy foundation rather than merely dwelling upon its 
effects. 

     In 1653, George Fox preached to a large crowd in Brigham for about 
three hours (Ni 155): 
     And I brought them all to the spirit of God in themselves, by which 
     they might know God and Christ and the Scriptures and to have heavenly 
     fellowship in the spirit; and showed them how every one that comes into 
     the world was enlightened by Christ the life, with which light they 
     might see their sins and Christ their savior, who was come to save them 
     from their sin; with which light they might see their priest that died 
     for them, their shepherd to feed them, and their great prophet to open 
     to them. So with the light of Christ they might see Christ always 
     present with them who was the author of their faith and the finisher 
     thereof. So, opening the first covenant, I showed them the types and 
     the substance, and bringing them to Christ the second covenant, and how 
     they had been in the night of apostacy since the apostle's days, but 
     now the everlasting Gospel was preached again that brought life and 
     immortality to light, and the day of the Lord was come, and Christ was 
     come to teach his people himself and how they might find their teacher 
     within, when they were in their labor and in their beds.
          And many hundreds were convinced that day, and some of them 
     praised God and said, 'Now we know the first step to peace.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Bear /  Dept of English / U of Oregon / rbear@oregon.uoregon.edu 
disclaimer: my opinions only occasionally resemble those of my employers 
and are  not  to  be  construed  as  a  representative  sample  thereof. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------