The Friends Peace Testimony
InWorld War I (US)
Part II
NOTE: The following statement was published and distributed widely in 1918 by a group of Hicksite Friends, mainly in Philadelphia, in response to anti-war statements issued by other Quaker groups. Note that this statement is not an "official" document adopted or issues by any formal body. However, many of the signers were persons of great "weight" in the Hicksite branch. Moreover, by making this statement they were not withdrawing from the Society of Friends as they knew it, nd many of the signers were active thereafter.
This statement was particularly in reply to a statement published in 1917, which is here.
Some Particular Advices for Friends
&
A Statement of Loyalty for OthersBeing the Views of Some Members of the Society of Friends
regarding Its Attitude toward the Present CrisisThird Month, 1918
There are certain fundamental principles of right and humanity which every man must feel called upon to defend, even to the extent of forcible resistance if long continued intolerable conditions caused by morally defunct people are to be ended before the world is enslaved. For more than two centuries the Society of Friends has stood steadfastly and consistently for peace to the limit of toleration. It is in matters of individual conflict, however, rather than in national wrongs that these principles have proved effective. Many distinguished Friends in the past have realized that in cases of great collective oppression mere submission only renders the objects of the oppressor more easily attained.
It is well for us to profit by the experience and judgment of those of proved attainments and acknowledged usefulness in the community rather than by the views of those who have not these qualities. Thus we may well consider the experience and judgment of William Penn, James Logan, John Dickinson, Nathanael Greene, Israel Whelen, Thomas Mifflin, Jacob Brown, John Bright, John G. Whittier and a number of Friends living today of similar distinction and experience in the facts of life.
Our foundation principle and the excuse for our separate corporate existence is a belief in the Divine Immanence or a direct communion with God. The object of our Society therefore is to awaken every one to a consciousness of "that of God" within him which will "speak to his condition." Any particular testimony as to outward affairs must then be the statement merely of a particular person or group within the Society, unless approved by it.
We believe that the majority of Friends are as earnestly opposed as anyone to the enthrallment of the world by a military caste, to the human slavery and slaughter imposed upon Belgium, Poland, Armenia and other countries, to the wholesale destruction of innocent, non-combatant women and children, to unparalleled atrocities and to the spread of organized barbarism. We think that a decent respect for the opinions of mankind makes it incumbent upon the Society of Friends to make such a statement. The principal thing which George Fox did was to break away bravely from the bondage of traditional dogma and point from the slavery of the formal Church Discipline to the Authority Within. Elias Hicks followed this principle in proclaiming that no book or dogma should be adhered to unless it met the Witness for Truth in the individual heart.
We do not agree with those who would utter sentimental platitudes while a mad dog is running amuck biting women and children, with those who would stand idly by quoting some isolated passage of Scripture while an insane man murdered him, ravished his wife, bayoneted his babies or crucified his friends, with any person who would discuss with some well and con- tented stranger the merits of various fire extinguishers while his wife and children are calling to him from the flames of his burning house.
We believe that wrong is relative and has degrees, that there are greater things than human life and worse things than war. There is a difference between peace as an end and peace as a means to an end, We do not want peace with dishonor or a temporary peace with evil. We will not equivocate with honour or compromise with wickedness. We must not only seek to save ourselves from war but posterity as well and we must not mistake pictures or names of things for the things themselves. It takes two to make peace but only one to make war.
Believing that it is not enough at this time to be neutral and that the views of the Society of Friends have not been adequately represented by the official statements of its executives nor by the utterances of many of its public speakers we feel to follow of our brethren in England who both now and in their past history have realized that there are unusual and extra- ordinary circumstances of infrequent occurrence which cannot be rigidly or fully met by any man-made Church Discipline. We therefore deem it consistent with our Quaker faith to act according to the dictates of our own consciences and proclaim a unity with teachings of Jesus Christ and the messages of the President of our country.
