The Friends Peace Testimony
as "Questing Beast" -- 5
5. We have a peace testimony because we are obedient.
To my surprise, the second most frequent kind of reason cited by individuals for
their having a personal peace testimony was a simple and straightforward obedience to the Bible, to their Quakerism, or to the teachings of early Friends.
Scriptural passages mentioned came most frequently from the Sermon on the Mount: "Resist not evil," and "Turn the other cheek," and "Love your enemy."
Close runners up were First Corinthians 13 and the prophet Isaiah, followed by the sixth commandment. One Friend simply stated that he had a peace testimony because Jesus told him to. In one of my very few follow-up inquiries I asked him to elaborate exactly how Jesus had conveyed this instruction--through the Bible, through direct revelation, or in some other way.
He responded: "Yes."
Several Friends said, in essence, they have a peace testimony because they are Quakers and that is what Quakers do, or because early Friends had so taught.
I do not know what kind of apprehension of God's will Friends were referring to when they wrote to Charles II in 1661:"That spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world."
It is clear, however, that they were confident of it, and considered their testimony an act of willing obedience, as they went on to say, "We most earnestly desire and wait
. . . that [Christ] might rule and reign in men by his spirit and truth . . . ."
6. We embrace the peace testimony for humanitarian reasons.
While humanitarianism may seem a more secular argument for the peace
testimony, it has been with us at least since Barclay.5 Following is an extract from a sentence that was impressively long, even in modern English:
"If to fight for outward and perishable things, to make war against one another
. . . the causes of which are largely unknown to the soldiers who do the fighting . . . yet to be so furious and enraged with each other that everything can be despoiled or destroyed
. . . if to do that, and many more things of that kind, is to fulfill the law of Christ, then our opponents are true Christians indeed."6
The individuals who spoke or wrote to me included as one of their reasons for having a peace testimony their very deep concern for the victims of war and violence. Additionally, some respondents linked the peace testimony to concerns about equality and social justice, to their longing for a social order that is fair to and supportive of all.
"Peace acknowledges our connectedness to each other, while respecting our differences, and thus keeps our energy focused on a caring, gathered community rather than parochial, often selfish desires."
7. We believe the peace testimony is pragmatic.
There is a strong expectation out there, at least among some of us, that practicing
the peace testimony will work for us, will make those things happen that our best wisdom tells us should happen. Some early version of this belief must have been on the minds of early Friends who spoke of fighting for Truth with spiritual rather than carnal weapons. Remember the words of William Penn, a little more than a generation later:
"Let us then try what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel."
Some Friends would find this statement remarkably naïve, depending on the context to which it was applied, but quite a few others take it as a given.
One respondent wrote that he had a peace testimony because, simply, it was effective. Other Friends explain, in the negative and the positive, how it serves us practically: "War always causes more problems than it resolves, and more serious ones, too," writes one Friend, while another explains extensively how opening oneself to that of God in an enemy also opens one to creativity, and that God will reveal to a peaceful person a response other than violence in any situation. The positive workings of the peace testimony are described about equally as affecting the pacifist (giving her aid) and affecting the pacifist's opponent (winning her over).
Many of our books of discipline warn us that adhering to the peace testimony may include suffering. I have quoted some of them already. However suffering was barely mentioned in the individual responses I received.8. My faith has transformed me.
The concept of "living in the life and power that takes away the occasion of all
wars" is alive and well not only in our published disciplines, but also in at least some individuals. Here is one modern rendition that was sent to me:
"We are called to mind the Light, to live according to the leadings of God.
"If we do that, we will live lives that remove all occasion for war. More than just
the testimony of historical Friends, this has been my experience. . . . To me, the peace testimony is one of the fruits of our faith, not one of its articles."
"This has been my experience." Each report of being changed by experience, particularly the experience of living one's faith, was a different story.
One Friend, a member of a longstanding Buddhist group in my meeting, described the openings that had come to her as a result of Zen sitting. She said that in the stillness, one's personal wants and interests slide away and one experiences unity with all creation, a unity out of which it is inconceivable to do any harm.
Another modern Friend puts it more bluntly: "We witness to peace because we have to, not because we are concerned about hurting another (though that is there, too)."
I believe in this experiential transformation as something that happens to some Friends, but certainly not to all of us who nonetheless may care about the peace testimony deeply. One pacifist used these words:"There are times when I feel like killing someone; and that is when Christ calls me to turn the other cheek. I am a pacifist precisely because there are times when I don't feel like one."
During one point in my work on this paper, I became for a while cynical about the phrase "takes away the occasion of all wars." I began to fear--and still do, somewhat--that perhaps some modern Friends are interpreting it in a magical way, expecting the outward occasions of war to be removed, whatever they may be (people who get on our nerves, injustices large and small, inconsiderate drivers), rather than expecting to undergo a personal spiritual recalibration. This is perhaps the effectiveness perspective in its most simplistic form.
I went back to Fox's original claim. We tend to stop quoting after the words about living in the life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars. Nonetheless, I am sure everyone will recognize a subsequent phrase, "I was come into the covenant of peace which was before wars and strife were."
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