The
Quaker Testimony for Peace: Swarthmore College Peace Collection |
George
Fox at Houlker Hall, 1662 |
We
utterly deny all outward wars and strife and |
George
Fox and others, to Charles II |
From its beginnings in mid-seventeenth
century
In wartime and in peacetime,
Quakers have led the way in demonstrating nonviolent methods of conflict resolution
in interpersonal and international affairs. They have advocated quiet diplomacy
and gestures toward reconciliation. John Haynes Holmes, who was not a Quaker, expressed the opinion
of many who have found the Society of Friends to be an island of conscience
and humanity in the most troubling times. "Friends...through three hundred years have borne witness to the inner
spirit and its imperatives of duty. Through
sheer fidelity to their faith, and a 'heart for any fate' of suffering and
even of death, they have won the reverence and therewith the confidence of
mankind. Armed not to kill, but to
serve and save, they cross every frontier, dwell among every people, enemy
and friend alike, and by their selflessness and triumphant lives they commend
the way of peace to men who cannot understand but must believe." (5).
2. Robert Barclay,
Apology (1676), Proposition 15, section 13.
3. Christianity and War,
4. Journal of George Fox. 8th ed.
5. John Haynes Holmes, Out of Darkness,