Part 9 (1/2)

FOOTNOTES:

[117] Barclay, _Apology_, Prop. XIV, Sec. IV, 470.

[118] Fry, _Quaker Ways_. 59-60.

[119] D. W. Kurtz, _Ideals of the Church of the Brethren_, leaflet (Elgin, Ill.: General Mission Board, 1934?); Martin G. Brumbaugh in _Studies in the Doctrine of Peace_ (Elgin, Ill.: Board of Christian Education, Church of the Brethren, 1939), 56; the statement of the Goshen Conference of 1918 and other statements of the position of the church in L. W. Shultz (ed.), _Minutes of the Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren on War and Peace_, mimeo (Elgin: Bd. of Chr. Ed., Church of the Brethren, 1935); and the pamphlet by Robert Henry Miller, _The Christian Philosophy of Peace_ (Elgin: Bd. of Chr. Ed., Church of the Brethren, 1935).

Ministering to Groups in Conflict

One expression of this philosophy may be abstention from partisans.h.i.+p in conflicts between other groups, in order to administer impartially to the human need of both parties to the conflict.

In this connection much has been made of the story of the Irish Quakers during the rebellion in that country in 1798. Before the conflict broke into open violence the Quarterly Meetings and the General National Meeting recommended that all Friends destroy all firearms in their possession so that there could be no suspicion of their implication in the coming struggle. During the fighting in 1798 the Friends interceded with both sides in the interests of humanity, entertained the dest.i.tute from both parties and treated the wounds of any man who needed care.

Both the Government forces and the rebels came to respect Quaker integrity, and in the midst of pillage and rapine the Quaker households escaped unscathed. But Thomas Hanc.o.c.k, who told the story a few years later, pointed out that in their course of conduct the Friends had not sought safety.

”It is,” he said, ”to be presumed, that, even if outward preservation had not been experienced, they who conscientiously take the maxims of Peace for the rule of their conduct, would hold it not less their duty to conform to those principles; because the reward of such endeavor to act in obedience to their Divine Master's will is not always to be looked for in the present life.

While, therefore, the fact of their outward preservation would be no sufficient argument to themselves that they had acted as they ought to act in such a crisis, it affords a striking lesson to those who will take no principle, that has not been verified by experience, for a rule of human conduct, even if it should have the sanction of Divine authority.”[120]

It is in this same spirit that various pacifist groups undertook the work of relief of suffering after the First World War in ”friendly” and ”enemy” countries alike, ministering to human need without distinction of party, race or creed. The stories of the work of the American Friends Service Committee and the _Service Civil_ founded by Pierre Ceresole are too well known to need repeating here.[121] It should not be overlooked that in this same spirit the Brethren and the Mennonites also carried on large scale relief projects during the interwar years.

FOOTNOTES:

[120] Thomas Hanc.o.c.k, _The Principles of Peace Exemplified in the Conduct of the Society of Friends in Ireland During the Rebellion of the year 1798, with some Preliminary and Concluding Observations_ (2nd ed., London, 1826), 28-29. All the important features of the story are summarized in Hirst, 216-224.

[121] Lester M. Jones, _Quakers in Action: Recent Humanitarian and Reform Activities of the American Quakers_ (New York: Macmillan, 1929); Rufus M. Jones, _A Service of Love in War Time_ (New York: Macmillan, 1920); Mary Hoxie Jones, _Swords into Plowshares: An Account of the American Friends Service Committee 1917-1937_ (New York: Macmillan, 1937); Willis H. Hall, _Quaker International Work in Europe Since 1914_ (Chambery, Savoie, France: Imprimeries Reunies, 1938). On _Service Civil_, see Lilian Stevenson, _Towards a Christian International, The Story of the International Fellows.h.i.+p of Reconciliation_ (Vienna: International Fellows.h.i.+p of Reconciliation, 1929), 27-31, and Alan A.

Hunter, _White Corpuscles in Europe_ (Chicago: Willett, Clark, 1939), 33-42.

The Power of Example

A social group that acts consistently in accordance with the principles of active goodwill also exerts great influence through the force of its example. A study of the Quaker activities in behalf of social welfare was published in Germany just before the First World War, by Auguste Jorns. She shows how, in relief of the poor, education, temperance, public health, the care of the insane, prison reform, and the abolition of slavery, the Quakers set about to solve the problem within their own society, but never in an exclusive way, so that others as well as members might receive the benefits of Quaker enterprises. Quaker methods became well known, and in time served as models for similar undertakings by other philanthropic groups and public agencies. Many modern social work procedures thus had their origins in the work of the Friends in a relatively small circle.[122]

FOOTNOTE:

[122] Auguste Jorns, _The Quakers as Pioneers in Social Work_, trans. by Thomas Kite Brown (New York: Macmillan, 1931).

Work for Social Reform

The activity of Quakers in the abolition of slavery both in England and America, especially the life-long work of John Woolman in the colonies, is well known. Here too, the first ”concerned” Friends attempted to bring to an end the practice of holding slaves within the Society itself. When they had succeeded in eliminating it from their own ranks, they could, with a clear conscience, suggest that their neighbors follow their example. When the time came, Quakers were willing to take part in political action to eradicate the evil. The compensated emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves in the British Empire in 1833 proved that the reform could be accomplished without the violent repercussions which followed in the United States.[123]

Horace G. Alexander has pointed out that the person who voluntarily surrenders privilege, as the American Quakers did in giving up their slaves, not only serves as a witness to the falsehood of privilege, but can never rest until reform is achieved.

”The very fact,” he says, ”that he feels a loyalty to the oppressors as well as to the oppressed means that he can never rest until the oppressors have been converted. It is not their destruction that he wants, but a change in their hearts.”[124]

Such an att.i.tude is based upon a faith in the perfectibility of man and the possibility of the regeneration of society. It leads from a desire to live one's own life according to high principles to a desire to establish similar principles in human inst.i.tutions. It rejects the thesis of Reinhold Niebuhr that social groups can never live according to the same moral codes as individuals, and also the belief of such groups as the Mennonites that, since the ”world” is necessarily evil, the precepts of high religion apply only to those who have accepted the Christian way of life. Instead, the conviction of those who hold this ideal that it is social as well as individual in its application leads them into the pathways of social reform, and even into political action.