Historic Places in South Jersey

Historic Places in South Jersey - Places to Go and Things to Do

A discussion of things to do and places to go, with the purpose
of sharing, and encouraging exploration of South Jersey.

Saturday, June 1, 2024

The Problem with Absolutes: Quakers and the Civil War

"Thou shalt not kill" - (unless I tell you to kill your son, Abraham!) All afternoon, I have been reading about and pondering the Quaker Peace testimony in the face of modern conflicts that George Fox and the early Quakers couldn't have imagined in their worst nightmares, the conflicts of the modern period, our Civil War, for example and the legal systemic kidnapping, rape, torture, murder and enslavement of millions of other human beings for nearly two hundred years. Would Gerge Fox, whose peace testimony arose as a result of the British Civil War, have stood by idly in the face of this enslavement? After all, his testimony arose at the time of the British Civil War which was a war about Royal power including religious power. George Fox traveled around the army camps talking to the soldiers during the Civil War, some of them his followers, but he, himself was inspired to his peace testimony. Could and would he have held steady in the absolute of non-intervention in the face of American slavery in the 1800's? Should he? After all, George Fox did NOT adhere to the religious orthodoxy of HIS time; he had a different calling, heard a different voice. And he followed that inner voice.

Quakers in the time of the Civil War, and again in the period of the second World War, were sorely tried in whether to hold to the orthodoxy of peace at any cost, or to take a stand against an unimagineable evil like the imprisonment, rape, torture and eventual genocide of All the European Jews. p/> Once again today, a peaceful world is forced to confront a tyrant invading and making war against a neibhor with the intent of occupying that nation. While they invade and destry Ukraine, Russian military with apparently tacit approval of officers commit hideous crimes against the people as they occupy their territory. They have approval because these horrors they perpetrate are part of the plan of intimidation. And the free world watches in fear and horror and supplies weapons to help the Ukrainians defend themselves against this crime.

Self Defense and defense of others is a complication in the idea of total peace. Should you not defend yourself or someone else in danger? That's the problem of absolutes. George Fox couldn't have imagined slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries nor could he have imagined concentration camps and the extermination of the Jews in Europe in the 20th Century.

Enough Quakers had qualms about pacifism in the face of these two great evils that Meetins wrestled with both members who chose to serve and fight against them, and the orthodoxy enshrined against fighting. What I found most heart warming was the Meetings who welcomed back their veterans with love and understanding and forgiveness. What I found disappointing was those Meetings which stripped those veterans of membership. That reaction, I find most unloving and disrespectful of the individual inner voice.

So what is important here, to me, is how we disagree as well as how absolute rules, ie: orthodoxy, should be. It is complex. We can all agree that thou shalt not kill, or steal, or lie and deceive. The rub comes in when we are called to defend ourselves or others in the face of their iminent danger of being killed.

I fall in line with the Meetings that resolved this by stating their point of view, and loving and respecting those members who heard a different voice. Also, I am touched with George Fox vising the army camps to speak with the soldiers.

As for absolutes, I think they are a challenge to the storm and complexity of human events. I guess I like the adage "Revise your Priors" as well as the advice "Adapt and Evolve."

Happy Trails, Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com (as always, if you wish to continue the discussion use my e-mail as spammers have poisoned the well of comments)

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