Editorial on Sacred Resistance

I’ve been waiting to be invited to speak. I noticed the other day, someone said “Well what does Caitlin think?” When I started to share my thoughts, I noticed that I felt released to do so. So frequently in life I feel like I don’t know what to say, ever waiting for the appropriate moment to use my voice. For some a context and container to share your thoughts is as vital as having the thoughts themselves. For those Friends who need a container and an invitation, I hope you can utilize Western Friend to free your voice and let your life speak.

This edition of Western Friend ended up having three perspectives on incarceration from a formerly incarcerated resister, a former prison volunteer, and a public defender. In Sacred Resistance we met people who have negotiated with the law, left the United States, and sacrificed comforts and consistency for their commitment to Truth. Friends love to hold up the work of Martin Luther King, Jesus, and George Fox as quotable exemplars. I’ve heard about those men before, so I’m genuinely more interested in what’s going with Friends in the West today. I want to encourage Friends to be vigilant about not quoting the work of the often quoted and to not end their written work with a query or question. Let your words and your story have weight in their own right. You’ll meet people in these pages who have done so.

The thing that unites Friends and differentiates them from other sects is the way the weightiness of a group can lead to nonreactive stances and access to ‘truth”. In this context I posit truth to mean a non-dual reality that a clever ego can deny, that has a heft and inevitability to it. The truth of a situation sometimes requires a settling that the container of a worshipful group can provide. Through their traditions Friends seek a state of discernment, and ability to make a choice based not only on the material reality but also an unseen spiritual element that shimmers in the edges of our consciousness and is amplified in the presence of other seekers. By holding witness to each other’s lives and processes, we honor the ability of the individual to access divine knowing. It is in this state that Friends are able to discern how they will resist a powerful society at odds with not only the testimonies of Quakerism, but the survival of our species.

Quaker acts of resistance are not unique in being nonviolent, as many faith practices expound the benefits of nonviolence, but they are often creative and cheeky in their inception. They make good stories because Friends often take a metaphor from the abstract into reality or reach around the world and across cast structures with empathy. The testimony and practice of Equality is an organizing force against Empire. If Friends truly believe that we’re all equal and act accordingly, it’s a shock to a world organized around the myth that some have more inherent value than others.

It’s difficult for me to name with precision when a Friend has helped me in a spiritual way. I usually notice that they are supporting me, but how exactly, because it’s immaterial, is complex to describe. This type of eldership comes from all directions, all ages and genders of Friends. They didn’t tell me what to do, they didn’t mock my errors, they nudged me in a direction but surrendered the choice to me. They trusted my discernment would lead me. They sat next to me while I digested a concept. They got me a coffee (spiritually) and drove me to my grandmother’s assisted living (in His name). They noticed what I was interested in and lit up about, especially if it was something weird. They didn’t react when I was anxious or spiraling. They reminded me of all the things that were going right and all the ways I’d already done well. They told me so many times “you’re a human being; that’s a human experience you’re having.” I forgot myself and am remembered again and again in community.

Friends engaged in spiritual resistance and nonviolent action often cannot move forward in their ministry without the support of their faith community. From the calming guidance of a Quaker grandmother to the practical support of raising money of legal fees: Friends hold each other through changes gracefully. Relational trust is where the magic of sacred resistance occurs. We cannot do it alone.