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Resources for Truth and Military Recruitment

Torn over Pacifism from the Start

AFSC Is at a Perilous Crossroads

War Tax Resisting

• Authored by:
• Shane Piccinini

Dear Western Friend,

On War (January 2013)

Rekindling the Fire

• Authored by:
• Betty Devalcourt,
• Diego James Navarro

Looking towards the future of Quakerism, we see that the power to rekindle our fire for social justice lies within our local meetings. Supporting individuals to pursue the spirit’s leadings to work for peace and social justice will strengthen the Religious Society of Friends overall and connect us back to our historical roots.

On Power (March 2013)

Plain Speech in Sacramento, California

• Authored by:
• Kevan Insko

An interview with Kevan Insko

On Deception (November 2013)

Children as Soldiers

• Authored by:
• Shelley Blank

Dear Friends:  Please consider this article I wrote for Epoch Times, September 10, 2015 on “children as soldiers.” UNICEF estimates that about 300,000 children under 18 are currently involved in more than thirty conflicts across the globe. Although there are no exact figures, the average age is 16 in government forces, younger in armed rebel groups. Some soldiers are as young as eight years old. Please consider this issue, and let your conscience be your guide. Read the article here.

On Money (November 2015)

The Joy, The Mary Dyer Story - Review

• Authored by:
• Kirsten Ebsen

While I was attending Westminster Meeting in London four years ago, two Friends from separate continents raved to me about a play they had seen at the FGC Gathering that summer. They spoke of The Joy, written and performed by Jeanmarie (Simpson) Bishop, concerning the life and death of Mary Dyer. Westminster Meeting is a stone’s throw from the parish of St Martin-in-the- Fields, where Mary and William Dyer married in 1633. Today, three hundred and eighty-three years later, their story has been published as a book containing Bishop’s play.

On Heritage (July 2016)

Quaker Culture: Concerns in the World

• Authored by:
• Howard H. Brinton

The pioneering quality of Quaker social work is largely due to the character of the meeting for worship. Silent waiting worship permits a fresh and direct facing of facts under conditions in which the conscience becomes sensitized. There is no screen of words and abstract concepts between the soul and reality. . . The worshiper finds a certain condition in the outside world presented to his mind at the very time at which he is seeking God’s guidance for his actions. . . . A concern develops and with it a sense of uneasiness over a situation about which something needs to be done. This uneasiness persists until the required action is undertaken either successfully or unsuccessfully.

On Politics (July 2017)

Quaker Culture: Wealth

• Authored by:
• Mike King

[In seventeenth century England], nonconformists like Quakers were barred from universities, professions and public office, and so turned to trading and industry instead. . . The work ethic of the Quakers and their simplicity of speech and life quickly led to prosperity and property, and that property soon included ownership of the industrial base of factories and transport and their financial underpinnings through banking. In other words, despite the almost otherworldliness of their conscience and spiritual practices, the Quakers were instinctive capitalists. . .  The ethics of this are clear: once it is impossible for a family to own their immediate means of production, the owners of such means have various ethical obligations to their workers. The history of Quaker businesses demonstrates [their] keen sense of that obligation.

On Wealth (May 2020)