Quaker Theology -- Issue #7 -- Autumn 2002
Quakers and The Lamb’s War: A Hermeneutic for Confronting Evil
A paper presented at the International Historic Peace Church
Consultation
Bienenberg Theological Seminary, Switzerland, June 25-28, 2001
By Gene Hillman
Twentieth Century
I am choosing the publication by the American Friends Service Committee, of the booklet, Speak Truth to Power in 1955, to symbolize the transition from this passive stance of peacefulness back to the active (and activist) role of peacemaker. It was published at the advent of the "cold war" and reflects the danger of the institutional evil that was perceived at that time. "Truth is a very important word for Friends, probably second only to "The Light of Christ" theologically. Truth is another basic category of our testimony (as in "the Truth testimony") but is much more than that. Truth has power. Before shortening our name to simply "Friends" (as in The Religious Society of Friends) we used the name "Friends of Truth" and Truth is often capitalized in our writings to distinguish the Truth of the Paraclete from a more conventional truth.
Two social conflicts in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century influenced North American Friends in their witness to peace: the civil rights movement and the protest against the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement in the United States in particular was a practical example of the power of non-violence. It is hard to identify where Quakers shaped the culture’s witness and where the culture shaped that of the Quakers. One Quaker, Bayard Rustin, was in the inner circle of advisors to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the teachings and witness of Dr. King had a major impact of Friends in turn.
The Peace Testimony Today
So what is the basis of the Friends peace testimony today? Wilmer Cooper, former Dean of the Earlham School of Religion, mentions five reasons for the peace testimony: George Fox’s "opening" that bearing arms was wrong; the Bible and particularly the teachings of Jesus; concern about what the spirit of violence will do to ourselves; preserving "that of God" in others; and the pragmatic fact that war does not pay. We have already seen how Fox described his opening, and if it did not resonate with our own experience of the leading of the Spirit, or Vehiculum Dei (the divine principle or light of Christ), it would not be convincing.
As to scripture we have only to look to the Sermon on the Mount, ask how one can reconcile "love your enemies" with war, and as in the Declaration of 1660 hear Jesus tell Peter to put up his sword. If the "time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" (Mark 1:15 NRSV), and "the kingdom of God is among [us]" (Luke 17:21 NRSV) we cannot put off obedience to these commands.
As to what the spirit of violence will do to ourselves, Howard Brinton relates the journal entry of an eighteenth-century Friend who said he could not defend himself with violence. By so doing he would endanger his own soul and condemn his adversary, who should he die, would have no time to repent his attack; while if the Friend died without defending himself would die in grace while his attacker would still live and have time to repent (Brinton, 61). Modern Friends might not embrace this in those words but I think the attitude would be understood. Responding in kind would violate the next point as well.
"There is that of God in everyone" has become a common response of modern liberal Quakers when asked what Quakers believe. This phrase comes out of the writings of George Fox and was used by him often. He admonished Friends in 1656 in a letter from Launceston jail (and many other times) "Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you go, so that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one." (Fox, 263)The modern understanding is that by addressing the potential for good that potential will be actualized.
The fifth reason is the pragmatic one. War does not pay. Every war contains the seeds of the next one. Nonviolence is risky but so is violence. But even more, nonviolence does work. Witness the nonviolent revolutions in the last decades of the twentieth century.
A Modern Hermeneutic
Out of the context of South Africa struggling with the legact of apartheid, Walter Wink provides Christians and fellow Quakers with a modern hermeneutic for the nonviolent confrontation of evil which is consistent with the early Quaker understanding of the Lamb’s War. He has described what he calls Jesus’ Third Way in several places, including the volume Transforming Violence edited for the Historic Peace Church Committee. He points out that in the oft quoted "resist not evil" (Matthew 5:39a) the word resist (antistenai) usually had a military usage in contemporary sources. It is not that we are not to resist evil, but that we are not to resist evil on its own terms (stand against). He takes the following hard sayings, three admonitions to "turn the other cheek," "give your cloak as well," and "go the extra mile" (Matthew 5:39b-41) and shows how these are not admonitions to passivity, but to nonviolent assertiveness, asserting one’s integrity and dignity when faced with a contemptuous superior power. Wink points out that it is important that Jesus specifies, "if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." It would have to be a contemptuous, backhanded blow to the right cheek in a culture in which one would only strike with the right hand. Striking the left (other) cheek would have to be done as one would in a fight, as between equals. Turning the other (left) cheek is not an act of military resistance but the assertion of one’s own worth and dignity. Wink goes on to show how giving one’s cloak as well shames the one taking it and not the one left naked (again in that culture), and going the extra mile puts the (presumably) Roman solder who required the first mile (which he is permitted to require) on the defensive and in an embarrassing situation.
In the case where Jesus was struck for not showing proper deference (John 18:22-23), he did not turn the other cheek, but what he did was in the same spirit. We don’t know on which cheek he was struck but that doesn’t matter. He didn’t respond with anger, nor did he cower. He responded reasonably as one would to an equal and to one in whom you recognize the power of reason, and showing the unreasonableness of the attack. It did not change the situation (though we don’t know what effect it had on this particular guard), nor did Jesus intend for it to change the situation, as he had accepted "his cup" and knew what must happen.
Jesus confronted the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and early Friends confronted the "priests and professors" of their day. What is the modern, or postmodern, hypocrisy we are confronting? In many cases it is men and women of faith, albeit of a very closed minded and often ethically limited variety, who are perpetrating unspeakable evils. It may also be that of liberal humanists who separate ends from means to the point they lose sight of the end for which they profess to be working.
Alternatives to Violence Project: A Model of Nonviolent Community
The Alternatives to Violence Project (known as AVP) began from a request by inmates of Greenhaven prison in New York State in 1975 for training in nonviolent conflict resolution. Out of this developed a program that is currently active in prisons and other settings around the world. I present it here as a model of Quaker peacemaking much in the manner of Jesus’ Third Way.
The program consists of three day workshops at three levels, Basic, Advanced, and Training for Trainers. Participation is voluntary. The basic workshop is a series of exercises to develop a sense of community in the group, build self-esteem, model group cooperation (and demonstrate the advantage of group effort over individual), examine values, develop active listening skills, practice with strategies for problem solving leading to win-win solutions, and ultimately to build trust. These are alternated with "light and livelies" which allow participants to get up, move around, and have some fun, while at the same time developing cooperation, trust and community.
Of particular interest is the exercise "I Messages." I Messages are ways to clarify for both oneself and others the assumptions and the feelings that surround a problem. To un-muddy a conflict, participants are taught to communicate their feelings in three part statements beginning with "I feel," followed by "when you" and ending with "because." The speaker thereby states the effect the addressee’s action is having without placing blame or responsibility. An example would be "When you play your radio loud it gets me upset because I can’t concentrate on what I am doing." This is asserting one’s self and one’s dignity without attacking the other person. It is not submissively accepting the situation but it is also not attacking in anger as would be yelling insults or threats, or breaking the radio. Just as in turning the other cheek, there is no guarantee this course of action will get the desired result, but it does assert one’s dignity and demand respect. (AVP Manual, Section E)
"Transforming Power" is the central concept in every AVP workshop. It is a term for the Vehiculum Dei which can lead us to the experience of God’s power but which does not have the theological implications and associations found in the various names for the Paraclete. It is experiential, as is Quakerism. The concept draws "heavily on the work of Gandhi and King, as well as on various nonviolent resistance efforts against Hitler. . . . It is what King calls love and Gandhi calls satyagraha (truth-force) – and King is right to emphasize the need to nurture one another so that we have the strength to love." (Garver and Reitan, 12, 14)
Men (and I have only worked with men) usually associate it with the "Higher Power" of Twelve Step (addictions) programs and interpret it in the same way as "God as we know Him or Her." This is necessary in working with mixed populations of mostly Christians and Muslims, with the occasional Jew, Hindu, and even others.
In every Basic workshop participants are given a card titled "Guide to Transforming Power." On it are twelve principles.
1. Seek to resolve conflicts by reaching common ground.
2. Reach for that something good in others.
3. Listen before making judgements.
4. Base your position on truth.
5. Be ready to revise your position if it is wrong.
6. Expect to experience great inward power to act.
7. Risk being creative rather than violent.
8. Use surprise and humor.
9. Learn to trust your inner sense of when to act.
10. Be willing to suffer for what is important.
11. Be patient and persistent.
12. Build community based on honesty, respect and caring.
It is point eleven (patience) that is germane to the issue of "I Messages." One "I Message" is not going to repair the effect of years of hostility and anger. Point ten also comes in; suffering may result in the short term, and maybe even the long term, but there is a power we feel (point 6) when we act out of integrity (point 4).
Participants in the Basic workshop, after experiencing improved self esteem, and learning the skills mentioned above: cooperation, active listening skills, problem solving techniques and developing trust, may go on to participate in one or more Advanced workshops. Here one of the topics explored in the Basic, determined by the group at its first meeting, is further developed. The third level of workshop is Training for Trainers in which inmates are trained in leading workshops themselves (the inmates have a lot more credibility in teaching nonviolence than a middle- aged, middle class, white male like myself). There is usually a period of internship after this before an inmate becomes a full fledged trainer.
The skills learned are important, but just as important is the sense of community experienced by participants. Inmates who may never have experienced being truly listened to, valued, or respected (except when they held a weapon), and who internalized the negative values society applied to them, learn to live in a community in which trust and respect is the norm. AVP workshops become what Elise Boulding has called "zones of peace," and their influence affects the institution in which they exist. It is true that when they return to their tiers and cells the community is left behind, but they take a part of it with them. They know what it is like. At the Advanced level, community is strengthened, and AVP Trainers in the general population of inmates, I am told, have a stabilizing influence on that population.
Conclusion
For Friends, practice takes precedence over doctrine. The Quaker peace testimony depends less on a verbally articulated theology than on an implicit realized eschatology (e.g. as in Luke 17:21, "The kingdom of God is among you." NRSV) in which the Sermon on the Mount is taken seriously here and now and not for some future time. Our ecclesiology is more explicit, finding church in the community of believers and, more important, doers. Central to our peace testimony is an optimistic anthropology in which we can know and witness to the divine Spirit, and thereby nurture its seed in others, and "come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone."
Three aspects of our peace testimony, which when taken together give a distinctive flavor to our peace witness, are its assertiveness ("speak Truth to power"), its positive assumptions (the call "to answer that of God in everyone") and its basis in community. Walter Wink provides us with a modern Quaker hermeneutic for understanding it, as based in Jesus’ Third Way. The Alternative to Violence Project provides us with a model of how this can work in at least one area in which violence is a problem.
References
American Friends Service Committee. Speak Truth to Power. A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, A Study of International Conflict. Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee, 1955.
AVP Manual Basic Course. New York: Alternatives to Violence Project, 1986.
Boulding, Elise. "Cultures of Peace and Communities of Faith," reprinted in Transforming Violence: Linking Local and Global Peacemaking. Robert Herr and Judy Zimmerman Herr, Eds. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1998, pp. 95-104.
Brinton, Howard. Quaker Journals. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill, 1972.
Brock, Peter. The Quaker Peace Testimony 1660 to 1914. York, England: Sessions Book Trust, 1990.
-----------, Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968.
Cooper, Wilmer. A Living Faith: An Historical Study of Quaker Beliefs. Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 1990.
Fox, George. The Journal of George Fox. John L. Nickalls, Ed. London: London Yearly Meeting, 1975.
Garver, Newton and Eric Reitan. Nonviolence and Community: Reflections on the Alternatives to Violence Project. Pendle Hill Pamphlet #322. Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill Publications, 1995.
Nayler, James. "The Lamb’s War Against the Man of Sin," reprinted in Early Quaker Writings 1650-1 700. Hugh Barbour and Arthur 0. Roberts, Eds. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1973, pp. 104-116.
Wink, Walter. "Beyond Just War and Pacifism," in War and Its Discontents: Pacifism and Quietism in the Abraha,nic Traditions. J. Patout Burns, Ed. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1996, pp. 102-121.
---------- "Jesus’ Third Way," reprinted in Transforming Violence. Linking Local and Global Peacemaking. Robert Herr and Judy Zimmerman Herr, Eds. Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1998, pp. 34-47.
Woolman, John. The Journal and Major Essays of John Woo/man. Phillips P. Moulton, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
QUEST, P.O. Box 1344, Fayetteville NC 28302 USA
e-mail: quest@quaker.org