(Return to Visalia Friends Meeting Home Page) Friends Statements on the Pledge of Allegiance "Friends refrain from taking oaths, even in courts of law. We avoid the use of symbols such as crucifixes and altars in our places of worship. Our religious practices do not include the outward administration of sacraments, which we also see as symbols and unnecessary in our relationship with God. And we hold that we may rightly pledge allegiance only to God, not to a man-made symbol representing a human institution." [Statement to the Pennsylvania State Senate by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to explain our stand against use of the American Flag and the Pledge of Allegiance.] "Quakers from their inception have been skeptical of emblems of power, such as flags or crosses or other icons symbolizing institutional or, on a greater scale, imperial presumptions of loyalty. Such icons inhibit discourse and "finding the way" through a collective openness to truth no single individual - or no single power - can embrace. It is also the Quaker's reluctance to require the repeating of public oaths or pledges of loyalty - indeed to repeat public prayers such as the Lord's Prayer or the Apostles' Creed as many religious schools do - because of the fear that the power of the institution supersedes the individual's right to question the validity of the statement, or to question and explore a wider range of loyalties and commitments than the symbol to which one pledges might encompass." Richard Eldrige, Principal, Friends Seminary For more on this topic see: http://www.friendscouncil.org/web/Responses/Friendsandtheflag.html