Comments on: Henry Cadbury’s 1934 speech and us

By: Rainer Moeller

Rainer Moeller — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 09:24:04 +0000

The general opinion seems to be that history has proven Cadbury wrong. But in what way exactly? Eventually, Cadbury's advice was NOT followed, the "activists" got what they wanted, the boycott happened, a counter-boycott was organized, Jews became much more unwelcome in Germany and things escalated farther and farther. As Cadbury had foreseen. The simple center of the Quaker "all men have access to the light" theory is the Golden Rule: in matters of conduct, people (even and above all, enemies) react to each other; so our behaviour is always shifting reciprocally, one time to the better, one time to the worse. This implies that we are co-responsible for the behaviour of our enemies. The problem of boycotting can be studied at this moment with the BDS movement. There are already Jewish counter-boycotts in the cultural area, and (from a European point of view) I don't foresee which side will win that war.

By: Chervil

Chervil — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:57:13 +0000

World War One as well — he lost his position at Haverford

http://www.friendsjournal.org/henry-cadbury-afsc-haverford/

By: Micah Bales

Micah Bales — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 23:31:16 +0000

This is a very interesting post in our current political moment, with so many cries for "civility" in the face of right-wing abuses. I hope we have learned that passivity and appeasement doesn't work. It's easy enough to talk about what doesn't work - but what does? It's clear we don't know the answer yet. Men and women of conscience are still working out what a full-bodied, uncompromising, Christ-like response is to this new wave authoritarianism. May the Holy Spirit guide us all. And may Quakers not be slow in joining with the work of Christ beyond our little society. We must learn to follow as well as lead.

By: Rex A. Sprouse

Rex A. Sprouse — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 17:38:10 +0000

My thoughts about Quakerism and “the problem of evil”: I really DO believe that all human beings, regardless of their conscious or implicit beliefs, have direct access to the Inner Light, which IF THEY LISTEN TO IT, could lead them to higher levels of moral behavior and move them toward unity with the underlying harmony of the universe (God). In my view, the naive side of much of Quaker history has been a failure to appreciate how often individuals, collectives, and institutions CHOOSE NOT TO LISTEN; indeed, I think that we fail to appreciate how often WE QUAKERS choose not to listen. In any case, none of this licenses me to resort to violence, but it DOES mean that all kinds of non-violent resistance to evil may well be called for, and that pacifism is NOT incompatible with non-violent resistance.