It is the practice of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to make statements in the form of Minutes, statements agreed to by the assembled group, written, and distributed as an indication of our positions. Here is one from New York Yearly Meeting, on Torture:
Issuing Minutes as a statement of the collective will of the Assembled Friends has always been part of our practice, although offering them not only in written word but also in this video format is of course a phenomenon of our own day.
Perhaps the earliest such document was signed by George Fox and others and "Presented to the King upon the 21st day of the llth Month, 1660" in which we read
The occasion of war, and war itself (wherein envious men, who are lovers of themselves more than lovers of God, lust, kill, and desire to have men's lives or estates) ariseth from lust. All bloody principles and practices, as to our own particulars, we utterly deny; with all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under an pretense whatsoever; this is our testimony to the whole world.
Let me offer part of a parallel Minute, issued by New England Yearly Meeting (a Yearly Meeting is a like a diocese, a regional gathering of the local places of worship known as Monthly Meetings). This was issued last summer,and is on Peace:
We reject all acts of terrorism, among which we include incursions and bombing by organized military forces that destroy homes and kill and maim innocents, however unintentionally. We do not support the "war on terror" and call for a reengagement in international governance and a major decrease of the military budget to generate a genuine peace dividend for desperately needed investments in infrastructure, education, health, and human services, and steps toward conservation and renewable energy sources.
We are mindful that Friends’ testimony on peace calls us "to root out the causes of war from our own lives and from the political and social structure about us." We are urged to "seek, through God’s power and grace, to overcome in our own hearts the emotions that lie at the root of violence." We seek, always, to live lives that testify to the presence of the divine Light in ourselves and every human being.
We strive to overcome our own fears so that we can be centers of peace, a calming influence in an increasingly anxious world. We will remember what Jesus said, "Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace, such as the world cannot give. Set your troubled hearts at rest, and banish your fears."
I hope and pray that the messages contained in the two recent minutes will not be as necessary as in the past. But as a teacher of government, I am ever mindful of Lord Acton's maxim about power, that it corrupts. And while the Constitution does not give the President nor the government absolute power, we have recently experienced how intoxicating the control of power can become, luring its possessors into paths approaching tyranny, and clearly wreaking havoc: on rights, on humanity, on the very notion of limited government.
If there are no limits as to power, then only tyranny and brutality can thrive, and all else will be crushed and destroyed.
If we let them.
Collective testimony, or if you prefer, witness, can persuade others to stand up and say: Never in our names. Not on our behalf.
PEACE