TRUTHFULNESS, INTEGRITY, AND COMMUNICATION

We are called to a genuineness of life and speech that leaves no room for deceit or artificiality. Early Friends took very seriously the advice of Jesus: "All you need say is 'Yes' if you mean yes, 'No' if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one" (Matthew 5.37), and throughout our history we have borne witness against judicial oaths as suggesting a double standard of truth. Devotion to what is true and eternal requires openness, honesty, and careful speech in social, business, and family relationships. As early Friends took care to avoid honorific titles and phrases, modern Friends need to discourage insincerities and extravagances. Flattery, public expressions of gratitude, and eulogies draw attention to individuals rather than to the Spirit that speaks through each of us. We must speak the truth with cordiality, kindness, and love.

All of us ... are diminished and dishonoured when we do not meet each other half way. How can we in truth and lovingly help one another in this? Because we must remember that truth without love is violence. And love without truth is sentimentality. We do need both.

-- Muriel Bishop, "Integrity," 1990

It is a difficult task to live according to our faith that God's power operates in us. As we attempt to conform our lives to the leadings of the Spirit, to integrate our beliefs and our actions, and to become more honest and authentic, we receive the strength and courage to follow our religious principles.

No average goodness will do, no measuring our lives by our fellows, but only a relentless, inexorable divine standard. No relatives suffice; only absolutes satisfy the soul committed to holy obedience. Absolute honesty, absolute gentleness, absolute self-control, unwearied patience and thoughtfulness in the midst of the ravelling friction of home and office and school and shop.

-- Thomas R. Kelly, "Holy Obedience," 1939

Friends have been concerned to communicate with integrity, to make our words and action fit the truth of our lives. We endeavor to speak the truth as we know it, honestly and forthrightly, speaking plainly from our own lives. Sometimes this practice has been difficult; sometimes the results surprise and delight us.