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Our gracious Creator cares and provides for all his creatures. His tender mercies are over all
his works; and so far as his love influences our
minds, so far we become interested in his
workmanship and feel a desire to take hold of every
opportunity to lessen the distresses of the afflicted and
increase the happiness of the creation. Here we have a
prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, that to turn all the treasures we
possess into the channel of universal love becomes
the business of our lives.
--John Woolman, A Plea for the Poor, 1763 |
We should seek opportunities to make a positive impact on society by supporting socially responsible methods and institutions and avoiding those that oppress others and block a more equitable distribution of wealth. We who have at our disposal or under our direction funds for investment should avoid projects, no matter how rewarding, that might serve anti-social or immoral ends. We should also avoid the illusory benefits of highly speculative schemes or practices that seem, like gambling, to promise something for nothing. Especially we should avoid activities, whether involving money or work, that can bring benefit to us by hurting someone else.
EDUCATION
In the quest for truth, training our minds is one way to improve our understanding of God's world. The home is the primary source of education. Quaker parents take serious responsibility for their roles as parents. Experience, well evaluated, is perhaps the highest form of learning.
We hope schools will be environments of respect, receptivity, and excitement. Friends' schools encourage acceptance of individual differences within a caring community, the development of creativity, and spiritual as well as mental growth. The curriculum should be true to specific facts as well as to the whole of life and should be presented to students with the wonder,