Trigger Warning: This article discusses the author’s personal experiences of sexual assault.
Peace is the will of God, but evil needs to be stopped by any means possible. The first time at age 15, I used peaceful means to deliver the consequences. The second time at age 26, I used violence to end violence. I believe I upheld my Quaker principles both times.
I am a convinced Quaker. I joined Old Chatham Quakers in 2009. What attracted me to the Quakers was the peace testimony. I withheld paying income tax from the Federal government since 1998 due to the concerns I had over how that money was used; by some estimates 50% is used to fund wars.
The Quaker Peace Testimony—as I understand it—grew from the life and teachings of Jesus, was expressed clearly by George Fox and other Quakers in 1660, and was restated emphatically by New York Yearly Meeting in the current edition of Faith and Practice. Those seeds are among the most important foundational principles of Quakerism and are bedrock reasons for my membership in Albany Friends Meeting.
