Winners in a war justify their violence. Countries claim victory for democracy while burying loss of life, theft of land, and destruction of cultures. This year the Russian government argues war in Ukraine is necessary to preserve its empire. How could both the Allies and the Germans expect God to be on their side in World War II? A quote from Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection poses this ethical contradiction. “Why and by what right does one class of people lock up, torture, exile, flog, and kill other people, when they themselves are no better than those whom they torture, flog and kill?”
It is the peace witness that brought me to Quakers, formally called The Religious Society of Friends. In 1660 Quaker founders George Fox and Margaret Fell wrote: “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever” in a declaration upon the reinstatement of the British monarchy after a civil war. Quakers continue to resist war and preparations for war. We affirm that violence cannot be used to justify a destructive means to a good end. There is no “just war.” Killing kills the sacred in those killed and maims the spirit of those doing the killing. Practising peace is the only way to peace.
Those waging peace enact liberating laws and practices. For instance, the British Parliament passed “The Toleration Act” in 1689 permitting dissenters, such as Quakers, the right to worship outside the state Anglican Church. By the 20thcentury, democratic countries legalized conscientious objection to military duty and the establishment of alternative service, such as the Friends Ambulance Corps in WWI and WWII. Peace training includes learning the risky nonviolent direct action strategies to oppose injustices, as well as listening in patient negotiation between opponents in the long campaigns to abolish slavery, capital punishment, land mines, child labour, family violence, dumping of toxic waste, and theft of land from aboriginal peoples. Today Quakers work with many organizations for nuclear disarmament and peace treaties enforced by strong international institutions.
Peace means not preparing for war, but affirming and supporting life. It is the work of building schools, hospitals, jobs, and peace camps while attending to the welfare of refugees, perpetrators, and victims maimed by violence. What percentage of the Russian, American, and Canadian budgets dedicated to military personnel and hardware, could be used to support child, elder, and environmental care? Is it not destructive to the earth to exclude from national carbon counts, the enormous consumption of gas and oil used by the military in its purchase of equipment and deployment of troops?
The American and British Quaker Friends Service Committees were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for services to displaced, suffering people during and after WWII, including feeding programs for German children. The post WWII Japanese constitution outlawed the creation of a military force and purchase of war weapons, thereby freeing up the taxes and labour to rebuild a prosperous country. In our own backyard, Canadians seeking peace acknowledge the violent deaths and decades of suffering inflicted on aboriginal peoples, and give substantial reparations and land back.
Waging peace in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, and in our own country has life-giving possibilities. We can predict the destructive outcomes of violence and war. There must not be silence, or turning away, or forgetting past and current horrors. There can, however, be forgiveness and affirmations of life: we can learn to practice peace.
Marjory Reitsma-Street is a member of the Vancouver Island Religious Society of Friends,
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE: https://www.timescolonist.com/blogs/spiritually-speaking
* This article was published in the print edition of the Times Colonist on Saturday, June 4th 2022
