WP: At Peace With Its Purpose: Quaker Group Takes Aim at War

[DeepModem Mom]

At Peace With Its Purpose
88-Year-Old Quaker Group Takes Aim at War
By Robert Strauss
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, November 12, 2005; Page A03


...."What other city has William Penn, the great man of peace, atop City Hall? Where else would be a better place to promote peace?" asked (Mary Ellen) McNish, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which for nearly a century has been the point organization for promoting peace in conflicts or potential conflicts around the world.

Now, as the Iraq war grows more and more unpopular, the AFSC is again tromping at the front, unfurling the banner of peace.

"Always, there has been the Quaker philosophy that there is a part of God in every person," said McNish, in her cozy, plant-filled office in a warren of other peace-poster-filled offices at the AFSC headquarters. "It is about the dignity and worth of every individual, the oppressor and the oppressed."

Protests against the war have heightened this year with the focus on Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed last year in Iraq. Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace and has demonstrated around the country -- most prominently outside President Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch.

The AFSC has had its own antiwar road show, too: the Wage Peace Campaign, whose centerpiece is a dramatic Christo-like presentation called "Eyes Wide Open." It is an array of combat boots, spread out like cemetery headstones, one for each American soldier killed in Iraq. It travels to parks, mostly in major cities, about once a month....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/11/AR2005111101647.html

[Toots]

1. Wasn't there a big deal about how the Quackers overwhelming voted for Bush

in 2004. I seem to remember the big todo about Bush* gaining their support over gays and how they voted enmasse for Bush*. Buyers remorse I guess.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. I believe that was the Amish Bush proselytized? nt

[rox63]

3. No, that was the Amish

Big difference. There are a lot of liberal Quakers. Amish, Mennonite, Bretheren and Quakers come from similar roots, and are known as the "Peace Churches". But they have developed in fairly different directions.

Check out info on the Quakers here: http://www.quaker.org/

[ms liberty]

4. Recommended...

I think we (a general "we") should support Christian peace movements; IMO the only way to counter the christo-fascist dominionists is to promote the truth about what Christ was about. Countering the RW'ers with athiesm or agnosticism is not something that will succeed in today's atmosphere; at least not in the short run, and we don't have time to wait for the long run!

My Great-Grandmother's side of the family were/are Quakers, I feel an affinity with them, even though I've never met any of that branch of my family.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. This is only one article among others that highlight...

a higher profile for churches and religious folks who are not part of the "religious" Right. They have dominated all talk of religion in this country, and have been its public face, for far too long. Some Gen Y kids don't know reasonable, socially concerned religious people exist.

[xchrom]

6. you are simply pointing more media complicity

with the corporate agenda.

corporatists use folks like rw christians as storm troopers.
and they are good.

the media simply will not point out there many more christians who will never believe what these rabid monsters believe.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. You're right -- these few articles in the last few days...

are among the only ones I've seen about other than the "religious" Right in a very long time.