The Renewal Movement: The Peace Testimony and Modern Quakerism

The Renewal Movement: The Peace Testimony and Modern Quakerism Allen Smith* Introduction In 1927, the leaders of the Peace Section of the American Friends Service Committee contemplated producing a statement of principles concerning Quaker peace work. They soon rejected the idea, citing the difficulty of creating "any one statement that would be accepted by the Society ofFriends." The leaders knew an uncomfortable fact: most Quakers had discarded the faith's traditional peace testimony. Fashioning a new testimony, as well as the more united Society ofFriends such a statement would require, occupied Quaker peace workers for decades afterward. The struggle over the peace testimony became the crucible of 20th century Quakerism and, because of the commitment of some Quaker pacifists, exerted a pivotal influence on the modern American peace movement.1 During the Cold War, the peace testimony's most ardent backers initiated a movement to renew the Society of Friends. The renewalists' allegiance to Quakerism and pacifism generated a dual mission—while America's embrace ofwar demanded radical social change, the acceptance of war by most Quakers demanded the renewal of the faith's peace testimony. The two goals created strife as some renewalists concentrated on changing the Society of Friends while others stressed transforming the society at large. The differences frequently converged on the effort to define nonviolent action, a debate that encompassed the degree of pacifismexpressed in Quakerpeace work, the wisdom ofsponsoring vigils, demonstrations, and civil disobedience, and the appropriateness ofbuilding ecumenical community peace groups. The disagreements, seemingly small in the beginning, divided and eventually helped end the renewal movement.2 The renewal movement did not end before these Quaker pacifists had helped alter the very foundations of American radicalism. The notion of consistent ends and means that stood at the core of their rejection of violence brought the concept of prefigurative politics into the peace movement. And, while Quaker pacifists were joined by a wide variety of people in constructing the American peace movement of the 1950s and 1960s, this small group wielded enormous influence. Ultimately, the notion *Allen Smith received his Ph.D. in American history from the American University in 1995. He won the 1993-94 Charles DeBenedetti Prize for the outstanding article in peace history. Quaker History ofprefigurative politics fostered second wave feminism, spurred an alternative culture, and inspired a new environmental movement—demonstrating a continuity among the diverse social movements that have come to comprise American radicalism.3 Parti Quaker Peace Work Before the Renewal Movement Modern Quakerism inherited a faith in organizational and theological disarray. During the first half of the 19th century, internal migration, the social tumult of the market revolution, and the rise of a more evangelical Protestantism all combinedto splitthe Societyinto fourmajortendencies— Orthodox, Hicksite, Gurneyite, and Conservative—with numerous other smaller groups. Every local meeting struggled to define Quakerism. At the same time, the Quaker doctrine forbidding individual participation in war declined, prompted by Societal disunion and the growing Quaker consensus against slavery. Many young Quaker males, the majority in some areas, served in the Civil War in the Union army. Few were disowned. During World War I a clear majority ofyoung Friends served on active duty and numerous leading Quakers publicly supported the war effort. Neither group suffered organizational admonishment. National Quaker assemblies invariably supported conscientious objection, but ceased requiring that members uphold the position. Individual apostasy towards the peace testimony had become the rule.4 The disarray prompted a turn-of-the-century movement to modernize the faith's theology and unify its organizational structure. A group of Quaker intellectuals, led by the Haverford College philosophy professor Rufus Jones, began to steer Orthodox Quakerism towards a more liberal theology and a reform ethos that emphasized remaking society more than saving immoral individuals. The changes brought Orthodox Quakers into agreement with the Hicksites, who had arrived at such modern ideas several decades earlier by way oftranscendentalism. Yet even in Philadelphia, the center of the reform movement, the obvious merger was not completed until 1955. In the interim, reform Quakers used the peace testimony to unite the various factions and promote social change.5 The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) served as the primary vehicle for this effort. In...