Friends Action Plan

A meditation on the unofficial creed of the Religious Society of Friends, an organization that is dedicated to stripping every man-made thing out of religion (including official creeds, LOL) leaving nothing but the simple truth.

"When all my hopes in all men were gone and I had nothing and noone left to help me, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition,' and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. When God works on you directly, no man can hinder his purpose. This I know from experience. My desire after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God, and of Christ alone, without the help of any man, book or writing. For though I read the Scriptures that spoke of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not, but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His Spirit. Then the Lord gently led me along, and let me see His love, which was endless and eternal, surpassing all the knowledge that men have in the natural state, or can obtain from history or books; and that love let me see myself, as I was without Him." (George Fox, 1646, where modernized slightly by the editor, to make things clearer, there are italics)

2. Follow the direction God gives in your life.

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. (Martin Luther King, 1956)

3. Use the litmus test: Love thy neighbor as thyself. (when unsure of what to do ask yourself "what does love require or what would Christ do?") 

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's own life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do as I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. (John 15: 12-15, this passage may be where the Religious Society of Friends gets its name)

"The whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends. Whether something is proposed for belief, for hope or for action, the love of our Lord must always be made accessible, so that anyone can see that all the works of perfect Christian virtue spring from love and have no other objective than to arrive at love." -- last paragraph of the Prologue, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., 1997

"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 (1763), p. 165 of Quaker Faith & Practice, PYM)

"I cannot see the life of Jesus as other than God trying to disclose his love for us and his attempt, at any price, to show us that the cosmos is grounded in love. All hate, all sin, all discord, all clefts, all ignorance, all confusion will finally give way to love. But this love, like a strip of wood, has its grain which must be followed. If we follow this grain we will find that we must change the patterns in which we have previously cast out lives. And I do not see how God could have made this disclosure more effectively than by placing his love in the body of a child who was to become a man, and letting this cosmic message shine through the material envelope of a human life." (Douglas Steere (1965) Quaker Faith and Practice p. 118)

Quaker Faith and Practice, p. 87: "As Friends we believe that love is the unifying force in human relations. Let us understand what brotherly love is and what it is not. Love is not self-seeking; it is self-giving. Love does not try to make up a deficiency in that of God in another from an overabundance of divinity in ourselves; it opens us to the divine Light in him and rejoices in it. Love does not mean agreeing on all questions of belief, values, or rules of conduct; it means accepting with humility and forbearance such differences as cannot be resolved by open and patient give-and-take. Love does not recreate our brother in our image; it recreates us both in relation to each other, united like limbs of one body yet each distinctly himself."

4. Employ self discipline - do not let your life be ruled by fear, anger, lust, greed and the desire to impose your will on others

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? (James 4:1)

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear." (1 John 4: 17-18).

Written October 2007 in preparation for a Middle School Sunday School class on Bible Study by James A. Quinn