Beliefs
Inner Light and "that of God"
The concept of the Inner Light is at the core of Quaker faith. This principle states that in everyone is the element of God's own Spirit and divine energy, known to early Friends as "that of God in everyone," "the seed of Christ," or "the seed of Light."
Friends believe in an experiential faith in which first-hand knowledge of the divine is revealed directly to each person. This explains the attitudes of Friends towards many faith elements: the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, the scriptures, the establishment and authority of churches, the use of ceremonies, symbols and sacraments, the obligations felt and undertaken by each individual, and relations with other faiths.
The concept of the Inner Light may be described as twofold: 1) the Inner Light discerns between good and evil. It reveals the presence of both in us, and through its guidance offers choice. 2) The Inner Light opens our consciousness to the unity of all through this potential to act in a way that either binds us to the divine or separates us from it.
George Fox acknowledged that there is an “ocean of darkness and death” over the world. But he also saw “an ocean of light and love” flowing over this same ocean of darkness. Friends believe that the power to overcome evil is available through our power of choice. Salvation, in the Quaker sense, lies in our decisions to act in a way that makes us children of Light.
Testimonies
Friends use "testimony" to describe how we act in our everyday lives. Testimony is the way of living when we realize that "there is that of God in everyone," that all human beings are equal, and that all life is interconnected. Although life-affirming, living by Quaker testimonies may lead to acting in ways counter to what is acceptable in the larger society.
Testimonies reflect the corporate beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends. However, individual Friends may interpret them differently in accordance with their own light. Basic Quaker testimonies are: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Sustainability. Some Friends may use the acronoym SPICES for the testimonies.
Simplicity
The testimony of simplicity seeks to focus our attention on what is essential and eternal, without the distractions of the transitory or trivial. Simplicity is expressed in plain and honest speech. Simplicity is living in respect for creation, concern for the environment, and right use of the world's resources. An economy based on profit at all costs is a fundamental violation of the simplicity testimony.
Peace
The Peace Testimony is based on recognition of the Divine within everyone. Each person is a potential channel of Truth regardless of how misguided they may seem at any moment. Therefore, it is not possible to kill or wage war against anyone. Friends have historically opposed all wars and anything leading to war. Friends have worked to establish the right of conscientious objection, end military conscription, and to end war tax.
The Peace Testimony challenges us to ease the suffering of victims of war on all sides and to be a reconciling force between peoples and nations in conflict. It means searching for non-violent means of conflict resolution through institutions, international treaties, and structures such as the United Nations or the European Union. It means continuing to work for peace and social justice through personal and group non-violent techniques of mediation and social change.
Quaker views are represented at the centres of political, economic, and military power by the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels and the Quaker United Nations Offices in Geneva and New York.
Integrity or Truth
Truth is a complex concept. Obedience to Truth is what sometimes led Friends to act in ways others thought odd and even provocative. For early Friends, witnessing to Truth involved keeping up public meetings for worship, whatever the penalties involved. Truth also involved preaching, for which many Friends were imprisoned. The concern for truthfulness leads Friends to refuse to take oaths. An oath according to them was a sign that there were two different levels of truthfulness and we believe that you should tell the truth all the time.
Friends endeavor to speak "truth to power" which means that when we feel something important needs to be said, we must make the effort to say it to those who need to hear it and who have the power to affect change. The phrase is credited to Bayard Rustin, a Black Quaker and leader in the Civil Rights Movement who used nonviolent methods in his fight for social justice and equal rights.
Community
All of us are united in our humanity and as creatures of this earth. No matter how great the differences in experience, culture, age, or understanding, Friends have found that the Light may illuminate an individual heart as well as bind the group together in a community of faith, conscience and experience.
Friends seek to build a broader community throughout our world, by seeing and affirming in each other the Light within. We must learn to deal with one another by affirming and nurturing the best we find in each other – or, in the words of George Fox – by “answering that of God in everyone”.
A strong aspect of community for Friends is the sharing of pastoral and administrative responsibilities for the group. Swiss Friends do not have ministers nor staff, and responsibilities are shared within the structure of the Yearly Meeting and the practice of regularly scheduled Meetings for Worship for Business.
Equality
If God is directly accessible to all persons, regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, economic, social or educational position – if every person is held equal in God’s love and has equal potential to be a channel for the revelation of God’s Truth – then all persons are to be equally valued. There is “that of God’ in every person.
For Friends this insight has meant, from the beginning, equality of the sexes and of races. In England and the English colonies this had to mean the end of privilege based on wealth or class. In Japan and Kenya, where the existing cultures made women little more than ‘domestic property’, it resulted in the establishment of Quaker schools for girls. It also formed the basis for opposition to slavery and the death penalty.
Quakers are people of their times and as such were those who were active participants in all aspects of the slave trade at the same time there were pioneers in identifying it as a leading moral issue within the religious community, before taking this concern beyond Quaker circles to active campaigning against it eventually led to abolition. In the same way, there are Quakers who today campaign against contemporary slavery in its current iterations in trafficking, child marriages, child soldiers, etc.
Sustainability
Sustainability is the most recent addition to the basic Quaker testimonies and comes as a response to increasing awareness of our responsibilities of care toward planet, ecosystems, and sensitive populations as human activities change the climate and push planetary boundaries to the limit. Sometimes also called stewardship, this testimony reminds us that we are responsible to future generations, to care for the earth as our home and the home of all that dwell here. Quakers are involved in promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and aim to protect and care for the earth in sacred trust.