Quakers: That of God in Everyone (2015) | Full Movie | Paul Buckley | Thomas Hamm

[Music] we utterly deny all outward Wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatsoever this is our testimony to the world this is the peace testimony first proclaimed in 1662 king charles ii of england by a group of religious seekers led by george fox and calling themselves the children of light or publishers of truth to their critics they were known as Quakers a derisive nickname that they unabashedly acknowledged as they were known for trembling under the influence of the Holy Spirit in their worship meetings ultimately they would officially named themselves the religious Society of Friends their visionary leader George Fox wrote in 1683 God who made all pulls out his Spirit upon all men and women in the world in the days of his new covenant yayyyy upon whites and blacks Moors and Turks and Indians Christians Jews and Gentiles that all with the Spirit of God might know God and the things of God and serve and worship in spirit and truth be patterns be examples in all countries places islands nations wherever you come that your courage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world answering that of God in everyone that of God in everyone as it was originally used really referred to people being made in the image and likeness of God we all share the same father of the same parents we're all children of God we are all children the same guy we need to recognize that that's what we need to be responding to and other people is that common humanity that we have the inward light of Christ and and just as the light from the Sun allows us to see with our eyes our outward eyes we have inward eyes and when we are illuminated by that inward light of God we can see our spiritual condition and understand what it is God's calling on us to do as the movement grew in number and momentum that inner light led Quakers to pivotal roles and many of the most transformative moments of the last four centuries Quakers such as william penn susan b anthony Lucretia Mott John Woolman and George Cadbury have achieved a degree of Fame but less is known about thousands of other friends such as those from the American Midwest whose faithfulness to Quaker ideals positively impacted the larger society and these are the previously untold stories of some of those architects of peace and equality [Music] [Music] Quakers left England in the 17th century to establish a colony in the New World William Penn's holy experiment inspired by the idea of living where they could be governed according to their faith penn had been given the land by king charles ii to settle a large family debt so in 1682 he sails across the ocean with a group of colonists most of whom are Quakers but he doesn't say to the people already living there this is mine what he says is I'm gonna buy it he says this not only to the Swedes and the Dutch he says it to the Indians as well he says this is this is land that we want to settle on we recognize it as your land and we will purchase it from you and begins a the the first of a number of treaties that pan and his sons make with the Indians to buy land that the king has already given to Penn after an encounter with Penn teman and a Native American Delaware chief declared we will live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the creeks and rivers run and while the Sun Moon and stars endure can rights this Constitution allowing people freedom to worship abolishing the death penalty except in some very few I think if you engaged in trees and you could still be executed but beyond that this was an amazingly liberal document that he put together the Quaker colony Pennsylvania was open to all and governed with laws based on equality truth simplicity and peace peace requires justice justice requires law law requires government not only within nations but also between nations William Penn 1693 if you could only build a state where where people would be free they they could have freedom of religion they could have freedom to express themselves there could be equality women could be as equal as men that could have the same rights could do the same things as men there would be no need for slave to to own slaves that each in their own way would give to the community that you would have a just government that would would look out for the for everyone within the society unfortunately by the time of the American Revolution there were more non Quakers than Quakers in Pennsylvania and the holy experiment came to an end as Quakers were voted out of office or left office rather than participate in decisions related to war making he thought he was going to establish a utopia I haven't unearthed and found out that the tough realities of life really get in the way but he did he didn't create this colony he created this model we have the model of religious freedom that pen establishes in in Pennsylvania I mean the Constitution of the United States in some ways draws on things that he wrote in the 1680s almost a hundred years earlier though they were no longer a majority in Pennsylvania Quakers had spread throughout the American colonies with substantial settlements in Rhode Island New Jersey Virginia North and South Carolina and Georgia [Music] [Music] as the colonies in the new land developed slavery became a part of the economic system but Quakers were to follow a different path through the 1700s friends urged their members who owned slaves to free them and make provisions for their welfare and by 1784 virtually no Quakers owned slaves the slave economy became strong in the south so in eighteen six my family group of Quakers moved from the North Carolina Piedmont area to Ohio they did not want to raise their children in that slave Society so it was a matter of conscience and also a matter of economics a matter of looking for a life that would be better for their community and their families appalled by the cruelty of slavery around them and attracted to the possibility of living where slavery was prohibited many southern Quakers began moving to the Northwest Territory settling first on land that now includes the states of Ohio and Indiana in 1787 Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance which was to provide for the organization of government and settlement of the lands north of the Ohio River what was probably the best element of the ordinance however was its provision that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude would ever exist in the lands of the Northwest Territory and friends are drawn toward territories where slavery is illegal Daniel Boone who grew up a Pennsylvania Quaker was among those who helped friends move west in search of a place to live in peace and equality let peace descending from her native heaven bid her Olive spring amidst the joyful nations and plenty in league with commerce scatter blessings from her copious hand Daniel Boone 1784 in 1799 two Quaker families from Busch River South Carolina settled on military lands in southwestern Ohio just north of Fort Washington the site of what would in a few years become the thriving river port town of Cincinnati in 1803 joined by more migrating friends they established the first formally recognized Quaker meeting for worship or Church in southwestern Ohio Miami monthly meeting in the village of waynesville and that same year something was to happen back in Busch River South Carolina that would open the floodgates for Quaker migration to the Northwest Territory Zachariah dicks a Quaker described by those who heard him speak as a powerful rhapsodic Allah preacher with prophetic insight in an unusual degree delivered a disturbing message by the 1790s friends had come to believe that Zacharias had a gift of prophecy that he could see into people's minds and understand what their secret spiritual states were and that he had foreshadowings of the future as friends recorded their memories of his preaching decades later what Zacharias had to say that to them was something like this woe unto the bush River the flower of thy glory has faded get hence out of this land of Egyptian slavery and darkness unto the free lands of the Northwest and within a few years a Quaker community that had numbered probably close to a thousand people was fewer than a hundred left in South Carolina the Quakers who came here to the Midwest were those who were maybe more risk takers they left homes and well-established farms and villages and families back east and moved west and a lot of quicker stayed on the east you know where their farms and families were and they did good work there but the ones who came west took all sorts of risks and chances and it strikes me we may know less about them because they were doers more than writers they didn't necessarily sit and write down what they had done they were out there just doing it a large number of Quakers continued migrating to present-day Indiana and Ohio just like those from Bush River faithfully following guidance from their inner light Quakers wherever they form communities first formed a meeting for worship the next thing they did was to open a school for their children those Quaker schools are often admitting non Quaker students and some of them gained a reputation as being some of the best secondary schools in the Midwest after statehood in eighteen three a public school system was set up the black children were not admitted to it even though black landowners were forced to pay taxes that subsidized the public schools their children could not attend those schools so a black children were to be educated that means that their parents or sympathetic whites had to make that possible in Harvey's burg which is just a few miles from Waynesville there was a Quaker meeting there and there were two Quakers Elizabeth Harvey and her husband they started the first for children of color in Ohio which was early and really unheard of at the time and highly frowned on and got a lot of criticism from people who weren't friends one of the things that really feeds freedom is it's not a place to hide but a place where you can learn a place where you can become a part of the economic community build a home for your family and then send your children back to school and Harvey's burg created a school for black students and then even hired black and white teachers and so it was important because it started at the base for early friends of course this is this is just plain Scripture equality is you look in the Epistle and from Paul and it says in in Christ there is no male or female there is no Greek or Jew there's no slave or free if we are part of the body of Christ we are all the same and and so the social distinctions that were made and still are made to a degree between people with different backgrounds different genders those are all irrelevant those are all outward things but internally we are all as I said children of God and and all equally children of God as more and more of the country began relying upon slave labor for productivity and cost savings Quakers throughout the Northwest Territory continued to make the difficult and dangerous choice of supporting freedom for all Christopher Anthony founding member of the Quaker meeting in Cincinnati Ohio was one of many Quakers to give up his reliance on slave labor Mary P Hart was Christopher Anthony's granddaughter and fortunately she had the wherewithal to share her memories of the meetinghouse and some of the oral history of her family and how they came to arrive in Cincinnati the household goods came in wagons and with them a family of Negros the man was a descendant of a slave of grandfather's before grandfather joined the Society of Friends at which time he set all his slaves free Mary P Hart even for Quakers living in this slavery free Northwest Territory it was impossible to avoid being drawn into the most contentious debate in the history of our nation many friends combined intellect and creativity to overcome opposition to their work for peace and equality Levi and Catherine coffin are prime examples of such moral ingenuity in the 1830s and 1840s the town of Newport in Wayne County Indiana had a reputation as being one of the most radical anti-slavery centers in the United States it was widely known that hundreds of fugitive slaves had passed through Newport most of them through the coffin home and he estimated that I believe and the course of their lives from 1826 to 1865 they had a date somewhere between two and three thousand fugitives and to the best of his knowledge none of them was ever seized and returned to slavery well Levi coffin was an effective conductor on the Underground Railroad not just because he was committed abolitionists but also because he was a smart committed abolitionist he knew that if slave catchers in vated Newport or even his home they would have the force of law behind them and so he tried to think of ways that he might be able to outwit the and you can see three examples of that here at the house the first is the well which is inside and of course that would have been convenient but it also had the advantage that Snoopy neighbors who might not be sympathetic would never be able to notice just how much water the coffins were drawing for their own use or for the 18 fugitive slaves that they might have with them at any given time in the attic there is a hiding place one where people could have been concealed if necessary they also have a false bottom wagon which would have been another effective way to transport fugitive slaves they would have been particularly in danger when they're on the open road so if you think that slave catchers may be on your trail the false bottom wagon is an excellent way to transport a freedom seeker I think to me it's a good example of combining practicality with a moral witness he didn't try and hide from the sheriff he was just too open about it and this is this is the way this this is what real civil disobedience is about civil disobedience is saying this law is wrong I'm not going to follow it and doing it out where people can can catch you if they want to he didn't hide the fact that he was not just a conductor on the Underground Railroad he was described at the time as the president of the Underground Railroad and he was described that way publicly in his memoir Levi coffin recounts a conversation with a man who disapproved of his helping slaves escape from their masters I told him I had read in the Bible when I was a boy but it was right to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and to minister to those who had fallen among thieves and were wounded but that no distinction in regard to color was mentioned in the good book so in accordance with its teachings I had received these fugitives and cared for them I then asked was I right friend and doing so he hesitated and seemed at a loss how to reply I continued how does the I Bible read was it not as I have said yes he answered it reads somehow so he evidently wished to change the subject Levi coffin in addition to helping fugitives escape from slavery coffin and other abolitionists work to undermine its economic foundation buying and selling products such as cotton and sugar from plantations that hired free laborers instead of using slaves in 1846 a group of abolitionists decided to establish a free labor wholesale warehouse in Cincinnati and urged Levi coffin to oversee its operation in the spring Levi and Catherine coffin moved from their home in Newport Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio throughout their years in Cincinnati the coffins also helped those who sought freedom by providing opportunities for education teaching simple skills denied those oppressed by slavery people like Levi coffin not only for vanity was sheltered but then provided you with hope and helping black people learn to read write in the basement of Union Baptist Church that's freedom and even if it catch you and take you back they don't own you anymore coffin and other people like him understood that physical freedom with no job and no way to take care of your family is just another form of slavery another Cincinnati friend who took the testimony against slavery particularly to heart was Mordecai Morris white his maternal grandfather was a wealthy plantation owner and in 1846 when Morris White was only 16 years old he inherited a large estate from his grandfather including a number of slaves when he was in his early 20s and living in Cincinnati as a young businessman um the realization that he was a slave owner began to bother him so he made the journey on horseback all the way down to North Carolina registered his slaves so that you know - establishes his ownership and his ability to to free them and then at 3:00 in the morning started on a journey back to the Midwest [Music] when he got to Norfolk he was offered $10,000 in gold for his gang of slaves and turned it down the personal property value of the six million slaves in the south was worth more money than all the factories in inventory of everything up north and so when you asked that that be taken away and given away that would be like telling Procter & Gamble to give away all their soap we don't realize how much value there was and we don't have any idea of what it was like to have the courage to run away eventually Mordecai White's group made its way to raise Ville Indiana a settlement of Quakers and free people of color where white had relatives there white rented and furnished two houses for his former slaves and found jobs for the men chopping wood making fencing rails and other employment that would allow them to provide for themselves it's a risk to let your life speak what you believe so it doesn't matter what you say you believe if your actions are showing a to belief then it doesn't matter but it's it is risky Quakers who did not directly protect and guide slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad and found other ways to contribute such as Cincinnati friend Achilles Pugh and Kenton County Quakers Isaac and Sara Harvey Pugh owned a printing company that published the philanthropist that was written by James by earning money was like Levi coffin and like John Rankin from Ripley and that Barney was a summoner Barney was the son of a slave owner from Danville Kentucky who said this isn't right and so here is a guy of privilege who was a strong moral base and just turns his back on wealth and started writing this paper and some of the citizens of Cincinnati boned his press twice and dumped it here in the Ohio River what's worse they decided to go to a Kelly pews house that night to make sure that he didn't have any more printing equipment handy and it had to have been a terrifying experience to have this angry mob at your front doorstep with your wife and your children there in your home fortunately they didn't commit any violence and he could have said to himself this is too dangerous I'm not going to do this anymore instead he went back to his printing press literally picked up the pieces and continued publishing the philanthropist [Music] there are there are certain individuals who exemplify the what it means to be a Quaker and what it has meant from the beginning and one of the qualities is a degree of faithfulness to a leading to communicating or being communicated with God and listening and Isaac and and Sara Harvey are a good example of that and this the late summer of 1862 he was plowing in his field and can you imagine walking behind horses and a plow and that must be a very meditative kind of experience you know so he was doing this and he heard a voice that said go to Washington and talk to the president and he said I don't know he didn't know whether the voice was outside or inside but he said I hear you so he unhitched his horse and took care of his horses went to the house and said to his wife Sarah will you go to Washington with me to see the president and she and her quicker way says who sends thee and he says the Lord so of course she's ready to go with him and they do the Civil War was under way and the country was divided and devastated by both war and slavery but Isaac Harvey was convinced God had given him a message to share that might provide the solution so Sarah and Isaac Harvey get off the train in Washington DC they don't know the city they don't know anything about it they look across the street there's a fellow standing over there by a street lamp so they go over to him and ask directions to the White House they've come to see the president and so he asked him a few questions and it turns out that he is secretary of the Treasury salmon P chase he is from Cincinnati he had served several different political offices including governor of Ohio when he finds out they're from Wilmington and he knows they're Quakers and he knows the the area he takes them he says come with me I'll get you settled he takes them to a boardinghouse or something and finds them a room and he sets up an appointment with them to go see Abraham Lincoln so they went into the waiting room and many people reading the newspaper because the Battle of Antietam had just been fought and the north and one that there had been many many casualties so they waited thinking certainly they would probably never get in with all these important things going on but at their appointed time President Lincoln called the men and they reported that President Lincoln picked up his chair and came over and sat between them and so that he could talk to them more personally and so they they said they talked for about half an hour and at the end of that time President Lincoln signed a note saying that they had visited with him that they had comforted him and dated it I take pleasure in asserting that I have had profitable intercourse with friend Isaac Harvey and his good wife Sara Harvey may the Lord comfort them as they have sustained me Abraham Lincoln September 19th 1862 about two days after the Harvey visit the first draft of what would become the Emancipation Proclamation was given to the Congress in this preliminary version Lincoln includes a new second paragraph almost exactly what Isaac Harvey had suggested and that is that the government the US government purchase slaves from the south on September 22nd 1862 Lincoln issued the following that it is my purpose upon the next meeting of Congress to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave states so called the people where of may not then be in rebellion against the United States and which states may then have voluntarily adopted or thereafter may voluntarily adopt immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits and the wonderful thing that happens when you do that kind of when you're faithful like that is that you are able to do things you shouldn't be able to do you shouldn't be able to just arrive get off the train in Washington DC and make your way to see President Lincoln and when you have that kind of confidence you are not alone and you can't you accomplish incredible things and and that's that's along with this idea of George Fox when he said let your life so preach in other words your life will what you do if you are faithful and tuned in and listening and you act on them your life will speak what you believe and so it's a powerful message to watch someone live a faith and not just say it [Music] since the 17th century the official Quaker position has been that all wars and fighting are contrary to the will of God and that friends as faithful Christians can never bear arms to deprive fellow human beings of their lives even in self-defense the Civil War is the different they see the Confederacy as committed to the defense of slavery and that in Quaker Minds makes it absolutely immoral indefensible so that's the choice that friends are facing if we truly accept and believe that there is indeed that of God in every person then we must be a peacemaker we must give full justice and equality to every person and seek the peace and justice that the world needs and that the spirit requires of us just as the country was divided so were Quakers torn between their abhorrence of slavery and their testimony of peace a large number of young Quaker men joined the Union Army a larger number however elected not to participate in violence for this they were labeled as cowards and faced derision and humiliation by society at large although Quakers were not willing to kill for their principles that were willing to suffer and even die for them the 1864 friends disciplined for Quakers in Indiana and southwestern Ohio acknowledged the challenges of the peace testimony in wartime if during the common course of their life friends are attacked insulted and persecuted they ought to suffer wrong to revenge no injury to return good for evil and love their enemies so also should it happen that they are exposed to the more extraordinary calamities of war their conduct must continue to be guided by the same principles if the sword of the invader be lifted up against them the precept is still at hand that they resist not evil if the insults and injuries of the carnal warrior be heaped upon them they are still forbidden to avenge themselves and still commanded to pray for their persecutors if they are surrounded by a host of enemies however violent and malicious those enemies may be Christian love must still be unbroken still universal while withstanding verbal and sometimes physical persecution friends found ways to contribute solutions while avoiding violence for instance Mary J Taylor clerk of the women's meeting in Cincinnati organized assistance for soldiers who were encamped in Garfield Park and her son dr. William H Taylor provided medical services to the wounded other Cincinnati area friends were challenged to action as well endeavor as 'we may open to relieve in some measure the colored people now at or near Cairo who are without a home in consequence of the war now existing in our beloved country and who by the laws of the land are most likely entitled to freedom from slavery at this time there are about four thousand persons principally women and children at or near that place the able-bodied men being mostly employed in the opposing armies leaving their helpless fathers mothers wives and children with the means of support 1862 there were slaves who were caught in the middle of battlegrounds so there was dreadful suffering among the people who were slaves and we're now according to the law freedmen but they were not free from suffering and poverty and so on Quakers formed various committees to provide support for those suffering because of the war including the Indiana Yearly Meeting Committee on the concerns of the people of color and the committee for contraband relief which included representatives from Cincinnati Friends Meeting Achilles Pugh and Marie M Shipley among others as the war came to a close and for years to follow Quakers were involved with picking up the broken pieces of society and working to rebuild it according to some sources during the Civil War Maurice Shipley was involved in helping to establish schools in the south which involved going down the Mississippi River under fire at times from either the Union forces or the Confederate forces so that he could bring relief to the people in those areas Levi coffin and other Quakers in the Cincinnati area made trips down to Alabama Mississippi to see what was going on they came back they raised money and funds and they started this western Freedmen's as commissioned to continue to get get food and clothing and supplies and relief for the suffering people one of the first things they did besides feed and clothe the slaves was build schools and start teaching them because they understood that they would have a better chance of surviving in this new world whatever it was going to be to survive they're going to have to have some of those basic skills after the Civil War you had four and a half million people of African descent most of whom had no formal education and coughin not only helped them in the process of getting away at least 2,000 but he then helped an even larger number with the kind of programs that the Freedmen's Bureau set up establishment of schools establishment of social services that people with nothing needed to begin to become full-fledged citizens when coffin died in 1877 his service was held at Cincinnati Friends Meeting House four of the eight pallbearers were freed black men one of the speaker's was Reverend dr. rust Secretary of the Freedmen's AIDS Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church Levi coffin had too great a mission to spare any time to take care of himself and God took care of him he was an honest wise and judicious man wise in selecting the most practical and judicious methods he was a brave and courageous man it would take less bravery to go up to the cannons mouth than to do the work he did as he walked through the streets he was hooted at and threatened by mobs the battlefield has no such illustrations of heroism as he exhibited every day Reverend dr. rust 1877 the african-american community in Cincinnati held fundraisers to build a memorial for him but it was Quaker practice to maintain simplicity and equality even in death so in accordance with his wishes Katharine coffin had her husband buried in an unmarked grave in the meeting cemetery when Katherine coffin died in 1881 she was also buried in an unmarked grave in the friend cemetery 20 years later in 1901 Cincinnati Friends meeting was informed that persons not in membership with us desire to erect a monument to the late Levi coffin on our lot in Spring Grove Cemetery Cincinnati Friends Meeting granted permission to erect a monument so long as friends approved of the inscription among the few simple headstones in the Quaker section of Grove Cemetery stands a single six foot marker dedicated in a ceremony on May 30th 1902 inscribed on the monument are the following words Levi coffin died ninth month 16th 1877 in his 79th year a Christian philanthropist Catherine coffin died fifth month 22nd 1881 in her 78th year her work well done noble benefactors aiding thousands to gain freedom a tribute from the colored people of Cincinnati [Music] after the Civil War another group that garnered the attention and sympathies of Quakers were Native Americans specifically the Cheyenne Wichita and Comanche tribes one of the delicious ironies of American history was that when General Ulysses s grant became president in 1869 he decided that the US government needed a new Indian policy one that emphasized peace one that took the administration of Indian Affairs away from the Army and private contractors and agents who were often corrupt and turned it over to the churches people who presumably would be humanitarian who would practice peace on earth goodwill toward men in 1869 when a group of Quakers went to see president elect grant and made the suggestion that instead of soldiers as Indian agents people of faith be appointed grant listened attentively to the Quakers and responded gentlemen your advice is good I accepted now give me the names of some friends for Indian agents and I will point them if you could make Quakers out of the Indians it will take the fight out of them let us have peace ulysses s grant thus president ulysses s grant was led to pursue what became known as the quaker policy the appointment of friends and other clergy to oversee the corruption ridden bureau of u.s. indian affairs and to act as indian agents across the country distributing funds and supplies to tribes who were losing more and more of their land to settlers from the east and being forced to live on reservations it is believed that much of the motivation for involving the Quakers was their positive reputation among Native American communities now William Penn started that when he came to Pennsylvania he made treaties with the Indians these treaties were not broken they purchased land they they tried to be as honest as they could and as equal and fair to the Native Americans so that tradition was handed down through the society and they built schools helped them built mills and provided the things that so that the Native Americans could establish their own homes and and make a life for themselves once again many of those involved in the effort came from the Midwest cincinnati friend Murray Shipley served as chairman of the Associated Executive Committee of friends on Indian Affairs and other members of Cincinnati meeting were appointed as Indian agents including the indomitable Harriet steer who spent several months with tribes in Missouri and Achilles Pugh who traveled to Kansas and Oklahoma Territory with two other friends on the Associated Executive Committee initially Quakers seemed to have the support of the general public in their work with the Plains tribes the cincinnati commercial Tribune reported the Quaker agents are unworried in their efforts for the amelioration of the Indians condition and honest in dispensing the rations and annuities they are entitled to receive under the old system the agent seldom lived with the tribes while the new agents abide with them and this is a great advantage cincinnati commercial tribune September 23rd 1869 however many Western settlers were not fans of the experiment many of them were of the school the only good Indian is a dead Indian when they saw Quakers coming in urging justice for Native Americans pointing out how very often local officials white settlers were stealing from Native Americans encroaching on their lands withholding government funds that were rightly there this did not endear Quakers to those people so soon Washington was being inundated by complaints from settlers that the Quakers were completely unrealistic and that they were endangering the lives of settlers unfortunately the trust placed in the Quakers by President Grant was not shared by officials in the administration of Rutherford B Hays in 1879 encountering antagonism and lack of cooperation by government officials Quakers withdrew from government sponsored work and instead directed their efforts toward establishing Quaker meetings building and staffing schools on reservations and maintaining relationships that continued today [Music] in 1896 when there were rumors of war between the United States and Great Britain Marie Shipley one of three recorded ministers at Cincinnati friends meeting along with William H Taylor and Anna M Johnson thought it provided a great opportunity to proclaim the principles of our society in opposition to all war and our advocacy of peaceful means of adjusting all international difficulties Marie Shipley 1896 and he added that the aim of the friends was not to translate Christ's teachings into a free rendering adapted to the customs of the day but to uphold his standard and let the world become not only anti-slavery but anti-war this optimistic 19th century hope was short-lived instead in the next century Quakers everywhere found themselves repeatedly challenged to uphold the peace testimony with its underpinnings of equality truth and simplicity war breaks out 1914 and England first there's a problem because friends in England Quakers in England are clear that they are pacifists what they do in England is to establish the friends ambulance service which was a Medical Corps independent of the army young men principally Quakers but not exclusively Quakers who would volunteer to drive ambulances and serve as medics at the front so Rufus Jones and James Babbitt and Henry Cadbury and some other Quaker leaders of the time decided that they needed a similar organization for American Quakers so so that they could do something so they could serve without serving in the military way it was then in 1917 that the American Friends Service Committee or AFSC was formed to clothe and provide aid to the victims of war if you look at the uniforms they look exactly like the uniforms that that the American military were wearing in that conflict and that was because they were actually buying surplus army uniforms right and outfitting these these young men in this so when you see the uniforms they have on the they have on the sleeve the red and black star which was adopted as the logo for the American Friends Service Committee and there were a lot of young Quakers and other members of peace churches like the Mennonite and the Church of the Brethren who did not want to go fight they were willing to serve they were willing to die but they didn't they couldn't kill so while they were bombs still falling in France American Friends of American Quakers and British Quakers were rebuilding farmhouses and and helping people whose whole towns have been destroyed Quakers went in there and were rebuilding even as the destruction was still happening one of those devoted members of the American Friends Service Committee was Wilmington Ohio native Luther Warren Luther Warren tells just this amazing powerful story about spending the day with this French family and at this point all that's left of this family is grandma mom and a little girl and so Lutheran and a couple of his his partners are working together to build this home for this family they're so grateful to have this home have a roof over their heads again Lutheran the men leave to go back to their camp and find out first thing in the morning that the battle lines have shifted and so they have to go back to this same family and evacuate them from this home that they just built what's really amazing about this story is Luther Warren Maynard McKay Mark McMillan all of these young men from this area they are they're having first of all these cultural experiences that farm boys from southwest Ohio are not ever have never had before but to think about the courage that it took to say no I don't believe that that is something that I can participate in and so this is what I'm going to choose to do instead and then to know that they were in just as much danger as the young men who were carrying rifles Summum worked as medics or in the hospital setting other functions but hospital work and this was common to work with refugees and children and young mothers a kind of focus of that kind of relief I'd like this combination trying to make changes that will have long-term and broad effects American Friends Service Committee has done that according to Wallace T Collett who served as chairman of the American Friends Service Committee in the 1970s its organizers in 1917 were inspired by a quotation from William Penn let us then try what love will do for if men did once see we love them we should soon find they would not harm us though the Great War came to a close in 1918 the work of the American Friends Service Committee continued something close to a million children a day for a number of years were being fed by this relief work in Europe that work had had a really powerful legacy because they weren't just feeding French children they were feeding German children as well they were feeding anyone who needed to be fed there's a man named Joe Volk who for a number of years was the executive secretary of the friends Committee on national legislation in the 1970s and 19 eighties he was traveling in Germany and they were working on kind of east-west relations and anti-nuclear weapons kind of work but he was talking with some officials in kind of high up in the German government and at some point was just kind of really personally amazed that these people were so willing and open to talk with him when they weren't willing and open to talk with other people and so he finally asked somebody you know what is it why me why us why the American Friends Service Committee why are you talking to us and you won't talk to anyone else and this German official said because I wouldn't be here if you hadn't fed my parents so we're talking about a generation after right this guy's parents had been fed by Quakers in the years after World War one so we think a lot and we hear a lot about the ripple effects of conflict after the conflict is over but to think about the ripple effects of humanitarian aid and of peace work generations after that's happened and I think that's that's a story that doesn't get told enough [Music] by 1940 it was clear that another major conflict was brewing in Europe you [Music] Robert Jones minister of Cincinnati friends meeting attended a gathering in Richmond Indiana for the purpose of as they explained discussing what friends can do in this world of confusion he reported that the American Friends Service Committee was trying to work out with the government some sort of service for the conscientious objectors should war come the result was the Selective training and Service Act which included an exemption from combat for any person who by reason of religious training and belief is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form during World War two federal law restricted the alternative service of conscientious objectors to projects within the United States so you saw conscientious objectors who worked as attendants in mental hospitals who worked in forestry camps doing conservation or firefighting work all the bravest conscientious objectors volunteered to be guinea pigs in medical experiments testing vaccines for various diseases or even taking part in starvation experiments that were aimed at getting a better understanding of how former POWs or concentration camp survivors could be nursed back to health so they were brave in their own way several Quakers from the Midwest took part in these dangerous experiments Wayne Overmyer participated as human guinea pigs and some of these experiments in World War two David staff Reagan was the first Quaker in Cincinnati to register as a co for that war and to sign up for the the CPS camps another young Quaker by the name of T can be Jones was also a co during World War two attendees very very interesting fellow PhD from Yale he was a conscientious objector and worked with the CIO's in Norway as well as some places here in the United States and there's also a big biblical scholar he was born in Japan his father was a missionary his father became the principal or a president of a black university in the south or he was raised so he's always been on the cutting edge in many different ways can be later became a beloved professor and peace activist at Wilmington College in Ohio where he was known on campus as mr. Quaker barred from sending relief workers to battle zones during World War two one wartime concern the American Friends Service Committee addressed was the plight of more than a hundred twenty thousand japanese-americans arrested on the suspicion of being enemy aliens after Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 entire families were imprisoned in temporary internment camps until they could be relocated from the west coast by the newly created WRA or War Relocation Authority within 48 hours of the bombing of Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt issued an executive order that basically rounded up hundreds of Japanese Americans that lived on the west coast and put them in internment camps identifying them as enemy aliens they had to sell their farm lands close their businesses and they went to these camps literally with only what they could carry they were told that they had to stay there until the military order was lifted or recent were modified G Raymond booth was a former Quaker pastor and had been a former executive secretary of the Pacific Coast division of American Friends Service Committee he was the first representative of the WRA here in Cincinnati and met with members of Cincinnati friends meeting to discuss his concerns for helping japanese-americans get settled in response a hostel was established temporary quarters where japanese-americans could stay until employment and more permanent living arrangements could be found a University of Cincinnati dormitory was leased for use as the hostel and booth led by example hiring the first internment camp member to relocate to Cincinnati his secretary Elva shinozaki since then any friends were greatly involved in this they would coordinate picnics with young japanese-americans they invited them to come to worship and about 700 individuals took advantage of the services offered through the hostel several of the people who lived there felt welcomed enough by Cincinnati friends that they just thought decided to join the meeting to become Quakers themselves after the hostel closed Cincinnati Quakers continued their relationship with the Japanese contributing funds to rebuild a friend's school in Japan which had been destroyed by bombs meanwhile as it had after war war won at the end of World War two the American Friends Service Committee sent relief workers to help rebuild Europe one young Quaker who joined that effort was Robert Bob McCoy who grew up on a farm in southwestern Ohio then the American Friends Service Committee went over to war-torn Europe and began doing the work feeding feeding the starving people who were there both German and Austrian and Russian I mean they didn't just go feed the children of allies but they fed the children of the enemies and Bob McCoy worked there for about four years after the war one day while out driving a truck Bob's work partner had quite a memorable experience with a local villager as he went along from village to village he would stop and pick up people if they were walking and looked like any Headroom and so he picked up this elderly man gave him a ride to the next village and the old man came around the side of the truck and asked how much do I owe you and the guy the American Friends Service Committee fellow said but you know nothing this is what we do know we're here to help and the old man glanced up and he saw the Quakers insignia and he said ah Quakers that explains everything and that was left over because they remembered what Quakers had done in World War one and that makes me think about that saying from William Penn let us then try what love will do and I think love given freely and during and after World War one was remembered fifty and sixty years later and had an impact fifty or sixty years later on your enemies I mean that's just such a powerful lesson and and it gives credence and weight to the teachings of Christianity and of Quakerism after the war in recognition of this friend service committee in England and the American Friends Service Committee our word and Nobel Peace Prize it's international recognition of the alternative to warfare than that Quakers in their best sense represent [Music] over the next three decades the social and political focus of Americans and much of the world shifted from Europe to the growing civil rights movement within the United States in 1954 five black parents in Hillsboro Ohio brought a lawsuit against the local school board for his policy of segregation in the schools in its ruling on brown versus the Board of Education earlier that year the US Supreme Court had abolished the separate-but-equal rule under which Hill's boroughs African American children had been educated in segregated schools for decades the n-double-a-cp helped provide legal counsel in the Hillsborough suit Thurgood Marshall who successfully argued the brown case wrote the briefs and signed the petition submitted to the district court in Cincinnati one of the parents Imogene Curtis approached local Quaker meetings in nearby Leesburg and Wilmington and requested their help this was how the freedom schools of Hillsboro Ohio also known as the kitchen schools began Rebecca Godfrey's mother was involved with the effort my dad who happened to be serving on a committee at the time for a yearly meeting that received the request he came home and he informed her that he had had volunteered her to go to Hillsborough once a week and help with the schooling of these children so the group of Quaker teachers there were for them would go to Hillsborough on Mondays and meet and work with the children on that day and then they would leave lesson plans for the mother teachers to carry out for the rest of the week and that's how they became known as the kitchen schools because a lot of them they said around a kitchen table four or five children during that lifelong bonds were established between the black parents and the Quaker teachers I was at a family reunion with my teenage son who invited his friend to come and his friend is biracial and I said do you are you have any relations in Hillsboro and she goes because I think so I think my I said I'm a gene and Oroville Curtis by any chance and he says well my dad was Orville Curtiss and he was named after his uncle and I think that they lived in Hillsboro and so here you know my mom had worked with Miss Imogene in the kitchen schools and two generations later her grandson and Orville Curtis her husband's great nephew are best friends you know it makes you kind of proud that your mom had a part of that [Music] when American involvement in the conflict in Southeast Asia escalated so did Quaker concern friends everywhere protested the war Wilmington College under the leadership of Quaker presidents became a focus of Quaker activism Gary Kersey a graduate of Wilmington College recounts his time at the school during the peak of demonstrations I saw this demonstration starting to unfold I I remember there were those who opposed the war kind of lying up on one side of the sidewalk and those who were and supporting the troops or on the other side and I thought to myself you know I can go back down the back stairs of College Hall get my cougar and go to Hardee's and avoid this whole dilemma as to whether I'm going to be a part of this whether I'm going to be for the war or or shall we say against the war and I must say that I think I had reached the point in my life that up till that time most everybody had been telling me what I ought to do what I ought to say and what I ought to feel I had a lot of good teachers wonderful parents had a lot of good people telling me what to do but here was a case or I was gonna have to make this decision myself I think there's a lot of people out there that maybe have a certain feeling but they just don't capture that feeling because they're afraid of what people will think that they're not you know that's not what it's all about though many people struggled with how to respond to the war Wilmington college professor Larry Guerra and his wife Lenna May did not the ghiras were involved in a plethora of vigils and demonstrations during the Vietnam War and were quite familiar with the consequences of acting upon their beliefs Larry served multiple prison sentences for his challenges to the system beginning during World War two I was only arrested once during Vietnam I don't take civil disobedience lightly and in 1942 when I was supposed to register I couldn't do anything else it was a matter of conscience I publicly announced that I could not in good conscience register and of course when I did that when I was 20 years old I was sentenced to prison for three years years later accused of counseling a student to refuse to register for the draft Gera was sentenced to prison for another 18 months separating him from his wife Len ma we'd been married what five or six years I think then and you know that was kind of difficult very difficult but I was young he was young we were healthy we got through it I regretted a lot of things I've done but I never regretted refusing to register I think it was absolutely the right thing to do and still feel that way throughout the Vietnam War Quakers everywhere held peace vigils and in May 1970 Cincinnati and Wilmington friends joined other religious groups in protesting the killing of four Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard current Cincinnati Friends member Jim Crocker Alanis was a student at Kent State he remembers that morning the guard moved into the fenced-in area and found themselves blocked couldn't move so there was a moment of the back and forth between there were about eight or ten of us in the parking lot and the National Guard would shoot their tear gas and we were able to run downwind of the tear gas and pick it up and throw it back and then I found myself I picked up a rock and I found my arm cocked ready to throw this rock and time Stood Still the universe vanished and I heard Jesus say Jim are you sure you want to do that drop that rock and follow me and so my my conscientious objection to war non-violence based on the teachings of Jesus came back to me I did drop the rock another influential Quaker actively involved in following the peace testimony was Wallace Collett a world war two conscientious objector from Wilmington Ohio after graduating from Wilmington College Colette moved to Cincinnati where he became a prominent businessman and civic leader and eventually became chairman of the American Friends Service Committee Wallace was up front out in the open with his war tax resistance every year he would fill out his 1040 and he'd get to the bottom and he write a note and attach it telling the IRS that he had not paid X dollars because he considered them to be dollars that supported the military but then he went on and he would tell them I have deposited that amount of money plus whatever they owe 10 percent for the penalties that I know you're going to assess plus any interest that might be due I put it all in this bank account he'd give him the bank name and the account number so they could go and get that money so he was going to resist the taxes he knew that they were gonna they were gonna want it and he wasn't gonna try and stop them from getting it in fact he ended up paying more because he knew they were gonna assess penalties and interest on it all that money was in the bank but then he did something else this is the good part he knew the presidents of most of the banks and says hey maybe all the banks in Cincinnati he would open an account in a bank put the money in but then he'd make an appointment with the president of the bank and he would go in and he'd say hi al how you do and it's good to see ya listen the IRS is gonna come and they're gonna seize my account well you can imagine the shock that this would cause I mean this is a prominent person in our community and he's telling me as the president of the bank that they're gonna come and seize his assets and so of course what do I do as the president I said why what's going on and Wallace would then have the opportunity to tell them about what war taxes represented why they were wrong and what he was doing to resist them it gave him an opportunity to minister to prominent people people with power and authority in the business community and I just I just think that's just such a tremendous example for all of us over the years others like Jim Crocker likeness faced difficult choices related to the peace testimony such was the situation of Ryan Myers during Desert Storm in 1990 but after some guidance from fellow friend and conscientious objector Charlie Pearson Myers was more confident in his decision looking at having to register for selective service that I was not going to so Charlie Pearson who was a member of the meeting as well was a CEO during World War two was a bit of a mentor for me when I was young I think I took some strength from that knowing that okay you know I know Charlie I respect Charlie he was able to do it he was okay of course when I was making the decision I knew it carry potential legal consequences it's a possibility of a pretty substantial fine prison time and I'm not eligible for student loans but I think it was the right decision for me I think if circumstances were the same I would make the decision again [Applause] in recent years some Quakers have as their predecessors did focused on projects to provide education equality with the support of her local friends meeting Cincinnati Quaker Kathy Barney has put her energy into an arts program for underprivileged children I started it because I just knew that there were kids in my neighborhood that didn't have the options and opportunities that the average kid has yet these kids were just as valuable I hope to provide a safe place for these kids I hope it sparked something in them that maybe an area and opportunity would open up that they hadn't seen before [Music] we painted stuff and we got like one of those hats on the artist where some of the kids have told me they really like to come here because it gets them away from the daily drama where they live I keep coming back because sometimes when I like have a bad day like this is like the only place I can go to and it like makes me feel better about myself I think it really gives them voice self-expression if these kids have a venue for self expression then they know who they are they have a voice and they can say no to bad influences they know who they are I think it makes them stronger just how to help people I'm more mature and I know how to handle situations better I think one of the Quaker principles that has always spoken to me is seeing that of God in others and being able to see that of God in these kids and helping them see that in themselves I mean I think that's sort of in a nutshell what the whole point is also supported by Cincinnati friends meeting Luke and Angela Abner expressed their faith through work with inner-city youth exposing them to organic and sustainable gardening planting seeds of hope the kids that work with us get to learn how to plan plant harvest market cook organic fruits and vegetables that are all grown right here I always say we're planting nourishing habitats for community so this is a nourishing habitat that I get to cultivate with the youth that we interact with living in the urban community is really hard to have that type of meditation in peace because there's always so much going on and this is a highly populated area so being a secluded area like Gardner it brings you a piece that you never even knew existed and it's truly a blessing to be able to grow food and to just be out because putting your hands at work and really allow your mind to meditate and just flow losing yourself while being in the grass or tended to the plants or whatnot you really get the opportunity to think life outside the garden there's much like a challenge there's much like working at the garden like I said for effort to do with anything that you want takes practice hard work and dedication time my life I had nowhere to go and I had to come to this garden and look at me a job you know she was money in my pocket and made sure there was enough for me to help support my family this garden means everything to me truly well I've learned by equality while working here at the Eco garden is that we are in the same boat no one's birding no one knows even though someone might have better clothes I might have a better career of better options or opportunities at the end of the day we're all human beings for the same faulkner issues at the end of the day we all afraid of the same thing so truly there's no point in seeing anyone above you are below you there's no point of insecurity because we're all in the same boat we are scared of the same thing we all seek the same thing public friend and Minister Donnie Hayden believes that several things particularly attract people to Quakerism social activism and the affirmation that there is that of God in everyone which includes the understanding that anyone may be led or guided by God we attract people who are deeply involved and socially conscious and committed to social justice but the other kind of person is a person who is tuned in and listening and can hear or can be led and so find themselves among others who are of similar leading for for me for my family that component of equality has been a large piece of what has kept us here Quakerism has really helped us focus ourselves outwards because you can see the effect that it has on everybody else and you feel like you're contributing to society and helping others Quakers believe that each of us has the responsibility to become a minister and to minister each in our own way to to the community and to the wider world as well my attraction to Quakerism has always been on the site of the experiential approach to religion that it is that you have an immediate experience of the presence of the Spirit and out of that grows your values and your your commitments it is just discovering that you can have an actual one-on-one relationship with your Creator and that you can know the joy and the peace and the beauty that God created us to know through more than three centuries Quakers everywhere famous and anonymous in East Coast City and Midwestern countryside have heeded George Fox's admonition to answer that of God in everyone if it were proper for Quakers to be proud I think we're entitled to be proud for the many ways that we work to try to make the world a better place and particularly focused on people who were marginalized and disenfranchised by the larger society and I hope that's something that will always be true of friends that we will always be willing to be countercultural not for the sake of being awed or just for the sake of being different but because by running counter to the larger culture and its values we ultimately move it toward being a better more just more radically fair world [Music] my life flows on in and some of us lamentation I involving the farm that has a new creation through all the eternal and the strife I hear the music ringing it sounds a let go in my soul okay I key from state how can I keep from singing what told my choice and comfort star the Lord my Savior what goes the tartness gather songs the 90 given no storm can shake my inmost calm while to that a refuge clinging since Christ is law of heaven enter how can I keep from saying how can I keep from singing 99 the cloud grows thin I see the blue and day by day this pathways mode since I first learned to live the Peace of Christ makes fresh my body a fountain springing all things are my since I am how can i from I [Music]

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 97,552

Rating: 4.8550906 out of 5

Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, Quakers, Society of Friends, Daniel Boone, Susan B. Anthony, Johns Hopkins, Paul Buckley, Thomas Hamm, Mary Ellen Krisher, Jeff Arnold, Quakers: That of God in Everyone movie, Quakers: That of God in Everyone, Quakers: That of God in Everyone Movie, Documentary, Quakers: That of God in Everyone Full Movie, liberation theology, Christianity, Slavery, Quaker

Id: 47IXwL-Qnl8

Length: 88min 27sec (5307 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 17 2020