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Social issues.
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Quakers are known for their work in the fields of peace and social reform, trying to promote social justice and improve living conditions for many people, over the last few hundred years. These issues are still live and modern Quakers are very active in several areas. This page outlines issues of concern to Quakers from the past and present, also of concern to many other people of faith and of none. See: Quaker Peace and Social Witness section of Britain Yearly Meeting. This gives details of current Quaker work in many fields, at home and abroad. Also see my page on charities, including those founded by Friends. |
Relief work and helping refugees and asylum seekers.
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Quakers have been known internationally for the last century for their work in helping people affected by wars and persecution.For example, Quakers were involved in helping Jewish people who were persecuted by the Nazis in the first half of the 20th century, and participated in the Kindertransport, where 10,000 Jewish children were evacuated from Europe during 1938-1939. Relief work in European countries by the Friends Service Committee (FSC) and the American FSC during the war years was recognised by the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. In the 21st century, still beset by wars and other unrest, refugees still need our help. In Britain, Quakers often find ways to help refugees and asylum seekers who live locally, because these people need material assistance and help to integrate into our society. |
Social responsibility: Testimony against gambling.
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Quakers have always adhered to a set of values that we call Testimonies; an outward indication of our beliefs about living according to God's will. With regard to wealth, Quakers place great importance upon financial probity and right use of money. We stress the need for ethical investments and the selection of employment that has positive benefits for the community, rather than involvement in firms that manufacture weapons or other harmful products, or support repressive regimes. Friends' historical testimony against all forms of gambling (games of chance) is still relevant today. We do not wish to benefit from the losses of others and believe that hoping to get "something for nothing" is dishonest. This includes money "made" by gambling: betting on horses, buying National Lottery tickets or things won by organising raffles. Only a small proportion of the money raised by the National Lottery goes to "good causes", so it is more effective to donate money directly to your charity of choice to make sure that all of the donation goes where it was intended. For more on Quaker views of social responsibility see this link: Our sense of responsibility. |
Prison reform.
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Prison reform has always been important to Quakers. The early Quakers were put in prison for their beliefs and so they saw for themselves the dreadful conditions inside the prisons. Quakers have always believed that there is something worthwhile (of God) in everyone, even in people who have committed terrible crimes, and this leads to a belief that the aim of a prison system should be to enable offenders to change and return to a productive life in society. Modern Quakers are still concerned with improving conditions in prisons and with promoting progressive ideas in criminal justice, such as restorative justice rather than retribution and punishment. In British prisons today Quakers can be found as prison visitors and ministers, running visitor centres for relatives, and organising projects such as Alternatives to Violence within prisons and Circles of Support and Accountability for released sex offenders. See: |
Abolition of the death penalty.
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A century before Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker John Bellers (1654-1725) was one of the first publicly to call for the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. Quakers believe that every person has a right to live and is of equal value, therefore they can never support the death penalty as part of a criminal justice system. Social and political activists in many countries have argued against capital punishment from many different angles. From a religious standpoint, it seems impossible to justify state-sponsored murder as a penalty for the crime of murder itself. If it is wrong to kill, it is even more wrong for a state to do so. The European Declaration of Human Rights states that every person has a right to life and no one shall be subjected to the death penalty. |
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There are a variety of reasons why many societies feel that
capital punishment is indefensible, including the following:
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The major Western nation still keeping the death penalty is the United States of America. The issue is always topical but the controversy over the recent execution of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, raised still more issues.
The issues are explored in more detail here:
The Case Against The Death Penalty, by Hugo Adam Bedau (quoted below). "Conspicuous by their indifference to these recommendations are nations generally known for their disregard for the human rights of their citizens: China, Iraq, Iran, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union. Americans ought to be embarrassed to find themselves linked with the governments of such nations in retaining execution as a method of crime control." "Once in use everywhere and for a wide variety of crimes, the death penalty today is generally forbidden by law and widely abandoned in practice. The unmistakable worldwide trend is toward the complete abolition of capital punishment." |
Abolition of slavery.
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We can see now that slavery was an appalling trade and practice, a denial of the humanity of those people who were caught, taken from their homelands to a foreign country and sold as slaves. In America and in Britain, Quakers were not immune to the temptation to keep slaves and the abolition of slavery was a slow process even among people who had the conviction that all people are created equal in the sight of God. Quakers have always been at the forefront of initiatives to bring about social justice, and it was inevitable that they would be part of the anti-slavery movement. Quakers who were involved in this movement included:
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