Darrell Brennan, age 13, of Detroit, for the question:
How did the Quakers originate?
Last year many of us enjoyed the thoughtful and colorful movie, "Friend Persuasion". It was about a charming family who tried to live up to a noble idea. They believed that it is never right for human beings to act with violence against one another. Problems arrived when the rebel raider rode over their rich farmland. The movie showed how each member of the family adjusted his or her noble principles to the practical everyday world.
The characters in "Friendly Persuasion" belonged to the religious Society of Friends. Vile call them Quakers. A few months ago, a group of people made news by camping near the atomic testing ground. Their object was to call our attention to the horrifying dangers of atomic warfare. These people were Quakers. They also reminded us of a hope which is as old as mankind himself. Someday, maybe the nations of the world will learn to solve their problems without violence.
The Society of Friends have held to this idea since way back in the year 1647. This was long before our system of democratic government was born. In fact, some Quakers had a say in the founding of this system of government. The Declaration of Independence was signed right in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, still known as the Quaker State.
The founder of the Society of Friends was George Fox, born in Leicestershire, England, in 1624. It was a period of history when people tended to forget the normal rules of honesty and good conduct. When such a thing occurs, it is only a question of time until someone speaks up. He attracts followers because normal people want to live by the normal standards of honesty and good conduct.
George Fox came of Puritan parents. Their strict teaching was an effort to reestablish normal standards in a lax society. Young George believed that a person could live a noble life by refusing to take part in the evils around him. He began his teaching at the age of 23. He walked from place, to place, explaining to place, explaining his ideas to all who would listen.
Fox gained many followers. Even though they took no action against people of bad conduct, their new way of life was an example and therefore a threat. The Friends, like the Puritans, were persecuted. Fox himself was thrown into jail eight times. England was torn with civil war and, of all things, the authorities suspected that this preacher of peace was a spy for the warring opposition.
One of his converts was brilliant William Penn. This rich Quaker had received a land grant in the New World. It was a lush land of rolling green hills. We call it Pennsylvania ‑ meaning Penn's woods. The persecuted Quakers of England now had a place where they could follow their ideals without threat. For, pretty soon, this new country was to guarantee freedom of worship to all its people. This freedom of worship has come to mean more than non‑persecution. We do not hold a person's religious beliefs against him, whether he is a Quaker or a member of any other faith. It just does not make sense for us to do so.