Okay…I have always been curious…when/where did the Quakers originate? And when they migrated to the US…did they settle in Pennsylvania,that is why it is called the Quaker state?
Are your beliefs today the same as the founders (I mean, there has been no change) believed?
And. since you in Oregon…any relations to earthquakes… and are you the reason why there are earthquakes on the West Coast…
Friends came out of 16th century England as a young man by the name of George Fox sought religious light. He searched the religious bodies of his day…spoke with their priests and ministers seeking something that would satisfy his heart’s search for God.
“When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition”; and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.”
That was the turning point for Friend George…he began speaking of the sufficiency of Christ alone to answer our deepest longings…a religious fellowship…“society” formed to sit in waiting expectancy for Christ Himself to minister to those who Listened to Him. Because Friends refused to practice the ordinances/sacraments or pay the “tithe”, swear oaths as swearing an oath implied that the truth would not be spoken unless an oath was given first., offer “hat honor” to those who felt it was due them because of their station in life, and Friends refused to use “you” when addressing these same people, used “thee” to address beggar and king alike…which was a great afront to many. The jails began filling with Friends.
William Penn was a well to do Admiral’s son who was “convinced” that the Quaker message of simplicity of belief and reliance on Christ alone became the “founder” of Pennsylvania. The king owed Admiral Penn a large deal of money, so to settle he gave William Penn a large tract of land in the New World. Quakers began fleeing England now that they had a place to go. Eventually Friend William opened Pennsylvanial up to all who fled persecution, Mennonite, Huguenots, Brethren, Moravians and others. The Pennsylvania government was controlled by the Quakers who provided religious liberty to all until around the time of the Revolution, and because Friends refused to fight and bear arms as they held their Peace Testimony in high esteem…
“All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world. That spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.”
They lost their influence because of the Revolution.
With the advent of the revivals in the 19th century, and the ministry of one Elias Hicks, the Society was divided. The “evangelical Friends” led by Joseph Gurney and John Wilbur embraced a more “Protestant” theology of salvation and the inerrancy of the Bible. The “Hicksites” held that the Light Within, the Light of Christ was our first and chief guide for living, with the Bible as a secondary source. In the 1950’s-1970’s the breach between the diverse groups began to heal. The Friends General Conference is “liberal” and worships after the manner of Friends in expectant waiting. Friends United Meeting has a full range of meetings…some very conservative…others very liberal, all working together. The Evangelical Friends International is a group of Friends that utilize a “paid ministry” and has worship services much like many Evangelical groups, singing, scritpure reading, pastoral message.
All Friends work together on social concerns thru the American Friends Service Committee.
