Most Quakers spend their time sitting in silence, listening for the spirit to move them. Sometimes in meeting their compelled to share and they do so. They’re almost always compelled to reflect and try to discern the right path. Some Quakers are Christians. Some agnostics. There’s even a healthy contingent of atheist Quakers.
There is no Quaker dogma, but one consistent trend you’ll find with the Quakers is a deep call to action. While never perfect, they’ve been one of the few organized religions consistently on the right side of history. In the 1770s most Quaker meetings made slave-owning grounds to remove people from membership. They had women leaders in the ministry before any other group in both the United States and England and were deeply connected to the women’s rights movement. They have been consistently against war for the mere sake that violence begets more violence.
I was part of the Seattle Quaker meeting when they wrote an official repudiation for the 15th century papal bull known as the Doctrine of Discovery. This document is the foundation for property law in most of the world and was used as legal justification for the genocide and land theft of indigenous and non-Christians everywhere.
One thing that makes Quakers particularly called to action is the belief that the spirit is within all of us. Part of sitting in silence is to listen to that part of ourselves. This is why there’s no doctrine, and why if you ask a thousand Quakers what they belief you’ll get a thousand different answers.
What you will find consistent is the belief that one’s actions, how one shows up in the world, is much more important than one’s words. That to know the measure of a person, is not to look at what they say, look at what they do.
This is why it’s important to look at the large tech companies and what they have done, and are doing right now.
We know from our own lived experiences their products are addictive. We know their algorithms are meant to further the addiction, even at the expense of our own mental health. We know they track us over the internet, building an ever greater advertising and propaganda machine.
When instagram “accidentally” stops allowing searches for #Democrats. When Facebook and Instagram change their policies to allow hate speech that leads directly to violence against some of the most vulnerable in our society. Over the past week we’ve seen Elon Musk gives a nazi salute.
Our only hope is to move off these platforms. To make our actions align with the society we want, on our terms. To embrace an ecosystem of software and services that are built to reinforce the public good, positive mental health, real connection, and a better society.
