The Society of Friends was founded on the belief that everyone can find Christ through their “inner light.” I have heard this expressed as “There is that of God in everyone,” which I gather is the formulation used by so-called Liberal Friends. There are many sub-sects within the small Quaker community, so it is difficult to generalize. Nonetheless, I would say that relative to other religious denominations, Quakers are:
less hierarchical in their organization
more favorable to female participation as equals
less inclined to use coercion to enforce their religion
more respectful of young people’s opinions
less inclined to demonize people with different religious beliefs
less eager to denounce market commerce
In American history, the Quakers are known for
support for the Bill of Rights
support for religious freedom
ethical behavior and success in commerce
opposing slavery
founding primary schools and colleges
opposing American involvement in wars
support for Civil Rights during the Jim Crow era
This is a pretty good track record, especially from a libertarian perspective.
Quakers and Leftism
During my lifetime, Quakers have been adjacent to the very progressive left. I do not know many Quakers personally, but it would not surprise me if many of them have adopted leftist beliefs that I think go against the view that “there is that of God in everyone.” Such beliefs would include:
belief that some people should be silenced or censored
a belief that white males are inherently evil
a belief that the October 7 attack represented justified resistance against Israel
The way I see it, choosing such beliefs would be abandoning Quaker values and replacing them with radical Progressive values. But if we go back to what I think of as true Liberal Quakerism, I wish that more people believed in it. The idea that “there is that of God in everyone” can inoculate one against tribalism.
We could use less extreme tribalism today. But given how strongly tribal attachment matters in human nature, something as non-tribal as Liberal Quakerism is unlikely to catch on.
The Quakers were in a grey zone during the American Revolution because they tried to be neutral and were probably trading with both sides. One of the targets of Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was the Quakers.
So there is a website where I can look up my local Quaker meeting. Going to their website on the front page there is a kind of news feed on the latest happening in the group.
Item #2 is that the local meeting groups Anti-Racism Working Group has decided that the plaque outside the building used for their worship that give a brief history of the building does not mention that it used to be a segregated library. They want to replace the plaque with a new one that acknowledges this fact.
When I go to the "Our Values" page, it contains a link to Friends Committee on National Legislation
https://www.fcnl.org/
The top issue at the front is anti-Israel. In general the page seems indistinguishable from prog talking points.