In Praise of Liberal Quakerism

good liberalism

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.