Poem: "Times of War or Times of Peace"
This poem is spillover from the November 7, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Dreamwidth users See_also_friend and Readera. It also fills the "No step forward is too small." square in my 11-1-23 card for the Drabble Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with DW user Fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Peculiar Obligations.
"Times of War or Times of Peace"
[1600s]
As a boy, George Fox
began listening to God.
He aspired to purity and
to faith in God and mankind.
At nineteen, he left home in
search of spiritual satisfaction.
George became an evangelist,
but his emphasis on pursuing
perfection and the necessity of
an inward transformation of heart
disturbed most other Christians.
They obsessed over sin and
imperfection, unable to endure
talk of a holy and sinless life.
George was exasperated
by the idea that Christianity
somehow required failure.
He found a better reception
among the various groups
of Seekers, who disdained
the organized religions
in search of revelation.
Along with them, George
recruited scattered Baptists,
disgruntled soldiers, protesters,
and restless commoners who
were disillusioned with priests,
tithes, corruption, and deceit.
Northern England was
so full of unrest that
many people joined
the Quakers in hopes
of a better life with them.
Before long, the state came
to see them as a threat, but
jailing the leaders did not stop
the movement, and court cases
only gave them new audiences.
Since they were already considered
criminals simply for their religious beliefs,
the Quakers turned to organized crime.
So the Society of Friends became
a mutual-aid society, a smuggling ring,
and a labor rights organization.
No step forward was too small.
They were still pacifists, at a time
when that wasn't at all fashionable.
They just weren't concerned
with laws that seemed to exist
primarily to oppress people.
As the movement grew, so did
their reach, and the Crown learned
that people who worshipped in Silence
were exceptionally good at sneaking and
entirely unwilling to inform on anyone.
Neither could the bobbies manage
to find and destroy all the leaflets and
broadsides proclaiming Quaker values.
Whether in times of war or times of peace,
the Quaker is under peculiar obligation
to assist and to forward movements
and forces which make for peace
in the world and which bind men
together in ties of unity and fellowship.
It was as subtle and inexorable as
rain getting in through a hole in the roof.
England learned that no sword could cut water.
* * *
Notes:
Peculiar Obligations is a new series, an Eastern featuring Quakers as organized crime.
"Whether in times of war or times of peace the Quaker is under peculiar obligation to assist and to forward movements and forces which make for peace in the world and which bind men together in ties of unity and fellowship."
-- Rufus Jones
The Religious Society of Friends began as a proto-evangelical Christian movement in England in the mid-17th century in Ulverston. Members are informally known as Quakers, as they were said "to tremble in the way of the Lord". The movement in its early days faced strong opposition and persecution, but it continued to expand across the British Isles and then in the Americas and Africa.
George Fox (July 1624[2] - 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.
The Seekers, or Legatine-Arians as they were sometimes known, were an English dissenting group that emerged around the 1620s, probably inspired by the preaching of three brothers - Walter, Thomas, and Bartholomew Legate. Seekers considered all organised churches of their day corrupt and preferred to wait for God's revelation. Many of them subsequently joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
"Times of War or Times of Peace"
[1600s]
As a boy, George Fox
began listening to God.
He aspired to purity and
to faith in God and mankind.
At nineteen, he left home in
search of spiritual satisfaction.
George became an evangelist,
but his emphasis on pursuing
perfection and the necessity of
an inward transformation of heart
disturbed most other Christians.
They obsessed over sin and
imperfection, unable to endure
talk of a holy and sinless life.
George was exasperated
by the idea that Christianity
somehow required failure.
He found a better reception
among the various groups
of Seekers, who disdained
the organized religions
in search of revelation.
Along with them, George
recruited scattered Baptists,
disgruntled soldiers, protesters,
and restless commoners who
were disillusioned with priests,
tithes, corruption, and deceit.
Northern England was
so full of unrest that
many people joined
the Quakers in hopes
of a better life with them.
Before long, the state came
to see them as a threat, but
jailing the leaders did not stop
the movement, and court cases
only gave them new audiences.
Since they were already considered
criminals simply for their religious beliefs,
the Quakers turned to organized crime.
So the Society of Friends became
a mutual-aid society, a smuggling ring,
and a labor rights organization.
No step forward was too small.
They were still pacifists, at a time
when that wasn't at all fashionable.
They just weren't concerned
with laws that seemed to exist
primarily to oppress people.
As the movement grew, so did
their reach, and the Crown learned
that people who worshipped in Silence
were exceptionally good at sneaking and
entirely unwilling to inform on anyone.
Neither could the bobbies manage
to find and destroy all the leaflets and
broadsides proclaiming Quaker values.
Whether in times of war or times of peace,
the Quaker is under peculiar obligation
to assist and to forward movements
and forces which make for peace
in the world and which bind men
together in ties of unity and fellowship.
It was as subtle and inexorable as
rain getting in through a hole in the roof.
England learned that no sword could cut water.
* * *
Notes:
Peculiar Obligations is a new series, an Eastern featuring Quakers as organized crime.
"Whether in times of war or times of peace the Quaker is under peculiar obligation to assist and to forward movements and forces which make for peace in the world and which bind men together in ties of unity and fellowship."
-- Rufus Jones
The Religious Society of Friends began as a proto-evangelical Christian movement in England in the mid-17th century in Ulverston. Members are informally known as Quakers, as they were said "to tremble in the way of the Lord". The movement in its early days faced strong opposition and persecution, but it continued to expand across the British Isles and then in the Americas and Africa.
George Fox (July 1624[2] - 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.
The Seekers, or Legatine-Arians as they were sometimes known, were an English dissenting group that emerged around the 1620s, probably inspired by the preaching of three brothers - Walter, Thomas, and Bartholomew Legate. Seekers considered all organised churches of their day corrupt and preferred to wait for God's revelation. Many of them subsequently joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).