Cool Quakers

"Oppression in the extreme appears terrible: but oppression in more refined appearances remains to be oppression; and where the smallest degree of it is cherished it grows stronger and more extensive." - John Woolman 1763

Abolish ICE

Main source: "German Quakers and the Third Reich" - Anna Sabine Halle, German History vol 11 no 2, 1993

"What can one do at this time? To be deeply quiet, to defy death and to remain aware. It is the only way that can lead us out of the indescribably confused present, or, to put it another way, it depends on this - our own inner being - whether these times will ever be overcome."

By 1942 censorship and police repression had ended all public works but Friends still corresponded secretly even with soldiers at the front. One, Gerhard Volckamer von Kirschensmittenbach wrote:

During the war, 10 Friends hid Jews and one, Elizabeth Heims, was executed. Friends also distributed literature, including library materials and other relief to inmates, though there was some discussion of whether participation legitimized the regime.

There were 230 Quakers in Germany in 1933. By war's end 27 had been sent to prison or the concentration camps including the clerk Leonhard Friedrich. Bank accounts, the printing press, and the meetinghouse at Bad Pyrmont were all seized.

This is not a path of weakness. It requires courage, dedication and our deepest personal preparedness for sacrifice. Nothing is more urgently needed in our time than this spirit of the will to peace and sacrifice." - Berlin Friends newsletter April 1933

"The time for private joys has passed. We have to be sustained by the revelation of that which is eternal in our life so that there is no difference between our actions and our religious conviction. The practical expression of the Spirit of Christ in all religious life is the spirit of non-violence.

A picture of the cover of the Brian Blackmore’s book, To Hear and Respond.

I highly recommend Brian Blackmore’s new book, “To Hear and Respond: The Quakers’ Groundbreaking Push for Gay Liberation, 1946-1973.”

His book outlines the process Liberal Friends in the US took to become advocates for Gay Liberation.

#Quakers #QuakerStudies #LGBTQ+

The Peaceable Kingdom (1950)

"The child, the poet, the fool and the saint - how close they are together in their longing for God. The artist is among them and he may be allowed to believe...that man still has a choice, that he does not want to destroy himself" - Art and Faith 1952

I'll just close this thread with some quotes and images from his life. He said of the Christian aspects of Quakerism "The figure of Christ, the rebellious, visionary Jew, has been for me an overpowering influence on my whole thinking"

Eichenberg is best known among Quaker circles for his Pendle Hill pamphlets and his cartoons, contributed to the Nation and the Catholic Worker for over thirty years. He was friends with Dorothy Day who he met through Friends. He would illustrate her autobiography.

In addition to illustration, Eichenberg had a number of academic posts, including founding the Pratt Graphic Art Center and working for the Pratt Institute and headed the art department at the University of Rhode Island.

He said of the experience "What the Government should do, in my opinion, is to support institutions where artists are perhaps given scholarships, where they are taken out of government restrictions, where they can do and work as they please."

While working for the WPA, he traveled through Mexico and Central America creating wood block illustrations. He later served on The National Academy council, and traveled to Russia through the State Dept.

Settling in New York, he continued his printmaking career illustrating books including editions of Gulliver's Travels, Crime and Punishment, childrens books and books of folklore. He converted to Quakerism in 1940.

He recalled seeing the Nazis as a danger long before his editors did, and fought with the Ulstein family, who owned the magazine, for not taking a stronger stand against their rise.

Fritz Eichenberg was born in Cologne in 1901 to a secular Jewish family. After establishing a career in art in Germany he fled with his family in 1933, having drawn anti-Nazi cartoons for the Jewish owned UHU magazine.

Thanks for introducing me to this person. I was previously unaware of this person's work.

For twenty years Elizabeth Hooton was tireless, courageous, and sought out physical hardship and potentially lethal (to her) conflict. She sought out the highest possible authorities and yelled at them for justice and fair treatment for her community. She is thus cool.

Elizabeth Hooton helped break down the puritan stronghold in Massachusetts. Within 20 years of her death, the colony's charter had been revoked and an act of toleration passed.

In her 70's and after nearly two decades of hard traveling, Elizabeth Hooton set sail again with George Fox for the West Indies. She died in Jamaica in 1672.

Her attempts at purchasing or renting property in Massachusetts were rebuffed and she again returned to England, where she again pestered the King for the oppression that was ramping up against Quakers near London, and providing first hand accounts of her treatment in New England.

Eventually deported to Barbados, she returned to England and made a nuisance of herself to the King who eventually gave her a permit to live in New England. Returning there, she made a nuisance of herself to the governor John Endecott, even appearing and "ministering" at his funeral.

Because Massachusetts would fine ships that transported Quakers to the colony, Hooton and her companion Joan Brooksoppe had to travel first to Virginia and enter Massachusetts on foot. Hooton would eventually be thrown out of the colony three times, each time driven into the wilderness and left.

In 1660, the Puritan colony of Massachusetts executed four Quakers, including Mary Dyer, and expelled many more. In the same year, the Puritan experiment in English governance ended with the restoration of Charles II, and Elizabeth Hooton set sail for Boston.

In typical Quaker fashion she began to interrupt sermons at the official churches and reprove the priests from the congregation. She was imprisoned and beaten as a result of these tactics.

Elizabeth Hooton was already a middle aged woman with 6 children by the time she met George Fox, but she became an energetic and influential minister, and soon was traveling all over. She was one of the first of what became known as the Valiant Sixty.