And Who Are Our Friends?

This month’s lead article by Christopher E. Stern reminds us that one of the simple commandments in the New Testament is to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s a hard commandment to follow. We’re so caught up in personal fears and institutionalized partisanship that even two thousand years later we’re still repeating the question of the lawyer who challenged Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” As a presidential election cycle comes to a climax in the United States and wars continue to rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, it is often the central question behind so many headlines. Jesus’s answer to the lawyer was the story of the Good Samaritan, a truly humbling account in which even the people who devoted their lives to doing good are too busy to stop to help a wounded traveler in need.

Neighborliness also comes into play in our final feature, a Friends Journal interview with Emily Provance. She has been studying election violence and has found that a lot of it comes down to the scapegoating and dehumanization that follows us dividing the world into us and them, a recipe for violence.

In between those features, we have a trio of articles looking at Quaker identity. Who are we? and What are the boundaries of our faith? are perennial questions for us. We’re all such fascinatingly complicated people, with multiple influences—family backgrounds, friendships, politics, and hobbies that shape us in unexpected ways. 

Micah MacColl Nicholson is a recent Earlham College grad who’s trying to craft an adult Quaker identity while working for Friends in Washington, D.C. Joe McHugh was raised in an Irish Catholic family but has been drawn to Friends for decades, both spiritually and—sometimes by happenstance—professionally. Andy Stanton-Henry is a Tennesee Friend who wonders if Friends have made too big a deal of the things we don’t do. 

Are we all just bad Quakers? I don’t think so. I had so many conversations with Friends over the years in which they judged themselves against semi-mythical “real Quakers.” I suspect we often find our greatest Quaker authenticity in the messiness that follows faithfulness. Some of the most fascinating Friends in the past, figures such as Benjamin Lay and Public Universal Friend, were so far ahead of their time that they couldn’t fit into the Quaker mainstream of their day.

The Good Samaritan who stopped to help a wounded traveler was probably made late for whatever appointment he was rushing to. He might have lost business with his detour; he certainly lost money on the supplies he used to treat the wounds and on the money he gave the innkeeper. But he was clear-sighted enough to know that the inward commandment to help his neighbor was more important than any of these worldly concerns. 

Readers wanting to jump in and help neighbors more directly will find a treasure trove in the back of the issue. Our twice-annual Quaker Works section is filled with updates on what two dozen-plus Quaker initiatives are doing to support advocacy, community, and more. We are an active society, indeed!