In this episode of Quakers Today, co-hosts Sweet Miche (they/them) and Peterson Toscano (he/him) tackle a question that seems simple but is actually quite complex: What do Quakers believe?

We explore the wide theological spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends—from those who view the Bible as the inerrant word of God to those who may not believe in God at all.

A Smorgasbord of Beliefs

We hear from Adam Segal-Isaacson, a Friend from Brooklyn (N.Y.) Meeting who was raised both Jewish and Quaker. Adam shares how he navigates his dual identity and offers a powerful metaphor about harmony versus monotony in worship. Watch the full QuakerSpeak.com video: Do All Quakers Hold the Same Beliefs? at QuakerSpeak.com.

An Evangelical Friend Among Liberals

Peterson sits down with Jasson Arevalo, an Evangelical Quaker from El Salvador and a student at the Earlham School of Religion. Jasson describes the “Programmed” tradition of his upbringing—complete with pastors and music—and his view of Biblical inerrancy. He shares his experience of studying alongside Liberal, Unprogrammed Friends and how curiosity and respect bridge the theological divide. Read Jasson’s article, “You Will Be Told What You Must Do,” in the December 2025 issue of Friends Journal or at FriendsJournal.org.

Convincement and Belonging

What makes someone a Quaker? Is it a membership card or an internal shift? We review the new Pendle Hill pamphlet, Awakening the Witness: Convincement and Belonging in Quaker Community by Matt Rosen. The pamphlet explores the distinction between “convincement”—the spiritual experience of becoming a Friend—and formal membership. Learn more at PendleHill.org.

Recommendation

Peterson recommends the Iranian film It Was Just an Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi. It is a darkly comic and morally complicated story about the long-term effects of trauma and the refusal to become like one’s oppressors.

Listener Responses

We asked you: What do you believe now that you didn’t believe before becoming a Friend?

• Jeremy shares how Quaker history helped him understand the “Great Apostasy” as the moment the church merged with political power.
• Zoe discusses moving from “religion as harm” to religion as a positive force for community.
• Creative Decorating reflects on the mind-blowing concept of “that of God in everyone.”

Resources Mentioned:

• QuakerSpeak Video: Do All Quakers Hold the Same Beliefs? (Featuring Adam Segal-Isaacson): https://quakerspeak.com/video/do-all-quakers-hold-the-same-beliefs/
• Read Jasson’s Article: “You Will Be Told What You Must Do” in Friends Journal: https://www.friendsjournal.org/you-will-be-told-what-you-must-do/
• Pendle Hill Pamphlet: Awakening the Witness by Matt Rosen: https://pendlehill.org/product/awakening-the-witness-convincement-and-belonging-in-quaker-community/

Video version

Next Month’s Question

We want to hear from you! What is something you learned in school about Native Americans or Indigenous peoples that you’ve since learned is not true?

Leave us a voice memo with your name and town at 317-QUAKERS (317-782-5377). (+1 if outside the U.S.)

You can also reply by email at [email protected] or on our social media channels.

Transcript

Peterson Toscano (00:01)

In this episode of Quakers Today, we ask, What do Quakers believe?

Sweet Miche (00:05)

After being raised Jewish and Quaker, Adam Segal-Isaacson considers the question, do all Quakers hold the same beliefs?

Peterson Toscano (00:14)

I share my conversation with an evangelical Quaker from Central America. Before coming to the USA to study, Jasson Arevalo assumed all Quakers were Bible-believing evangelists for Jesus.

Sweet Miche (00:27)

And you’ll hear about a new Pendle Hill pamphlet that explores the question, What makes someone a Quaker? I am Sweet Miche.

Peterson Toscano (00:37)

I’m Peterson Toscano.

Sweet Miche (00:39)

This is season five, episode four of the Quakers Today podcast, a project of the Friends Publishing Corporation. Quakers Today is a project of Friends Fiduciary and American Friends Service Committee.

When someone learns I’m a Quaker, they almost always ask a challenging question. So, what do Quakers believe?

Peterson Toscano (00:59)

Same here, and we have no quick, easy answer. Sweet Miche and I are part of a branch of Quakerism known as Liberal Unprogrammed Friends. Our style of worship is old school, orthodox Quaker, in which a group meets for long stretches of silence. If someone feels inspired, they may stand up and give a message.

Sweet Miche (01:20)

Unprogrammed Friends differentiate ourselves by what’s missing in our worship services. Elements that are common in most Christian churches; for instance, our Quaker meetings rarely have music or singing. We don’t have a service with regular readings, sermons, or a pastor.

Peterson Toscano (01:38)

And most striking, we do not have a creed, a set of beliefs we can recite or share with others.

Sweet Miche (01:46)

If you want to discover what Liberal, Unprogrammed Quakers believe, I encourage you to speak with multiple Quakers. You’ll walk away with a smorgasbord of beliefs. The one thing we do have in common is our commitment to sit in silence and listen.

Peterson Toscano (02:02)

We are not the only type of Quakers in the world.

Recently, I spoke with Jasson Arevalo, the son of Quaker pastors from El Salvador. A little over two years ago, Jasson came to the United States to study at Earlham School of Religion or ESR. Jasson recently wrote an article for Friends Journal. It’s entitled, “You Will Be Told What You Must Do: A Biblical Perspective on Quaker Pastors.”

I’m a former evangelical who is now a member of an unprogrammed Quaker meeting. For a long time, I’ve wanted to speak with a church-going, Bible-believing, evangelical Quaker like Jasson.

Sweet Miche (02:47)

In the first half of that conversation, Jasson shares his faith journey and his Christian testimony with Peterson.

Peterson Toscano (02:54)

Later in the show, you will hear the second half of the conversation. It is about Jasson’s discovery of a completely different type of Quaker in the USA. The deep theological divide among Quakers in the USA and beyond becomes personal for both of us.

Could you describe what it’s like to be an evangelical Quaker?

Jasson Arevalo (03:19)

Well, first of all, we are Programmed Quakers. We sing, we have music, preaching. The Bible is something really important for us. We evangelize. Yeah, go to the street to talk to people of Jesus. Yeah, I would say that probably are the main distinctive beliefs.

Peterson Toscano (03:46)

So how are you different from say, the Baptists?

Jasson Arevalo (03:49)

About the sacrament, that is something that we practice as early Quakers. We don’t do the practice itself, but…

Peterson Toscano (04:02)

You don’t do baptism, and you don’t have holy communion.

Jasson Arevalo (04:06)

We live in the meaning of it but in a spiritual way.

Peterson Toscano (04:11)

Bible, obviously it’s very important studying the Bible, preaching the Bible there.

Jasson Arevalo (04:16)

They are preaching in all of our meetings.

Peterson Toscano (04:21)

Could you talk a little bit about your faith in Jesus?

Jasson Arevalo (04:23)

Yeah, when I was around 12 or 13, I had a personal encounter with God, with Jesus. Before that, I went to church because there was no option. In this experience, I decided to follow Jesus. I felt complete and living the lifestyle in church, doing ministry. My relation to Jesus was better.

To know better Jesus. When I was living in Guatemala, I was there when God called me to the pastor and minister. At the beginning, I rejected because congregations are tough sometimes to us. But God called me. I understood that was the purpose that He had for me. I’m happy now with the decision that I took in that time.

Peterson Toscano (05:23)

How do you understand that phrase, the authority of the Bible, and what’s your view of the Bible from your perspective?

Jasson Arevalo (05:32)

The Bible is the Word of God itself. We as evangelical Quakers, we rule our whole life by the Bible. We also believe in the inspiration of the scriptures and the inerrancy.

Peterson Toscano (05:48)

Yeah, that’s it. The inerrancy. Yeah.

Jasson Arevalo (05:51)

If we put together these three things, well, at the end you have for us to read the Bible, to listen to the Bible in preaching. It’s just like, listen directly to the voice of God. It’s kind of the way that early Quakers also approach the scriptures. George Fox himself says the scriptures is the word of God. Yeah. It’s the way we believe.

Peterson Toscano (06:23)

In the United States, there was a split that occurred. The split that has led to these different branches with the Programmed, the Unprogrammed, Evangelical, and the Universalist Friends. A tension occurred some years ago about personnel policy. They couldn’t be just living with somebody and they couldn’t be gay married. A lot of people thought the conflict was over gay marriage, but I always saw that the conflict was over the authority of scripture and the inerrancy of scripture.

I am gay myself. I was like, could you not talk about us, but talk about your real problem? And that’s the Bible, how we see it differently. Because even if you settled this gay issue, you still see the Bible in two different ways. And that seems to be the real split. Some evangelical Quakers in America and the U.S., they believe the Bible, like you say, is inerrant. It has the authority. It’s the final word.

In Liberal Friends, we almost never know what the person next to us believes. They could believe in Jesus. They could be a Buddhist. They could be Jewish. They may not believe in God at all. They may be an atheist. We don’t talk about it. We just kind of sit silently and we worship together. And that must be a strange experience for you, I would think, to be in worship with people who believe so differently—or maybe not?

Jasson Arevalo (07:48)

Could be.

Sweet Miche (07:55)

You just heard Peterson in conversation with Jasson Arevalo. Coming up, you’ll hear about Jasson’s encounters with Unprogrammed Liberal Friends who worship and believe in ways that were completely foreign to Jasson’s Quaker experiences.

Peterson Toscano (08:16)

But first, Adam Segal-Isaacson tells us about growing up Jewish and Quaker.

Adam Segal-Isaacson (08:22)

My favorite metaphor about God is the story of the blind man and the elephant. Each man feels a different part of the elephant and thinks this is what the elephant is about. And I think that in a lot of ways, that’s the way we are about God is that we all see different aspects of God and the totality of God is greater than all of that.

Quakers are very broad in their beliefs. I think it works by getting at some fundamentals of what a lot of religions have preached, which is to bring people together.

Traditionally, Quakers were Christian. Mostly because in England in the 1640s, there wasn’t anybody who was into Quaker shit. Even in that first generation of Quakers, there was a reaching out to others. There was always a sense of it being a larger group that we could encompass anybody who was inclined to be encompassed. That has meant that people have come to Quakerism from a variety of backgrounds and that their experiences can help enhance our experiences so that we learn from each other and we can grow from that.

I was raised parallel going to meeting. I went to temple on a fairly regular basis. There’s been no conflict for me between Quakerism and Judaism because Judaism’s focus is on doing mitzvah, doing good things. In the context of what is happening at any given time, Friends are trying to see ways to make things better for people. Friends are able to exist with vastly different beliefs because they see each other as being seekers after the truth rather than people who already know the truth. That allows for a lot of different approaches.

The blending of different things together can create something that’s greater. If everybody’s singing the same tune, that’s not harmony, that’s monotony. When you think about complex pieces of music, you see all sorts of different things happening and moving together and they don’t always sound perfectly together, but then they do sort of come together in the end. That’s a metaphor that has been very powerful for me as a way of seeing how different viewpoints can join.

Sweet Miche (11:34)

That was Adam Segal-Isaacson from the QuakerSpeak video, Do All Quakers Hold the Same Beliefs? You can watch it and other Quaker-themed videos on the QuakerSpeak YouTube page or at QuakerSpeak.com. A big thank you to Layla Cuthrell for filming and editing these videos.

Peterson Toscano (11:56)

Before you came to the United States, what experience did you have with US Quakers, in particular, US Quakers who are Unprogrammed Liberal Friends?

Jasson Arevalo (12:40)

I didn’t know anything about Unprogrammed Quakers. I had some experience with missionaries, but they were evangelicals from California. I have a very nice experience among all kinds of Quakers here. I have practiced the silence and the Unprogrammed worship. I enjoy that.

Something that helped me a lot is that our community in ESR is very respectful, very open-minded. They are really interested in what you have to say about the way you see the scriptures. Some of them never have heard about, for example, the evangelical interpretation of the scriptures. So when I got to participate in class, it’s like something new for them. And they asked me to talk more and they asked me, how do you interpret this? Or how do you see this? Also when they share the way everybody interprets the Bible or thoughts everybody has about the Bible, it is very formative for me. This dynamic of sharing, not trying to convince others about what I believe, I think that has helped me a lot because I feel that I can stand on my beliefs. I also respect others’ perspectives and I learn from them. This dynamic has helped me a lot. On the contrary, it will be very traumatic for me to get to a place where they try to impose this new knowledge, but it hasn’t been like that.

Peterson Toscano (14:52)

What I’m hearing you say is that it works there at ESR because people respect each other. They’re listening to each other. They’re sharing their beliefs and it sounds like you are curious. They’re curious and that curiosity helps a lot, but no one is imposing their beliefs. Here it is in an open hand. This is what I believe. Take it, leave it, look at it. It’s okay.

Jasson Arevalo (15:19)

Yeah.

Sweet Miche (15:28)

Many thanks to Jasson Arevalo for being on today’s show. You can see an extended version of his conversation on the Friends Journal YouTube page. There, you’ll find a version of the conversation in Spanish. Jasson’s article, “You Will Be Told What You Must Do: A Biblical Perspective on Quaker Pastors,” appears in the December 2025 issue of Friends Journal. You can also read it for free at FriendsJournal.org.

Peterson Toscano (16:03)

Jasson and Adam have very different ideas about the boundaries of Quakerism and what we believe. It brings us to a central question. What makes someone a Quaker?

Sweet Miche (16:14)

It’s a question that feels so simple, but absolutely isn’t. And it so happens that there’s a new Pendle Hill pamphlet that dives into the deep end of this question. Pendle Hill is a Quaker center outside of Philadelphia that’s been publishing these short pamphlets that Friends write. They expand understanding of Quaker life and witness. This pamphlet was called Awakening the Witness: Convincement and Belonging in Quaker Community by Matt Rosen.

Peterson Toscano (16:44)

Convincement is a word we use a lot. Convincement as one aspect of a three-phase process: Conviction, Convincement, and Conversion. It’s the experience of becoming a Quaker.

Sweet Miche (16:59)

Yeah, it’s that moment, that process where you feel this inner shift. It’s a realization there is this infinitely loving presence and a new way to live.

Peterson Toscano (17:12)

Rosen shares his own story of being a confirmed atheist who then unexpectedly felt, quote, “inexplicably held, cared for, and accompanied,” end quote. He became a convinced Friend, but it was years before he became a member.

Sweet Miche (17:29)

If you’re someone who feels that convincement, that inner pull, but for whatever reason you aren’t a member of a Quaker meeting, this pamphlet is a reassurance that it’s still legitimate to call yourself a Quaker. The pamphlet is Awakening the Witness: Convincement and Belonging in Quaker Community by Matt Rosen. It’s Pendle Hill pamphlet number 492. You can learn more about Quaker publications and order this pamphlet at PendleHill.org.

You can read the review of Awakening the Witness by John Andrew Gallery at FriendsJournal.org.

And Peterson, you have a recommendation for us.

Peterson Toscano (18:15)

This month I want to recommend the Iranian film, It Was Just an Accident. It’s directed by Jafar Panahi.

This film has won major awards at Cannes and has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The story follows a group of former political prisoners who unexpectedly come face to face with one of their most vicious torturers. What unfolds is a darkly comic, surreal and morally complicated story. Will they take revenge? Can they free themselves from the trauma they carry?

At one point, Shiva, played by Mariam Afshari, insists, “but we are not like them,” a line that becomes the film’s spiritual anchor. The way the film was made is just as extraordinary. Panahi, long banned from filmmaking, shot it in secret locations across Iran. Inside a van, in back alleys, out in the desert, the team hid footage, used decoy memory cards during a staged police raid, and sent part of the film abroad for safe editing. For me, It Was Just an Accident is a powerful political witness. It shows what fear and violence do to a people and the courage it takes not to become like the perpetrators who harmed you.

Sweet Miche (19:44)

We started this episode by asking, what do Quakers believe? And I’m not sure we landed on a single easy answer.

Peterson Toscano (19:53)

Yeah, and maybe that’s the most honest answer we have. The common thread isn’t that believing anything in particular makes you a Quaker.

Sweet Miche (20:03)

A question that only elicits more questions. Yeah, that’s right. And maybe that’s all I can ask for. Well, thank you, Friends, for joining us on this episode of Quakers Today. Do us a favor, rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps us get our podcast to more folks with questions like these. And thank you for sharing Quakers Today with your friends and on social media.

Peterson Toscano (20:32)

And if you haven’t done so yet, share it with your Quaker meeting.

Sweet Miche (20:37)

Quakers Today is written and produced by me, Sweet Miche.

Peterson Toscano (20:42)

And me, Peterson Toscano. Music on today’s show comes from Epidemic Sound.

Sweet Miche (20:50)

Season five of Quakers Today is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. The American Friends Service Committee works at the forefront of social change to meet urgent needs, challenge injustice, and build peace. The U.S. spends over $200 billion a year on prisons and policing, more per capita than any other country, with disproportionate harm to people of color and the poor. AFSC’s North Star Vision calls for transformative alternatives rooted in healing, restoration, and human dignity. Learn more at afsc.org/NorthStar.

Peterson Toscano (21:32)

Season 5 of Quakers Today is also sponsored by Friends Fiduciary. Friends Fiduciary unites Quaker values with expert investing. They serve more than 460 organizations with ethical portfolios, shareholder advocacy, and a deep commitment to justice and sustainability. Investing isn’t just about returns, it’s about values.

For over 125 years, Friends Fiduciary has provided affordable, professional investment management to meetings, churches, and schools. Today, they manage $700 million in assets for over 460 organizations. Learn more at FriendsFiduciary.org.

Sweet Miche (22:21)

Visit QuakersToday.org to see our show notes and a full transcript of this episode. And if you stick around after the closing, you’ll hear listener responses to the question, what do you believe now that you didn’t believe before becoming a Friend or before encountering Quakerism? But before that, I want to ask you next month’s question. What is something you learned in school about Native Americans or Indigenous peoples that you’ve since learned is not true?

Peterson Toscano (22:52)

Sweet Miche, I’m so glad you’re asking this question. I was humiliated a couple of years ago by my husband who’s South African. After we spent time in South Africa, he was writing about indigenous people there, coming back to the United States. And he says, so what do you know about indigenous people in the United States? He was really interested in what I learned in school. I realized I didn’t know much about anything other than inadvertently we’d given blankets.

I had no details. Well, it didn’t take him too long to figure out that there are details. This is the first recorded case of germ warfare. And so this vague story is an actual story and it’s a terrible story. So I’m curious to see what people have realized is not true that they learned. And more importantly, I guess, what haven’t you learned that you have since learned is important to know about.

Sweet Miche (23:47)

Yeah, absolutely. Leave us a voice memo with your name and the town where you live. The number to call is 317-782-5377 or 317-QUAKERS. You can also email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

Peterson Toscano (24:09)

And of course, feel free to leave a comment when you see this question pop up on our social media pages. We have TikTok, X, Blue Sky—well, my Blue Sky—Instagram. All these details are in our show notes over at QuakersToday.org.

Sweet Miche (24:26)

And here are the answers to, what do you believe now that you didn’t believe before becoming a Friend or before encountering Quakerism?

Peterson Toscano (24:36)

One theme that came through again and again was how Quaker faith reshapes people’s relationship to church, power, and history.

Sweet Miche (24:44)

Jeremy wrote in with a really striking story. He grew up Mormon, in a restorationist tradition that talked a lot about a Great Apostasy and a return to New Testament Christianity.

Peterson Toscano (24:55)

Jeremy says that idea started to fall apart when he saw the very human flaws of the leaders he’d been told to trust. But then he encountered Quakers and he heard someone name the Great Apostasy as the day Constantine joined church and empire. Jeremy writes, quote, “For the first time in my life, the Great Apostasy made perfect sense. Returning to primitive Christianity means separating the church from political power. And that alone really can drive out so much of the behavior that has made so many people detest organized religion.”

Sweet Miche (25:29)

That sense of, “feels off but I don’t have language for it yet,” shows up in other comments too. James told us that even as a child he never felt God as up in heaven, far away.

Peterson Toscano (25:41)

James writes, quote, “I think there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence to indicate I was probably born Quaker.” I love that so much.

Sweet Miche (25:50)

Zoe shared that she was an ex-evangelical when she first encountered Friends at a Quaker college. She says, quote, “My first revelation was the possibility of religion and spirituality being a positive force for families and communities. Quakerism restored my hope that religion can exist as uplifting, supportive, and inclusive,” end quote. Yeah, it’s a big shift from religion as harm to religion as healing.

Peterson Toscano (26:17)

One listener, Creative Decorating wrote, quote, “The belief that there’s that of God in everyone is mind-blowing. To have so much respect for other humans, regardless of their temperaments, flaws, et cetera, is probably the most beautiful idea I’ve encountered.”

Sweet Miche (26:36)

Moon shared something simple, that I can have a relationship with the divine and still love my neighbor.

Peterson Toscano (26:43)

And then someone else brought in a line from the United Church of Christ, quote, “Don’t put a period where God put a comma,” end quote. That really sounds like continuing revelation to me.

Sweet Miche (26:56)

Finally, Star left us a question that we’re going to carry forward. They asked, quote, “Other than continuing revelation, what are some of the other differences between Quakers and other Christian denominations?”

Peterson Toscano (27:09)

Yeah, that’s a huge question. And some of our episode here actually today answers some of the differences, but it’s exactly the kind of question that keeps coming up when people ask, what do Quakers believe? So we’re going to keep circling back to it in future episodes.

Sweet Miche (27:26)

Thank you so much to everyone who shared. And if you want to answer our next question and get featured on the episode, here it is again. What is a moment or experience where you realized a story you were taught about Indigenous peoples or the history of colonization was incomplete or wrong? And what shifted in your understanding as a result? You can always leave us a voicemail at 317-QUAKERS or email us at [email protected].

Peterson Toscano (27:55)

And like these folks did, you can leave comments on our social media. These all came from TikTok. We really do read and listen to everything you send. And when you send a voicemail, you have no idea the sort of happy dance I do. So I’m going to give you that number again. It’s 317-QUAKERS. Your stories keep shaping this podcast and our understanding of what it means to be Friends today. Thank you so much for listening.