Cadbury scholar Mary Lord on peace work, hope, and 21st century Quaker witness
Mary Lord worked professionally in the field of peace and security for thirty years, including as Assistant General Secretary for Peace and Conflict Resolution for the American Friends Service Committee and with the program on peaceful prevention of armed conflict for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. She is the Henry J. Cadbury scholar at Pendle Hill for 2009-2010. A member of Adelphi Friends Meeting in Baltimore Yearly Meeting, she serves on the General Board and Executive Committee of Friends United Meeting.
Mary, what is the focus of your work as the 2009-2010 Henry J. Cadbury scholar at Pendle Hill?
ML This is a year of research and preparation for a year of traveling in the ministry with a focus on the social testimonies of 21st century Friends. In the recent past Quakers have sometimes abbreviated our testimonies as SPICES – simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship of the earth. How Friends have named the testimonies has changed over time. We are no longer working to end slavery and achieve voting rights for women, for example. Some people don’t name community as a testimony. Some name stewardship of the earth and justice. What we choose changes over time and from yearly meeting to yearly meeting.
What questions are you asking?
ML What are Quakers doing today? How does this differ and how is it the same across the branches of Friends? How is it different in different parts of the world? Some Friends don’t use the term “testimonies” at all, but they are living out their Quaker faith. I want to “dip a bucket into this flowing stream” to help Friends deepen and learn from each other concerning our witness in the world.
I am using my time at Pendle Hill for research, writing, planning, thinking, and testing. There’s so much going on a Pendle Hill that I’m a little behind my schedule.
Last month you were a panelist for a WHYY public television program on the Orange Revolution.
ML The Orange Revolution is the name given to the popular, nonviolent movement in the Ukraine in 2004 that overturned a rigged election there. The Orange Revolution documentary was made by some of the same people who made A Force More Powerful concerning nonviolent movements over time. Pendle Hill co-sponsored a WHYY public community meeting in January. I was invited to serve on the panel because of my work in the prevention of armed conflict and because I was in Kenya last year when the election violence occurred. I had the privilege of being with Kenyan Friends as they decided what they were called to do and say during this crisis in their country. They wanted to understand the biblical basis of peacemaking and what other Friends have done to witness to their faith in other times of war and crisis.
What did you want to share at WHYY? What insight or message did you most want to leave with the audience?
ML The message I wanted to share is that violence rarely works against entrenched bureaucracies, and several nonviolent movements have been effective, including the women’s suffrage movement, Gandhi’s work against British colonial rule, and the civil rights movement in the United States. In the late 1980s the use of nonviolent tactics spread as an alternative to civil war. We are now seeing a popular movement arising in Iran.
Nonviolent popular movements have emerged as a way of dealing with very corrupt entrenched bureaucracies which, despite their power, do depend on the consent of the people. Nonviolence doesn’t always work, but over time it has been more effective and less costly in lives and destruction than violent means. War rarely works, and violent civil wars have often served only to replace one despotic regime with another at least as bad. My message is that nonviolence has been effective and can continue to be effective in the future. It is a message of hope.
Do you believe that the 2010 elections in the Ukraine have overturned the Orange Revolution?
ML The 2010 elections in the Ukraine indicate that sometimes those who lead popular movements are not the best people to lead the country. However, the entrenched bureaucracy in the Ukraine learned from the Orange Revolution that they had to hold an election, that they couldn’t be blatantly corrupt. The people forced the bureaucracy to step down. This was the “revolution.” Now we’re seeing an “evolution” toward democracy and peace. This evolution takes hard work and time. With the 2010 election at least there were no efforts we know of to “kill off” the leading opposition candidate! The international monitors, thus far at least, have certified that the elections were fair.
Mary, what are the roots of your commitment to nonviolence? And how did you become a Quaker?
ML I grew up in the Boston area in the 1960s in the Methodist Church, where my father was a minister. He preached social justice and civil rights, but it was still “God the Father.” I was restless, looking for something. I was involved in the civil rights, anti-war, and women’s rights movements, and noticed that Quakers were there and had been there a long time. They had a different spirit – calmer, more patient. I wanted to learn more about where that came from.
In 1970-1971 I attended a Friends meeting for worship and knew I’d come home. However I was a church soloist and loved music. This was a big problem for me. Also, I was not a pacifist. For the next ten years I went back and forth. I went to Quaker meeting, read George Fox and Faith and Practice, etc., and continued as a church soloist while working with the federal government on urban poverty and other concerns and eventually going to graduate school. While attending Cambridge Meeting I realized I was a Quaker and became a member in 1979. (I decided to do music elsewhere than in my spiritual community!) Later I transferred my membership to Adelphi Meeting in Baltimore Yearly Meeting and continue to be a member there today.
As I was growing up I was troubled by the issue of how there can be peace in the world in the face of people like Hitler. In the 1970s I took time off to think through how I felt about nonviolence, social change, and the equality of women. I left a promising government job to do this thinking, and some people thought I was crazy.
As I studied the history and the aftermath of revolutions, I discovered that violent revolutions often brought about worse situations than before. I also learned that nonviolence often worked better.
The Bible has always been very important to me. When I read the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ call to “Love our enemies,” I thought for years that this wasn’t practical.
I realized suddenly that I was saying that Jesus was naïve, that he didn’t understand human nature while I did. It was a turning point in my life when I decided that I was going to take it as an article of faith that this stuff works, and I was going to learn how to do it. We train and plan for war. How do we train and plan for peace?
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most revolutionary documents ever written. Its principles do work.
How has your experience at Pendle Hill supported your work?
ML Pendle Hill is a wonderful place and a busy place. The work I’m doing now is different from the work I’d originally planned. I had envisioned a more scholarly period of research and writing. I have done some of that and am likely to do more.
At the same time, Pendle Hill is a place of spiritual formation. I’m going to a deeper level spiritually because of my surroundings. I had planned to focus on the social testimonies as other people were living them, but now I understand that I need to start with my own experience of living out the testimonies. There needs to be a balance between spiritual life and work in the world for each of us. An activist not grounded in the Spirit can become angry and cynical or burn out. My experience at Pendle Hill will give my work more depth.
Another way Pendle Hill has supported my work relates to Pendle Hill being a crossroads for many wonderful people. You can just stand here and people come to you!
What guidance can you offer to a person who wants to work to help build a more peaceful world?
ML There are many levels on which this question can be answered. It’s not just what we do, but who we are. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote about being peace. This is hard when we are appropriately in a time of protest.
To achieve change where there is an entrenched bureaucracy we need to convince the public of three things: (1) that there is a problem; (2) that those responsible aren’t solving the problem; and (3) (movements often fail here) that you have a solution, an alternative vision that will work. It is important to articulate the steps that will lead to peace and create a culture of peace.
What are the elements of a peaceful culture?
ML I believe these include the right sharing of resources, equality, and justice.
If you want to build a peaceful world, train for peace. Learn peacemaking skills, including nonviolent conflict resolution. Stand up for yourself in a peaceful way. This does not mean being a doormat. Learn how to stand up to bullies and find the third solution that is different from what adversaries thought they wanted at the beginning.
Recognize that this is hard work. We’ve made a lot of progress: the United Nations exists and has resolved some conflicts, there is more international law, the field of peace research is expanding, and contrary to what you might believe from the news, there are fewer wars and fewer deaths from war over the past 50 years. Colonialism and the Cold War have ended. Now we have new threats to global security, including the effects of climate change. We need to affirm and act on our belief that there are peaceful ways to resolve conflict.
Be hopeful but not naïve. Bad behavior exists and needs to be stopped, and there are some very difficult issues. But my message is one of hope.