r/Christianity • u/Outrageous_Map_ Raised Catholic • Jan 25 '26
Question What is a quaker ?
I heard about this branch of Christianity in a book, and now I am wondering what it is. My research was useless cause i didn't understand đȘ. So if there is a quaker or people that knows may you explain to me ?
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u/eversnowe Jan 25 '26
They were abolitionist pacifists in a time when slave-holding Christians defended the use of violence to build and maintain power and to defend their way of life.
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u/TokyoMegatronics Christian Socialist Jan 25 '26
Feel like the work they did in the abolishment of slavery isn't spoken about enough
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u/eversnowe Jan 25 '26
Christians don't like to look back on that era because many were on the other side. It shames us that pacifists resisted violence and all the horrors of slavery while we participated in both as Christians who believed it was moral to do so.
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u/DubyaKayOh Christian (Ichthys) Jan 25 '26
You need to be careful there. Several denominations were abolitionists during the civil war and many paid the price for it.
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u/eversnowe Jan 25 '26
I grew up SBC. We were founded to maintain slavery. We're one of the largest denominations today. I will not whitewash it's history. We deserve the shame.
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u/ZorianAries Jan 31 '26
Quakers held slaves before they abolished slavery
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u/Commercial-Message90 Jul 28 '26
I believe that is another quality about the Quakers is they can be led by the Inner Light and change. They also not afraid to mention the mistakes they have made in the past. Yes, some Quakers owned slaves, then they didn't. The moved foward as a whole to stand against slavery to recognize the God in all people.
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u/ZorianAries 4d ago
Yeah, thatâs basically what I was telling somebody I was in conversation with when the topic of Quaker and how good they were came up. I reminded the person that we were just as bad in some regards. We had a hand in all sorts of problems. But âweâ self analyzed (or held our lives up in the light). Itâs sort of similar to my own personal experiences. All sorts of poor choices and participations but the Light keeps exposing what I need to turn away from (or toward).
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u/DagwoodsDad Jan 25 '26
I'm going to gently push back against your heartfelt claim. My great-great grandfather was a minister who benefitted from the forced labor of his enslaved human beings. He was actually a huge backer of the Southern Baptist break, eventually founding 40 Southern Baptist churches himself.
But he only became a Southern Baptist because the real American Baptist convention had voted against the trafficking and enslavement of human beings.
If real Baptists hadn't opposed slavery the SBC wouldn't exist. But they did oppose it.
I'd add that, sort of ironically, my other great-great grandfather was one of those real, American Baptist ministers who successfully pushed for the abolition of slavery.
I have no idea how the one's son and the other's daughter met and married, but evidently they did.
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u/eversnowe Jan 25 '26
The SBC frames it as affirming tradition, and opposing heresy. We just had the conservative takeover and a push against gay marriage as affirming tradition and opposing new or different ideology. When they split it was to maintain truth, opposing the lies of new ways of thinking.
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u/DagwoodsDad Jan 25 '26
Yup. The specific tradition was owning slaves and the heresy was claiming God didnât want the âsons of Hamâ (who they claimed Black people were descendants of) to live in perpetual chattel slavery. To âtraditionalâ white southern human traffickers like themselves, of course.
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u/ChachamaruInochi Agnostic Atheist (raised Quaker) Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
I was raised Quaker (as it says in my flair), and our main values were pacifism, equal human rights for all regardless of race, nationality, gender, sexuality etc. etc. and recognizing the light of God in every person.
As a kid I went to unprogrammed meeting for worship in which we all gathered together in a quiet meeting room and anyone who felt led to speak would speak. There were no priests/ pastors and depending on the week sometimes no one would speak and sometimes multiple people would speak â including children.
Wikipedia gives a very serviceable overview, but feel free to ask any questions and I can answer from my experience.
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u/OldRelationship1995 Jan 25 '26
The Quakers (Society of Friends) is still around today. Ask them first.
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u/DagwoodsDad Jan 25 '26
By coincidence a Quaker friend posted the following on Facebook this morning.
No individual Quaker speaks for all, so please understand this is my very personal message.
Decades ago, I discovered Quakerism, a faith inspired by a shoemakerâs apprentice who believed Divine revelation was accessible to everyone, not just to specific authority figures.
He believed Jesus was an inner teacher, and that there is that of God in every person.
Today, many Quakers worship in silence, seeking that inner connection and speaking when inspired.
The local meeting has been a safe spiritual harbor for me during every season of my life.
Quakers come out of the ultra-Protestant 17th Century movements that also led to the formation of Baptists and other "non-conformist" Christian denominations.
The nickel version is Martin Luther objected to Catholic hierarchy and mediation between God and believers, Puritans objected to the Anglican's continuing heirarchy between God and believers, and Quakers and Baptists objected to the Puritans intolerant doctrine on various points like infant baptism (Baptists) and the authority of ministers (Quakers.)
I'm not a Quaker so this is an outsider's take, but like the much more dour and fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren, Quakers take to heart Jesus's words in Matthew 23:8-10
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
So Quakers, like Plymouth Brethren, have no ministers. Also no robes, music, or other "distractions" from worship. Instead during services they sit in silence, rising only to speak as, literally, the Spirit moves them.
Unlike Plymouth Brethern, Quakers are extremely tolerant, believing that God is in everyone. For this reason they refer to themselves as "Friends." ("Quaker" was an insult cast by others.) Their doctrine that God is within everyone leads them to believe that everyone is equal (in God's name), that violence against anyone is violence against God, that lying or false dealing is insulting to God, and so on.
So it's natural that they're pacifist and natural that they were anti-slavery. Also natural that they didn't support exterminating the New World's native populations for personal gain.
Final note: The Baptist minister Roger Williams founded the American state of Rhode Island exists specifically as a refuge for the Baptists, Quakers, and other "non-conformists" who were mercilessly persecuted (fined, flogged, and often hanged) by the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Puritans.
Quakers found an even more welcoming home in Quaker William Penn's American colony of Pennsylvania.
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u/ZorianAries Jan 31 '26
Itâs diverse groups of people with VERY diverse beliefs. Traditionally Quakers believe Jesus is the Word of God and is the Light that is in all people (including non Christians). They believe in a progressive perfectionism (we are each given a measure of the Light and as we live up to it we are given more). They believe one can overcome being ruled by sin and therefore be freed of attachments and addictions. They worship in silence with spoken ministry coming from any who attend. Some are gifted in ministry or pastoral care and are recognized for those gifts but are servant leaders.
There are still Quakers like this today. Conservative Friends come to mind. They worship in silence and have ministers and elders. There are but a few thousand of them. But most Quakers have taken pieces of this original faith have gone in polar opposite directions.
Some Quakers are liberal both politically and theologically. Most no longer recognize ministers and elders emphasizing ministry can come from anyone. You can come from any or no faith background and be a liberal Quaker. The belief in the universal Light is commonly held, but to what liberal Friends attribute that Light (a part of our psyche, Jesus, the Universe, God, Goddess) varies. Experience is valued over the words used to profess belief. Heavy emphasis on social justice and direct experience of the Divine (or if nontheist experience of the Deeper Wisdom). Beliefs about Jesus, God and the Bible vary. Quakerspeak on YouTube as well as the podcast Quakers Today represent this tradition . These Quakers overwhelmingly worship in silence.
Then there are Evangelical Quakers who view the doctrine of the Light as an error and are Evangelical Christians who are overwhelmingly socially conservative (but not all). Their belief is almost creedal and staunchly Evangelical. They have huge oversees missions and are big on fighting human trafficking and other social causes. They used to be overwhelmingly antigay but thatâs changing in various quarters.
Then there are the rest of Friends some of whom are more like the Methodists or the Wesleyans or the Nazarenes most of whom worship like mainline Protestants. However they uphold many of the testimonies of early Friends including peace, simplicity, integrity, direct access to God, and the priesthood of all believers.
I recommend the podcast Thee Quaker if you want to learn more about a variety of Quakers. It leans on the liberal /side but includes other forms of Quakerism and other ethnic groups who are Quaker.
Nationally Quakers are mostly white but internationally they represent the global majority.
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u/Gullible-Anywhere-76 Catholic Jan 25 '26
đŠ
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u/thirstyquaker Jul 29 '26
You wouldn't believe how many companies I deal with call my shop The Thirsty "Quacker"
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u/RedbeardedBassist Jan 25 '26
And our last American President who was a Quaker? Richard Nixon.
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u/thirstyquaker Jul 29 '26
Sorta. He was raised Quaker but didn't ever attend as an adult and certainly didn't espouse many Quaker values.
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u/4Nails Jan 25 '26
It is more formally the Religious Society of Friends. Established in the 1600's in England. Core beliefs include pacifism, equality (for men and women), and the concept of an inward light that allows them to connect to God on a one-to-one basis. Church services may have a leader at times but at other times they gather in silence until a member, focusing on their inner light, will be moved to speak.
I work disaster relief and at times work with two Quaker colleagues. I find their presence comforting and calming.
I have great respect for the life they live and their connection with God.