I am heartbroken that we live in a world where there still are Quaker martyrs. However, I am comforted that there is power in belief. Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston for the crime of being a Quaker once upon a time. She told the court, truth is my authority, not authority the truth. She had stood on a gallows while two of her closest friends where hanged, than told to leave Massachusetts. She returned because she was called to bring Puritan Christians to understand the evil they did.
She did not go to be hanged, or to avoid being hanged. She went to hold evil laws to the light. Was she foolish to go? Well, that is not for me to judge.
One day, a few months ago, a Friend and friend of mine was in a Quaker meeting and a woman and he got to talking. She pulled a small envelope out of her pocket and showed him a scrap of old cloth in it. She told him in was a piece of Mary Dyer's wedding dress. She was a direct ancestor of the man who hanged her. After doing this terrible thing to a brave young woman, he became a convinced Friend.
I don't believe George Bush, or those who tortured and killed Tom, need to become Quakers to find the meaning in Tom's act of love in going to Iraq to help make peace, but both claim to be driven by their understanding of God. Perhaps Tom's loving courage has planted seeds in both, to find God's intention for peace in their own faith. It is for all of us who love God and love peace to nurture that.
Thine in the light, and heartbroken
lor