Quakerism 101: From England to America Quiz

Answer: The Religious Society of Friends

The sect is officially known in their publications, amongst themselves, and at large as "The Religious Society of Friends." When the Westmorland Seekers started meeting with early followers in England, these folks were invited to join as "Friends of the Truth," so the group began referring to themselves as "Friends." The term "Quaker" arose as a disparaging nickname used first by prosecuting officials and then by the public to ridicule the early members of the sect after some of them were seen or said to tremble from the intensity of experiencing the spirit within.

It became common, so members began using it informally to identify themselves. Today members use "Friend" and "Quaker" interchangeably. --information taken from Friends General Conference website

Answer: 1652

Mid-seventeenth century England was when the people who would later call themselves "Quakers" began to question traditional church strictures and explore more personal and individual ways of pursuing their faith. The joining of these early Quakers with the already established Westmoreland Seekers, plus the onset of regular meetings at Swarthmoor Hall, both in 1652, resulted in that choice for the society's founding date.

The mansion at Swarthmoor dates to the 16th century and is located in the Furness area of northwestern England.

At the time of the early meetings, it was the home of two other Quaker pioneers, Judge and Margaret Fell.

Answer: George Fox

George Fox (1624-1691) was born into a time of political and religious upheaval in England and Europe. He is accepted as the founder of Quakerism. He was a thoughtful, serious, truth seeker even as a youth. Seeking counsel and direction from officials and spiritual guides of the established churches at that time, he was left unsatisfied. He eventually became disenchanted with those churches and their dogmatic, overly ceremonial, and creed-centered nature, and he wandered the countryside looking inward for answers and for God. He experienced an epiphany or transformative moment, which he recorded in his journal as a voice saying, "There is One, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition." He spent the rest of his life spreading a simple idea- answering that of God in every person- which is the core message of Quakerism.

Cotton Mather was an influential Puritan minister and author, born in Boston in 1663; John Adams was the second US president, born in Massachusetts in 1735. Roger Williams was a Puritan minister, born in England, who championed religious toleration and was expelled by the Puritan leaders of Massachusetts for his radical ideas, namely freedom of religious choice and separation of church and state. In response, he left and founded the Providence colony in 1636. He was also one of the first abolitionists, being clear and steadfast in his opposition to slavery.

Answer: To avoid religious persecution in England and spread the faith to other colonists

William Penn was the one granted the land which would be Pennsylvania. Penn was a well-to-do English gentleman, Quaker and real estate entrepreneur who obtained the tract in American in 1681 because of a debt owed his father by the British Crown. The main reason for the establishment of Penn's settlement, and for Quaker migration to the New World, was the pervasive intolerance of the church hierarchy and officials in England, which has been well documented.

In fact, some of the earliest Quakers were missionaries, but their mission was to the already established colonists, not the native peoples they encountered after they got there.

This missionary activity was often met with overt hostility. As well as far more religious tolerance than the other colonies, less antagonistic, more cooperative relations between the Quakers and the local Indians marked the Pennsylvania settlement.

Answer: decision making through consensus, non-violence, connecting with the "inner light"

The Quaker way of conducting church related business is seen by many outsiders as impractical and unnecessarily time consuming, and the doctrine of non-violence is also widely questioned, but Quaker yearly meetings continue to be guided by both principles, and to derive strength and direction from them. The overarching philosophy can be summed up in the following quote:

"Walk cheerfully over the face of the earth, answering that of God in every person."

Answer: University of Pennsylvania

On a given Saturday, you can see the Penn Quaker in colonial garb and tri-cornered hat walking the sideline at a U of P football game in venerable Franklin Field. The university was founded in 1740, by Benjamin Franklin, and is one of the oldest in the country. It is located in Philadelphia, is one of eight Ivy League colleges, and is known for its Wharton School of Business.

Answer: Massachusetts

Ironically, since many of the Quakers came to the New World to avoid persecution and practice their faith in peace, the early Quakers attempting to settle in 1650s Massachusetts received the same harsh treatment from the Puritans as they had in England.

They were routinely branded as "heretics" and sometimes even put in prison. Ann Austin and Mary Fisher were two such intrepid women who first attempted to spread the word in the northern colony. Unfortunately, they were met with hostility and ultimately jailed for their "deviant" beliefs. Facing this ongoing lack of understanding and tolerance from the Puritans, and experiencing the same overt persecution they'd seen in England, these Quakers eventually migrated to the Rhode Island colony, where they found much more acceptance.

Answer: Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU)

The Friends Ambulance unit was "a volunteer ambulance service, founded by individual members of the British Religious Society of Friends" (Wikipedia). At the onset of World War Two, the effort was rekindled and eventually taken over by the American Friend Service Committee. One of the main places they focussed their relief work after the war was in China, which had been ravaged by the second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945.

The Chinese had a vehement distrust of foreigners, quite understandable given historical events and the British sanctioned opium trade from the early 1900s.

However, the Quakers, with their reputation for service and non-violence, were allowed into the country to perform relief work despite the upheaval in the country and struggle for control between the Nationalists and the Communists.

Answer: Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon

This question can be figured out by process of elimination. Kennedy was the first open Catholic to become president, a fact which was widely known and thought to be a negative during his campaign for the presidency. Happily, prejudice concerning his personal beliefs turned out not to be a major factor in the election. Lincoln made a point of having no stated religious affiliation. Grant and Eisenhower were both career military men, a profession clearly at odds with the generally held Quaker belief in pacifism. Jimmy Carter and William McKinley both made a point of emphasizing their religious beliefs; Carter as a Baptist and McKinley as a Methodist, who was planning to be a minister early in his adult life.

Richard Nixon's mother was a devout evangelical Quaker, and his father converted to the faith from Methodism, making Nixon nominally a birthright Quaker. However, his early experiences at his mother's preferred service was in a church, not a meetinghouse, and included fervent singing, preaching and other evangelical carryings on, very unlike the traditional silent worship of the eastern Quakers. Given the way he conducted his Vietnam policy, and his personal conduct as the Watergate scandal collapsed around him, the nature of his Quakerism is at least questionable if not dubious (See "Nixon's First Cover-Up: Larry Ingle, The Friends Journal, May 31, 2013).

Herbert Hoover was the 31st U.S. president. He was a birthright Quaker whose faith undergirded some of his career-defining accomplishments, such as spearheading food relief efforts in Belgium after World War I. Unfortunately his presidency was derailed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the crushing levels of unemployment his policies were unable to address.

Answer: Ben Franklin

Franklin is certainly one of the best known, innovative and influential Americans of all time, but he was not a member of The Society Of Friends. Raised by Puritan parents in Boston, he moved to Quaker-centered Philadelphia as a young adult. There he first made his mark as a successful printer and writer.

His exuberant lifestyle, love of travel, and enjoyment of the ladies, especially those in France where he loved to visit, are not traits usually ascribed to the generally pious and austere early American Quakers.

However, Franklin held strong personal beliefs in God, virtue and the positive Puritan values of his upbringing, which he actively promoted as forwarding individual goodness and the common welfare of the state. He considered himself a Deist, not tied to any one church, and was a proponent of choice, tolerance and the utility of different faiths, which caused many of his Quaker friends to see him as one of their own. (For a more detailed view of Franklin's personal beliefs, see his "The Autobiography of Ben Franklin." which lists his "thirteen virtues," as well as many other writings on spiritual matters of the day.)