Stop Military and Police Power Cruelty

Stopping Cruelty: A Quaker Call in a Time of Division

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good… to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.” — Book of Micah 6:8

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you…” — Gospel of Matthew 5:44

There are moments when truth must be spoken plainly.

Racism has not faded into history—it continues to shape who is feared, who is targeted, and who is harmed. Across the United States, attacks against Brown, Black, and Asian immigrants have risen alongside systems that detain, disappear, and even end lives under the authority of the state. Recent reporting shows record levels of deaths in immigration detention and allegations of neglect, abuse, and excessive force .

This is not abstract. It is human.

It is also spiritual.

The False Story of Who Belongs

A white nationalist vision of “American” identity continues to narrow the circle of belonging. It divides neighbor from neighbor, even among those who share faith traditions.

But Friends know another story.

As the Religious Society of Friends has long affirmed, “there is that of God in everyone.” This truth dismantles every hierarchy of race, nation, and worth.

We do not subscribe to white Christian nationalism.

We stand instead with:

• Christianity rooted in love, not exclusion
• Universalism that affirms dignity across difference
• Humanism that honors shared humanity
• A living Quaker faith grounded in equality and peace

Cruelty as a System, Not an Accident

Cruelty today is not only individual—it is organized.

• Detention systems expanding beyond accountability
• People held without criminal conviction
• Deaths linked to neglect, overcrowding, and lack of care
• Narratives that justify harm in the name of “security”

This is how cruelty becomes normalized.

As Martin Luther King Jr. warned:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The Quaker Refusal

Friends are called to something deeper than critique.

We are called to refusal.

• Refusing to accept systems that dehumanize
• Refusing to repeat narratives that divide
• Refusing to remain silent when lives are diminished

And also—

• Choosing love as a public practice
• Choosing sanctuary as a lived testimony
• Choosing neighbor over nation when the two are in conflict

As John Woolman wrote,
“May we look upon our treasures,” and search in these if they are possessions of War; Or, … “as gifts entrusted to us.”
—including encouragements in each other we interbe. This is the sacred trust of how we treat one another.

A Different Friends’ Vision is in the Narrative we are Making Real in Actions we Take Every Day

What if we told a different story?

Not one of fear—but of relation.
Not one of borders—but of belonging.
Not one of punishment—but of restoration.

This is the heart of #LoveThyNeighborNoExceptions.

This is the seed of #SanctuaryEverywhere.

A Query for Friends

• Whom does not Spirit love? Who is being excluded in the name of safety— how are we complicit?
• What would it mean to practice love not as sentiment, but as resistance?
• Where is Spirit calling thee to stand, accompany, and protect?

Our Quaker Witness

“Perfect love casts out fear.” — First Epistle of John 4:18

If fear is a fuel of modern and future cruelty, then seek out love, steadfast, embodied, courageous love. Love is our first motion. Courage is how we stop it.

Not someday.

Now.