Can a Quaker Murder You?

When Charlie Kirk was assassinated last year, Amber Flannery Field recalls, we saw a number of people “celebrating… the death of a bigot who has caused palpable material harm to other people.” Such a response seems at odds with the Quaker testimony of nonviolence, because it is at odds with that testimony, but it’s also a very human response.

“A lot of people like to ideate and fixate on violence when they see our political problems,” Amber explains. Political anxiety breeds resentment and feelings of powerlessness, and sometimes it’s easy to imagine that one quick, forceful blow against the right target could somehow fix everything.

And yet, she reflects, what brings about change is when people come together to gain the upper hand against those who wield power, like the Minnesotans who resisted the invasive presence of ICE patrols in their neighborhoods. “And I think that’s a lot more interesting,” she says, “than a single pull of the trigger.”

Ultimately, Amber says, the Quaker belief in “that of God in everyone” makes murder and other forms of political violence an ideological impossibility—and it’s our consistent adherence to that belief that will sustain our activism’s power.