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Introduction The following is from "Faith and Practice" published by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends
7. Social Responsibility and Witness
How does our Meeting work:- to overcome social, legal, economic, and political injustices, locally and in the wider world?
- for the funding of community services that does not rely on gaming income?
Does our Meeting serve the community through action on concerns for civic improvement? What actions are we taking to assure everyone equal access to education, health care, legal services, housing, and employment as well as equal opportunities in business and in the professions? When a member has lifted up a concern, how does our Meeting respond? Does our Meeting encourage those seeking clearness for their convictions of conscience to hold up such convictions with prayerful openness to the Light? Am I mindful of how my lifestyle and my investments can contribute to the improvement of the human condition, or to the exploitation of others? Am I open to seeking clearness on matters of conscience and to assisting others in doing so? How do I respond and support one who acts out of a clear leading when I am under the weight of another? What am I doing to work for the betterment of my community to assure the maintenance of effective public services which do not rely on funding from gaming? Do I fulfill my civic responsibilities when they do not conflict with divine leadings?
How can we do our part
Suggested Actions We Can Take We can try to provide a mechanism to enable and encourage the wealthy few in this world to share with multitudes who have near nothing. Individually we can each do a little. We can live simply and provide financial assistance to our local friends. We offer prayers and encouragement. For most of us, it is difficult to make a satisfying difference. I would like to see us do far more. We must do more if we are to reverse the trend of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and our resources being depleted.
What can we, as an Internet based community of friends do? As an intelligent community of trusted people with a sincere desire to demonstrate faith we have a lot of power to do good. We have access to the Internet which provides us with a tremendous technical capability. We can use these resources to act as brokers to connect the wealthy with the impoverished.
The Next Step Ponder this challenge. How can we make it work? What are the problems to be overcome? Let me hear your comments.
Alliances Others are already working on different aspects of the problem.
