Speak Truth to Power

This blog entry brought to you via excerpt from the Brethren Peace Initiative email chain.

This personal article, entitled “Speak Truth to Power,” was written by JENNIFER ZIMMERMAN, a 10th grade student at The Mount Academy in Esopus, New York.  It appeared in Beehive, their school newspaper, in February.

In a recent assembly, my grandparents, Milton and Sandy, spoke on George Fox, founder of the Quakers, who encouraged his followers to “speak truth to power.”  Centuries after Fox’s death, the Quakers’ adherence to this instruction impacted President John F. Kennedy.  In May, 1962, six Quakers met with Kennedy.  They challenged his recent resumption of nuclear testing and suggested to him that the United States should give its surplus food to the Chinese who were experiencing a famine.  “Do you mean” he asked, “you would feed your enemy when he has his hands at your throat?”  They reminded him that Jesus himself said this, and told Kennedy as a Catholic he should know this.  The President admitted that he did.

Members of the Quaker delegation said later that they were used to speaking truth to power, but not to having power listen to them.  They were impressed that the President listened to a group of non-Catholic pacifists.

This challenge to speak truth to those in authority was only one theme of my grandfather’s presentation.  Raised as a Quaker, my grandfather joined the Bruderhof in 1959.  He concluded his talk with another challenge from Fox.  “Be patterns and examples wherever you go that your  . . . life may preach among all sorts of people.”

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