Student “Boxcutter” Incident

Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes.  If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply.  Ask your meeting for the prayerful support which will give you strength as a right way becomes clear.

Query #35

Quaker Faith & Practice

(Britain Yearly Meeting)

National media have focused a spotlight on Guilford College in the past week due to alleged actions by a student claiming “civil disobedience” as his motive.  It is clear from many media reports that the traditions of a liberal arts college founded by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the topic of civil disobedience are not widely understood.

Webster’s provides commonly accepted definitions of civil disobedience as “refusal to obey governmental demands as a nonviolent means of protest” and liberal arts as “studies intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop the general intellectual capacities.” With those definitions in mind, let’s examine how the independent actions of a Guilford College student might fit in the context of the education he has received here.

           

Throughout history, Friends have prayerfully gone against civil convention in upholding their testimonies of inward spirituality, simplicity, integrity, equality and peace.  Members of the faith have a long tradition of confronting laws that are understood by the individual and the Quaker community to be in violation of a higher law. 

Discerning the appropriate time to engage in violating a law involves checking one’s leading from God with scriptural truth and with the experience, tradition, and testimony of the Friends community. The most common example of this community discernment process involves a worshipful gathering of peers and elders (known as a clearness committee), which engages the individual with clarifying questions.

Friends do not break a law lightly, but only after determining that the light of God in the conscience compels them in the integrity of their faith to be consistent with the spirit of Christ and the witness of Quaker testimonies rather than to conform to laws that are inconsistent with that spirit and testimony.  Individual acts arising out of a sense of personal privilege or disregard are not what Friends would characterize as conscientious acts of civil disobedience.

At this point, we don’t know whether or not our student’s actions conform to these or other standards of civil disobedience.  We do not know whether the student engaged in a deliberate process of seeking clearness about the appropriateness of his actions.

In its teaching, Guilford draws on both Quaker and liberal arts traditions to prepare women and men for a lifetime of learning, work and constructive action dedicated to the betterment of the world.  The college embraces action for social change.  In fact, the college encourages students to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”  As a result, some of our students are activists and many are concerned about political and social issues.  It is also important to note that 95% of our students are focused on getting an education and a job or graduate school later on.

Guilford offers its 2,100 traditional-age and adult students a challenging academic program that fosters critical and creative thinking through the development of the essential skills of analysis, inquiry, communication, consensus building, problem solving and leadership.  The Friends tradition harmonizes well with the college’s atmosphere of free inquiry.  Liberal education requires academic and personal freedom, founded on intellectual and moral responsibility, and commitment to ethical values and human beings.  The combination of these qualities has contributed to the character of this college for 167 years.

This opinion-editorial was originally published in October 2004 in the News & Record and other newspapers in North Carolina.