Our Goal

We seek a society with equity and justice for all,
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled,
We seek an earth restored . . . .

Quaker Voice on Washington State Public Policy is composed of members of the Religious Society of Friends who bring spiritual values to bear on public policy decisions. Our public policies grow out of our basic belief that there is that of God in every human being and that God’s love endows all creation with worth and dignity. Through individual and corporate worship, we try to be open to the will of God and to express God’s spirit in all relationships and levels of interaction, whether personal, community, state, or global.

We work together to secure justice and freedom for all people, that we may live at peace with one another. As seekers after truth, Friends strive to make the social, economic, political, and environmental aspects of our lives consistent with our spiritual values and Quaker heritage. We endeavor to live in right relationship with the earth.

Quaker Voice on Washington State Public Policy seeks to engage in the positive, continuing process of interpreting to people in government our convictions on the moral and spiritual values that should undergird government and law. We will work to encourage spirit-led decision making on legislative matters. We will listen to others, convey our beliefs about policy issues, urge members of the legislature and others in government to support specific policies and actions, and try to shape and support practical legislation consistent with our convictions. We will work to encourage and facilitate Friends’ participation in the political process, whether as voters, activists or elected officials.

This statement declares, on behalf of a representative group of Friends, our objectives for public policy. We will attempt to focus on root causes and their long-term consequences, knowing that many issues are inextricably linked with one another. The goals we outline here require profound changes in attitudes and behaviors, both in and out of government. We are convinced that such changes are essential for life on earth to survive and flourish. Many of these changes entail personal and material costs; we expect to share in those costs as well as in the benefits. We will focus on the goals toward which we strive and the values that they embody, knowing that our steps on specific issues may be both large and small, both tentative and sure.

We remember that under girding all the legislative recommendations in this statement are spiritual convictions that ultimately cannot be legislated. They live in each individual conscience, forged and nurtured through ties to family and community, growing out of a continual search for truth. Above all, we remain open to where God’s spirit will lead us.