When New York Yearly Meeting’s Witness Coordinating Committee met on Saturday, March 3rd, during Coordinating Committee Weekend at Powell House, we heard calls to witness from Friends on an array of concerns that are central to our testimonies.
Each of these minutes will be offered for discernment to the Yearly Meeting body at April’s representative meeting in Chautauqua. (And Witness CC also received word from Friends in New Jersey, including Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting, about their current work to end the death penalty in that state. Yearly Meeting consequently may be considering a statement of corporate support for this witness, as we did when Friends in New York when a moratorium on executions was being deliberated in that state.) The minutes and additional information are offered below.
Faith and Practice (at page 26) explains that “the Spirit leads our community to creative action, occasionally in ways that transcend reason, as we listen for God’s voice in our prayers and in the messages we have for each other.” Witness CC asks Friends, in the time leading up to representative meeting, to sit with and share the concerns expressed in these proposed minutes in worship, discussion and discernment. We know that your Light will brighten the way in our collective search for God’s path.
Frederick Dettmer
Clerk
for Witness Coordinating Committee
IRAN
Witness Coordinating Committee invites each Monthly Meeting to join with us in our concern about an increasing possibility of United States war in Iran. We will be asking Yearly Meeting to approve the minute below and to direct that Yearly Meeting staff and committees make available resources to assist Meetings and Friends and to keep Friends informed about opportunities and activities in support of this witness. Please share through the Yearly Meeting office your Meeting’s concerns and witness actions to uphold peace and prevent war against Iran.
Minute on Refraining from
War against Iran
Friends in New York Yearly Meeting hear anew the call to pray and work for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in the Middle East. Fears that war with Iran may be imminent are fanned by news that the United States has dispatched additional troops and war ships to the region and is making claims of Iranian involvement in the fighting in Iraq. Time may be very limited to awaken neighbors and members of Congress if we are to prevent a tragic escalation of the present war.
NYYM’s Faith and Practice reminds us that “all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons are contrary to our Christian testimony.” It goes on to urge us “to maintain our testimony against war by endeavoring to exert an influence in favor of peaceful principles and the settlement of all differences by peaceful methods.” It counsels us to “lend support to all that strengthens international friendship and understanding and give active help to movements that substitute cooperation and justice for force and intimidation.”
In faithfulness to our testimony of peace, Friends call on the United States government to use diplomatic means in concert with the United Nations to resolve issues with the government of Iran, to disavow the use of military force in settling these issues, and to seek a positive, cooperative relationship with Iran in good faith. We call on the US Congress to reassert its constitutional responsibilities and to take action to prevent aggression against Iran.
We urge all Friends to share this call within and beyond New York Yearly Meeting and to work for a peaceful resolution of the issues involving Iran. In these efforts, Friends should seek cooperative or collaborative relationships with Friends organizations, such as the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the American Friends Service Committee and Quaker United Nations Office, and with other faith groups.
Approved by Witness Coordinating Committee, 3-3-07
PAROLE
Purchase Quarterly Meeting brought forward a minute on parole, which urges reform of New York State’s parole determinations, so that they “take into account the totality of [a person’s] record of achievement and behavior.” The minute asks the Clerk of the Yearly Meeting “to send the Minute to the [New York] Council of Churches and to ask the Council and its affiliates to consider how they might assist in revising the State’s parole policy and practice for violent offenders.” Witness CC approved endorsing the minute on parole and will bring it to the Yearly Meeting during Representative Meeting in April.
Minute on Parole
Many of the men and women in New York prisons who are faithful attenders of Quaker Worship Groups have used their years of incarceration to transform their lives. Some entered prison without high school diplomas and now have graduate degrees. Others have mastered the skills of a variety of vocational trades. Most have participated in programs such as non-violent conflict resolution, anger management, responsible parenting, and substance abuse counseling. Having embraced the teachings of a faith community and the disciplines of a spiritual practice as a basis for living their lives, many now reach out in ministry to others, especially younger persons just entering the prison system.
Yet, even after all these efforts aimed at turning their lives around while serving out their sentences, the parole board, all too often, ignores the many accomplishments of those who are parole–eligible, and requires them to serve more time — typically in two-year increments — ostensibly because of the nature of the crime of which they were convicted. And the refusal of parole seems to have no limit — some have been refused parole half-a-dozen or more times before being released, and it’s possible that some never will be released. This despite the fact that the original parole eligibility date is based on an exhaustive pre-sentencing report prepared for the court.
It is a matter of faith among Friends (Quakers) that there is that of God in everyone. We know, experientially as a faith community, that it is possible for human beings to be transformed, by the power of Spirit at work in the world, and present in each of us, even in those of us who have broken the law, even in those of us who have taken the life of another.
We ask, therefore, that, in addition to criminal history, parole release decisions give equal consideration to all of the factors involved. These factors include:
Once people in prison are release-eligible and community-ready, they should have a parole hearing that takes into account the totality of their record of achievement and behavior. Being community-ready means a prisoner has accepted responsibility for crimes committed, understands the circumstances that led to criminal behavior, maintained satisfactory institutional conduct, and has created a comprehensive discharge plan that includes family ties, housing, and employment. Such a person should not be refused release on parole, beyond their court-imposed minimum sentence, solely because of the crime for which that sentence was served. All of the factors that led to the original sentence were considered by the sentencing judge. To revisit them in a parole decision hearing is to usurp the role of the court. Further, to allow the parole release decision to hinge on one immutable factor — the nature of the crime, which can never change — is to invite despair and hopelessness into what should be a correctional process that supports the possibility of transformation, and the making whole of what has been broken: lives, families, communities.
The Clerk of Yearly Meeting is requested to send this Minute to the Council of Churches and to ask the Council and its affiliates to consider how they might assist in revising the State’s parole policy and practice for violent offenders.
Proposed by Purchase Quarter Prisons Committee
Approved by Purchase Quarterly Meeting, 2-4-07
TORTURE
In response to minutes received from a number of monthly and regional meetings, Witness CC approved a minute to ask Yearly Meeting to become a participating member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and to name a person to act as our representative to the Coordinating Committee of NRCAT and to be under the care of Witness CC. NRCAT is a coalition of national, regional, and local religious and secular organizations working “to ensur[e] that the United States does not engage in torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of anyone, without exceptions.” Quaker participants in NRCAT include the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Quaker House and monthly meetings, including Brooklyn, Montclair, Morningside, and Rahway and Plainfield. Below is its Mission Statement and Statement of Conscience.
* * * * *
Mission Statement
of the National Religious
Campaign against Torture
As men and women of faith and conscience, we are joined together on a non-partisan basis in profound opposition to torture and cruel and inhuman practices by anyone for any purpose. As United States-based organizations, we feel particular responsibility for the abusive practices being utilized by the United States government today. The United States has historically been a leader in outlawing these practices. The ever-increasing evidence, however, makes it all too clear that current grim abuses are not isolated incidents, but rather constitute a widespread pattern.
Although our beliefs are rooted in many different religions, and although we worship in different ways and in different languages, we stand firmly united and unswerving on this crucial moral issue. Together we will work for the immediate cessation of torture by the United States, whether direct or by proxy, within our territory or abroad. We reject all proffered justifications and distorted definitions. Our condemnation of torture is not based on any political opinion or on the laws or treaties of any nations. Rather, we are guided by a higher law that serves as a compass for all of humanity.
* * * * *
Torture Is A Moral Issue
A Statement of Conscience of the
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions, in their highest ideals, hold dear. It degrades everyone involved—policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.
Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed? Let America abolish torture now—without exceptions.
ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
IN NEW JERSEY
In 2006, the New Jersey legislature established the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission to study all aspects of capital punishment in the state. On 2 January 2007, the bipartisan panel issued its final report recommending that New Jersey abolish the death penalty completely. This would make it the first state in the nation to have had the death penalty (although New Jersey has not executed anyone in the 24 years since it reinstated the death penalty) and then to renounce its use. Friends in New Jersey have been actively working to convince the state legislature to adopt the recommendation of the commission. For example, Chatham-Summit Meeting issued the following public letter.
Northern New Jersey Quakers urge abolition of the death penalty
Statement of belief explains long-standing
opposition to capital punishment
Chatham, NJ. February 26, 2007. Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), whose membership is drawn from many voting districts in northern New Jersey, endorses the recommendations of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission and urges its state legislators to support S171 (or A795) bill abolishing capital punishment in the State of New Jersey.
In April of 1997 Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting (formerly know as Summit Monthly Meeting) approved the minute (statement of belief) included below in opposition to the death penalty. Members of the Meeting continue to support the sentiments and principles voiced in our 1997 minute.
Minute in Opposition to Capital Punishment
Summit Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends hereby reaffirms its long-standing opposition to the death penalty.
The testimony of Friends is that there is that of God in every person, that the life of each person is valuable and sacred, and that no person is beyond redemption. We believe that all persons have the potential to respond to God’s light.
Our deep reverence for human life and the most basic foundations of our religious belief deny the right to take another life, either in war or as punishment. As we could not take another life by our own hands, neither can we condone our government’s killing in our name.
Therefore, we state emphatically that we individually and collectively oppose imposition of the death penalty. We encourage an increased emphasis on the prevention of crime, on compassionate support for victims of crime and their families, and on methods of punishment which foster rehabilitation rather than vengeance. Specifically, we assert our preference for modes of punishment which recognize and respect that of God in every person, even in those who have committed heinous crimes.
Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is located at 158 Southern Boulevard in Chatham, New Jersey. For more information, call the Clerk of Chatham-Summit Meeting, Cathy Thomas, at 908-647-7517.