Backbiting, talebearing, and complaints about others are to be avoided. Our communication, as spoken deeds, helps build or destroy what Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven. We urge Friends to avoid speaking or acting in ways that divide insiders from outsiders.

The best of Friends' humor has come from the forthright wit of our witness to truth and from the joy with which we behold the presence of God around us. But we caution against the use of sarcasm at the expense of others; the cooling, uniting presence of truth among us is diminished by this kind of anger masquerading as humor.

In life as in meetings for worship, sometimes a silent message is most fitting.

God, set a guard at my mouth, a watcher at the gate of my lips.

-- Psalm 141.3 (NJB)

PUBLISHING THE TRUTH: OUTREACH

Let all nations hear the word by sound or writing. Spare no place, spare not tongue nor pen, but be obedient to the Lord God and go through the world and be valiant for the Truth upon earth.... And this is the word of the Lord God to you all, and a charge to you all in the presence of the living God, be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness in God in them to bless you.

-- George Fox, Journal, 1694

We are called to share with others our experience that God is actively present in the world and in every human heart and may be encountered by those who turn to God in openness and expectation. The Religious Society of Friends is a fellowship of persons who have this faith, and we invite those who have not found a spiritual home to enter into our fellowship. We know that words alone cannot witness to these truths. When our lives speak, when they reflect an enthusiastic, contagious appreciation of Jesus and his teachings, our words of witness will bear convincing authority.