Interview: George Lakey - Peace, justice and conflict

George Lakey, a leading American Quaker activist, spoke with Milan Rai, editor of Peace News, about the connections between his faith and campaigning, his views on nonviolent direct action and his recent concerns

by Milan Rai 6th July 2012

Would it be fair to say, George, that your commitment to nonviolence and your faith grew together?  Very much. It was a mercy to discover the seventeenth-century Quakers, who were cousins of the Levellers and the Diggers and so on. They were part of that whole revolutionary ferment that was going on at the time of the [English] Civil War.  George Fox was, in fact, a warrior. He was enormously attractive to soldiers. Whenever George Fox would show up at a market square, soldiers would start accumulating. He got along with them. They got along with him. He was even offered the captaincy of a Cromwell unit because he was so obviously an excellent warrior. He was a nonviolent warrior.