‘We all are implicated, and we lack integrity if we keep silent.’
Range of vision: Arne Springorum offers a personal climate challenge
‘What if comfort is actually our enemy?’
This is a really hard article to write. For days now, I have tiptoed around how I should go about it. There is fear in me: fear of choosing the wrong words, of upsetting some of you, and of being isolated from my beloved community of Friends, my faith community. This community has, again and again, found words of sympathy and encouragement. These have helped me understand what it means to be prophetic, which is to say it involves the risk of exclusion and conflict. It is the love that I have for you, and for this world, and the love I feel from you, that enables me to step forward.
When I think of our predicament, with climate-induced societal collapse looming, I see history repeating itself. Change is constant, but there are recurring themes: from the Old Testament sin that led to the destruction of entire peoples, to our involvement as Quakers in the slave trade. I think of the way my German grandfather’s generation thought they had the right to lebensraum, more space for their race, and so to invade other nations and start killing the population.
In 2022, most western people, including most Friends, are part of an economic system that systematically exploits others. It means we burn fossil fuels despite our knowledge that this kills people, beginning in the global south. All this is so that we can live comfortable lives and keep dreaming that some magic will happen, that we will wake up from being part of a global killing machine, realise that all is good, and that we live in peaceful coexistence and sustainability.
We all are implicated, and we lack integrity if we keep silent. This world we live in is not right. And we know it, if we sit in silence and listen carefully. We know that our governments knowingly and willingly perpetuate a system that will lead to the destruction of island nations, that will lead to a breakdown of food supply chains, and to waves of migration that our species have not yet seen. Yes, we are afraid. I am afraid. But knowing and speaking this terrible truth gives me courage to act. So I am trying to speak to you, to shake you up, the way Jesus shakes me up when I read about him. Or the way people were shaken when they heard George Fox speaking in the steeplehouses.
Friends, we have work to do. I consciously say ‘we’, because the few of us who have already engaged in this fight, who are now being incarcerated and punished for our resistance, need your support and your solidarity. We are all, globally, running out of time. Visible progress still runs far behind the efforts needed to reduce emissions, to adapt to the changes that are already inevitable, and to restore our climate. We Quakers, this tiny group of loving, considerate and peaceful people, can make a difference. Given our history, I wonder: why aren’t we? Why are we still in hiding? What are we waiting for? In 1942 Friends had the vision to prepare for the unknown end of a war, raising millions, readying to help those still treated as enemies.
So this is my vision. I want the handful of Friends already engaged in civil resistance to find a shared voice to speak to Quakers in Britain. I want them to explain and share their experience of how it feels to speak your truth, to block a road and be exposed to upset drivers. To explain why it is necessary to cause a public nuisance that delays traffic and makes people miss flights and doctors’ appointments. To explain how it feels to stand before a judge and defend yourself on conscientious grounds. To explain how it feels to cause disruption to a system that is killing people yet manages to cover up this crime up in the eyes of the majority of the public. To explain how it feels to support this civil resistance work. We will cause discomfort and conflict in our community of Quakers, but what if comfort is actually our enemy? I heard a Friend ask this in ministry last Sunday. What if conflict is opening the door to change? What if the tools we have developed over the past few centuries can give us solace and loving support?
Having started with hesitant support for individual Friends taking action, and the occasional XR meeting in a Meeting house, I want Friends to speak out, as a body, as a Yearly Meeting, in support of civil resistance in 2023. I want Meeting houses across the country to be offered as free organising centres for civil resistance. This work cannot succeed without finance, and I want Friends to step up and give ten per cent of their monthly income, twenty if they can afford it, and make changes in their lifestyle that would allow them to redirect this money.
Imagine if one of the large Quaker charitable trusts, feeling the support of its community, responded and matched these efforts. Quakers in Britain could raise millions of pounds, and ensure that activist citizens are supported emotionally and financially.
In my vision, the number of Quakers involved in civil resistance rises from a dozen in 2022 to a few hundred by mid-2023, and a groundswell from other parts of British society joins them. Many will face incarceration for their peaceful but undeterred protest. But we have been there before, in the 1600s, under much worse conditions.
Don’t worry if you don’t feel ready yet, some already are. Will you support them as they face criticism? Will you pay their fines and support their families? Civil resistance has worked in the past; Quakers have often engaged in it. Can we connect to that early fountain of strength, to that faith that the Light will guide us, so that we can walk it, be in action, cheerfully, living a true adventure, answering that of God in everyone?
In my vision, Quaker Meetings are full of people again. A lot of new attenders have discovered us, inspired by our courage, determination, care and love for life. We are not hiding our light under a bushel, and we still worship in stillness and wait for the truth to guide us. But now we also act fervently, because we know that time is short and every day counts.
At Just Stop Oil, we believe that 2,000 nonviolent but disruptive citizens could stop traffic on London’s highways. Within days of this strike the government would be at the negotiating table. A citizens assembly, formed with a mandate from parliament, would guide us through a series of transition steps. People on the edge of society would be supported by the state, and new companies would spring up to insulate Britain’s neglected housing stock. Society’s priorities would shift; the government would barely keep up with administering the changes: renewable energy capacity, affordable and frequent public transport, and so much more.
I believe a wave of inspiration and understanding would accompany this change. It is very contagious, and more and more countries would follow. It becomes easy to live a low-carbon lifestyle when everyone else starts doing it. Quakers in Britain would fulfil their 2011 pledge to decarbonise before 2025. Everything would transform. Some economic sectors would scale down while others appear. We would again find our place among the family of living beings. Hope abounds.
I know, this sounds like a fantastic dream. But we are so close to making it a reality. If we only had the faith to speak the truth, and revolt against our tolerance of a system that goes against our values. Are you ready?
Arne is from Prague Meeting. He is currently awaiting sentencing for stopping traffic on the M25. You can hear Arne interviewed on episode two of the new ‘The Friend Live’ podcast, out soon.
Comments
Thank you for your witness Arne. It provokes and inspires.
By bigbooks1963@gmail.com on 15th December 2022 - 16:06
Thank you, Arne, for your thoughtful and challenging article. It resonates strongly within me. You have eloquently made the case for our community to actively come together and be the life affirming people we all have the potential to be. It is now up to us how we work to make this vision, your lucid call to action, a reality.
We can and must all support one another in the struggles that are here and that lie ahead. We can contribute something to being the fine patterns and examples society needs.
My hope is that Arne’s visionary words will take root in our community and lead us to be the radical, engaged, effective people we could so quickly and easily be.
As individuals, meetings and as a body, we have diverse gifts to offer the world. We should not further delay in delivering them. Our sisters and brothers, among many species, are in need.
By Rajan on 18th December 2022 - 9:24
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