Quakers believe we are called to live a life of honesty and integrity. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no,” said Jesus. This has led Quakers to refuse the taking of oaths or to swear on the bible when on the witness stand. There can be no double standards when it comes to telling the truth. We don’t just tell the truth when we are sworn to do so. We must always tell the truth.
Refusing to swear an oath is but a minor manifestation of the Quaker commitment to truth, however. We live in an age of “fake news” and misinformation continuously being spread by those in government and in the media. How can anyone know what to believe if they cannot trust people in positions of power and responsibility to tell them the truth?
Radical Quakers are committed to radical truth-telling, no matter what the consequences. That means being very careful about our truth claims and how we word them. It means being open and honest when we make mistakes and get things wrong. And it means, above all, listening, reading, doing our homework and our due diligence before speaking out.
Our testimony to truth and integrity is also about not speaking on behalf of others or putting words in other people’s mouths, but instead speaking from our own experience and our own witness.