Jurisprudence - There Is No Such Thing as Quaker Law - Essay Example

Task Jurisprudence: “There is no such thing as Quaker law.” Introduction According to Finns1 law involves operating using rationale, recognizing and working with this law to the benefit of universal good and human rights. Quakerism as defined by Clarkson is the practical application of Christianity, living a life bond by the gospel and separated from man’s ways. So is there a Quaker law? Yes. To support this answer I will have to put to light what Quakerism is, who Quakers are, and what is law, if the rationale behind law supports Quakerism ways of living as law. In addition, I will highlight what is documented by scholars about Quakerism. Are Quakers a community? Quakers have forever endured prejudice and misunderstanding and to understand this community, I must put to light the doctrines and life of the founder of Quakerism. Quakerism is traced to the sixteenth century. The founder is believed to be George Fox who lived from 1624 to 16902. He is the founder of a community that lives a life of virtue that is governed by Christianity3. They practice Christianity in its perfection. George Fox was born of an honest and adequate family. At the age of nineteen, he had developed spiritually and decided to separate himself from society and live a religious life. Religion was still youthful at this time and several people were ignorant about religion. The main church was that of England though other religions were established due to different views held from those of the English church. The ignorant were ready to follow any spiritual leader that taught of beliefs similar to theirs. Bender and Friedman state Quakerism to be parallel to Anabaptism4. George Fox travelled all over England during his first trying to find serious followers of religion. He was first a public minister preaching the gospel. As he interacted with people, followers and religious people, during his journey as a religious leader, he seemed to startle many through his doctrine of perfection. He stated that the church was the foundation of truth. The church was to be constituted with living followers, and should be spiritual in nature. This opinion did not go well with some of the religious leaders. He was to experience a series of troubles because of his beliefs. He was once stoned and put in jail for publicly opposing a church preaching, he was jailed severally later on numerous occasions. He clearly rubbed a few top officials that saw him as a disturber of peace. In reality, Clarkson portray him as a person full of integrity and very peaceful. He was described as temperate, meek and tender. He was kind to the less fortunate; a trait the world recognizes honorable with the Quaker community to this day. He understood and protected humanities interest. He protested in opposition to capital punishment in his numerous letters to judges. He told his followers to be temperate and kind to their slaves and urged them to grant liberty to them. Officers of the law who attended his sermons trying to arrest him, walked away on realizing his true nature, humble and a peacemaker. He had written numerous books about his teachings. He paid attention to things nearly everyone of the world considered of little significance. He was against world pleasures, music of any form, flattery. He approved plain language. It is on this points that the early community of Quakers was formed. The Quaker society is seen as to oppose the world but to them they see it as returning it to its pure form. According to Rissman,5 a community is an experience of belonging. George Fox created a sense of fitting in to people who shared his views. The sense of belonging was shared in his religion of Quakerism. Though George Fox by no means gave a definition for Quakerism, it was he intended it to be. Therefore, he made a distinction between his society and the worldwide context. They are bound by their beliefs and cannot submit worldly laws, rather to follow previous apostles. Quarters’ refer to their morality to a superior being. Their community is bound by their moral education, their discipline, customs only familiar to them that are practiced on a regular basis and their sacred beliefs. The Quakers share the same spiritual beliefs. They congregate yearly to discuss various issues and publish spiritual apostles that they distribute. What is Quaker law? Tebbit affirms that morality and law have a similar purpose6. The law protects individual’s interests from those that want to infringe them. Laws are meant to enforce ethical codes. As we will see, Quakers have a moral code that they use to guide their members to what they call eternal happiness. Their codes are strict in manner as to observe their religion in perfection. They also contain codes that they use to punish those that deviate from their ways and those that cause harm to others and themselves. Present are laws that Quakers use to control their youth. They have rules of guidance that the follow as a community. Law is meant to ensure stability of relations in societies7. Their rules are prohibitory. Their education is governed by encouragement, discouragement or both. They control their members through discipline. Quakers allow their youth to involve in some physical and mental extramural activities. They regulate activities that their youth involve in and prohibit actions that may influence negatively on the morality of their brood. Dancing and diversion of the field are some of the physical activities prohibited by the Quakers. Mental activities prohibited include narrative, composition and drama. Even games of probability are outlawed. They prohibit games of chance like poker and other like activities. They reject such activities due to the ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ruin and depravity of the heart that is associated with them. They see outlawing these activities as a guard against the suppression affiliated with them. Such activities come with fatal results when loss is experienced. For example horse racing was started to provide better horses for man, then the activity later evolved to profitable activity that brought gain to a few and pain to the losers. Quakers say that even if such activities develop for good they later turn to the suppression of men and as strict followers of Christianity they cannot let the children they are entitled to protect to be exposed to such. The Quakers therefore outlawed gaming as a law of society in the context that none of its members should be involved in laying of wagers for profit. They understood that it was impossible to outlaw a particular gaming activity since new activities can be invented to replace the outlawed ones. What they did is outlaw the principal behind it, which is the wagering of money in anticipation of profit. The Quakers outlawed games of card since it took up valuable time and intellect that would have otherwise be used to the improvement of one’s life. Cards as an activity of amusement involves already established activities, and raises no other new ideas. Therefore this activity is belittles the intelligence and decorum of man and his Christian character. Cards cause the stimulation of passion that is against their law. They believe that the results of gaming that come with winning and losing may cause temperaments, loss resulting to war, win resulting to pride. These activities should be based on a trial of skill and since most are based on gain for profit, they may cultivate mischief among the youth and children. They may bring about intolerance, rage and greed that may control someone life. The loss involved in such amusements holds more dire consequences to an adult as they tend to lead to material loss that result to poor quality of life. A person who involve sin such activities is likely to end in the ways of crime to settle debts that rise from losing. In short, overindulgence in gaming is associated with violent reactions that breed immorality, desperation and hopelessness. The other reason that gaming is prohibited is that it leads to lack of honesty, malice and the imbalance of natures array. Experience players in gambling usually pray on the ignorance of the inexperienced. They do this through dishonest ways. Gambling changes these players from their initial merciful nature to ruthless people. Gaming indulges men to follow their own interest and hopes on the demise of his opponents bring about envy and preconceived ill. This is against the divine intervention of social creatures. Quaker law prohibits the indulgence in music, not all that pleases the ear is beneficial to the mind. The time invested in by those that practice music is a criminal waste as seen by the Quakers. Great music cannot be applied without the commitment. The women who are the most musicians leave a sedentary life that disqualifies them from being healthy spouses and parents. The Quakers major intention is to educate their children specifically on Christianity. They do this with an aim at perfection of Christianity. They do not deny the good that music can bring, in terms of delight to the heart. They do not overlook the innocence of music. They are of the opinion that music is not an important education and it does little to improve the mind. The practice of music also involves self-gratification, which is not allowed in Quaker community. They see music focused more on self-gratification than the improvement of the mind. Music does not lead to comfort of mind, they see it no different from liquor that gratifies a person temporarily. Music is for sensual gratification even to those that practice religious music. The Quakers believe that bodily longing should be put off, as the true happiness of a Christian should be derived spiritually. They see music to pose a great harm to the Quakers who retire since it would take up their time and harm their Christian interest. They see singing no more damaging than reading; it may instill thoughts that go against their beliefs. The Quakers see music to contain questionable substance and can influence their children with immoral ways. Though some music may have morality, children cannot identify what is good or bad. If their broods are permitted to sing, they will be exposed to all songs without filtering which may compromise their way of religion that requires them to be mindful of their actions and words. They see music to take up more time, reducing the period for service for Christianity. Music is seen to also lead to the interaction with the world that is against Quaker principals. Music involves thing s like concerts, accustoming to customs of the world. Music has an audience and a musician must live to the expectations of this audience hence deviates from the main aim of Quakerism. In addition, in order to compose music one must read into the ways of the world and have such knowledge. This is seen by Quakers to be a leeway of poisoning the mind with the ideas of the world. Music in modern world is seen by Quakers as detrimental to health, a huge consumption of valuable time and mainly involve bodily gratification. They limit it to children due the inability of them to filter out the good and the bad as compared to adults who can identify the difference. Quakers also prohibit the seeing and participation in plays. They see plays as to instill vice and profoundness in their audience. They put follies out of context instilling bad principals in the mind. They use language and logic that contradicts Christianity. This contempt was put in place by William Law, George fox who is considered the ancestors of Quakerism. The Quakers forbid plays because they involve impersonation. According to them, the actors put on a character that is no theirs and can therefore pass incorrect messages if they applied the same principals in real life. An actor can express emotions they do not feel and deceive those they interact. Therefore, they cannot teach about Christianity if they endorse impersonation of sham characters. Plays tend to shun vice in a humorous manner and therefore according to quarks, it tends to shun vice upon of fear of losing favor with men than on basis of religion. Theater also holds false contents and tends to weaken morality. Drama also comes with tragedy; there is the promotion of heroism, competition and hate. This contradicts Christianity virtues of humbleness, harmony and love towards every one. Plays also include humor that is seen to portray false morals and is usually cruel. There is also the use of improper language, portrayal of deceit. This is seen to destroy the minds of youthful people. If plays pass an upbeat image of vices, virtue may lose ground on the young and may lead to dreamy imagination. Therefore, plays may influence the character of a young person to the detriment of his morality. Quakers see plays as detrimental to his morality and therefore eventually detrimental to his delight of religion that is the true form of bliss. Quakers younglings are also forbidden from dancing, as they are music. They see teaching their youth dancing as a waste of time. They view it applicable only in young age and therefore useless when on gets older, and a waste of their time. The fact that they forbid music, it makes no sense to encourage dancing since the two cannot be separated. Dancing is also forbidden since it can lead to vice like jealousy especially in the ballrooms where there is clear competition for attention. Novels are also prohibited in Quakerism since they induce fiction and naughty thoughts. Usually Quakers recognize that not every fictitious writing promotes this ideology but see many of them do and as song, the young cannot know which to ignore or read. The reading of novels can cause unsteadiness of character through the directness brought about by irrationality of mind imposed by novels. Novels tend to place emphasis on emotional actions as the source of good. They also make some vices fashionable which is not Christian. Novels that are commonly read by women, if allowed to influence their behavior can cause bad effects to these women. For directness in women, relaxed ethics can cause a female not desirable as a wife or mother. The effects of novel reading are more injurious to the mind; they stimulate thoughts to no happiness. Another thing banned by Quakers is the lack of consideration. The prohibit causing injuries to animals or other living creatures since they experience the same suffering as we do. They see a cruelty to animals that is; activities like hunting, to be consume time while such time could be spent to do activities that are more constructive8. The Quakers believe that since God bestowed labor of life over other animals, man should not take advantage of this and only kill for the satisfaction of his stomach. In addition, in New Testament man has a clear knowledge of the purpose of creation. Brutality to a beast is seen as backward and goes against the New Testament. A supervisor usually visits Quakers who disobey the rules set by the society through committing prejudice, hard intoxication, cursing, desertion of religious adoration, and pagan behaviour, though anyone in the church can make this call. It is the duty of the supervisor to acquaint the fault and cost of her demeanour. The supervisor then initiates a repentance of the member. This process of repentance is kept confidential between the sinner and the supervisor as a right granted to each member by his church to privacy. The supervisor is required by Quaker regulations to avoid the use of gravity in such sessions. If the supervisor realises that the repentance process is not bearing fruit, the matter is then reported before a court. A few members of the court are selected to pay a visit to the deviant member. The matter is viewed as a matter concerning the entire congregation. The member can attend adoration services but cannot participate in teachings. The repentance session is considered as changing process of the offender’s behaviour. It involves spiritual mentorship and counsel. This process is done with uttermost seriousness and dedication. Quarters’ undertake this process from the recognition of their religious service and requirement. This dedication to Christianity of Quakers tends to question the laws of other Christians and their dedication to their faith. In the religion of quarks, each region has its individual judicial authority that deliberate issue on a monthly period. Parity amid male and female is observed in such processes. Quakers meetings are conducted trice in a year, after four weeks, three months and annually. Their methods of conducting this meeting are usually in structure manner. The poor are given the same consideration and importance as the rich in these meetings. Their three months meetings are popular. They are usually held in a particular place and may go on for days. The meetings in general feature matters of discipline, behaviour, relationships between friends and family, matters of devotion to the religion. Counsel is given to those that deviate from the religious beliefs. The yearly conventions are attended by the all counties and issues discussed are chosen on merit of religious credence. If a person wishes to join Quakerism, he applies for membership and he is expected to follow the ways of that society with dedication. The membership is also acquired inherently. That is one automatically qualifies for membership if he is born into that society. This membership is automatically disqualified if a person as mentioned earlier, is constantly constant disobedient. The expulsion of membership is meant to subject the truant person to hardships. The hardship is that of being expelled from a society that once considered him equal. As we have observed in the description of Quakerism, we see that they practice justice and equality to perfection. A member who is used to such treatment is bond to notice the difference when he is exposed to the rest of the world. The Quaker society customs as explained earlier differ from those of the common word. I have noted what is allowed to members, for example, we have noted that Quakers are forbidden from listening to compositions, gambling, theatre and the rest mentioned above. The other thing particular about their custom is their mode of dressing. The men don not wear any ornaments or this that compliment the basic clothes. The women also do not wear ornaments or trimmings that accolade their clothing. They also avoid bright colours. They also try to avoid extravagant modes of clothing. Ancient founders of Quakerism supported this culture of dressing. George fox recommended plainness in dressing. He advised against worldly clothing styles. Therefore, Quakers have seemed to maintain these opinions held by their ancestors. The reason behind simplicity was that trendy fashion was seen more to satisfy the eye and bore a negative result to the mind. Flamboyant dressing is seen to propagate immorality and contradicted the Christian scripts. Prophets, Isaiah, also outlawed this mode of dressing. Quakers also use simple furniture. The reason so, is similar to that of dressing. Therefore, things like paintings, pictures expensive cutlery is seldom at their places of residence9 .They use furniture and clothes by the purpose they serve. They also use different language than that used by other people. For example, they cannot use thou in place of you. The reason for this use of different language from the rest of the world is due to the wrong perception of meaning that is found on most words. George Fox was the man behind this view. He said that thou were the correct singular form to refer to a person. They also do not use expression in language since they cause false description or flattery. They address each other as friend and never use titles. To distinguish between two people with the same name they use the surnames of those people. Would Hart accept that there is Quaker law? According to Tebbit, law is fundamentally the idiom of resolve rather than enunciation of a pre-existing good. Hart’s opinion for a lawful system was that positivism was ideal than command theory. There is need for a system of accepted law. Law should come as an accepted way of life. He distinguished between regularity of behavior and duty. He distinguished obligation in two aspects, one caused by code of conduct enforced by society, and one enforce by physical punishment. He sees a clear line amid two types of rule, primary rules and secondary rules. Primary rules are essential for existence in a society. They regulate anti-social behavior. Secondary laws are the cause of primary laws. They change or revise the later. Heart insists on the separation of laws on moral and the emphasis of legal model in jurisprudence .Harts stand is somehow confusing. This is a view shared by Dworkin who seems not agree with Quakerism philosophy about external influence. Dworkin philosophy tends to point that external influences of Quakers parents on their young ones violate equal concern of the latter10. On moral right and evil laws Hart points out that when external recommendations; this is worldly influence according to Quakerism, there is harm in external influence, at times an influence from a majority to a minority maybe based on denial of substantive good and not equal concern. Here Harts ideology tends to agree with those of Quakers. Dworkin propose that people should not work for justice but indeed what is just. This point somehow tends to disagree and agree with Quakers philosophy depending on one’s point of view. To Quakers what is just is abiding to the laws of Christianity in a strict manner, according to the world, it is not just to the young ones of Quakers to be denied fundamental rights of choice. The youth are subjected to the similar intellect pollution from which the Quakers seem to be shielding them from. Hart states that law should consist of primary and secondary rules. The secondary rules compliment the primary rules. The primary rules dish out obligations in morals, and the derivative rules establish the obligations. In analyzing Quakers laws, we see that there is the presence of the two. The founding ancestors of Quakerism expressed the ways of their society therefore establishing secondary rules. The primary rules are then dished out to the society’s member since a tender age ensuring they abide to behaviors that are socially acceptable to the Quaker community. Since Quaker law draws on natural law, Hart disagrees with traditional natural law, though he agrees that law should be draw from morality11. He draws that people usually have the desire to live and there are fundamentals to maintaining life. He states that there must be morality in law of all societies. This he says is the basic content of any law. What relationship is there, if any, between Quaker law and natural law theories? Natural law is a dominant view involving law and morals. ‘Plato in “laws” characterizes nature as the physical system consisting of earth, air, fire and water. But he qualifies shortly afterwards by saying that if the soul is prior to the physical system of nature, it would be pre-eminent natural or creative power’12. In Quakerism, the laws they apply are highly governed by morality. Natural law holds that the morality is defined by natural logic or through exposure, and that the governing rules adhere to this. Therefore, I can state that Quakers laws are natural law. They are mainly based on improvement of morality according to Christian divine revelation. Natural law can be taken to be implicit in terms of social convections. Law is also logical13.Quakers state that their education to their young is guide by revelation and ways of early followers of Christ. They maintain that their education system is not influenced by external forces rather that they conform to Christianity. Their prohibitory methods are similar to those practices by major people in the bible. For example out of the nine of the laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai forbidding and that all of the messiahs teaching applied the same formula. Their teachings also have another side, where they teach through example and promote love and empathy. They entrench religious convictions that mould them to achieve eternal peace. Quakers admit that it is impossible to attain absolute virtue and maintain that this is not their goal; rather their goal is to divert their people from vice. This indeed makes Quakers a socially moral. They contend that the young learn about the wisdom of life earlier compared to their peers and if they deviate from their convictions, they are separated from the society to be rehabilitated. They believe discipline accounts for order within their society and educates on vices. Their internal laws involve on marriage, disciplinary against members, testimonial giving as a Christian requirement. Their court system involves the calling of meeting where the deviant member is heard and it is decide if the deviance should be brought to the attention of their congregation. The less fortunate are put on the same pedestal as the fortunate. They favor none when it comes to religious importance of each member. If a member is dissatisfied with the court’s ruling he/she is accorded a chance to repeal in a different church than the one he was tried at. We see a form of justice in the system of the Quakers. According to Natural law Men determine right or wrong naturally. Human beings are logical and cognitive in nature. It is through this mind that he is able to determine his basic needs14. The laws of Quakers are mainly based on ten decrees and preach moral good. The laws that govern other pagans are no different since they seem to be based on similar rocks. I could compare Quaker law as natural law applied in strict manner. The Quaker law involved reflection and pointed to the good intentions of its society. According to Kainz, natural law is based on a convergence of truth and values. The truth behind Quaker law is the truth of Christian religion. The values that converge with this are those provided by the bible on true Christianity. According to Porter,15 the idea of a perfect law where people can live together in peace is drawn on the foundation of Christian and Hebrew teachings. Conclusion Though legal law may differ with moral law in that, in legal law the purpose is more of restriction than positive commands. Legal law can also be broken without someone partaking in an immoral conduct. Therefore law and morality may a times not harmonies. This in my opinion is why law is classified into many parts, natural, positive and the rest. Quakerism has its societies interest at heart, and propagates morality is law as any other law. I state this since most people tend to dismiss Quaker law as not recognized law. They have a set of rules that they abide in and that tend towards morality. List of References Bayles, M., (1992), Hart's legal philosophy: an examination, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Braithwaite, W., (2008), The Beginnings of Quakerism, New York: Cambridge University Press. Clarkson, T., (2006), A Portraiture of Quakerism 3 Volumes in. Teddington: Echo Library. Dandelion, P., (2008), The Quakers: a very short introduction, New York: Oxford University Press. Eagleton, T., (2011), A Trouble with Strangers: A Study of Ethics, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Finns, J., (2011), Philosophy of Law: Collected Essays. New York: Oxford University Press. Friedmann, R and Bender, H., (2010), Hutterite studies, Roh Oro: H. B. Book Centre. Green, A., (2011), Beyond Wealth: The Road Map to a Rich Life, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Kainz, H., (2004), Natural law: an introduction and re-examination, Illinois: Open Court Publishing. Martinich, A and Sosa, D., (2001), A Companion to Analytic Philosophy, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. May, L and Brown, J., (2009), Philosophy of law: classic and contemporary readings, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Miller, F and Paul, J., (2001), Natural law and modern moral philosophy, New York: Cambridge University Press. Porter, J., (2010), Ministers of the law: a natural law theory of legal authority, Portsmouth: Heinemann Lib. Rissman, R., (2009), What Is a Community? Portsmouth: Heinemann Lib, Tebbit, M., (2005), Philosophy of Law: An Introduction, Oxon: Routledge. Read More