| What Quakers stand for Quakers often find that some common themes (or 'Testimonies') are important to them: - Personal Relationships We strive to accept every person individually, never regarding anyone solely as a member of a class or category. Friends oppose discrimination on any grounds.
- Compassion Many Quakers are concerned for the relief of suffering due to famine, natural disasters and war. More recent concerns have emerged especially for homeless, disadvantaged or elderly people and those who are particularly vulnerable, such as political prisoners. Many are led to oppose factory farming and other forms of cruelty.
- Life Style We say that 'a simple lifestyle freely chosen is a source of strength' aiming to consume no more goods and services than are strictly necessary. This traditional ideal of simplicity links with a refusal to engage in get-rich-quick enterprises such as gambling and financial speculation. Many are also concerned about smoking and the misuse of other drugs.
- Truth This requires strict honesty and truthfulness, mutual trust and fidelity in our relations with other people. Friends are greatly concerned about truth and integrity in public affairs.
- Peace Friends are perhaps best known for their 'peace testimony' and their refusal to support warfare as a means of settling disputes. This includes opposition to the arms trade, to conscription, and to the threat of nuclear war as a deterrent. Reconciliation, mediation and conflict resolution are promoted, rather than the use of violence to achieve desired objectives.
- Social Justice Quakers have for very many years been at the forefront of penal reform and opposition to capital punishment, emphasising the need for rehabilitation rather than retribution. This testimony also seeks a fairer distribution of wealth, employment, education, housing and health services.
- Green Issues A comparatively new testimony is arising concerning conservation of the environment. Some Friends also feel that vegetarianism might soon become a testimony.
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