Westtown Monthly Meeting held a meeting for worship with attention to business on February 16, 2025. At that time members and attenders present were clear to send the following Minute of Support to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Westtown Monthly Meeting supports the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and all other meetings that have joined in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in response to the Trump administration rescinding a policy that prohibits ICE from raiding meetings and other places of worship. We see the new policy as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion.
(For key points in the suit, please see https://www.pym.org/key-points-on-the-quaker-suit-against-the-department-of-homeland-security/#more-48616r)
In addition, at the state level and from the earliest time of the creation of Pennsylvania, religious liberty has been a hallmark of the colony, the state, and by extension, the nation. Article 1 Section 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution reflects this basic belief:
All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship.
The loss of protection for sensitive locations directly interferes with our ability to fulfill our religious obligations and priorities. As the lawsuit details, “Having a diversity and richness of human experience yields a fuller understanding of how God speaks to the Quakers, individually and as a community” (p. 19). In contrast, perceived threats from the government that limit the diversity present in a Quaker meeting “would therefore directly interfere with Plaintiffs’ religious exercise by lessening their ‘ability to hear God and what God is trying to tell [them]’”(p. 26). We strive to support all our members and attenders in the spirit of the equality and the peace testimony as a “dictate of conscience.” Our religious peace testimonies require us to “live in the virtue of a power that takes away the occasion of war or violence of any kind.” In this practice of conscience and freedom of religious expression we honor the dignity that all people deserve.
We respect what honors that dignity. To enter a house of worship to detain a worshipper there does not honor that dignity. We cannot therefore remain silent. To do so is complicit with a form of violence we cannot condone.
The resistance to the DHS prerogative to enter houses of worship is growing across the nation and among many differing religious groups. This minute wants to support two other initiatives in addition to the lawsuit named above.
First, Friends General Conference, an umbrella organization for Quakers nationwide, has joined a multifaith coalition and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) in opposition to the rescission of ICE’s sensitive locations policy, which is a direct violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Secondly, Friends (Quakers) have long carried a concern to protect the vulnerable. This Minute of Intent to Protect from North Carolina Yearly Meeting unites with our opposition to the rescission of the policy to protect “sensitive locations” is an example of our long-held religious concerns.
As faith communities inspired by a common sense of divine standards in goodness and compassion, we join in publicly stating our intent to peacefully yet determinedly defend the defenseless and vulnerable in their need. In all morally upright and ethically sound matters we will continue as faithful Americans to cooperate with our government and receive all government agents in goodwill; however, if a case arises of persecution, oppression, or forcible removal of immigrant populations from among us, we will weigh human authority against our leadings to submit to Divine Authority regarding disgraces against the humanity of those in our community. We hereby state our intent to take these and similar peaceful actions as such needs may arise. Remembering that we are all flawed and oft-mistaken human beings, we take this stand not from a spirit of pride or conflict, but in a soul-searching hope for an American future of harmony, peace on earth, and goodwill toward everyone.
Sincerely,
Catherine Schmidt and Rebecca Mays, current co-clerks
Paula Kline
Louisa Egan Brad
