woodwardiocom

There's an apocryphal story told in The Peaceable Kingdom about George Fox and Margaret Fell (the founders of the Society of Friends). George Fox was very very adamant about the Golden Rule, and advocated that everyone should always treat everyone else the way they would wish to be treated. One specific instantiation of this, so goes the story, was that in an argument, rather than escalate the argument, the Quaker participant in the argument should embrace their interlocutor "in the spirit of the Lord." When Fox was in prison, and Fell was receiving letters from new Quaker converts everywhere, she was trying to interpret Quaker "doctrine" (such as it is) to respond to these letters. One other person in prison wrote that as much as he tried to embrace those who spoke against him, the embraces seemed to anger the combatants more and what should he do? Fell replied to his letter suggesting that before he treat others the way he would be treated, he might well check if their tastes were the same. Fox disapproved, but I suspect that Fell kept many an imprisoned Quaker from getting beaten up extra...