IT has been an encouraging week for pacifists. At the moment, we have a Leader of the Opposition attempting 'a kinder politics'. In Skipton, Jennie Pearce, in the Peace Group annual lecture, gave us a structure for envisioning a violence-free politics; schools in the area are being offered teaching materials on conflict resolution and on decision-making; and we saw the first meeting of the Skipton Refugee Support Group.

We need these examples of good things happening because we mostly feel we are swimming against the tide. To many people, pacifists are, at best, naïve idealists.

If you know anything of Quakers at all, you will probably know us as a nice venue for meetings and that most of us regard ourselves as pacifists. As a Quaker, I believe that there is 'god in everyone'. Everyone, that is, including people who disagree with me, who live in other countries, and who do bad things.

This is not a denial of humanity's capacity for evil, or of all our abilities to do abominable acts. Rather, it is a faith that we all have within us the capacity to be better. We become better by doing better things.

God has 'no hands but ours', so if we want the Kingdom of Heaven we must help God to achieve it by behaving as it if were possible. If we want to achieve peace, we need to behave peacefully.

Quaker faith comes from the life of Jesus. His leadership owes nothing to conquering heroes, macho posturing or the possession of nuclear weapons. His life, from baby in a manger to man on a cross, is a model of the power of love, kindness and vulnerability.

Is Jesus a naïve idealist?

Floe Shakespeare

Voluntary Friend in Residence, Airton Quaker Meeting House