The following queries and testimonies speak most directly to the questions involved in Greening Your Life. Quaker queries are a device used within the Society of Friends for prompting both corporate and individual self-examination. They reflect current insights as to the best way for Meetings and individual Friends to live their spiritual and temporal lives.
Fifth Query
Do you live in accordance with your spiritual convictions? Do you seek employment consistent with your beliefs and in service to society? Do you practice simplicity in speech, dress and manner of living, avoiding wasteful consumption? Are you watchful that your possessions do not rule you? Do you strive to be truthful at all times, avoiding judicial oaths?
Ninth Query
Do you promote social justice and make your life a testimony to fair dealing? Do you seek to understand and appreciate differing cultures and social values? Do you support fair treatment of all regardless of race, gender, age and other differences? Are you concerned for those in our society who are disadvantaged? Do you take your full share of civic responsibility by voting and giving service? Do you oppose the use of land, labor, technology and capital for human exploitation or in ways destructive to other living things?
Twelfth Query:
Are you concerned for responsible use of natural resources and their nurture for future generations? Do you try to avoid wasteful consumption and pollution? Do you seek to preserve the beauty and balance of God’s world?
Testimony: Humankind and the Environment
Population growth and technological abuses are threatening the planet. Millions of people are malnourished or starving, unable to obtain food, homeless. Our faith that there is that of God in every person calls us to concern over this tragic situation. Friends are advised to set the example in living simply so that others may have the wherewithal to live. We are called also to work for public policy aimed toward conserving the world’s resources on one hand and sharing them fairly among all God’s children on the other.
Testimony: Vocational and Financial Decisions
The relationships, decisions, and actions of our working lives should reflect a calling to the service of God. Our witness will be unconvincing unless we seek and heed Divine guidance. Individual leadings vary with differences in talents and interests. Each Friend's talents, however, should be fully used.
Investment of assets and consumption of resources require our careful stewardship. As Friends we can direct our investments toward socially desirable ends, avoiding speculation and activities wasteful or harmful to others. We seek to participate constructively and without greed in the economic life of the community. We should refrain from undue accumulation of wealth as well as irresponsible borrowing.
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