"There is that of God within every one." This is what I feel is the core of Quaker Faith. What I think informs all of our other testimonies and beliefs.
Since is spend so much time around people of faith who are not Friends. I frequently get asked what Quakers believe.
A question that is unfortunately easier to answer in the negative with Hicksite Friends, with what we don't believe and do. There is a very good reason for this, and one that I hold as a positive. It is because we recognize that people's individual spiritual journey is just that, individual. Unlike other Denominations, we are not defined by whether or not we believe in the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus, or what we consider sinful. We are more defined by our commitments to Integrity, Peace, Justice, Equality, and caring for the world.
Since I have been asked so many times "What do Quakers believe" my response has been refined to "There is so much variety between Quakers that isn't really an answerable question. However, I can tell you that our core belief is that there is that of God within every one." Weirdly enough, I've been asked more than once. "What, even Hitler?" I do have a ready answer to that. "Sometimes they make it really hard to see."
On the whole, everyone has trouble recognizing That of the Light in challenging people. We look at someone who we see as irredeemably evil... and our minds just won't let us see the better aspects of them.
We also let this happen when we are dealing with people we just don't agree with. We decide that because we think they are wrong, there is nothing worthy about them, but that is a topic for another day.
Getting back to my original point. Yes Adolf Hitler had The Inner Light (another name for That of God). He chose to ignore his Light. The same can be said of many other people. Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, just about any American CEO or Hedge Fund manager, and one person whose name I'm sure will spring to everyone's mind by my not naming him.
While everyone does have a measure of the Light within them, listening to the Light and following it is a choice. We also have what I think of as The Inner Dark, what I have heard Evangelical's refer to as The Voice of Satan. In psychological terms it is the collection of biases, prejudices, hatreds, self centered beliefs, and personal aggrandizement that we all fall prey to.
It would be so easy to give a long list of examples of people who followed the Light, and those who followed the Dark. Examples that would give the idea that it is an either or binary choice. Instead, I'm going to talk about a much more complicated figure.
In America Mahatma Gandhi is viewed as the ultimate Holy Man. A figure of inspiration when it comes to peace and nonviolence. Gandhi is an inspiration to many Generations of Friends (a specific positive example). I cannot speak to how he is viewed in India, but I am fairly certain that he is a national hero.
So, imagine my surprise when I read about an effort inspired by the American movement to remove statues of controversial racist figures from public view. In Ghana, my Sister-in-Law's home country, the students were fighting to remove a statue of Mahatma Gandhi from their campus.
Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer originally, who worked in Africa... on the side of oppression. It would be fair to characterize Gandhi's work in South Africa as about elevating Indians above the native African population. (For more on this subject I recommend this article Was Mahatma Gandhi a Racist)
In Mahatma Gandhi I see a figure who both gave in to his Inner Dark, but then redeemed himself and followed the Inner Light.
While I am definitely no apologist for Adolf Hitler. I'm sure that there were many points in his life where Hitler could have chosen to follow his Inner Light... He never made that choice. Instead he followed his Inner Dark to the point where he is the example of The Ultimate Evil that everyone has in their hearts. Including mine.
In short, yes, even Hitler had That of God within him... Hitler chose not to listen.
