Originally posted as a comment to someone else's blog...
My bumper sticker (yeah, I don't like them either but there it is) says "Quakers: Religious Witness for Peace for 300 Years." (Actually, that'a paraphrase, now that I think of it. It's been there so long I don't notice it, any more. Does it say 350 years?)
Other people do notice it, though, and that may be because it's in the middle between a "fish plate" on the one side and a "Darwin plate" on the other. (who says that evolution is not compatible with Cristianity?). Someone from meeting was telling me that a person he knows saw my car on the freeway and commented to him (not knowing that my friend knew the driver of the car) that whoever drove that car had a concept of Christianity that he could get behind. He told my friend he was looking into Quakers, as the result. I don't know the final outcome of that inquiry but it told me that although, truth be known, I put it on to express my frustration at and opposition to government policy (not a selfless, loving act but, rather, an ego centric one), it actually had a evangelical effect.
And I still have my "War is Not the Answer" lawn sign. As I work in the yard or shoot hoops with my daughter passers-by notice it, notice us, and stop to chat. We do not necessarily talk about war or religion--it is often just an entre to meeting neighbors from two streets way.
I also need to be an "outed" pacifist if for no other reason (and there are other reasons) that it keeps me accountable. How can I drive in a boorish unsafe manner with that bumper sticker on my car, after all? How can I yell at my children or be short with my wife, or grumble about my neighbor's leaf blower (if you ever hear I have committed a homicide you'll know the victim was holding a leaf blower--or a chain saw) with that sign in my yard?
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