Hello Mike, 

Thank you for your response to my questions on the Recovering History thread. It is much appreciated. I'm writing to you here because I had no thoughts to share that would further the specific discussion. 

Your closing words caught my attention:

My sense is that the driving motive Quaker faith in action is always this:

I must take care of my neighbor and refuse to comply with the hurtful policies of those in power anywhere--regardless of whether I change the actions of those in power.

I spent time with these words because they did not hit my mind cordially, and I was lost as to why. Slowly, the sense of it manifested in the resilience of silence. 

Presence is the motivation. Direct experience is Quaker faith in action. The direct, immediate experience of Christ's presence is the Principle; outward principles or rationalized conceptual constructs, abstractions such as care for neighbors or resistance to statist imposition, is outside of Presence itself. I am Presence and do not reference outward ideologies, theologies, principles, etc. as sources of motivation. If I help my neighbor or if I do not help my neighbor I do so in the direct experience and light of the inward Principle; anchored within conscious and informing conscience. In the Light their is no reflection upon or identity with and through the outward ideologies or principles. There is pure action in the freedom of the unrefracted light within ... Here the self-conscious ego, anchored in Presence, acts without predictions and in complete freedom without reference (without looking back on outward thoughts). This is Quaker faith in action.

I write this not in the expectation that these words are cordial to your mind or with any expectation that you agree with them. I appreciate you sharing your "sense" because, in doing so, you have helped me push through to a deeper walk in Presence.