Quakers
...and take a chance at getting killed. This peace and friendship between the people would help the Quakers to survive. This religious group was the followers of George Fox and Margaret Fell. They rejected the concept of predestination and original sin, unlike the Puritans. They believed that all people have divinity within themselves and need only learn to cultivate it; all could contain salvation. They had no formal church government and no paid clergy. In their worship, they spoke up one by one as the spirit moved them. Disregarding distinctions of gender and class, they addressed one another with the terms “thee” and “thou,’ words that are commonly used in other parts of English society only in speaking to servants and social inferiors. As confirmed pacifists, they would not take any part in wars. Although it is unpopular in England, the Quakers began looking to America for asylum. Most of the Quakers wanted a colony of their own. The Quakers were very much different from the Puritans. Many may assume that the seventeenth-century Quakers and Puritans were similar to one another since they shared some traits: both groups immigrated to escape persecution and dreamed of creating a utopian society that would purify the Christian religion and serve as a model to the rest of the world. It is crucial that people understand that, despite these similarities, the Quakers and Puritans were fundamentally different from one another and endorsed radically different values. The Puritans' insistence on rigid hierarchies, religious conformity, and a typological worldview were completely at odds with the Quakers' commitment to religious and racial tolerance, their pacifism, their support of women's spiritual equality, and their belief that written scripture was secondary to an individual's "inner light." The Puritans were so outraged by Quaker theology that they banished, tortured, and even executed Quakers who attempted to preach in Massachusetts. Quakers in the United States are more divided, although they are still united by many common bonds. Two main types of worship have emerged in the US, generally described as programmed and unprogrammed. With this division of worship style come several differences of theology and vocabulary. A local congregation in the unprogrammed tradition is called a meeting, or a monthly meeting. These meetings are called unprogrammed because there is no fixed plan for worship. Unprogrammed meetings follow the custom of waiting in silence until somebody is moved to speak. There is no paid pastor, although various committees and individuals may be appointed to fulfill important duties typically handled by pastors in other settings. These people are often called "ministry and oversight committee", "ministry and counsel committee", "elders", or "overseers." Usually a "clerk" is appointed, who is responsible for many of the administrative and coordination duties. Several local monthly meetings are part of a regional group called a quarterly meeting, which is usually part of an even larger group calle...