We’ve heard the phrase a lot lately, but few know that it originated as a Quaker expression.
Most of us Quakers, or members of the Society of Friends, assumed it was one of those many great expressions from the beginning of the movement, back in the upheavals of the mid-1600s.
Not so, it turns out. Nor even the 1700s or 1800s. It’s much more recent than that.
The expression originated with a 1955 pamphlet published by the American Friends Service Committee titled “Speak Truth to Power: a Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence,” which promoted pacifism.
Still, it rings true to the early Quakers, who spoke boldly with an alternative Christianity that brought many changes to British and American society. The faith and its practice went far beyond mere religion. It extended through one’s relationships, including labor, possessions, business, politics, education, leisure, and nearly everything else.
For them, Truth was Christ, so speaking Truth to those in authority was to challenge the rulers and oppressors, countering them with the greater life and dominion of Jesus.
This goes way, way beyond being factually correct.
It’s more like invoking what others might do when they form a sign of the Cross when facing a demon.
Let’s not forget that authority.
