Sunday 22 February 2009

The battle of the buses


posted by kathy

The atheist bus campaign has come to an end for now. I've found it rather cheering. Theological debate on buses seems a worthy successor to the wonderful poems on the underground. Since the atheist buses launched, there have been Christian buses (in at least three varieties as well as a brilliant suggestion for a Buddhist bus. I briefly wondered about a Quaker bus and started to think of suitable slogans. But all I could come up with was the famous George Fox quotation urging Quakers to "walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one." I'm not sure the bus companies would like the bit about walking - it might interfere with their revenues.

I was forced to question my enjoyment of the bus campaigns when I read of the driver who refused to drive a bus with an atheist poster on the side. This wouldn't be the kind of poster that worried me. But for one driver this was a matter of conscience so serious that he was prepared to risk his job.

Are there posters that would cause Quakers similar concern? How about a bus which carried an advertisement urging young people to join the army? Would a Quaker bus driver have problems with that or would the driver decide that it was more important to get passengers to their destinations?

Are there any Quaker bus drivers?




(photo by Jon Worth, British Humanist Association)