Nonviolent voices: peace churches make a witness

Christian Century, Dec 12, 2001 by William Vance Trollinger, Jr.

IT IS NOT a propitious time to be a pacifist in the United States. Polls indicate that over 90 percent of Americans continue to support the military campaign in Afghanistan. Indications of such support are everywhere, as are the warnings--like the ubiquitous and vaguely threatening "Americans Unite" bumper stickers--that this time of national crisis is not the time for dissent. Not only are there very few voices in the mainstream media expressing doubts about the wisdom of the current military operation, but a number of commentators have waxed apoplectic over any possibility that there may be those in the land who oppose the war effort.

In a pair of particularly venomous columns National Journal editor and Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly not only derided antiwar protesters as those "unhappy people who like to yell about the awfulness of `Amerika' or international corporations or rich people or people who drive large cars," but he also attacked pacifists as "liars," "frauds" and "hypocrites," whose views are "objectively pro-terrorist" and "evil."

The leaders of some mainline denominations have been rather restrained in their support of a military response to the terrorist attacks. In early November the United Methodist Council of Bishops issued a statement observing that "violence in all its forms and expressions is contrary to God's purpose for the world." Still, it appears that American churchgoers have been as supportive of the U.S. military campaign as the rest of the citizenry. From the beginning some Christians have been particularly enthused about countering violence with violence.

In the midst of all this stand the historic peace churches--Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren. From their beginnings in the Reformation these groups have refused to countenance warfare, committed as they are to the proposition that nonviolence is at the heart of the Gospels and at the heart of what it means to be a Christian--that is, to follow Jesus is to reject the sword.

Despite the strong public sentiment against such convictions after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, a perusal of public statements made by the leadership of the historic peace churches clearly indicates that, while they have repeatedly called for the perpetrators to be held accountable, they have not backed away from their commitment to nonviolence.

On September 13 Judy Mills Reimer, general secretary of the General Board of the Church of the Brethren, called on members of her denomination to "remember who we are and whose we are." She went on: "This is a time to stand by our belief as Christians that all war is wrong ... Let us, out of our Church of the Brethren convictions, continue to witness to Jesus' gospel of peace."

The next day James Schrag, executive director of the Mennonite Church USA, sent a public letter to President Bush, calling on him to forsake the sort of eye-for-an-eye retaliation that "escalates violence for everyone and does not work," and urging him instead "to seek Jesus' new way of security rooted in our trust in God and our concern for all." In response to growing cries "for retribution, retaliation and revenge," a number of Quaker organizations issued a Call for Peace on September 29, "challenging those whose hearts and minds seem closed to the possibility of peaceful resolution," and pleading for "people of goodwill the world over [to] commit to the building of a culture of peace."

Eight clays after this statement the U.S. bombing campaign began. The Friends General Conference, the American Friends Service Committee and other Quaker organizations responded with a joint statement in which they observed that the only way to succeed in the struggle against terrorism would be to engage in "prolonged, nonviolent efforts for reconciliation, justice and long-term economic development"; in this conviction "we continue to be guided by our historic testimony concerning God's call to renounce war ... we commit ourselves to work and pray for the time ... promised by God when `peoples shall beat their swords into plowshares.'" Echoing these sentiments, the Peace and Justice Committee of the Mennonite Church USA proclaimed that, instead of bombing and other forms of violence, "God calls us to give bread to our enemies," to do the "unexpected [in order] to stop the cycle of revenge." And on October 22 the Church of the Brethren's General Board adopted a resolution that called "for the immediate cessation of military action against the nation of Afghanistan," and that called on all Brethren "to creatively and nonviolently challenge the prevailing belief that the application of force is the path to enduring peace."

THESE ARE powerful statements at odds with the American mainstream, including the religious mainstream. Anyone who studies religion in the United States, however, knows that denominational proclamations can be unreliable barometers of what is going on among the membership. But there is a good deal of evidence that many Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren remain ardently committed to pacifism. One only has to follow the conversations on MennoLink, a collection of online Mennonite discussion groups, to be struck by the number of Mennonites who are resolutely and articulately nonviolent, and who are critical of America's past and present foreign policy.