Would a "Peace Army" Help EMU Be More Faithful?

A couple weeks ago Dan Landes, Weather Vane co-editor, reported on the Micah Think Tank proposals for the future of EMU. Landes wrote:

The question of whether we live out the call to Anabaptism is a serious one and many of the proposals reach to the heart of this question. The idea of dreaming big is vital for EMU as a place of learning in that it enables us to continue to look to the future and adapt to an ever-changing world. More importantly, they address whether we live up to our Anabaptist calling.

Last week the Weather Vane printed portions of speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965, and Ron Sider in 1984, calling for the formation of a "peace army" that would, in King's words, "present our very bodies...without weapons, without arms - and we are doing this to bring it to the conscience and the consciousness of the world and even if it means death we are accepting that in order to save the soul of humanity." Sider's 1984 speech to the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) states that this vision to form a peace army is part of the Anabaptist calling. EMU's own John Paul Lederach has called for a similar initiative. Last week the Weather Vane suggested that this vision might correlate to EMU's mission to, "walk boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace."

This week brings news from around the world. Of course there is ongoing efforts to avert a full blown civil war in Iraq and confront those who celebrate the deaths of civilians around the globe. And there is deep American complicity in a number of these conflicts after often having supported the oppressors in the Middle East and elsewhere in return for cheap oil and/or perceived political gain. Despite the vision of King and Sider it is very hard to stop a war after the bullets are flying.

But what of those oppressive civil wars about to break into open shooting wars? Could a proactive peace army avert a shooting war? This is the wrong question. John Howard Yoder rightly reminds us that suggesting we could avert a war implies a level of control over history we should never claim to possess. The right question could be, "What does it mean to be a faithful to the crucified Christ in a world where brothers and sisters (Christians and others) daily face violence, exploitation, and oppression?" Another way of asking this is, "Does our good Samaritan responsibility to care for those beaten and robbed end if they stumble across an international boundary?"

Recent weeks also bring news from less visible - voiceless - places in our world. Places where a fellow Christian - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe - persistently celebrates the oppression of civilians and limits the preaching of the gospel. A number of the colleagues of the future head of the Mennonite World Conference were arrested by Mugabe's police. Here are portions of their press release:

This Friday (26 January 2007) the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance launched a chapter of the organization in Kadoma as part of a nationwide drive to establish Christian leaders' networks in the country's ten provinces. More than 500 church leaders and Christian lay people were in attendance. The aim of establishing these networks is to create local chapters of the alliance as platforms to equip Christian leaders on church based advocacy and peace building [other reports suggest they were watching video of Martin Luther King, Jr.].

In the course of the meeting, at midday, armed police officers disrupted the launch arresting eight members of the Christian Alliance and a video camera man, who however was later released. The eight leaders from the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance are still in custody awaiting trial on Monday. The state is alleging that the Alliance incited the crowd to violence. This allegation is totally baseless as the Christian Alliance exists to bring about peaceful social transformation in Zimbabwe.

"As Christian leaders no amount of intimidation will silence us as this would be tantamount to a denial of our faith and calling," said Pastor Lucky Moyo, a spokesperson for ZCA. "We condemn this latest act of wanton violation of fundamental human rights and disregard of freedom of religion. We demand that the government opens up democratic space and starts de-politicisation and demilitarisation of the public institutions to enable a peaceful social transformation in Zimbabwe."

The unlawful detention of the church leaders comes at a time when the socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated to alarming levels. The majority of Zimbabweans are living far below the poverty datum line and thousands of children have failed to resume school because of lack of school fees.

What does it mean for Mennonites around the globe to "walk boldly in the way of nonviolence and peace" in a world in which the future head of the Mennonite World Conference - a body that globally affirms that the Church transcends national boundaries - faces arrest, or worse, for simply being true to his faith and calling? What does it mean for Mennonites to, "Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured" (Hebrews 13:3) with those imprisoned around the world who share our primary ethnicity/nationality (ethnos)? (I Peter 2:9 tells us, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (ethnos), God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Faithful Christians everywhere also share a primary pledge of allegiance - the Lord's prayer - and a primary constitution - the Sermon on the Mount.) What does it mean for Mennonites to serve as faithful witnesses to the God-given dignity of all people?

John Howard Yoder provides this guidance, "We understand Jesus only if we can empathize with [his rejection of three strategies]: the self-evident, axiomatic, sweeping rejection of both quietism and establishment responsibility, and the difficult, constantly reopened, genuinely attractive option of the crusade." In other words Jesus would not have remained silent, embraced realistic attempts to manipulate secular power, or taken up the sword in violent revolution. But wouldn't Jesus have joined Dr. King in faithfully filling the prisons? (Didn't most of the New Testament get written in prison?)

If he survives until the 2009 MWC Conference in Paraguay Danisa Ndlovu, Bishop of over 30,000 fellow Brethren in Christ, will become president of the Mennonite World Conference. What would it mean for the Mennonite World Conference to be led from prison?

Could it mean the border-transcending Christians at EMU should join Danisa in prison? Surely we can't let latent nationalism cause us to just walk on by...

Irene Safi and Josh Kaufman-Horner are both taking the Strategic Nonviolence course at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Irene has worked as a human rights activist in Rwanda, Burundi, and in her homeland the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Josh is from Charlottesville and is one of the co-founders of Mission Year - a ministry in American inner-cities.