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Leaving complacency behind
by Jonathan Huber
Pushovers don’t survive long in the real world. Sure, you have your Yes men in Fortune 500 companies, but I doubt they are content with their lives. Musicians are known for the songs they write. Artists are known for their creativity, poets for words they assemble. Yet peace activists are generally known for what they will not do. Many times people ask why pacifists don’t support war. OK, you don’t like killing, but what are you doing to change it? We will look at a person and a topic where making peace is what they live or are remembered for, and a [situation] where complacency occurred in a decision-making process and the effects [of] that decision.
Gene Stoltzfus was a doer and he was not complacent. He saw a problem, or many problems, and did everything in his power to fix it. During the U.S. military escalation in Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s, Gene was assigned to International Voluntary Service because of his conscientious objection to the occupation of Vietnam. There, in Vietnam, he saw bloodied bodies being unloaded from helicopters. Those images he saw firsthand made him, as he wrote in his biography on the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) website, “search to make sense of life and death and where the terms of survival, meaning and culture approve and even train for killing.”
A culture that approves and even trains for killing? Are you comfortable with something like that? Honestly, [it] makes my stomach twist about. The CPT website asks: “What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline of self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?” Gene was the director of CPT [from] when it was founded in 1988 until 2004. CPT, still going strong, places people of all ages in places to encourage dialogue and doing – sometimes in front of bulldozers, sometimes at army checkpoints – [with] the goal to engage in nonviolent, positive dialogue. Mennonites are not the only participants in CPT – Roman Catholics and Protestants, among many other Christians, also [participate].
Some of you also know that [Gene] recently died, much too early, as his heart stopped while he was riding his bicycle. His legacy of a commitment of doing peace shall live on, through the many peacemakers he was able to influence during his life. In fact, a few years ago at a peace lecture, he implored the audience, mainly of senior citizens, to go to the Middle East and die for something meaningful. What a call to action! “Getting in the way,” CPT’s tagline, uses highly non-complacent language to show the importance of not standing by.
A non-complacent attitude can still mean someone can choose to refuse to, or resist performing, an action. However, I argue that someone refusing an action should find a way to counteract the action they will not perform. Not registering for the Selective Service System is one such way. The SSS is a way for the United States to maintain information about males ages 18-25 who could be called up if the draft is ever reinstated. In fact, to qualify for federal student aid, a young man must be registered with the SSS. Still, there are others who have resisted registering with Selective Service, [currently] and during the time of the draft, some of them even sent to jail. I give these people my utmost respect for their decision not to register.
I am not opposed to resistance as a vehicle of action. Look at war tax resisters. They are people who refuse to pay some or all of their federal taxes that would end up paying for war or violent actions. Ask yourself: “Why do I pay for something I wouldn’t do?” It would be like somebody coming to your door and begging for money, only to run and purchase weapons. Would you support that person? I’m guessing no. More often than not, war tax resisters choose to donate the money that would go to the Internal Revenue Service to charities, aid and relief work. I argue that if you choose to resist something, be grounded in your beliefs as to why, and use the resistance as a vehicle of action. What might seem like complacent doing nothing is actually a perfect way to challenge the status quo and speak out against something that seems normal to almost everyone.
Now, let’s talk about a situation still ongoing that has not had very good publicity or meaningful conversation: the national anthem [controversy] at Goshen College in Goshen, Ind. … Goshen College chose not to play “The Star-Spangled Banner” in its entire history, until recently. A resident from the surrounding area called into a national conservative radio talk show, bringing attention to the fact Goshen does not play the anthem prior to sporting events. The publicity and airing of the college’s number started a national onslaught of phone calls to the college, forcing them to open a crisis line so people could leave messages. After much discussion among [administration], the decision was made to begin playing the anthem, so as to “become a more hospitable place for visitors.”
Yes, the constituents of the college did respond to the leadership’s action, but from what I saw to be in a negative way. I read comments on sites like Facebook that said: “We will stop donating to the college.” “We should sing ‘606’ [‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow’] while they play the anthem.” “I will never go to another Maple Leaf sporting event.” “I won’t set foot on the campus again.” “Don’ter” dialogue will not change things.
Time and again, Historic Peace Churches have challenged the status quo and this time, Goshen became complacent and caved to intimidation. This could have been an excellent time for the college to educate its detractors and remain steadfast in their beliefs. To many Mennonites, the ritual of playing the anthem puts country above God. Other people disagree with the language, saying it glorifies war. “The rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air...” Complacency takes no chances to educate.
Mennonites, Quakers and Church of the Brethren are the Historic Peace Churches. That means we believe in “active peacemaking and an understanding to love one’s neighbor, just as Christ implored in the Sermon on the Mount.” One of my favorite Beatitudes is Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers [my emphasis], for they will be called [children] of God.” In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, he wrote: “They must not only have peace but make it. [Christ’s] disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others.”
There is a grand distinction between having and making. Having is a passive action; making is active. Historic Peace Churches are called to active peacemaking, not tiptoeing through complacency. Bonhoeffer goes on to say: “[Peacemakers] maintain fellowship where others would break it off.” I argue that if thoughtful dialogue occurs at every step of the way, meaningful change can be made an inclusive goal of a large number of people, not just an exclusive goal for a few like-minded people. Dialogue is better than conversation. It is deeper. It resonates more soundly.
A paragraph from the final entry of Gene Stoltzfus’ blog reads:
“Every one of us is impacted by a dominant culture which insists that military or police force will make things right. Every day, that culture tells us that dirty tricks, usually done in secret, are required for our survival. After all, it’s argued, someone has to do this dirty work. It’s called a noble work and … mercenaries are required for the work. It will take an expanding world-wide but grassroots culture reaching beyond national borders to fashion a body of Christian peacemakers to be an effective power to block the guns and be part of transforming each impending tragedy of war. Little by little there will be change.”
It is time we stop being pushovers in the battle for peace. Complacency gets nowhere. Gene Stoltzfus lived his life being non-complacent. Where other people might have said, “I won’t,” Gene might have said, “Well, here’s a different way to address it.” We must continue challenging the status quo and leave complacency behind. As Gene said, “Little by little, there will be change.”
Jon Huber (pictured above) is a senior communication arts major from South Hutchinson. This is the revised text of the speech he delivered in the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest April 26 at Bethel College and for which he won first place.