My vision for the Mennonite peace position

As an assignment for a peace studies course at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, student Jan Braun of Osler, Saskatchewan, analyzed Mennonite responses to the 1990 Gulf War. The following is her response to the findings.

August 2, 1990 was the day many people thought they were seeing a Hitler-like beast rear his ugly head in the form of Saddam Hussein and his invasion of Kuwait. Many people, including the Canadian government, saw military action as the only option.

Through researching responses in the Mennonite Reporter (Sept. 1990 to April 1991), it's clear that General Conference and Mennonite Church members did not take the same view as the U.S. and Canadian governments.

The Mennonite responses showed leadership and an ability not to take sides on the issue. Seeing that both sides had valid concerns, the first thing that needed to be done was to put away weapons of war. Mennonites lifted their voices and real action was taken.

Sharon Welch in A Feminist Ethic of Risk, says that one of the main problems in western society is what she calls an "all or nothing ethic." A prevailing attitude is that if complete change can not be effected, no attempt should be made at any amount of change.

In contrast, I see Mennonites as having a mentality of patience which reduces the frustration of accomplishing only small goals. My hope is that we can maintain this mentality, not matter how discouraging. Can we be a community in which small victories can be celebrated, despite the fact that we cannot stop daily bloodshed from occurring all over the world?

We can look to the model of Jesus. I believe it was not merely chance or missed opportunity that Jesus did not lead Jewish.Zealots in an armed rebellion against the oppressive Roman government; he chose not to. I believe that it was not chance or missed opportunity that Jesus didn't call down myriads of angels to eradicate the Romans; he chose not to.

Perhaps some think the Mennonite message of nonviolence and resistance/pacifism is already done to death, but I wish to support it at every opportunity because we have the model of Christ who made conscious, daily choices. This has real consequences for US.

We also have the model of our ancestors. Menno Wiebe once said in a lecture I attended, "If you say the same thing that your ancestors said, then you are not saying the same thing." It is imporant to find a way of marrying the past with the present. We are in a different position than our ancestors and can afford to practise nonviolent resistance without fearing immediate persecution.

I find it important also to remember that following Christ is a radical undertaking. To me, this means that we can no longer simply be pacifists but must be practising peace in the form of nonviolent resistance so that we do not say the same thing our ancestors said.

My hope is that a balance can be found between concentrating on peace within our own communities and in the global community where we are called to peacemakers.