Debunking all redemptive violence

I was saddened to learn of Zinn's death. I was influenced by his books, and also by his presentations at professional history meetings. I used his People's History as an alternative text for four or five years in my U.S. history survey class at Bethel College.

But then I moved away from requiring it, for a number of reasons. When I began teaching at Bethel in 1966, I was convinced my calling was to demythologize the heroic triumphalist narrative of U.S. history that dominated American public life and American history textbooks. Zinn was helpful in working at that goal. But somewhere in the 1970s I realized that a goodly number (perhaps a majority?) of the students in my history classes were already disilllusioned and even cynical about America. What they needed was a sensible and balanced basis for understanding the strengths and weaknesses displayed in our national past. Zinn's People's History was helpful for deconstruction. But shouldn't I do more than offer students a choice between triumphalism and cynicism?

Another problem with Zinn was that his People's History was still trapped in the myth of redemptive violence. That book had a dim view of the violence of the oppressors, but assumed that the violence of the oppressed should be welcomed. Zinn lamented the fact that the victimized underclasses in American history (unskilled workers, slaves, immigrants, etc.) were perpetually disorganized and demoralized. They unfortunately never got themselves together for effective resistance against the ruling powers. This viewpoint, perhaps more of an underlying assumption than an explicit argument in Zinn's book, became less and less attractive to me as I sought for more peace-minded ways to interpret and to teach American history.

Over the last decade or two, Zinn shifted his thinking and intepretations in a more peace-minded direction. I noticed it first in his autobiographical book, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. In recent speeches he seemed to be signalling that he was working on a book that would demythologize the violence of three of the United States' most holy wars: the Civil War, World War I and World War II. It is unfortunate that he did not get that book written. It is doubly unfortunate that he never undertook a thorough peace-minded revision of his People's History.

Zinn was an inspiration for Carol Hunter and me as we worked on The Missing Peace. I hope that in coming years a peace-minded American historian with the passion and literary skill of a Howard Zinn will emerge to write a more comprehensive pacifist re-interpretation of American history. The myth of redemptive violence remains so strong in our culture that it is hardly imaginable that such a book would sell as many copies as Zinn's People's History. As things stand, both the patriotic triumphalists and the radical critics in America look to salvation from the hands of an effectively violent military establishment or benevolent and reluctantly violent avatar. — James C. Juhnke

A hero of peacemaking history

J.D. Salinger got more publicity, but to me the literary giant who died this week was Howard Zinn.

Best known for his A People’s History of the United States (1980), Zinn, who died Wednesday at age 87, was a hero to those who embraced his alternative to the usual triumphalist, militaristic view of American history.

In A People’s History, Zinn wrote about “the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves . . . the rise of industralism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills . . . the Second World War as seen by pacifists . . .”

Zinn modeled the study of history from a peacemakers’ perspective, taking the side of the oppressed and honoring those who worked for justice.

Zinn set the stage for further development of a peacemakers’ view of history by Anabaptist writers, such as The Missing Peace: The Search for Nonviolent Alternatives in United States History by James C. Juhnke and Carol Hunter (Pandora Press, 2001).

I read Zinn’s People’s History in Juhnke’s U.S. history course at Bethel College in 1982-83. I was a freshman, and to me it symbolized the transition from the conventional wisdom of high school to the challenging ideas of college.

The Associated Press obituary for Zinn quoted him as saying he wrote a new kind of history because “the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times.”

Zinn also wrote on current events. Some excellent essays are collected in A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (2007), including brilliant commentary on the “war on terror.”

Zinn was a soldier turned antiwar activist. In World War II, as an “enthusiastic bombardier” on a B-17, he dropped bombs on Berlin. Later he came to believe war itself is terrorism.

A People’s History is a classic that has sold more than a million copies. I’m going to reread parts of it this weekend and remember a brilliant historian and voice for peace. — Paul Schrag

Racial reconciliation after MLK Day

A week later after Martin Luther King Day, many of us have already put the work of racial reconciliation on the back burner once again. It is good to take time to celebrate past successes, but the satisfaction of progress should not distract us from the work still ahead.

Every year on the Sunday before Martin Luther King Day, the three congregations that worship separately in our church building have a tradition of coming together for a joint service. Our smaller groups merge into one big body that fills the sanctuary to the rafters (well at least the balcony).

Our congregations are different. First Church of the Brethren is a largely African-American congregation, with many worshippers coming from the surrounding neighborhood. The church has been present in the community for decades, serving as a hub of civil rights activities in the 1960s. Chicago Community Mennonite Church is a commuter congregation, with people coming from all over the city and nearby suburbs for worship. Our third congregation, Iglesia Cristiana Roca de Esperanza (Rock of Hope Christian Church), is the youngest, formed in the past couple years. It is a Spanish-speaking church.

The service involves a little bit of each of us — the drum set and electric bass, four-part harmonies, rousing spirituals, some English and some Spanish. We celebrated King’s dream by reading some of his words and by the diverse makeup of the church that was gathered together. We received a glimpse of a kingdom yet to come.

Yet we lose sight of that vision unless we continue to confront the things that divide us.

I am convinced that the church is called to the work of reconciliation. We are a people who confess one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God of all (Ephesians 4). And this confession is not just for one Sunday each year. So how do we begin again this task to which we have been called? I am not sure, but a first step might be to confess our uncertainty and ask for guidance from the one God of all.

Selfishness and altruism

Copper thieves broke into the Mennonite Central Committee mobile meat canner overnight Jan. 19-20 as it sat outside the MCC Great Lakes offices in Goshen, Ind. The crime is especially sad when one recalls that those hard-hit by the recession in Elkhart County received 50 cases of canned meat from MCC Great Lakes in the past year.

Also unfortunate is that MCC paid $1,000 to replace stolen wiring and tubing, and lost time in their canning efforts, as the organization is airlifting 70,000 pounds of canned meat into Haiti for earthquake survivors. It is sometimes amazing that human beings can hold the potential both for altruism and for selfishness. — Celeste Kennel-Shank

A round-up on Mennonite presence in Haiti

Since the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, mainstream media worldwide have been following individuals from their areas — including some Mennonites — as a way to report on the Haiti earthquake. In between interviews, some Mennonite workers have been writing their own updates. Here are some of the reports available:

• Mennonite Central Committee is providing podcasts from workers in Haiti and updates on its Facebook page.
  

  Joel and Rachel Hoffman were serving with MCC in Haiti. The Albany (Ore.) Democrat Herald reports that the couple flew to Portland Jan. 15 to be with family in Oregon. As Rachel Hoffman is Australian, and the couple previously lived in Brisbane, Australia, the Australian media have followed the couple as well. Brisbane-based The Courier-Mail interviewed the couple, who were each injured when their apartment building collapsed, with Joel Hoffman receiving 20 stitches. They said they may return to Haiti. The couple have not yet had a chance to write on their own blog as they recuperate.
  

• Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church had a short-term service group in southern Haiti when the earthquake occurred. Beverly Miller of Harleysville, Pa., among the Souderton group, wrote an article for The Reporter, a newspaper based in Lansdale, Pa., about surviving the earthquake. She sent additional e-mail reports to The Reporter before the group returned to the U.S. Jan. 18. A news site for three area newspapers has a lovely photo of a grandmother embracing her grandson upon his arrival in Franconia.
  

• Hartville (Ohio) Mennonite Church — which with more than 500 members isn’t exactly tiny, contrary to the local headline — has been sending service groups to a boys’ orphanage in Port-au-Prince for about a decade. Two of their members, Jared and Jalayne Coblentz, went to Haiti in October to help start a girls’ orphanage. The couple have been blogging almost daily about their neighbors and sharing prayer requests.
  

  Jared Coblentz’s father, Marion Coblentz, who has supported the boys’ orphanage for more than 10 years, arrived Jan. 19 in Haiti. Additional members plan to follow, Sue Nisly, Hartville secretary, told me. They hope to repair damage to the orphanages and help Haitian partners.
  

• James Arbaugh, a missionary in Haiti, has been blogging updates about the earthquake and relief efforts. Arbaugh and his brother, Joe, who each have long-term experience in Haiti, are coordinating Virginia Mennonite Missions’ efforts and are working with local Mennonite pastors and MCC.
  

  VMM sent a group of 10 people to Haiti Jan. 21, including relief workers, a parademic, emergency medical technicians, a firefighter, a physician and several nurses. Most of the participants have been on medical teams in Haiti, and some will serve as Creole translators. The News Virginian of Waynesboro, Va., and The News Leader of Staunton, Va., interviewed some participants before they left. VMM is posting updates on its Facebook page and is waiting to hear from people on the ground as to whether more medical teams are needed, Galen Lehman, VMM Caribbean regional director, told me.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate any English-language blogs or news sites by Haitian Anabaptists. If you know of any, please post information in the comments. — Celeste Kennel-Shank

Responding to rapes in Bolivia

The picture portrays one side of a tragedy: Five young men, some in overalls, peer through the bars of a prison cell. The caption: “Willy Reimer, a missionary working in Bolivia among Old Colony Mennonites, reads Scripture to young Mennonite men imprisoned in connection with a series of assaults.”

The ChristianWeek story that the photo accompanies follows up on a terrible situation in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, where 12 men are accused in 140 officially confirmed cases of rape.

Josiah Neufeld recalls the shocking details: “According to reports, gangs of young men from the colony were spraying cattle tranquilizer into open windows at night, then breaking in to rape the sedated women and girls.”

The story mostly describes a visit by a team of Canadians who visited the colony in an effort to bring an evangelical ministry. John Banman of Ontario, coleader of the group, sent by an organization called Power to Change, tells of visiting seven men in prison. All claimed to be innocent, he said, and “after two hours of sharing the gospel, all seven men accepted the Lord.”

Neufeld writes that “the colony is governed by church elders who oppose the infiltration of any other form of faith, including evangelical Christianity.”
But in this case, apparently, the elders welcomed evangelical outsiders because, as Banman put it, “they [the elders] didn’t know what to do.”

What’s the best way to help this hurting community? Not everyone agrees that the Power to Change group’s evangelistic approach was the best. One who questioned it was Hans Werner, co-editor of Preservings, a Winnipeg, Man.-based magazine that covers Mennonite history and conservative groups (and unfortunately is not online). Werner wrote: “The view of some that all that needs to happen is for Bolivian Mennonites to turn to North American-style evangelical Christianity for the problem to be solved is misplaced.”

What’s certain is that the people of Manitoba Colony need our prayers and compassionate response through channels such as Mennonite Central Committee. It’s unfortunate that MCC’s offer of counseling for the victims was rejected. John Janzen, Low German coordinator for MCC Canada, says colony leaders were the ones who rejected this. How could that decision be anything but a terrible mistake? Isolation has been the colonists’ way of life, but they must not shut out assistance now.

MCC continues to look for ways to support the victims, Janzen said. One promising sign he cites is a women’s shelter at Pailon, accessible to the Mennonite colonies, sponsored by the Evangelical Free Church of Canada and the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference.

Mennonites in Winnipeg, Man., are organizing a service of prayer and lament at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at Morrow Gospel Church for the victims of sexual assaults and abuse in Manitoba Colony. An offering will be taken for the women’s shelter in Bolivia. — Paul Schrag

Octogenarian getting Web savvy

Mennonite Weekly Review has been “putting the Mennonite world together” in print for more than 80 years and about a decade ago began publishing our newspaper content online. Now, we thought it was time to try a new medium.

With this blog we’ll aim to keep living up to that motto, which describes our goals of covering the diversity of Mennonite groups as well as being international in scope.

We hope this blog will be a way for readers to interact more with us, and with news and commentary from the diverse Mennonite world. We’ll sort through a fair bit of the huge amount of Anabaptist-related information on the Internet. We’ll highlight good writing by and about Anabaptists and like-minded folk. We’ll critique problematic writing in the mainstream media, church press and on other blogs, aiming to correct popular misconceptions about various Anabaptist groups.

Dora Dueck of Winnipeg, Man., won our naming contest. Her creativity didn’t come as a surprise, as she writes a blog with the intriguing title of “borrowing bones.”

Paul Schrag, editor, and I plan to post at least once a week each and hope to be joined later by our board members, columnists and other regular writers.

We welcome your feedback as we embark upon this new endeavor. — Celeste Kennel-Shank