Lessons from the Freedom Movement: One African-American Mennonite's view of peace in relationship to life and government

Oh! beautiful for spacious skies and amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain
America! America! God shed his grace on thee…
-from "America, the Beautiful" by Katherine Lee Bates

At times when I hear this song, I think of the breadth of the Anabaptist faith in our Mennonite perspective here in America-the heritage that reaches from the rich farmlands of the Susquehanna and Shenandoah Valleys of Pennsylvania and Virginia to cross the open expanse of Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and beyond. I also think about how something that many view as an idyllic background on the landscape of post-industrial America could move to the forefront, to influence this nation and its people toward God's peace with the relevant and practical message of peacemaking.

I believe there are still lessons to be learned from the strides made during the Civil Rights and Freedom Movements of the 1960s. History gives overwhelming testimony to the fact that the church in the African-American experience of faith has played and still plays an important and vital role in the social and political order of the larger society. For the majority of us, there is no doubting the church's influence on society and politics, moving upon individuals who were nurtured in it to a mature and relevant faith that impacted lives.

One of the strongest lessons the Movement taught us all is that any religion that seeks to liberate the hearts and souls of people but excuses itself from effecting change in the conditions that impair, injure and imprison the bodies and minds of people is vain. It has sound and form but is devoid of substance and practical relevance, a piety with no presence or power. An intellectual faith that merely speaks a litany of inspirational words drawn from idealistic thought and promise must grow silent. It pales in comparison to a literal faith that inspires people to simple, intentional, redemptive works that profoundly affect the lives of others.

The Movement bore witness to what we as African Americans have long realized-any faith that is strong on preaching but weak in corresponding action really has little to say in the ears and eyes of our world.

Traditionally, our African-American community sees the prophetic mantle of comforter to a people and spokesperson to a larger community as resting on the shoulders of our ordained ministers and priests in the church. Thankfully, the object lessons of the Movement and the message and practice of peace within our Anabaptist/Mennonite faith brought with them a new paradigm that engaged "the priesthood of all believers" as ministers of God's peace and blessings. With our Lord Jesus in position as apostle and High Priest in heaven, his Word and Spirit validate and exhort us-in fact ordain us both in pulpit and pew-to minister proverbially as a royal priesthood in the earth in his name. The Prince of Peace dispatches his church unto and into the nations as his ambassadors for peace.

Practically speaking, God calls us to be a presence for peace in the civic and social orders of society, to be people with a unique Christ-centered, God-honoring faith perspective.

The Movement urged us all to promote peace, not appeasement. We saw that peace is a cause for the strong, not the timid. People who once advocated concession and compromise at any cost merely to pacify an aggressor in hopes of a pleasant end to a disturbing situation soon realized that appeasement was a resignation to, not resolution of, conflict. The Freedom Movement taught us that peacemaking requires resoluteness of mind, composure of spirit, determined resilience and resourcefulness to obtain a desired outcome for God and win the person in the process.

Because of our heritage of faith as a people, we can believe that the legislative, judicial and administrative bodies of this nation need not always be in strong contention with the Body of Christ, nor remain in adverse opposition to the church. Rather, as we pray and aspire to intelligently-yet simply and consistently-promote the person, presence and purposes of Jesus Christ to a nation fraught with confusion, there will be a growing acceptance of his peace. That is our faith. But if Mennonites preach peace loudest among ourselves and print it in our publications while remaining "the quiet in the land" to the rest of the world, this nation cannot fully know God's peace. The United States will continue to resort to the familiar practice of seeking political compromise and economic gain in deciding moral issues, of deferring to situational ethics and expediency rather than honest deliberation and consultation informed by inspired and intelligent reason.

Our African-American faith experience gives us a peculiar insight into valuing those "certain inalienable rights endowed to us all by the hand of our Creator"-such rights as those that bestow "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in this land that God has blessed. The Freedom Movement demonstrated that reasoned activity (not remote passivity), integration and connection (not separation) honor the spirit of peace.

We understand that peacemaking, in our local urban village and in the larger global village, is the only viable alternative to aggression, fear, injustice and oppression. The tension is not merely in resisting war and seeking the cessation of violence-prone activity. Rather, it is in a remnant faithfully proclaiming the shining morning light of peace to overcome the shadows of midnight cast in so many unregenerate souls.

Jesus' redemptive and reconciling work and his presence as the Prince of Peace therefore must be our motivation and sustenance. Our faith experience taught us that. The Freedom Movement under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. showed us that. Our new missional identity as Mennonites with a message requires that.

In regard to patriotism, our African-American experience of faith can accept patriotism as long as it is a healthy patriotism. All good Christians ought to seek and work for the good of the country they live in (Jeremiah 29:7). But when patriotism descends into the madness of nationalism in seeking to advance the policy of asserting the selfish interests of one nation over the simple interests of another nation, to impose its will on another people at the expense of their identity and good purpose, "we cannot keep silent." Nationalism and militarism are as much to be resisted as are prejudice and racism. Peace moves us to work creatively to restore some semblance of sanity, decency and balance in the psyche of the nation we love, through the counsel of the Word and Spirit of Christ. We always remember that the only begotten Son who was given to the world through love in turn sends us into the nations in the power of that love as a witness of his redemptive work.

So when people around us readily sing about "the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there" in the National Anthem, as good citizens of the kingdom of God involved in the kingdoms of people, we say with conviction that the best example of America's presence in this world is not seen in its surviving wars but in the impassioned plea etched on the Statue of Liberty, calling out to "the poor, the tired, the wretched and the oppressed," those people desperately in need of liberty, opportunity and peace. Alexis de Tocqueville was right-the greatness of this nation is in its goodness and America is at its finest when it does good, helping those in need of liberty, opportunity and peace. God's glory and grace, more than historic Ol' Glory in a rocket's red glare, can bring about a patriotism in us of which we need not be ashamed.

We understand from the Freedom Movement that America is, among many things, a nation of ideas and a nation with a representational government. Therefore, the idea of peace and the effort in peacemaking is best heard when we as missional Mennonites with a message faithfully represent peace by our presence and participation in the dialogue of life among others (not just among ourselves in our assemblies) and in the deliberations and decisions of this blessed nation.

This we also see as a lesson from the Freedom Movement: When we disagree with the decisions our national and local leaders make, our King of kings, the Lord of lords, upon whose shoulders the government rests, still directs us to honor and pray for those in authority. That mature faith will move us in the Lord to constructively criticize and creatively challenge the governing authorities' decisions with a view toward reconciliation with the Spirit of Christ. "Speaking truth to power" must have redemption and reconciliation at its center if such speaking has any hope of transforming society. Merely promulgating a correct theological dogma or espousing an upright ecclesiastical posture is a disservice to the cause of peace. Rather, our faith urges us forward with an earnest intention toward intelligent debate, entreating a reasoned, purposeful dialogue with an impassioned plea to elevate discussions above a contest of wills and into a challenge for the willing, to make "swords into plows and spears into pruning hooks," determined to study war no more.

In the spirit of peace, we resist the temptation to use convictions of Christ as our way, truth and life to serve as indictments against the unbelieving and unlearned soul. Our convictions must serve as motivation toward the actualization of peace. The Movement under Dr. King's leadership gave evidence of that possibility.

We saw that "truth must be spoken to power," yet as African Americans, we know in our Christian communities that an inappropriate tone can compromise the credibility of what is spoken to those in power. Simply put: "You can be right, but if you're rude, you're wrong." It takes skill to communicate effectively. As truth must be spoken to power, that truth must be spoken in love so that it ministers "grace to the hearer." God's grace that engages the mind to think right, empowers the soul to desire what's right and emancipates the spirit to act in the right is the only power that transcends the boundaries of race, color, class, ethnic or national origin, transforming differences into distinctions, forging unity amidst diversity.

We also see among the lessons of the Freedom Movement that true community can never be enjoyed through a dominant culture assimilating a presumed lesser culture, nor in the well-intentioned yet mistaken attempt to trivialize the identity and story of another distinct personality. Just as God's love is as transforming as it is redemptive, God's peace moves us to exercise an understanding, creative goodwill that seeks constructive ways to connect with people and integrate them into vital Christian community. The message of Jesus Christ, its spiritual power, intellectual integrity, and emotional security, when correctly and consistently portrayed, is attractive and undeniably trustworthy. It will produce change. God's love alive in us, lived among us and shared through us with others can bring needed healing and recovery of hope for a world in need of peace and community.

The Freedom Movement of the '60s proved that peace is not some abstract, speculative idealism attempted over time-it is a practical realism for now and all time. The persistent problems of fear, injustice, oppression and violence in society were faced by people who were nurtured in and by the churches, people with a determined faith in God's peace and blessings to transcend and transform. The principle and practicum of peace, as inspired by Scripture and the Spirit of Christ, brought with it the real hope of true community and fair economy.

Finally, the Genesis account of our purpose in the earth evidences peace in two profound statements: 1. We are all created in the image and likeness of God; and 2. We are to exercise dominion in the earth. Meditation on those words yields this insight: People are the earth's most precious resource; we therefore have a dynamic call to flourish in a creative, interactive community that also responsibly enjoys Nature's beauty and bounty bestowed upon us from the Lord. We must intentionally, intelligently, with consistent and compassionate care, preserve and promote the spirit of a beloved community.

Peace, not in abstract but in focus, as seen in Dr. Albert Schweitzer's prayer for humankind to have a "reverence for life and the living," as heard in Dr. King's plea for all people everywhere to have "food and material necessities for the body, culture and education for the mind, freedom and human dignity for the spirit," can be lived in civilized society. The Freedom Movement permitted us a view of its possibility.