Speaking Truth to Power

This recollection dates from June 2003.  I'm posting it now in solidarity with all the Sisters who will be gathering next week in St. Lewis to discern a path forward for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.  May they be wise and strong in continuing their witness of speaking truth to power.

The good news came in an email message, as so much news does these days.  My friend Willie would not be going to prison.  It’s not that she was not prepared to do so.  In fact, she and her co-defendants had already refused one plea bargain that could have let them off with just a fine, insisting instead on a trial that could well result in jail time of up to a year for each of them.  As she explained to us a few days before her court appearance, accepting a fine or community service would involve admitting that what they had done was wrong, and not one of them believed that.  They were determined to be imprisoned for their witness to truth in the face of military might rather than to deny their beliefs.

“Willie” is Sr. William Julie Hurley, a sixty-something Sister of Notre Dame who has devoted her life to work with the poor and marginalized of society.  Whether it is teaching in southern Africa, serving in prison ministry, or coordinating hospice support for people living with AIDS, she brings a large measure of compassion, caring, and impish good humor to her work.  Today she teaches seniors at Lowell Catholic High, a poor school trying to provide quality education for inner-city youth.

God-Given Rights

In January 2009 I attended “Heeding God’s Call,” a peace conference convened by three of the historic peace churches – Mennonite, Church of the Brethren, and Society of Friends (Quaker). One of the aspects of the conference was a public witness outside one of the more notorious of Philadelphia’s gun shops.  Volunteers from among conference participants called on the owner to join other gun sellers in Pennsylvania in pledging to take steps to eliminate straw purchases and utilize methods of screening potential gun buyers so as to curb the easy flow of weapons into the hands of gang members and criminals.  As an extension of that witness against gun violence, sixteen people of faith gathered for prayer along Pinch Road opposite the entrance to the Elstonville Sportsmen’s Association for an hour on a Saturday in April 2009.  Our vigil was prompted by the celebration of guns being held on the grounds of the Sportsmen’s Association that day.

Criminalizing the Teaching of Non-Violence

In June 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that a portion of the US Patriot Act prohibiting the provision of “material support” to designated terrorist organizations includes training in non-violence by humanitarian aid workers.  The specific case which prompted the ruling was Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (HLP).  HLP had sought to provide training in human rights advocacy and peacemaking to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey, a small group which the US government has listed as a terrorist organization.

This ruling is, in effect if not in intent, profoundly anti-Christian.  First, it criminalizes the speech and actions of those who attempt to follow Jesus’ clear examples and teachings about how we are to relate to our enemies.  And second, it denies the possibility of repentance and conversion on the part of those to whom such training would be provided.  Ironically, two of the three dissenting justices are the two non-Christians now seated on the Supreme Court.  It appears that some of our Jewish brothers and sisters have a better understanding of “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42) than do most of the Christian members of our highest court.

Peace among the Peoples

In late July 2010, I had the privilege of being the Moravian representative to a conference hosted by the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.  The event, titled Peace among the Peoples, was advertised as “An Ecumenical Peace Conference on Overcoming the Spirit, Logic and Practice of Violence.”  It certainly lived up to its billing both as an ecumenical gathering and as a conference focused on the ways of peace.

Practical Peacemaking

In late summer 2010 as I was walking downtown, I observed a vehicle parked along East Main Street with a large sign in the rear window.  The sign read, “Save America; shoot a Liberal.”  Because at the same time there was an anti-President Obama demonstration going on in front of the Post Office, my first concern was that there was potential for a shoot-out on our streets.  Later I learned that the two were unrelated.  While the demonstrators had come from a national organization to set up shop with their signs and pamphlets for a few hours and then move on, the vehicle appears to belong to someone with local ties.

Questions about a Tragedy

During the days following the massacre in Arizona, I spent hours at my computer, searching a number of websites for news, commentary, analysis; trying to make some sense of this most recent national tragedy.  While it is still too soon to know all the details of the accused shooter’s mental state and motivation – and indeed, perhaps we never will – several larger questions about the kind of society we have created for ourselves have clearly emerged.  In this column I propose to explore what Scripture can teach us about several of those questions.