Goshen College Bows to Nationalism
With media from all over the U.S. in attendance, Goshen College played the national anthem for the first time today. Before playing the anthem they announced that Goshen is a “Christ-centered” institution which believes in peace. Then, after several statements about the college’s core identity, hospitality and welcome, and respect for people’s differing opinions, they asked people to rise for the playing of the anthem. The baseball players lined up on the field and faced the flag, which a handful of students stood underneath, perhaps in fear that someone might try to take it down. Many of the people in attendance stood while several of us sat in protest.
The fact that Goshen College had to qualify the playing of the anthem to make sure that people understood the college’s peace position indicates that they are aware that the anthem communicates something other than what they support. In our discussion with Jim Brenneman, president of Goshen College, he told us that the college has never been more public about its peace witness, placing ads all over the local media with the slogan “Goshen College: Healing the World Peace by Peace.” Not only this, but the college is trying to implement a peace perspective even more systematically in the curriculum. While these are all admirable and much-needed steps, the fact is that the term “peace” in and of itself is not always synonymous with the Judeo-Christian concept of shalom. After all, both Augustine and Aquinas said war is in the service of peace. There are “peacekeeping forces,” missiles with names like “peacemaker,” and military arguments that we should never go to war except that a greater peace be obtained. Even Obama in his Nobel prize speech defended just war all while talking about peace (with the mandatory references to Gandhi and King). Regardless of what the college wants to say about “peace” — be it in their ads or on the field before a game — adopting the national anthem has the unfortunate but explicit side effect of watering down their own core message.
In spite of this, Jim shared in our conversation that he hopes this “experiment” will communicate a new form of peacemaking to Mennonites and will remove a barrier to dialogue with those who see playing the anthem as a non-negotiable. Yet, from where we were sitting in the bleachers, the anthem decision is not effectively communicating this message to either side. To many Mennonites, sympathizers with the Anabaptist witness and others, playing the national anthem remains a disappointment at best (and an act of “selling out” at worst). To nationalists who want the anthem played, the act is confirmation of something that Goshen should have been doing all along. For example, people on the Facebook page for the national anthem interpret it as Goshen finally shifting gears. Clearly, this decision is not saying what the college hopes it is saying, no matter how it is re-framed.
Thus another point that Jim made to us was refuted in the long announcements and prayers that surrounded the anthem: he told us that the anthem and flags are “peripheral” issues at the boundaries of the faith that must be “permeable.” But flags and anthems come with history and are already loaded with meaning. We do not get to impose our own meaning on them just because it is more convenient for us. Nekeisha told Jim at our meeting that if somebody burns a cross, we don’t get to reinterpret that as a nonracist act. It comes with its own meaning and history. Not only this but would he say that the Sermon on the Mount has no meaning except what we give it? Can we make it mean whatever we like? I think not, and I suspect he would agree. But in making sure that they announced that the College is “Christ-centered” and committed to “peace” they ironically revealed the anthem’s longstanding connection to nationalism and warfare — and wanted to distance themselves from it.
The national and local media were on hand en masse, perhaps hoping somebody would do something besides sit quietly in resistance. It was a weekday and not many people who didn’t like this decision were able to take off work to come. But apparently, people thought those of us who did show were going to raise hell. Lo and behold, we sat. A couple of us had ashes in the shape of a cross on our foreheads to mourn. I hope that this surprise move stifled the national media attention to some degree, as the media has been one of the main avenues driving this change. Today, Nekeisha and I refused interviews with local papers and television, the Indianapolis papers, and even the New York Times, seeing it as counterproductive to the conversations we have started with people at the college. As we see it, the goal is not to have fifteen minutes of fame but to oppose idolatry within the Christian church, and right now among the Mennonite Church.
In our discussion with Jim, he mentioned several times that playing the anthem is an “experiment” and he stated that it “could be changed back in a year” when the college board of trustees reviews the decision in June 2011. Yet all this media talk and interviews do not help that to become a serious option. If Jim is serious about a review, we would urge him to refrain from interviews on the anthem so that the college does not become more entrenched in this decision and reduce the possibility for change — or risk greater embarrassment if/when the institution changes it back. That said, the term “experiment” is a change in language from their initial announcement last month that there was a policy “change.” If they are serious, and if they truly review the process, I fail to see how they can say this has communicated the kind of peacemaking the college hoped it would to either side. Moreover, the language of experimentation, also means that efforts like the petition we have put up may be more effective than we first imagined.
Today was one of the saddest days in my time as a Mennonite. An official institution of Mennonite Church U.S.A. bowed to the golden calf when the music was played. They now have a thin peace that cannot recognize idolatry in the modern world.
–Andy Alexis-Baker
Update: Though we did not give interviews to secular media, Nekeisha was quoted without permission in a USA Today article explaining the crosses in ashes we had on our foreheads.
Tags: anthem, Goshen College
