pacifism

Police and nonviolent means: Pacifists at the service of oppression

by Andy Alexis-Baker 24 July 2010

Some Christian pacifists have worked to make the police “less violent” by advocating for less lethal weapons than firearms, such as tasers. In a recent editorial in The Mennonite, for example, Everett Thomas who is also a city council person in Goshen Indiana, claims that he raised money to buy tasers for the Goshen city [...]

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Solidarity and Resistance in Community 4: A Death to Death

by Dan Oudshoorn 17 March 2010

Therefore, if we are hoping to be involved in communities of new creation, committed to life, love, solidarity, and justice; then we must also be committed to resisting and destroying that which is given over to death, hatred, alienation and injustice.

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Nonviolence: A Brief History by John Howard Yoder

by Andy Alexis-Baker 1 March 2010

John Howard Yoder’s newest posthumously published book, Nonviolence: A Brief History, is comprised of lectures that he gave in Warsaw Poland in 1983. At that time the Solidarity Movement had became a powerful nonviolent force trying to affect change in Communist Poland. Pope John Paul the II was to visit Poland just a month after Yoder delivered his lectures. So the time for Yoder to urge nonviolent resistance was ripe, though Yoder did not reference contemporary events in Poland during the lectures.

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Totem Rituals and the Star-Spangled Banner

by Andy Alexis-Baker 20 February 2010

Many people say they stand during the national anthem as a sign of respect to those around them, even if they do not sing the words themselves. Indeed, some people do not think the anthem glorifies war. Instead they claim that it merely describes a battle scene in which the flag remains even though a [...]

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Modest proposal for Goshen College misses the mark

by Nekeisha Alexis-Baker 18 February 2010

A response to John D. Roth’s “A Moderate Proposal for Peace,” published in the Goshen College Record, Feb 16, 2010
This morning, I read one of the latest entries into the discussion on Goshen College’s decision to break with 114 years of Mennonite tradition and play the national anthem instrumentally at select sporting events. Written by [...]

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Calls to Faithfulness Challenge Goshen College Decision on Anthem

by Administrator 16 February 2010

Many other people have written about how disappointed they are with Goshen College’s decision to play the national anthem. Here is a list of some commentary outside the jesus radicals site that we have found.
UPDATE 7/14/2010

Exiles and Citizens, (July 4th) – 7/4/10 – Jeremiah 29:4-7, Daniel 3 — Sermon by Joel Miller at Cincinnati Mennonite
Reverse [...]

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Resisting the National Anthem at Goshen College

by Administrator 9 February 2010

Jesus Radicals is strategizing a response to Goshen College’s decision to play the national anthem at a peace church institution. At this point, we are asking folks to “sign” our letter of resistance and will be prayerfully planning ways to deliver it during the season of Easter. Please click on the following link to take [...]

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Goshen College: Hurting the Church Bit by Bit

by Andy Alexis-Baker 8 February 2010

Goshen College president, Jim Brenneman, recently announced that the Mennonite college will begin to play the National Anthem at their sporting events. The move to overturn 114 years of resistance to the war song came in response to local pressure and press after 300 people — mostly non-Mennonites — contacted the school after hearing about [...]

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Dorothy Day lives (on YouTube that is)

by Nekeisha Alexis-Baker 14 January 2010

Two interviews with Dorothy Day, one on the Christopher Closeup Show and one with Hubert Jesse, have recently been added to YouTube. In the interviews, Dorothy discusses the origins of the Catholic Worker movement, shares her theology on war and nonviolence, and talks about the Christian call to the works of mercy, among several other [...]

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Onward, Christian Soldiers

by Mark Van Steenwyk 6 August 2009

Editor’s Note: This is a reposting of an article first written on April 27, 2008.
“My grandfather fought so that we could have this conversation.”
I’ve heard these words (or their equivalent) a dozen times after sharing my pacifist convictions. The assumption here is that it is easy for me to be a pacifist in America. [...]

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