Mennonite Action (MA) Response

We are enjoying the Christmas here while in Bethlehem on the West Bank, Christians are being slaughtered – with our tax dollars.  We bury our heads in the sand.  “I didn’t know”.    Is it a sin if we don’t know?  Or a sin to not want to find out?   If sin can be described as a break in a relationship, then not talking with others may be in the same category.  

Mennonite Action should not become an institution.  They will just ask for money and allow the rest of us to feel OK because we donated.  Praying and singing may give comfort to some, but it will not be enough.  We must push people to make decisions.  We must not only be God’s love but also God’s power.  

The pillars of power described by MA can be misused by authoritarian governments.  This model implies that we can just kick out the support structures and it will collapse.  But we can’t do that.  Why?  I know people in all these support structure organizations – unions, media, police, etc.  We can’t take away their jobs.  We should not destroy the current structures without creating – and actually starting alternative forms of mutual support.  Anabaptists and Amish should be good at that.  Will they take the lead?

Neither will it be enough to form mutual aid societies for our own group.  We must push other groups to do the same.  With the right tools, they too have the ability to talk, think, and solve problems.  It may require a place where people can meet in private and form some opinion before putting it on the table.  (“. . . where two or three are gathered. . . “).  It must also be a place that encourages seeing with new eyes and making new moves.  It must be a place that turns real faith into real action.  

Political demonstrations do not seem to be working fast enough.  Vincent Bevins describes this in “If We Burn.”  It may be that people we call “activists” are not the right people to find a solution, even if they seem indispensable for getting the process started.  We must push others both inside and outside the church.  Push local groups to use their own money to engage outsiders.  

What other things could Mennonite Action do? A few suggestions:

1. Start Anti-War Games.  These can be as varied as we can imagine. (see Greenland below)

2. Find alternative modes of moving useful information, especially when the mainstream media has failed.  Push to create additional high-tech and low-tech communication sources that cannot be shut down by a power outage or censorship.

3. Ask Questions, Force choices – even small ones.  Making choices can be empowering for some people who are never asked to make choices for something outside their own world.  

4. Use of hypothetical situations (“what if . . . “) can help clarify our thinking and avoid nit picking. But then turn it into something real, some action and follow-up.   

5. Go to nearest Synagogue and engage their members in finding a better way out for Israel.  Rejected?  Close off their parking lot.  If they refuse to engage, then put signs “we support Genocide” in their lawn or on their cars.  Force a choice.  Push them to believe that their God is a living God who can change The Story.  They do not have to be slaves to an Old Story.  The world has changed.  The Story of their God can change too.  If God exists anywhere, it is in the relationship and interaction between two human beings.  

6. Find a few AIPAC lobbyists in Congress and, one by one, help them find a new job.   Focus many on a few for 1-2 weeks.  If not successful move on or change tactics.  

7. Create Ten-Two groups in which ten people support (food, rent, insurance) two in their group and free them up to do anything the group wants, including starting other Ten-two groups.  Once started, the group is accountable only to themselves.  Some will fail but others move forward, going beyond mutual aid to finding some purpose for the group.  

8. Use Other Types of Power:

 – [ #1-3 are Guns, Money, Information (Mass Media).  These will not disappear. ]   

 –  #4-10 include Division of Labor; Competition; Processes that include Privacy, Incentive, and Efficiency; Feedback Mechanisms constructed from the outside; Bottlenecks – both physical and social interaction bottlenecks; Focusing on a Few; Change the Target Learner.  

9. We can make communities more secure and stable despite a downturn in the economy if we can push people to talk and solve problems with each other, then do this with other communities.  We must think and plan ahead, not simply react to an authoritarian gang.  

What type of society do we want to emerge?  If we can create real change, there will be real support for MA both in both money and volunteers.  

Transformation Steps – 

Start quick, local debates both inside our church and in the larger community.  Allow some privacy by creating randomly picked teams.  If no one engages, then pick, name, and announce individuals for each team.  If still no engagement, challenge them in public.  Turn over the tables in the temple that allow people to hide.  If still no engagement, move on to someone else.  This is what Mennonite Action – and the rest of us – should be doing. 

Our government may be realizing that taking Venezuela will be harder than previously thought.  So now the Trump administration is setting their sights on Greenland.  Bullies pick on a weaker states.  Find a few people in Greenland (or Venezuela) who are willing to listen.  If nobody answers, then put up a prize and have a competition among small groups.  Keep it off the front page.  Help them find extra, alternative channels of communication to their mainstream media.  Then push them to think about what they themselves – personally – will do when US troops show up in their country.  Only then is it time to broadcast potential future actions to everyone, including current government leaders.  This is a type of anti-war game. It can continue to remain non-violent, even if the other side does not.  It must push people and government officials to make decisions.  Sticking our heads in the sand will not get us there.