War and American Mennonites

Our pacifist religious beliefs first took root during Europe's Reformation. As the Catholic Church lost its power over the lands which are now Switzerland and Germany, different religious beliefs could begin to be practiced. Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists were three of the religious schools of thought that flourished. These beliefs, and the churches that grew around them, are still influential today. Pacifism emerged as a distinct belief among many Anabaptist believers, including Mennonites. Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists had few moral qualms about killing in battle, but Mennonites would simply refuse to kill. Europe had war fever, armies were being recruited, and principalities were fighting for power. To the warring powers, our refusal to kill (and more specifically our refusal to join their side and kill for their power) was seen as a threat. So Mennonites began our long history of moving to countries that temporarily would tolerate our refusal to kill in the...

 It is very difficult for Mennonties to live in a country that tries to force its young men to join its military. No one can predict the future methods of American military recruitment/conscription. We do have some clues, though which we should all be thinking about now. First, it is possible but unlikely there will be a draft. In the 1970s, the United States used the law to force men either to join the military to fight its war of aggression in Vietnam or to go to prison. In the 2020s, Russia is using the law to force its men into its to fights its war of aggression against Ukraine or go to prison. 500 years ago, Europe's governments used church baptismal records to identify young men who would be forced into militaries or prisons. If constructivists are right, the world's military powers are learning that drafts are a bad idea that should be abandoned and relegated to history.  Drafts no longer work in the United States. Whenever a draft happens, young men take extreme measu...

 Joining the U.S. military is morally problematic. Most Americans believe that killing is morally wrong, and they realize that the military exists to kill for American power. This is a conflict that most citizens cannot resolve, and as a result, very small percentages of young American men join the military. Those who do have to find a way to ignore this conflict or justify their decision.   So why have some of our non-Mennonite American neighbors joined the U.S. military? Some families have pressured their young sons/brothers to join the U.S. military. Some young people have felt so patriotic/nationalistic that they overlooked the fact that the  are carrying out orders to kill.  Some have been swept up in pageantry and ritual as the U.S. military parades through high schools and sporting events.  Some young people have seen the military as a way to provide for their families, or to escape dysfunctional family situations. Some young people have been drafted...

 Many American children start the school day with a patriotic/nationalistic ritual: reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  This ritual serves as a daily reinforcement of America's effort to instil nationalism and patriotism in the minds of its citizens. The message: be loyal to the United States, the country that issued you a passport, even when it conflicts with your sense of morality. The constant repetition of this ritual convinces many American children to give their first allegiance to their country, ahead of allegiance to any religious values or moral values they may have. Every country at war depends on its citizens to overlook its immoral acts. Mennonites have experienced this since the 1600s in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Prussia, Ukraine, and Russia, as these countries were fighting "realist" wars for power. We have seen the United States commit similar immoral acts in Vietnam, Iraq, and America's other wars. So Mennonites see the United States as ju...

In times of peace, Mennonites are seen as fine and upstanding citizens in the United States. We not only adhere to U.S. law, but we go above and beyond by voluntarily placing ourselves under more laws than are required by the U.S. government.  A lot of the laws of the United States overlap with the religious laws we Mennonites read about in the Bible and try to live by. For example, there are U.S. laws against stealing and bearing false witness in court. We are accustomed to following these types of U.S. laws because they are also in the Bible. Not only do we obey overlapping laws, we voluntarily live by additional laws that are in the Bible but are not U.S. law. Examples include striving to value family life, being honest in our business dealings, and being generous and charitable towards our neighbours. Americans are not required to obey these laws under U.S. law, but Mennonites voluntarily do because the Bible has demonstrated to us that these additional laws make our communitie...

Will there be another world war? No one knows for sure. So-called “realist” theorists would argue that the conditions are ripe for another world war. Constructivists and Mennonites would argue strenuously against the following “realist” prediction. “Realists” start with the assumption that war is perpetual and that brief periods of peace are only temporary. Peace only happens when either one or two nations are clearly in control of all the others and are successful at pushing them all around. "Realists" notice that since the end of World War II, we have had two periods of peace: the first when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were each dominating the countries on either side of the iron curtain, the second when the U.S. was dominating every country on earth. Because these two countries were in control of all the others, there was a relative and temporary peace in the U.S. and in some other countries that accepted a state of being dominated by either the U.S. or the U.S.S...