In this position, you’ll learn to understand military law, military culture, and what’s really going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. There will also be opportunities to travel in the US and Europe to speak about issues of war and peace, explain what servicemembers who have been in the war actually say about it, and bring the Christian peace witness into the international debate.

For more information, e-mail mcn@dmfk.de. Feel free to pass this info on to other people who might be interested. For more information about the organization, check out mcn@dmfk.de. Feel free to pass this info on to other people who might be interested. For more information about the organization, check out www.mc-network.de.

In a time when peace churches are having a hard time finding ways to be proactive in response to our country’s wars, this work gives us just that opportunity. More than protest, more than letter-writing, more than being “against stuff.” We can do better by providing alternatives.

In this position, you’ll learn to understand military law, military culture, and what’s really going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. There will also be opportunities to travel in the US and Europe to speak about issues of war and peace, explain what servicemembers who have been in the war actually say about it, and bring the Christian peace witness into the international debate. In the years I’ve worked in this capacity, I’ve had the opportunity to speak in dozens of venues in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, and Israel/Palestine.

For more information, read the attached documents or e-mail me at mcn@dmfk.de. I’m sorry to be leaving the job, but it’s a great opportunity for someone to bring in fresh ideas and perspective. Feel free to pass this info on to other people who might be interested. For more information about the organization, check out www.mc-network.de.

Such Mennonite notables as Mennonite World Conference president Nancy Heisey, German Association of Mennonite Congregations vice-president Fernando Enns, and MCC International Peace Office co-directors Robert Herr and Judy Zimmerman Herr seem to be in favor of said statement, which offers amazing ideas for the current Decade to Overcome Violence. One of these ideas happens to be violence, but we’re going to call it something else: “flexible pacifism.”

It is exciting to hear that the president of Mennonite World Conference came away from this meeting with (1) “a deeper awareness of our complex world,” and (2) “A commitment … to build a radically flexible Christian pacifism.” Finally, someone insightful enough to see the world for what it is: complex. Finally, someone bold enough to bring some sense into the ridiculous inflexibility of the Christian pacifist tradition.

For it is through this newsletter that I now understand that it is not out of a commitment to following Christ’s example that we choose non-violent means to solve our problems, but out of inflexibility. For someone ever deepening her understanding of our complex world, this is amazingly simple. I finally understand what our Mennonite ancestors and theologians of old meant when they said, “He came preaching peace.” They meant, as the adopted WCC Statement says, that while resorting to force is the “result of failure to prevent what could have been prevented …, the world needs to do what it can to limit the burden and peril that is experienced by people as a consequence.” This use of force is necessary in the name of our R2P. And what greater responsibility could Christians possibly have, as followers of Christ, than to protect and provide security to the people of the world? Someone really needs to go back and fix a bunch of John Howard Yoder’s books.

It is clear that we’re holding on to some of our inflexible ways by writing in to this statement that force must respect “proportionality of means,” “international law in accordance to the UN Charter, and can only be taken into consideration by those who themselves follow international law strictly,” but at least we’re not being constrained any longer by “principled pacifism.” It is clear that we are moving on to bigger and better things, namely flexibility, in the pursuit of protection.

It seems now appropriate that we add the practical to the theoretical. It is not enough to preach the good news as we now see it; we must act it out. I propose that we create a protection force to carry out this flexible pacifism in areas of need, such as Sudan and Kurdistan. The United States has its military for bringing peace, security, and democracy; Hamas has its militant wing for its security; and now the Mennonites should create their own flexible pacifism force: the Menno Simons Flexible Pacifism Force for Jesus. Recognizing its foundation in R2P, we could perhaps call it FlexPac4s for short.

In order to allow for a smooth transition, I propose that until FlexPac4s units are recruited and trained, Christian Peacemaker Teams should be equipped with the AK-47s, fragmentation grenades, and necessary anti-aircraft equipment and be redeployed to places where people need more peace brought to them.

Indeed, it will be through flexibility in the Decade to Overcome Violence that we will reach our goals; it will be through flexibility that we will bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth; It will be through flexibility that we enact God’s will.

It will be a glorious time, and we will call it: Pax Mennonita.

A conscientious objector, who has been trying to get out of the Army for more than two years, was facing a deployment on Friday night. He had applied for CO status and was denied … twice. While he was in Iraq the first time, he refused to load his weapon even when on patrols. When he got back he filed a Habeas Corpus in federal court, challenging the ruling, and was denied … thrice (if you count appeals and temporary restraining orders). He made it very clear to his chain of command that he was not going to go back to Iraq under any circumstances. They hadn’t even gotten him to pick up his weapon for about a year. His commander, however, wasn’t taking no for an answer. So, Agustin made himself “unavailable” during the final deployment formation (aka he went for a drive at an undisclosed location). Saturday morning, he went to the military police station and turned himself in.

At that point, he expected to be court-martialed, given a dishonorable discharge, put in jail for 5-9 months, and then move on with his life. I’m not sure why he expected this to happen. Maybe because that’s what his military counselors, his lawyers, and current precedent suggested would happen. It was not to be, though. He was instead brought back to his house where his wife, two daughters, and I were hanging out, and he was told to get his gear. He explained that there was no point, because he wasn’t going to deploy. The First Sergeant was like, “Okay, whatever.”

An hour later, though, he was brought back again. Apparently the company commander was not okay with such insubordination. “He’s going to Iraq, even if we have to handcuff him and force him on the plane.” (This was known to happen during the first Gulf War, but to my knowledge has never been tried during the current Iraq War.) Agustin had to make a choice: “allow” himself to be forced onto a plane to Iraq or figure out a way to disappear. He chose the latter. While we hung out with the MPs in the livingroom, Agustin jumped out of his bedroom window, ran out the front gate of the base, and disappeared into the German afternoon sunlight.

After 30 minutes or so, the MPs started to wonder what was taking so long. When they realized he was gone, they freaked out. It was actually kind of humorous. They were completely blind-sided by the whole thing and started running all over the house and the apartment complex trying to find him, interrogating random children who were rollerblading by, etc.

Anyway, that was Saturday, and he is still in hiding somewhere, trying to figure out how best to proceed. I can’t really go into much detail at this point, but you’ll probably be seeing stuff about him in the news in a couple weeks or so.

It was one of those situations that I’ve read about, but it seemed quite different when I was involved. War resistance has been an issue that Anabaptists have dealt with for hundreds of years. Since the founding of the United States, “peace churches” have struggled with how to respond to the forced military service. We have great stories of our ancestors refusing to fight during the Civil War, struggling to be recognized as conscientious objectors during World War I and World War II, and refusing the draft during Vietnam. But today there is no draft; there is no forced conscription, just an all-volunteer military. In many ways, it was the end of our interaction with the military. We stand outside the bases occasionally and express our opposition in the form of a pithy phrase or two, but our country’s wars no longer require any sacrifice or struggle on our part. At the start of the current war in Iraq, we were told to go on with our lives as before. I specifically remember being told to “keep shopping.” And so we do.

People like Agustin Aguayo are a reminder that there is a war going on, with real people fighting, dying, and being changed by their experiences. The front line of conscientious objection is no longer in our churches or in the courts. The front line of conscientious objection is within the professional military. I hope that we, as life-long conscientious objectors who no longer have the big personal investment in our nation’s wars, can remain active in the struggle, by supporting those who come to their beliefs through their wartime experiences. It’s one way we can actively respond to the wars we are funding. Agustin needs our help, and we can provide him and others like him with something other than bullets for their M-16s.

More details about his case and how you can help will soon be available at AguayoDefense.org.