The Bonhoeffer Moment of nonviolent civil resistance and disobedience to the world war being waged by the United States is clearly at hand. As Congress considers an additional $190 billion to fund the Iraq - Afghanistan war through September 2008 and as the threats of war against Iran become increasingly loud, it is time for us to learn lessons from the German resistance to Hitler, to the Nazi regime and to the war waged by the German nation-state. We must engage in the Long Resistance to this current world war, using every nonviolent means to bring about its end.I was set to be tried on October 2 for an act of nonviolent civil resistance at the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command. The judge dismissed the charge the day of the trial. Following is the closing statement I prepared for the jury trial in Waukegan, Illinois.
Our Bonhoeffer Moment:
In 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theologian engaged in resistance work to bring about an end to the Nazi regime, penned the following lines in his letter “After Ten Years”. He was in prison and under investigation when he wrote:
“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men. Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?”
Silence.
Silence is golden.
Silence is Death.
Silence in the face of our country waging a world war is complicity in the war; is complicity in the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens; is complicity in a crime against humanity.
I chose to break the silence at the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM) on July 5, 2006. I choose to break the silence today.
I chose to act at MEPCOM last July for a number of reasons. MEPCOM is the command headquarters for the system of Military Entrance Processing Stations. Each person entering the military takes their oath of enlistment at one of these stations. MEPCOM, as the command headquarters of this system, is the focal point of injustice being done to those who serve in our country’s military.
I acted to oppose the injustice of stop-move orders which force service members to extend their tour of duty beyond its scheduled end date.
I acted to oppose the injustice of stop-loss orders which force service members to remain in the military beyond the agreed upon end of enlistment date.
I acted to demand that our country provide the highest quality health care for veterans and their families, as well as for all who live within the U.S.
I acted in solidarity with those members of the military who have chosen to risk prison for refusing to comply with orders to deploy to Iraq to fight in an unjust war.
I acted to demand that our country immediately withdraw from Iraq and recommit itself to rebuilding the Common Good in Iraq and in the United States-funding hospitals, health care clinics, schools, jobs programs and the like rather than funding war, death and destruction.
I acted to engage in a conspiracy of Life with Iraqi citizens suffering over these past 16 years of economic and military warfare and to act in a conspiracy of Life with U.S. soldiers, citizens and others who are engaged in nonviolent action to end the U.S. war in and occupation of Iraq.
Does this form of civilly disobedient action accomplish anything? I don’t know. I believe it does, but I simply don’t know within the context of a world war-the first world war begun by a democracy. For guidance, I look to those German citizens who engaged in resistance work to bring an end to the Nazi regime and to end the world war.
In 1943, German students formed the group the White Rose which advocated for the overthrow of the Nazi regime and for an end to the war. Their simple, yet profound, act was to distribute flyers advancing their positions calling for resistance to Hitler and his regime. Once discovered and arrested, they were executed by the German state. Yet 50 years later, everyone in Germany would come to know of Hans and Sophie Scholl and their comrades in the struggle to end the war and the regime.
In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and many others were also executed by the German state for engaging in resistance activities to overthrow Hitler. Bonhoeffer, in 1939, had the option of remaining in the U.S. where he would have been able to ride out the war in the safety of academia. Instead he chose to return to Germany to participate in resistance work. Writing as a Christian theologian about his country in which the Church was a willing accomplice in crimes against humanity, Bonhoeffer stated his reason for returning:
“Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose; but I cannot make this choice in security.”
Bonhoeffer knew what choice he had to make, he made it, and he paid the price for it.
Let this be our Bonhoeffer Moment of resistance to our country’s world war in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere that the guns are being aimed.
The examples of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Dietrich Bonhoeffer echo down through the years. In 1983, German judges and prosecutors recalled the example set by the German resistance efforts to Hitler and the Nazi regime and crimes against humanity and determined that it was their obligation to act to prevent nuclear genocide from occurring. German judges and prosecutors actively blockaded the U.S. military bases to which Pershing nuclear cruise missiles were being deployed. They acted to uphold international law even though that meant violating national law.
So does an act of entering the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command do any good? I don’t know. I do know that my action did not stand alone on that day. I do know that others are engaged in active nonviolent civil disobedience to end the Iraq war. Since February 5 of this year, over 700 people have been arrested across the U.S. in actions to end the Iraq war-with many more arrests to come.
I ask you today to join with us in this conspiracy of Life. You have the opportunity today to find me guilty or not guilty. If you believe that the war in Iraq is proper and just, you should find me guilty-regardless of what the law says. If you believe the war in Iraq must be brought to an end today, you should find me not guilty-regardless of what the law says.
The choice is clear and stark. Life or Death. Not guilty or guilty. The future of the war is in your hands today. I urge you to follow your conscience-regardless of the law.
Jeff Leys is Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and a national organizer with Seasons of Discontent: A Presidential Occupation Project as well as the Occupation Project. He can be contacted via email, jeffleys@vcnv.org.
Wow! Blessings upon you and your quest.
Another sidebar on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is that eventually, though pacifist in orientation, he joined a plot to eliminate Hitler, because it was the lesser of evils. In the retrospective light of hindsight, perhaps it was the wise and right thing to commit to.
I certainly do not advocate the assassination of the buffoon in the White House, but something must be done to avert further global tragedy. This thug admin crew must be stopped.
Finally, what confuses me is the lackluster display of resolve by the current dem-majority congress to join hands with Pelosi and the 2008 Democratic candidates to bring this dictatorship to a an impass.
What has happened to a society that supposedly learned its painful lesson in Vietnam? Why merely rumblings and not outrage? America elected (well…sort of, with reservations, qualifications and a whole lot of manipulation in the electoral process) a president under the assumption that it was a democracy. Dictatorship wasn’t the mandate. Maybe the ‘light on the hill’ hasn’t been snuffed out, but it’s burning low; outside America’s borders it is no longer visible.
Jeff Leys, the author of this story is completely and totally ignorant of everything Bonhoeffer stood for.
Bonhoeffer was NOT non-violent. He specially rejected non-violence as a road to nowhere. Even worse Jeff asks us to make a choice based on conscience even though Bonhoeffer spefically rejected that option in his magnus opus Ethics:
The man or woman of conscience presents an even stranger case. When faced with an inescapable ethical situation that demands action, the person of conscience experiences great turmoil and uncertainty. What the person of conscience is really seeking is peace of mind, or a return to the way things were, before everything erupted into moral chaos. Resolving the tensions is as important as doing the right thing. In fact, doing the right thing should resolve the conflicts and tensions or it is not the right thing. Consequently, people of conscience become prey to quick solutions, to actions of convenience, and to deception, because feeling good about themselves and their world is what matters ultimately. They fail completely to see, as Bonhoeffer notes, that a bad conscience, that disappointment and frustration over one’s action, may be a much healthier and stronger state for their souls to experience than peace of mind and feelings of well being (Ethics, p.68).
If you would have actually read Bonhoeffer instead of using his name, you’d know that the only correct way of confronting evil is complete and total selflessness and disregard of the consequence.
What distinguishes a “normal” mind from a criminal mind? A criminal mind disregards the consequences of its actions. It does what it wants to do, without regard to what happens next. So total selflessness does not include a disregard of the consequences; it involves a consideration of the consequences that may impact on others, without regard to the impact on self. Assassination is never the answer, because a spirit can’t be killed. Obviously, the Nazis and the spirit of Hitler are still here…and they will leave only when they evolve.
gustavus, please clarify for me when the quote from Ethics (p.68) begins and ends–I think the sentence that begins “They fail completely to see….” is your words and leads to your conclusion and not Bonhoeffer’s.
@ron:
What I meant with disregard is that the negative effect of an action is irrelevant, if it is the right action to take, so it is indeed without regard to yourself, but not like a criminal, but with full compassion.
@b2ruce:
The story about conscience is an excerpt from http://www.iep.utm.edu/b/bonhoeff.htm which contains the six different methods of confronting evil which should be avoided. Bonhoeffer’s text is until “They fail to see”
“If you would have actually read Bonhoeffer instead of using his name, you’d know that the only correct way of confronting evil is complete and total selflessness and disregard of the consequence.”
I would say that the above is exactly what Leys did; he made a stand on selfless principle–that of opposing the Death Party, with the intent of consecrating a Life Party–while fully willing to reap whatever the outcome.
I will agree that gustavus is correct to say that such a position isn’t ipso facto non-violent, for it could just as easilly be used to justify violence–just look at how the Death Party has justified the Iraqi Holocaust. That its priciples were warped is beside the point, as those principles are believed in whole-heartedly–read the PNAC docs, which are full of such principles.
Gustavus is partially correct. His final comment ….
you’d know that the only correct way of confronting evil is complete and total selflessness and disregard of the consequence.”
Another voice of non-violence not as familiar:
Here are some comments by a man who stood by Gandhi -Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who led a 100,000 person army of non-violent Pashtuns from the Khyber pass region. He was a Pashtun (Afghan) political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule during the final years of the Empire on the Indian sub-continent. He was a lifelong pacifist and a devout Muslim. He was known as Badshah Khan (sometimes written as Bacha Khan), the `King of Chiefs’, and `Frontier Gandhi’.
“To me nonviolence has come to represent a panacea for all the evils that surround my people. Therefore I am devoting all my energies toward the establishment of a society that would be based on its principles of truth and peace.” –
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
“Today’s world is traveling in some strange direction. You see that the world is going toward destruction and violence. And the specialty of violence is to create hatred among people and to create fear. I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people.” – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to an interviewer in 1985
His story is contained in ‘Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, A Man To Match His Mountains’, by Eknath Easwaran (Published by Nilgiri Press).
Also see NPR highlights:
http://www.npr.org/programs/musings/2003/jan/khan.html?sc=emaf
Well, Jeff, you have gone and done it. You did what you felt you had to do and I admire you for your courage, I am sure others do as well. For those who are bickering on the curling edges of the fight you are fighting I would remind them to try on your shoes for size. I doubt if any one of them would fit. Their shoes have not been where you have been. You have stood your ground and your shoes have held you fast for principles you believe in. Keep up the good work!!!
Thank you, Jeff, and all who walk the talk trying to end this war and foster peace.
The trouble with non-violence is you have to convince people that they should be willing to die without instinctively fighting death away.
The trouble with violence is you have to justify the killing. If you don’t care, then are you any different from Bush, etc., who think their plans are worth the destruction? If you do care, then if you killed, say, a policeman or a soldier, perhaps you feel justified in doing so, but what if that person would have come around later? Those police and soldiers are not the originators of the policy, and it will take a long time for your violence to reach the center. The rest of people are, essentially, collateral damage. They are called to do their jobs, they don’t think very much about it, and when you start shooting at them, they are quite justified in shooting back.
Violence is very cathartic. I read, such as on GNN’s forums, the words of people who would really like to just get out there and murder some people who are causing the trauma. They are well aware that they cannot do this, because the negative effects would outweigh the positive.
Still, to many men, it feels good to contemplate killing your enemies. It probably feels good to kill them, too, to a certain extent.
In other words, non-violence is not obvious, and it requires a lot of training and self-control.
Bonhoeffer was a Christian. Jeff Leys is free to extract Mr. Bonhoeffer from his true context, and insert him into a generic non-violent movement that includes people like Ghandi, and …Khan (as curmudgeon99) and countless others if he pleases.
The truth is however, you will never understand Bonhoeffer, and his writings unless you understand the true nature of the Christian faith. In rememberance of Mr. Bonhoeffer, and his great spriritual struggle, I am compelled to remind the author that you cannot separate this man from Jesus Christ and still speak the truth.
In regards to MR. Duncan’s comment - to the true follower of Christ, non-violence is obvious and requires no training, but only faith and prayer, which results is the self-control required. How else could the early Christians allow themselves to be burnt to death rather than simply say a few words (they were asked to simply curse Jesus and bow down in front of a Roman statue - read “Early Christians” by Arnold - free on internet).
I realize this is a basically atheistic, or agnostic website, so I realize anything I say will be interpreted as preaching.
I therefore stop here out of politeness. However - and I think Bonoeffer would agree, that his name is nothing- put the name of Jesus in your hearts, and in front of your movement, and you will see results.
On behalf of people of conscious everywhere thank you for your actions and your words.
Pay no attention whatsoever to religion, it will only confuse you. The priests are not on your side. Never confess any contemplated action to a priest minister nun or pastor. They will rat on you. Christianity as it is currently practised only serves to give cover to the monsters, and possibly even spawn them. Think of cardinal ratzinger and the death of liberation theology. Religion is the path of naval gazing, thumb twiddling and distraction. Plan your action carefully, be clear in the correctness of the action and be resolute in the execution.
Resistance in a totalitarian state is much more difficult, let’s not let it get that way.
tech2 said: ,”I therefore stop here out of politeness. However - and I think Bonoeffer would agree, that his name is nothing- put the name of Jesus in your hearts, and in front of your movement, and you will see results.”
Yeah, we see the results alright! GWB put the name of Jesus in his heart and in front of his movement and the result is a million dead mussliums, 3000 dead troops and at least 20,000 seriously wounded. Wacky religions have no place in government.
“I realize this is a basically atheistic, or agnostic website, so I realize anything I say will be interpreted as preaching.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. This is not an anti-religious site. Quite the contrary, what we are endeavoring to foster is a complete tollerance of religion (inluding the christian faith everywhere) but not at the exclusion of all other religions. Favoring one over the others is in many ways is what leads to armed conflict. That is the lesson of history. (the current contamination of evangelical doctrine determining military and gov affairs is a prime example of the danger of Christian faith where a secular government once stood.)
Feel free to practice and believe in your religion if it gives you comfort, Just don’t force everybody else to suffer it.
Cheers,
pacplyer
Targeting MEPS is a good move - probably better than targeting recruiting stations. it is the central point where all the young poeple in your area get shipped through.
Everyone should look up their local MEPS Station (usually in their local Federal building) and plan an action there. Note that you MUST by law be allowed through the checkpoint at the federal building entrance as long as you don’t have anything taht can be used as weapon. Make your signs out of fabric and tuck them in your pants.
Gustavus: I believe Bonhoefer and his friends agonized over the decision they finally made to assassinate Hitler. For them, it was the lesser of two evils: get rid of Hitler or let him take over the world.
A couple of years ago, after seeing an excellent documentary on Bonhoefer’s life, I stopped in at a “Christian” bookstore to find one of his books. There were none. There were no biographies of him. There were, however, FOUR different books on George Bush and his relationship with Jesus and many other books on other far-right-religious “heroes” of our time.
It was obviously a book store for the base but, as such, it was depriving Christian readers of serious contemplation and reflection on one of the biggest moral issues of the 20th century.
pacplyer,
you make a good point regarding GWB. But many humans do incredible things in the “name of something” Whether it be their own ego, or some political movement or some cult, or even a “religion”.
Science (or rather misinterpretation of science) has been the underpinning for all sorts of things - prejudice against blacks via early evolution theory, eugenics and the forced sterilization of handicapped people, etc…
Does this negate science - no, it does not, so lets separate the human interpretation from the real thing.
Also, please keep in mind the christian religious movement in America does not reflect in any way what is happening in the rest of the world.
Resistance is the act that unites Jeff with Dietrich. Making a statement with body and blood that what our government has done and continues to do to the people and resources of Iraq is unacceptable, inhumane, and shameful. I commend, you, Jeff and thank you for your resistance.
The goal of our government is global dominion. Our elected officials are not nation building but empire building, and each of us must decide if this is what we endorse.
It is time for us to stop petitioning for peace while we pay for a new world order. I say, stop paying the income tax. Find a way for yourself to resist. We cannot let this continue in our name, with our money.
The python has consumed and digested America
and shit out what we see around us today. It now unhinges its jaws so as to swallow
the world.
-Joe Bageant
I do not think this is a particularly agnostic or atheistic site. Christianity is not a solid block. There is right and left; but the left seems to be more in tune with the teachings of Jesus Christ. This said, the hierarchy tends to prefer the right-wing lens, since in the end, it becomes a power struggle. Many religious persons seem to rationalize very easily their selfishness and greed and fall prey to the manipulations of their leaders. This phenomenon is clearly seen in the United States these days, as it was clear in Hitler’s Germany. So a good dose of agnosticism or skepticism could be good to develop good Christian analysis and attitude, although seems like a paradox. Humanism has advanced in spite of organized religion. MLK was surrounded by agnostics and even Communists. Women’s rights are not the product of organized religion, and so on. I like John, chapter 3: “The Spirit blows wherever it wants, you do not know where it comes and goes. So are the children of the Spirit”. No church can claim ownership of the Spirit which transcends any creed, or no creed at all. Christ keeps acting through many channels and humanity will continue its progress. But we must find a way to act on it, inspired by this ever present spirit that brought us here.
By the way, Christian bookstores are usually right wing oriented, following the prevalent orientation of the evangelicals and assorted allies. However, Catholic bookstores seem to have a better variety I found Bonhoeffer and Thich Nhat Hanh, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Archbishop Romero in a Franciscan bookstore in Graymoor, Garrison, New York. The publisher is Orbis Books and it’s a fine collection.
arrecho,
what exactly does that mean - “christian book stores are usually right wing oriented”
America is a different world I guess. Where I live, churches, and the people who attend, have better things to do then talk about politcs, except only in passing. I don’t understand how a religion can be divided along political lines. Such a situation implies that politics is above the faith.