[amc] Fwd: Monks and Amish - Gene Stoltzfus blog gstoltzfus.blogspot.com
- From: "Ray Gingerich" <rjgingerich@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Austin Mennonite Church" <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Milwaukee Mennonite" <milwaukee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:02:12 -0700
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gene Stoltzfus <gstoltzfus@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Oct 9, 2007 4:01 PM
Subject: Monks and Amish - Gene Stoltzfus blog gstoltzfus.blogspot.com
To:
*Monks and Amish*
Buddhists and Amish, two communities from widely different parts of the
world who refuse to use violence against enemies, are in my imagination
these days. Both had members who were killed by someone from outside their
community. Both refused to retaliate. Both of them consider the person or
persons who killed their members to be worthy of love and forgiveness. Both
have developed teachings, styles of social formation, rituals, and tough
disciplines over centuries.
We can learn from these communities who have tried, often with wide margins
of imperfection, to build a culture of peace. In both communities
nonviolence is not simply a political tactic but a way of life. For the
Amish people and the Buddhist monks, non retaliation is so deeply rooted and
beyond question that outsiders with utilitarian lenses can be startled by
the consequences of these deeply held convictions.
Both my mother and father came from families that had Amish roots. They used
Deitsch (Pennsylvania Dutch) to talk to each other when they didn't want us,
their children, to understand. As I grew up, Amish people regularly came to
our home, often to discuss problems in their community with my father, a
Mennonite pastor and Bishop. I was usually cut out of those conversations
either by language or closed doors, but I sensed emotional trauma and
trouble. As a child the solution seemed simple, if there was a problem, just
stop being Amish. I was not attracted to their life of horses, buggies, oil
lamps and suspenders. Later my attitude changed as I became more impressed
with their conviction and tenacity for healthy living, compassion and
faithfulness in a fairly mean world, enraptured by skin deep Hollywood love.
As a young civilian volunteer in Viet Nam during the war I came to know the
Buddhist communities there, the distant cousins of the Burmese monks. On
June 11, 1963, three weeks before I arrived in Viet Nam, Buddhist monk,
Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection to
protest the persecution of Buddhists by the Vietnamese government. Self
immolation in Viet Nam by monks has a long history, often but not always,
interconnected with political protest.
Two years later as a volunteer in Nha Trang, a city north of Saigon I was
asked to be treasurer of the emergency relief committee at the pagoda where
Thich Quang Duc once resided as a monk. The huge American troop build-up in
1964 in the Nha Trang area created refugees; and the life style of these
foreign soldiers was also exacerbating conditions for the whole population.
I reluctantly agreed to a very brief tenure on the committee, knowing full
well that access to money in the desperate conditions that prevailed at the
time could lead to suspicions. Eventually the monks were persuaded to take
on the task. They and their civilian supporters carried on the work without
negative gossip.
One year ago, on October 2, 2006 five Amish girls were lined up and shot in
a simple one room school building in Pennsylvania. The world was shocked and
held its breath as our "civilization" tried to explain to itself the reasons
for one more school shooting. The encore was even more positively scandalous
when the world learned that the Amish reached out to the family of the
perpetrator who took his own life, with forgiveness and support, sharing
some of the millions of dollars of contributions that came in to help the
victims' families. Today the school has been torn down and sod planted where
children once learned to read. Was this event of terror a defeat or the
suggestions of another way worth noticing?
In Burma the monks who are not in detention have returned to their pagodas
where they practice meditation, prayers, daily begging and study of the
teachings of the Buddha's Middle Way. When months before they suspended
services to the military in many areas of Burma they had dusted off one of
the most ancient tactics of nonviolent culture - passive resistance and non
cooperation. Through the centuries young Amish have from time to time been
conscripted into national armies. Since the Amish refuse to engage in
military service Amish conscripts practice various forms of non cooperation
when the option of alternative service is not available. Some refuse to put
on a uniform. Others refuse to march or take on any assignments. Their
actions have led to a catalogue of responses from officers including
tolerance and angry punishment, even death. For both of these communities,
acts of noncompliance and passive resistance are a method of love and
preparation for reconciliation. Punishment is never an end in itself. Both
understand non cooperation to be a necessary stage of building a culture of
peace which is the will God or the higher truth.
As I write, there are memorials, funerals and last rites for monks who died
in the act of praying with their feet in the streets of Burma. Thousands of
their supporters today are deciding if it is safe or worth the risk to
attend these rites for the monks and their civilian coworkers. Funerals and
memorials are important events in all cultures where the most deeply held
values of faith and vision are ritualized. These events can evoke more
repression, however they are also the moment to announce renewed vision and
hope. As the dead are remembered, thousands of soldiers and their officers
are wrestling with their moral compasses in search of ways to live with the
murders that they carried out.
These two communities are both growing. Amish membership now approaches
200,000. New Buddhist communities are springing up around the world. Neither
one offers an easy path. Both communities continue to invent ways to
overcome new problems of living in a world infused with cultures of violence
and therapies teaching adjustment to ego needs. The biweekly worship hour(s)
among the Amish probably wouldn't grab the fancy of a lot of people,
although the community meals that follow reflect an able culinary talent and
abiding hospitality. The best vegetarian food I have every tasted was with
monks in Viet Nam pagodas. Most young Amish return to the church after
"sowing their wild oats". Both communities have identifiable garments
developed over a very long history of learning to treat the earth and one
another with a soft, kind, and respectful touch. Both look back to the
spiritual courage of their founders and continue to invent the way to
faithful living.
The theology/cosmology of the Buddhists and Amish are worlds and centuries
apart. However, the outworking of their gentle hands in peaceful living
reflects courage, confidence, and innovation that is a challenge to all of
us. I spent some of my days this week thinking about what I continue to
learn from them about the creation of a beloved community and the liberation
of God's people and the earth from the toxic stuff of our time.
*This blog post is sent to you because your name was suggested to be placed
on a direct list. If you would like your address removed or changed please
email me at **genestoltz@xxxxxxxxx* <genestoltz@xxxxxxxxxx>*. All postings
are available at my blog site at gstoltzfus.blogspot.com. Thank you. Gene
Stoltzfus*
--
Gene Stoltzfus,
RR #1 RMB 293, Fort Frances. ON P9A3M2
Box 1482, International Falls, MN 56649
tel. 807-274-0138
email: gstoltzfus@xxxxxxxxx
blog: gstoltzfus.blogspot.com
--
Center for Strength-based Strategies
Ray Gingerich, Associate
5631 Bentwood Lane
Greendale (Milwaukee), WI 53129
phone (512) 569-7111
email rjgingerich@xxxxxxxxx
fax (815) 371-2292
website: www.buildmotivation.com
"Change is possible when I stop trying to become that which I am not and
become that which I am." Frederick Perls
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