What The Nickel Mines Response Could Teach Us About Revenge

The radical and non-violent response by the Amish to their
terrorist attack proved to be their most powerful witness ever.

You have heard it said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but I say to you, do not resist an evildoer,... Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.

- Jesus

Do not repay evil for evil... Do not take revenge, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord"... If your enemy hunger, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

- Paul

What we are seeing in the Middle East is the result of a vicious cycle of revenge, each side justifying their violent responses as completely legitimate ways of evening the score, of executing justice. 

But how well is that working?

Among the tragic and unintended consequences of this most recent vengeance cycle has been the accidental shooting of a Ukranian passenger plane in Tehran, resulting in 176 precious lives lost. While Iranian authorities are now taking appropriate responsibility, it is highly likely that the victims of that terrible attack would still be alive if we had not responded to an alleged "imminent threat" in the way we did, thus putting the Iranian defense forces on hyper-alert status. 

I am in no way excusing the Iranian action, or reaction, but even in the case of responding to the worst possible kinds of bad actors, like Kim Jong Un, for example, we don't see it as being in the nation's best interests (and against international law) to kill him. The possibilities of untended and terrible consequences are simply too great, including the likelihood, in the case of Iran, of bringing about greater sympathy and support for the Iranian government and for its policy of seeking revenge against the U.S. in whatever ways possible, thus making us all less safe. 

Imagine our response if a foreign attack by some super power would have made a martyr of Colin Powell while he/we were plotting an invasion of Iraq in 2003? Would that kind of preemptive strike have been in an attacking country's best interest or would it have galvanized American resolve to get ever more revenge by whatever means possible? Which in fact is what drove the US to attack on Afghanistan and Iraq, which even the president who initiated those attacks to later acknowledge them as a mistake, particularly the invasion of Iraq.

I know most of my readers will dismiss Jesus's and Paul's teaching against exacting revenge as applying only to our personal relationships and not being applicable to nation states. But even a legitimate national right to defend is not the same as an unlimited right to attack.

These same readers may also see any comparison between how a nation should act and how the Amish responded to the attack on their children at the Nickel Mines School as ridiculous. But is it?

What would have happened if after the 911 tragedy, when we experienced an outpouring of sympathy and support from virtually all nations everywhere around the world, including Muslim ones, we would have responded in a manner more like that of the Amish?

At the very least the U.S. could have called for a high level meeting at the UN to probe every possible means of never having a tragedy like the 911 attacks to happen again anywhere in the world. 

But the Amish went much further, actually returning good for evil, raising money to help their attacker's family, attending his funeral service, and stating their unconditional forgiveness for his horrendous deed. This didn't take away from their sorrow or anguish, but it was their radical and Christ-like response to it.

(Parenthetically, I prefer to see forgiveness as being an appropriate response to either repentance or ignorance on the part of an offender. In other words, to forgive as God forgives, based on a change of heart and mind (repentance), or as Christ asked for God's forgiveness on the basis of "they know not what they do" (ignorance). In this case, the attacker was neither ignorant nor able to repent (as far as we know). But what the Amish offered was a supreme expression of unconditional agape love, even toward ones worst enemy.)

In the case of the Amish, it could be argued that their response--that of returning good for evil instead of exacting revenge--has actually made them safer rather than more vulnerable to attack. They have garnered the universal respect and support of people all over world in their witness against evil and for their faith in their Lord as the non-violent Prince of Peace.

But could that approach ever actually work as a national strategy?

We may never know, since it's hard to imagine any nation ever trying it. But we can say with near certainty that an "eye for an eye" approach (originally meant to limit rather than add to a cycle of vengeance) will never achieve lasting world peace, and only cause eventual blindness for all who engage in it.

Note: Years ago I read something on the theme above, someone raising the question of what might have happened if our nation had responded to 911 as the Amish did to the Nickel Mines tragedy, but I haven't been able to find the source. If anyone can find that, I would like to give appropriate credit. 

How Might Mennonites Have Inadvertently Contributed To Our Current Middle East Crisis?

Retirement mecca and home to 3-5000 Amish and Mennonites

Some years ago I raised the question of what might have happened if Mennonites in Florida would have simply stayed home on election day in November, 2000. Like most other Mennos, known to prefer presidential candidates they feel are less likely to support abortion, their votes alone were almost surely enough to decide the race.

The disputed margin in Florida, as you may remember, was just over 500, and resulted in a candidate being chosen who was instrumental in ordering the invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq following 911. By that very narrow margin, and in a case decided by the Supreme Court, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore and won the presidency.

Personally, I think George Bush was, and is, a decent and admirable person, and have no illusions about his opponent being the ideal candidate or as becoming the model president. But looking back, most of us, including George Bush himself, see the above invasions as having had serious unintended consequences, and as having directly contributed to the rise of ISIS and to the level of crisis we are currently experiencing in the Middle East.

You may of course dismiss all this as pure speculation on my part, and to even argue that had the presidential race been decided differently, the outcomes would likely have been the same, or even worse, both as to how the U.S. would have used its military power and how it would have addressed other important issues like climate change, for example.

Yet I find it an intriguing "what if" question, as I outline in my previous blog:
 https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2016/09/how-handful-of-florida-mennonites.html

Meanwhile, what affect, if any, did the 2000 election have on abortion rates in this country? As you can see from the graph below, the rate of recorded, legal abortions, while still far too high, has thankfully shown a steady decline over the past decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

And for reasons that have little or nothing to do with who occupies the White House.

"I urge that petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings be offered to God for all people; for rulers and all others who are in authority, that we may live quiet and peaceful lives with all reverence toward God and with proper conduct."

I Timothy 2:1-2

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas--A Final Post of Christmas Past

This wonderful piece by St, John of the Cross is taken from “If You Want” in Daniel Ladinsky Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West (New York: Penguin Group, 2002), 306-307.

If you want

the Virgin will come walking down the road
pregnant with the holy,
and say,

“I need shelter for the night,
please take me inside your heart,
my time is so close.”

Then, under the roof of your soul
you will witness the sublime
intimacy, the divine, the Christ
taking birth
forever,
as she grasps your hand for help,
for each of us is the midwife of God, each of us.

Yet there, under the dome of your being does creation
come into existence eternally,
through your womb, dear pilgrim—
the sacred womb in your soul,
as God grasps our arms for help;
for each of us is
His beloved servant
never far.

If you want, the Virgin will come walking
down the street pregnant
with Light and sing …

(first posted December 14, 2015)

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas--An Unforgettable Post Of Christmas Past

It could have happened much like that.

Adam Shank wrote and shared this when he was worship leader at Shalom Mennonite a couple of  years ago. Adam was born in Harrisonburg and he and his wife spent 3 years serving with Mennonite Central committee in Nicaragua. As Home-School Liaison at Smithland Elementary School, he has worked with many families from diverse backgrounds.

Christ was born today in Harrisonburg

His light can be seen shining from the 
mansions of Harmony Heights,

To the apartments on Norwood.

Jose and Maria were picking apples one county over,

But Maria was too pregnant for the trip home,

When harvest ended in October.

Now doubled up with Maria’s cousin Elizabeth,

She delivers unto us,

The world’s greatest gift.

A wail and a cry comes out of the dark

Of lot 103, 

Spotswood trailer park.

The cry is a herald, calling for unity,

And organically it happens,

As people bring gifts for the new family.

From Holly Court the Eritreans offer loads of injera bread

While the Iraqis bring pita

In case they prefer that instead.

Baklava from Kurdish neighbors on Mosby had everyone gawkin’

Which paired perfectly with the cafecito

Brought by Salvadoreños living on Hawkins.

Mennonites from Park View plugged in their crock pots

And with the little coordination

Kept Mexican sopa de res piping hot.

Then there was the group of African Americans living over by Simms,

Who lifted up their glad voices 

And sang gospels and spiritual hymns.

The Puerto Ricans from Harris Gardens not to be outdone,

Brought heaps of arroz con gandules,

Enough for everyone.

Chinese, Russian, Somali, people from the Valley,

The crowd grew so large,

We couldn’t keep our tally.

As the gifts were given the good news we began to tell

Of the Savior born to La Maria

Living behind the Taco Bell.

With God dwelling among us we all began to see

That light of Christ, that image of God

In every person, in our own humanity.

In that moment you could feel change was just around the bend,

For this new babe would truly help us 
Make America Great Again.

On The Tenth Day Of Christmas--A Memorable Post Of Christmas Past

Beloved mentor and friend Jesse Byler 1928-1990, with
grandson Holden (photo by Daryl Byler)

Just over 29 years ago, and just before Christmas, the world lost one of the finest men I have ever known.

Jesse T. Byler died December 23, 1990, at 62 of a respiratory condition he had since childhood, when nine bouts of pneumonia in succession left his lungs permanently scarred. He left behind his good wife Betty and three grown children, Cheryl, Daryl and Judy.

I will always miss him as a memorable mentor and valued role model.

I learned to know Jesse when I was a student at Eastern Mennonite College (now EMU) and a dorm assistant for junior and senior guys attending Eastern Mennonite High School, where Jesse was then the school's principal.

It was Jesse who offered me my first career job in 1964, teaching upper level high school social studies and Bible classes and serving as Dean of Boys at EMHS. Fortunately for Alma Jean and I, newly married that summer, he selected her to teach Home Economics.

A year later, Jesse was instrumental in my receiving a call to serve as his assistant at Zion Mennonite Church near Broadway, where he was then their part time senior pastor.

This was my first experience in that kind of role, one I scarcely felt qualified for. But I couldn't have chosen a more understanding and supportive mentor, someone from whom I learned so much by his example as a caring pastor and Bible teacher.

One of the things that made his life so remarkable was that he accomplished all that he did in spite of his health condition, overcoming great odds in pursuing excellence as an educator and pastor. When he was advised to give up preaching in order to conserve his energy for a new assignment as head of EMC's education department, he encouraged me to accept an invitation to become senior pastor in his place on a half-time basis.

For the next twenty years, while I served in the dual roles of pastor at Zion and teacher at EMHS, Jesse and his good wife Betty remained loyal members of the congregation. When faced with a difficult challenge, I often turned to him for counsel or would ask myself, "What Would Jesse Do?".

Pastors staying on as members after resigning from a senior leadership role isn't usually recommended. And in deference to me, Jesse would have been willing to attend elsewhere for  an interim while I took over the lead pastoral role at Zion, taught some high school courses, and tried to find quality time with our family.

Needless to say,  I urged Jesse to stay, as the kind of person I felt I could ill afford to do without. And what a gracious friend and support both he and Betty proved to be, not only to me and to our family but to the whole congregational family he remained loyal to his whole life.

One of Jesse and Betty's favorite pastimes was putting jigsaw puzzles together. The following is a poem his oldest daughter wrote after her father's death:

Daddy, we'll put together
   your Christmas puzzle.
The one with the snow-covered
   peak, steep and stark.

You feared that last peak,
   afraid you might not
have the courage to battle
   up its slopes, not
have the strength to go on
   to the summit, that
your endurance would run
   out like the last
precious drops of your life-
   sustaining oxygen.

But Sunday when you stood on
   the foothills and looked
at the climb ahead, you smiled.
   You could do it, you said.
It was no different after all,
   from the other peaks
you've scaled, the other fears
   you've faced, the other
vistas that beckoned. Your
   last climb blended into
each preceding one and you
   entered dying with
the wholeness of your living.

So as we put these 3,000
   pieces together, we'll think of
you striding the ridge,
   breathing with delightful ease,
running with abandonment
   through the snow, freed of your
scarred, worn lungs.
   And we'll laugh with you.

Cheryl Byler Keeler
December 26, 1990

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas--A Heart-Wrenching Post Of Christmas Past

This is all that was left (photo by grandnephew Michael Shifflett).

A Grief Beyond Belief

Early on Saturday morning December 12, 2015, we received the terrible news that my younger sister, Mary Beth Shifflett, 69, and her husband Harven, 77, had perished in a fire that destroyed their mobile home in nearby Greene County. We were in a state of shock and disbelief.

Neither my sister nor her husband were in good health, and had been in and out of hospitals for various life threatening conditions over the past number of years. So we would not have been surprised to hear that one or the other was in some kind of medical crisis. But we were never prepared for this.

My now deceased sister came into our home at four months of age as a foster child, the first of a dozen or more children my parents, with eight living children of their own, took in during my early childhood. I was six when she came to live with us, and we quickly grew so attached to her that my parents adopted her some years later. As her next older brother we spent a lot of special time together.

Mary Beth loved Christmas, and loved preparing gifts for others for the holiday season, as well as at any other special time. As an adult she was the most active of any of us in encouraging our family to get together for regular reunions and other occasions.

As a young adult she was able to find her biological mother and a blood brother and sister, and for a while spent considerable time with them. At that time she was told that her father was no longer living. This proved to be untrue, and she later found her aging father at a nursing home near Waynesboro, and maintained a relationship with him until he passed away some years ago. Yet throughout she has maintained her primary family ties with her Yoder family.

I will miss her very much. In many ways she had a troubled life, but she was such a loving and stubborn survivor, and will always be in our hearts.

The following is an excerpt of what my oldest brother Sanford, who with his wife Martha lives in Costa Rica, wrote on our family email group:

 "I have so many happy memories of my sister Mary Beth. The day she arrived as a little baby we were all so excited. As she grew she became my little favorite, often sitting on my knees, singing with me... (We) mourn a great loss but are committing the present in the hands of a just and holy God ...who is perfect in love, perfect in mercy, and perfect in grace."

(first posted December 14, 2015)

Click here for some more posts on the memorable life of my late youngest sister.

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas--An Urgent Post Of Christmas Past

Their dispair is unimaginable.

For Christ's Sake We Must Shelter Desperate Refugees

No one leaves home unless

Home is the mouth of a shark

You only run for the border

When you see the whole city running as well

Your neighbors running faster than you

Breath bloody in their throats...

You only leave home 

When home won’t let you stay.

excerpt from “Home”  by Somali poet Warsan Shire

Many of us have been moved by images of Syrians desperately seeking asylum from the terror of war and the wholesale destruction of their homes and communities. These are not immigrants seeking a more prosperous future, but traumatized individuals and families who have lost hope for any future in their war-ravaged homeland.

They are fellow human beings, children of God who have experienced unimaginable trauma. What should be our response as people with a passionate love for God and a compassionate love toward our neighbors?

We cannot, of course, open our borders to everyone. But can we close our borders to an entire group of fellow human beings in need, and primarily on the basis of their religion, ethnicity or national origin? What if, God forbid, we ourselves would one day be forced to seek refuge wherever people would be willing to take us in?

After all, most of our ancestors were once either needy immigrants seeking a better life or persecuted refugees fleeing danger and oppression.

I agree there is always a measure of risk involved in opening our doors to homeless foreigners, even though Jews and Christians have always been taught to welcome the alien and stranger (Deuteronomy 10:18-19), and the Koran teaches adherents to “do good to the neighbor who is a stranger, and the friend by your side, and the wayfarer” (4:36). On this issue there are simply no risk-free options. We cannot turn our backs on desperately needy men, women and children without harming our cause and jeopardizing our own security.

In a 2015 speech in the House of Representatives, Republican Steve Russell of Oklahoma warned that our turning away Syrian refugees would hand a major victory to Islamic State jihadists.

Ever more citizens of Muslim countries who have suffered death and dismemberment from U.S. bombs and drone strikes would now have an additional reason to hate us, as well as to reject the faith we stand for. If we who claim to be followers of Jesus refuse hospitality to those fleeing the very terrorism we denounce, how can we maintain credibility?

For this reason and others, Rep. Russell, a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a 21-year career soldier, laments the rising tide of anti-refugee rhetoric, along with moves by numerous governors to bar fleeing migrants.

“America is a lamp that lights the horizon of civilized and free mankind,” Russell declared. “The Statue of Liberty cannot have a stiff arm. Her arm must continue to keep the torch burning brightly. If we use our passions, anger, and fear to snuff out her flame by a xenophobic and knee-jerk policy, the enemy wins. We have played into their hands, period.”

Russell also observed there is a robust, though never perfect, system in place for vetting refugees, one that would make coming into the U.S. through that process too cumbersome and time-consuming for would-be terrorists. He also expressed concern over some similarity between today’s anti-refugee rhetoric and views held during World War II by a majority of Americans toward Jews fleeing Nazis in Europe. To our shame, we turned away thousands of such asylum seekers, fearing there would be communist sympathizers among them.

The congressman went on to say, “We must not become them (ISIL terrorists). They win if we give up who we are. …  We must be watchful. We have to have each other’s back and be alert to dangers around us. We must speak up when we see something unusual. By maintaining who we are amidst the threat, amidst the hatred, amidst the trials, we win. Patrick Henry did not say, ‘Give me safety or give me death.’”

(originally posted December 12, 2015)