Pacifism in Mennonite Literature

Again and again in the Mennonite fiction we have read this semester, various arguments surrounding Jesus's teaching on peace and the Mennonite stance against war have come up for discussion. Both Peace Shall Destroy Many and Katya bring up pacifism in light in the context of war. A Complicated Kindness does not address pacifism directly, but rather portrays a community that purports to be based on love, but which in fact cares more about obedience and conformity than forgiveness and compassion. These three novelists--Rudy Wiebe, Sandra Birdsell, and Miriam Toews--respect the teachings of Mennonites on peace, but they are also realists and students of human nature. They know that humans mess up--a lot--and that human communities are also subject to human flaws. Thus in these novels human nature, over and over again, clashes with the religious and ethical ideals of peace, love, and forgiveness. The characters in these novels live in worlds where warfare, aggression, greed, inequality, lust, fear, violence, loneliness, and the desire for power run rampant. Because Mennonite communities are human, these impulses are found there as well. Thus the novelists call the Mennonite community to account for its beliefs--not just in the form of following traditional rules, but in the form of expressing Christ's love in the world.

According to theologian Ted Grimsrud, "Pacifism" is the belief that nothing is as important as love, kindness, and peaceableness. In a 2001 article in Mennonite Life, Grimsrud, who was not brought up in a Mennonite home, explores the meaning of Pacifism in the post-modern world in this article. Grimsrud's parents were both veterans of World War II, but when Grimsrud became a Christian at age 17, he began to read the teachings of Jesus and take them seriously. A few years later he realized that he could never kill another human being. Thus he calls himself a Christian pacifist. He discovered the Mennonite teachings on peace later in his life. For Grimsrud, being a pacifist is a central organizing principle that involves an understanding of God as reflected in the teachings on love and peace. He writes: "The peace which pacifists love is not simply a lack of violence. It is wholeness, harmony, restoration of relationships, healing of brokenness."

Whether or not we always agree about Mennonite teachings on peace, it is important to understand and respect these beliefs as part of the culture we are studying and how they impact the lives of the characters in the novels we've read.

One of the most important Mennonite writers on peace is not American or Canadian, but rather Japanese. Yorifumi Yaguchi grew up in Japan during World War II. He was taught to worship the Emperor and to hate the Americans. He saw members of his village die in the war and he saw the effects of the war ravage his country. His grandfather was a Buddhist priest, but he was disappointed in Buddhism because, although it is a religion of peace, it could not withstand the force of the Emperor who wanted to go to war, and the Shinto cult that taught the "divinity" of the Emperor before the war. Yaguchi was also disappointed in Christianity, because he believed it was a warlike religion. Then he met some Mennonite missionaries to Japan, and became converted through their ministry because they believed that the gospel of Christ was a gospel of peace.

Yaguchi also became a poet, and in the 1960s he came to America to study at the Mennonite Seminary, which was then in Goshen. While in Goshen, he published several books of poetry with Pinchpenny Press that reflected his religious conversion and his experiences with war--and later, teachings of peace. Yaguchi, who was a professor of American Literature in Japan, invited many famous American poets to his University to speak, including Anne Sexton, Gary Snyder, William Stafford and others. His poetry and his life are recounted in his recent memoir, The Wing-Beaten Air. His poetry, translated into English, has been collected and edited by Wilbur Birky, Goshen College Professor Emeritus. Yaguchi is concerned that in our war-like era Mennonite poets in the US and Canada are not more interested in peace. Yaguchi has been a tireless worker for peace in his own country, most recently protesting the requirement that all Japanese High School teachers sing the National Anthem, which has resurrected the cult of the Emperor, and teach it to their students. You can read a sample of Yaguchi's poetry and a memoir of a trip he and Wilbur Birky took to Japan in the Yorifumi Yaguchi issue of the CMW Journal, as well as a review of The Wing-Beaten Air. Here is one of Yaguchi's poems from that issue.