MYF Peace Journals
MYF youth keep a personal Peace Journal. The goals for this journal are:
These journals are stored in the MYF room. Students are encouraged to bring
poems, lyrics, photographs, insights, personal reflections or essays, clippings
from publications or any other material that might reflect their personal convictions
and commitments about peace to add to the journal at any time. Throughout the
year, there will be occasions where the whole group will be considering the
theme of peace and adding to their journals. September 1 will be the first of
such occasions. If you have anything that you want to bring to paste into your
journal on that date, please do bring it.
Students who wish to have a journal at home are encouraged to maintain a separate
book. They will then have the option of inserting pieces written during MYF
or at home to which ever becomes their primary journal. MYF Peace Journals
First Journal Entries: Have students paste in any items that they have brought
from home. Have students write an entry. You may come up with your idea for
this entry or choose from the following ideas.
Have students draw a conceptual map or web of what their idea of peace is. Begin
by writing the word peace in the center and then working out in different directions.
See the back for an example of a conceptual map. Students could then copy the
web into their own journals.
Have students answer the question: What are your hopes and dreams and visions
of peace on earth? You could begin with some group sharing to get ideas rolling.
Future Journal Entry Ideas:
1. What are your hopes and dreams and visions of peace on earth.
2. Identify what is missing from your own life that would bring you closer to
your vision of peace. Identify ways of striving to overcome these obstacles.
Be audacious and bold. Remember so was Jesus.
3. Identify ways that Jesus provides an example that as a disciple of Christ
you feel compelled to follow.
4. Pay it Forward: Come up with an idea of how you can make this work a more
peaceful place.
5. Record stories in which peace as made possible, where God’s peace was
present.
6. Record missed opportunities where peace was possible but not allowed to happen.
This might entail newspaper clippings of violence or military aggression with
your own reflections added at the bottom of the page. You might comment upon
a presidential speech.
7. Who are the important witnesses to peace in your life?
8. A brief history of your family, congregation or denominations commitment
to peace
9. poems, songs etc.
10. How did you react to the attacks on Sept. 11? What did you think about the
American desire for revenge or retribution? What did you think about the war
in Afghanistan?
11. Do you believe that there are better ways to deal with the conflict in the
Middle East that to wage war?
Initial Peace Journal Session1. Session One: After listening to the peace witness
of a member of “Seniors for Peace,” students were invited to begin
their peace journals by selecting a peace from a packet of materials or writing
their own statement about peace.
CMC packets include the following:
___ Statement of the General Council on Voluntary Service 1950 *
___ Our Youth and the Way of Peace, 1977 *
___ The Schleitheim Confession 1527 *
___ The Dordrecht Confession of Faith 1632 *
___ Mennonite Confession of Faith 1963, article 8 *
___ Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective 1995, article 22 *
___ Prayer of Saint Francis *
___ Leo Tolstoy Quotations *
___ Martin Luther King Quotations *
___ Albert Einstein Quotations *
___ Albert Schweitzer Quotations *
___ Graphic of MLK quotation
___ Creed of Peace
* Appear below
Our Youth and the Way of Peace
MCLC Board of Bishops
August 18, 1977, Elizabethtown, PA
Report to Conference, Oct. 1977
Our youth, both brethren and sisters, are receiving strong appeals to enlist
in the military. We were happy that the draft ended, but have not prepared them
for the pressures and appeals used in the new approach such frequent mailings,
billboards, magazines, radio, and TV. In an attractive way they present military
service as a good opportunity for education, travel, job training and employment.
As a result several of our youth have responded to these appeals and enlisted.
National service for youth, either compulsory or voluntary, is also being considered
by our government. If adopted, this may bring pressure to our youth to become
involved in programs that are under military supervision.
We believe that the followers of Christ are called to pursue the way of peace
with all their fellow men (Matt. 5:9, 38-46; Rom 12:1-12, 17-21; Heb 12:14).
The practice of nonresistant Christian love is an integral part of the Gospel
(John 18:36; James 4:1-3; 1 Peter 2:19-23). We urge our youth to faithfully
apply the teachings of the Scriptures in all areas of their lives. We further
urge our youth to consider seriously a year or two of a Voluntary Service assignment
as a positive expression of their nonresistant Christian love. We challenge
all our members to a life of Christian service and self sacrifice and peacemaking
rather than compromising the demands of Christian obedience. We call on our
congregations to teach the way of peace, to pray faithfully for our youth and
to surround them with love and affirmation.
The Schleitheim Confession 1527
Article VI. We have been united as follows concerning the sword.
We have been united as follows concerning the sword. The sword is an ordering
of God outside the perfection of Christ. It punishes and kills the wicked and
guards and protects the good. In the law the sword is established11 over the
wicked for punishment and for death and the secular rulers are established to
wield the same.
But within the perfection of Christ only the ban is used for the admonition
and exclusion of the one who has sinned, without the death of the flesh, simply
the warning and the command to sin no more.
Now many, who do not understand Christ's will for us, will ask; whether a Christian
may or should use the sword against the wicked for the protection and defense
of the good, or for the sake of love.
The answer is unanimously revealed: Christ teaches and commands us to learn
from Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart and thus we shall find rest for
our souls (Mt. 11:29). Now Christ says to the woman who was taken in adultery
(Jn. 8:11), not that she should be stoned according to the law of His Father
(and yet He says, "What the Father commanded me, that I do") (Jn.
8:22) but with mercy and forgiveness and the warning to sin no more, says: "Go,
sin no more." Exactly thus should we also proceed, according to the rule
of the ban.
Second, is asked concerning the sword: whether a Christian shall pass sentence
in disputes and strife about worldly matters, such as the unbelievers have with
one another. The answer: Christ did not wish to decide or pass judgment between
brother and brother concerning inheritance, but refused to do so (Lk. 12:13).
So should we also do.
Third, is asked concerning the sword: whether the Christian should be a magistrate
if he is chosen thereto. This is answered thus: Christ was to be made King,
but He fled and did not discern the ordinance of His Father12. Thus we should
also do as He did and follow after Him, and we shall not walk in darkness. For
He Himself says: "Whoever would come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me" (Mt. 16:24). He Himself further forbids
the violence of the sword when He says: "The princes of this world lord
it over them etc., but among you it shall not be so" (Mt. 20:25). Further
Paul says, "Whom God has foreknown, the same he has also predestined to
be conformed to the image of his Son," etc. (Rom. 8:30). Peter also says:
"Christ has suffered (not ruled) and has left us an example, that you should
follow after in his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21).
Lastly, one can see in the following points that it does not befit a Christian
to be a magistrate: the rule of the government is according to the flesh, that
of the Christians according to the spirit. Their houses and dwelling remain
in this world, that of the Christians is in heaven. Their citizenship is in
this world, that of the Christians is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). The weapons of
their battle and warfare are carnal and only against the flesh, but the weapons
of Christians are spiritual, against the fortification of the devil. The worldly
are armed with steel and iron, but Christians are armed with the armor of God,
with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and with the Word of God.
In sum: as Christ our Head is minded, so also must be minded the members of
the body of Christ through Him, so that there be no division in the body, through
which it would be destroyed.13 Since then Christ is as is written of Him, so
must His members also be the same, so that His body may remain whole and unified
for its own advancement and up building. For any kingdom which is divided within
itself will be destroyed (Mt. 12:25).
Mennonite Confession of Faith (1963) (adopted by the Mennonite Church)
Article 18. Love and Nonresistance
We believe that it is the will of God for his children to follow Christian love
in all human relationships. Such a life of love excludes retaliation and revenge.
God pours His love into the hearts of Christians so that they desire the welfare
of all men. The supreme example of nonresistance is the Lord Jesus Himself.
The teaching of Jesus not to resist him who is evil requires the renunciation
by His disciples of all violence in human relations. Only love must be shown
to all men. We believe that this applies to every area of life: to personal
injustice, to situations in which people commonly resort to litigation, to industrial
strife, and to international tensions and wars. As nonresistant Christians,
we cannot serve in any office which employs the use of force. Nor can we participate
in military service, or in military training, or in the voluntary financial
support of war. But we must aggressively, at the risk of life itself, do whatever
we can for the alleviation of human distress and suffering.
Matthew 5:38-48; John 18:36; Romans 5:5; 12:18-21; I Corinthians 6:1-8; II Corinthians
10:3, 4; James 2:8; I Peter 2:23; 4:1.
The Dordrecht Confession of Faith
Translated by J. C. Wenger
Adopted April 21, 1632, by a Dutch Mennonite Conference held at Dordrecht, Holland.
XIV. Of Revenge
As regards revenge, that is, to oppose an enemy with the sword, we believe and
confess that the Lord Christ has forbidden and set aside to His disciples and
followers all revenge and retaliation, and commanded them to render to no one
evil for evil, or cursing for cursing, but to put the sword into the sheath,
or, as the prophets have predicted, to beat the swords into ploughshares. Matt.
5:39, 44; Rom. 12:14; I Pet. 3:9; Isa. 2:4; Micah 4:3; Zech. 9:8, 9.
From this we understand that therefore, and according to His example, we must
not inflict pain, harm, or sorrow upon any one, but seek the highest welfare
and salvation of all men, and even, if necessity require it, flee for the Lord's
sake from one city or country into another, and suffer the spoiling of our goods;
that we must not harm any one, and, when we are smitten, rather turn the other
cheek also, than take revenge or retaliate. Matt. 5:39.
And, moreover, that we must pray for our enemies, feed and refresh them whenever
they are hungry or thirsty, and thus convince them by well-doing, and overcome
all ignorance. Rom. 12:19, 20.
Finally, that we must do good and commend ourselves to every man's conscience;
and, according to the law of Christ, do unto no one that which we would not
have done to us. II Cor. 4:2; Matt. 7:12.
Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (adopted 1995)
Article 22 Peace, Justice and Nonresistance
We believe that peace is the will of God. God created the world in peace, and
God's peace is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, who is our peace and the
peace of the whole world. Led by the Holy Spirit, we follow Christ in the way
of peace, doing justice, bringing reconciliation, and practicing nonresistance
even in the face of violence and warfare.
Although God created a peaceable world, humanity chose the way of unrighteousness
and violence (Gen. 1-11). The spirit of revenge increased, and violence multiplied,
yet the original vision of peace and justice did not die (Isa. 2:2-4). Prophets
and other messengers of God continued to point the people of Israel toward trust
in God rather than in weapons and military force (Lev. 26:6; Isa. 31:1; Hos.
2:18).
The peace God intends for humanity and creation was revealed most fully in Jesus
Christ. A joyous song of peace announced Jesus' birth (Luke 2:14). Jesus taught
love of enemies, forgave wrongdoers, and called for right relationships (Matt.
5:44; 6:14-15). When threatened, he chose not to resist, but gave his life freely
(Matt. 26:52-53; 1 Pet. 2:21-24) . By his death and resurrection, he has removed
the dominion of death and given us peace with God (1 Cor. 15:54-55; Rom. 5:10-11;
Eph. 2:11-18 ). Thus he has reconciled us to God and has entrusted to us the
ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21).
As followers of Jesus, we participate in his ministry of peace and justice.
He has called us to find our blessing in making peace and seeking justice. We
do so in a spirit of gentleness, willing to be persecuted for righteousness'
sake (5:3-12). As disciples of Christ, we do not prepare for war, or participate
in war or military service. The same Spirit that empowered Jesus also empowers
us to love enemies, to forgive rather than to seek revenge, to practice right
relationships, to rely on the community of faith to settle disputes, and to
resist evil without violence (Matt. 5:39; 1 Cor. 6:1-16; Rom. 12:14-21).
Led by the Spirit, and beginning in the church, we witness to all people that
violence is not the will of God. We witness against all forms of violence, including
war among nations, hostility among races and classes, abuse of children and
women, violence between men and women, abortion, and capital punishment.
We give our ultimate loyalty to the God of grace and peace, who guides the church
daily in overcoming evil with good, who empowers us to do justice, and who sustains
us in the glorious hope of the peaceable reign
of God (Is 11:1-9).
Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light!
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Leo Tolstoy Quotations
"A Christian does not quarrel with any one,
does not attack any one, nor use violence against one;
on the contrary, he himself without murmuring bears violence;
but by this very relation to violence he not only frees himself,
but also the world from external power. "
" War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it
must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves."
"The evil committed by man not only weakens his soul
and deprives him of true happiness,
but more often than not
falls back on the one who commits it."
"Eventually institutional violence will disappear,
not as a result of external action,
but thanks only to the calls of conscience of men
who have awakened to the truth."
"Every man, in refusing to take part in military service
or to pay taxes to a government
which uses them for military purposes, is,
by this refusal, rendering a great service to God and man,
for he is thereby making use of the most efficacious means
of furthering the progressive movement of mankind
toward that better social order which it is striving after
and must eventually attain."
Albert Einstein Quotations
"Every thoughtful, well-meaning and conscientious human being
should assume in time of peace,
the solemn and unconditional obligation
not to participate in any war, for any reason
or to lend support of any kind, whether direct or indirect."
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything
save our modes of thinking,
and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
"Mankind's desire for peace can be realized
only by the creation of a world government."
Albert Schweitzer Quotations
"The highest insight man can attain is the yearning for peace,
for the union of his will with an infinite will,
his human will with God's will."
"The peace of God is pulsating power, not quietude."
"The laying down of the commandment not to kill
and not to damage is one of the greatest events
in the spiritual history of mankind."
"Only a humanity which is striving after ethical ends
can in full measure share in the blessings
brought by material progress
and become master of the dangers which accompany it."
"The renunciation of nuclear weapons is vital to peace."
Martin Luther King JR. Quotations
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension;
it is the presence of justice."
"With nonviolent resistance,
no individual or group need submit to any wrong,
nor need anyone resort to violence in order to right a wrong."
"Unearned suffering is redemptive.
Suffering, the nonviolent resister realizes,
has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities."
"The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation
and the creation of the beloved community."