What is our peace church witness against war when the U.S. military no longer demands our bodies but depends on our financial support? What shape does our conscientious objection take today, and how could it be a force for change?
On Dec. 8, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco hosted a forum, “Mennonite War Tax Resistance as Public Witness,” exploring the possibilities. The forum grew out of conversation over the past year.
In the spring of 2024, First Mennonite’s Outreach Committee wrestled with the incongruity of being a peace church while our tax dollars fund violence around the world. One committee member, Sarah Herrera, reflected on how the grief she felt about U.S. complicity with the genocide in Gaza was calling her to resist war taxes alongside her new husband, a war tax resister for two decades.
What financial consequences was she willing to take on? How might the congregation support that discernment?
The congregation devoted a Sunday to learning about the history and practice of Mennonite war tax resistance. Outreach Committee member Jim Lichti preached a sermon, followed by discussion.
He began with his experience of growing up during the Vietnam War and as a young teenager wrestling with conscientious objection and how he would respond if drafted. He highlighted the witness of Benny Bargen, a professor at Bethel College in the 1930s, who arranged for the college to keep his paycheck below the taxable income level as part of his war tax resistance.
The sermon and discussion led to deepened interest in supporting those who redirect their taxes away from war and connecting with other Mennonites who do this.
This search led to conversation with Carolyn and Rick Yoder of Harrisonburg, Va., Mary and Peter Sprunger-Froese of Colorado Springs, Colo., and H.A. Penner of Akron, Pa., who all practice war tax resistance and redirection. Joanna Lawrence Shenk of the First Mennonite pastoral staff brought the inquiry to the Pastoral Team of the national advocacy group Mennonite Action, on which she serves. How might Mennonite Action support a mass mobilization of war tax resistance?
Shenk also was in touch with a Bay Area Catholic peace activist, Lorin Peters, a war tax redirector since 1975. Through the Pax Christi network, Peters had recently given a presentation on his war tax redirection. He noted Community Peacemaker Teams as the primary recipient of his redirected tax money, given the many summers he spent with CPT in the West Bank.
It became clear to the First Mennonite organizers that war tax resistance is a personal commitment but has not been an avenue for mass organizing. What are the possibilities, they wondered, for mass organizing and advocacy? Could refusal to pay for U.S.-backed wars ignite a renewed and emboldened Mennonite peace witness?
At the forum, the conversation partners shared about ways of publicizing their witness that were fun and creative yet drew attention to the horrors of war. They reminded those gathered that Mennonite Church USA has a Church Peace Tax Fund to support those redirecting their taxes.
They asked, “What if Mennonites claimed war tax resistance and redirection as a sacrament and a part of our baptismal commitments?”
Participants raised questions about how Mennonites who refuse to pay taxes for war differentiate themselves from religious groups that refuse to follow federal mandates related to the rights of LGBTQ+ people or other protected groups.
Some reflected on the frustration of advocating with elected officials, especially related to the genocide in Gaza. Politicians ignore calls to redirect our taxes away from war and toward humanitarian efforts. What prophetic power might Mennonites and others have if they organized at the national level, as war tax resisters, to push for policy changes? How might that inspire other movements for peace, even in a repressive political environment?
Given the mechanized reality of war, with its most brutal horrors perpetrated from safely remote locations, what is our response as a peace church? If the public focus of the Mennonite peace witness was once about withholding our bodies, is it now time to publicly withhold our dollars? How can we make this practice of discipleship a force for transformation in our world today?
Sarah Herrera and Jim Lichti are members of the Outreach Committee at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, and Joanna Lawrence Shenk is associate pastor. They seek input as Mennonites wrestle with these questions and our public witness. AW invites letters to the editor at editor@anabaptistworld.org.
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