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May/June
2003 A New Peace Church? by Andrew Bolton
For a religion to be candidly self-critical about its violent
history and shortcomings is a constructive first step toward a
vision of peace. The Community of Christ has plenty to be self-critical
about in its sectarian Latter Day Saint/Mormon origins at the beginning
of the 19th century. It responded with violence to persecution
in its early years and for much of the twentieth century many USA
church members have been zealously patriotic. Other early sins
include ambiguity about slavery and ongoing racism, the oppression
of women through polygamy and patriarchy, and enthusiastic sectarian
rivalry. Over its nearly 150 year history it has progressively
embraced capitalism.
The Community of Christ began when twenty-four-year-old
Joseph Smith Jr. as prophet with five other men organized as the "Church
of Christ" on April 6,1830, in Fayette, New York. The first fourteen
years were controversial and tumultuous and ended on June 27, 1844,
when Joseph Smith Jr. and his brother Hyrum were assassinated by
a mob storming the jail in which they were imprisoned in Carthage,
Illinois. The movement fragmented as members were driven out of
their homes over the next two years. Thus outlined is the dark,
tragic story of the early beginnings of the movement. On the surface
this is the most unlikely beginning from which to resurrect a Christian
community of a quarter of a million members, living in over fifty
nations, who see their global purpose as pursuing peace, reconciliation,
and healing of the spirit for all. How did the change come about? First though it needs to be stated for
the sake of a balanced picture that there was nobility of purpose
right from the beginning
of the movement notwithstanding human frailty, folly, and sinfulness.
The Community of Christ in its origins was a movement of the poor
pursuing a better day for all. It was a dream of seeking the kingdom
of God on earth, building the New Jerusalem - the city that is
a light on a hill. It was a dream of righteous community with justice,
mercy, and wholeness in this life, on this earth. Chapter 2 of
the book of Acts in the New Testament was the template of the movement:
spiritual power from God, diversity as all find their voice in
their own language, the recognition of our complicity in crucifixion
of the innocent, and all things in common with the end of poverty.
Inspired by biblical imagery we innocently called this spiritual/material/social/political
condition "Zion." As one historian put it: "Our critics
have missed more than all else this Zion-melody in their telling,
perhaps because its notes have not been clear enough, but the fact
remains that without it, the story would scarcely be worth telling." Our
story is also a story of grace and response to grace. In the Bible,
Moses and David, Peter and Paul are all flawed characters who find
grace and new beginnings for themselves and their people. We need
the same grace for Joseph Smith Jr. and ourselves. Efforts to build Zion, the New Jerusalem,
were attempted in Kirtland, Ohio (1831-1837), Independence, Missouri
(1831-1833), Far West,
Missouri (1834-1838), and Nauvoo, Illinois (1839-1845). All these
glorious attempts ended in conflict from within and violence from
without. An armed and trained legion of 3,000 men in Nauvoo - the
largest armed force after the US army - could not save the city
from abandonment or the prophet from being shot. We were naïve
about the human condition and about the power of violence in US
culture
and the human heart. We had not had the conversion experience of
the Quakers and the Mennonites and were not rooted in the spirit
of nonviolence and the biblical testimony of the cross as they
are. So how did change begin to take the Community
of Christ in the direction of becoming a peace church? The Community
of Christ gained
a new life from the repentance that came after the failure of Nauvoo.
Beginning in 1852, small groups in the Midwest began the "Reorganization." They
did not follow Brigham Young to Utah and categorically rejected
the kind of Mormonism that developed there. For instance they were
vehemently anti-polygamy. They were also distrustful of authoritarian
leadership and the excesses of the 1839-1845 Nauvoo period in particular.
Over a number of years members of the Reorganization eventually
persuaded the eldest son of Joseph Smith Jr. to lead the new beginning.
His name was also Joseph, known formally as Joseph Smith III or "young
Joseph" among church members. He was ordained president/prophet
at the 1860 conference of the Reorganization in Amboy, Illinois,
and until his death in 1914 served the movement that became known
as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Joseph Smith III was twelve years old when
his father was assassinated in 1844. He had been a refugee from
persecution at least two times
as a child. He had witnessed first-hand the grief and struggles
of his widowed mother Emma. The result was that Joseph Smith III
was a moderate Mormon, one who embraced Christianity on the one
hand and held it in creative tension with what he understood to
be the best truths of his father’s religion. In the end he was
more Emma’s boy than his father’s son. As he reflected on the early
days of the movement he became increasingly suspicious of violence,
notwithstanding his initial enthusiasm for the Northern cause in
the American Civil War. An important symbol of the developing direction of the Reorganization was the adoption in 1874 of the church seal—a lion and lamb led by a child with the words "Peace" underneath. A recent version of this seal is as follows:
Based on Isaiah 11:1-9, it depicts the
coming day of the Messiah and the restoration of the harmony
of Eden where "They will not
hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain." (Isaiah 11:9) It reminded
members of the call and hope of Zion but was a clear distancing
of the Reorganization from the militarism of Nauvoo. Some have
also conjectured that the church seal was inspired by the folk
art of the Quaker Edward Hicks, who was so inspired by this passage
of Isaiah 11 that he painted it more than a hundred times. If so,
Quaker values were being quietly smuggled into the Reorganization. This church seal was used widely in church
literature and came to be placed on church signs, sanctuary walls,
pulpits and clothing,
and - most commonly - window decals, where it signaled to others
a common denominational membership. Functioning as visual theology
it began to do more than repudiate the violence of Nauvoo; it began
to chart a path over the next hundred years for the Reorganization
to intentionally become a peace church. This direction, however,
was not inevitable nor is it still a foregone conclusion. F. M. Smith, prophet-president from 1914
to1946, through two world wars and the Great depression, was
a Christian socialist on the
one hand and an American patriot on the other hand who had no time
for "slackers and cowardly pacifists." When the US draft came,
Smith believed the law of the land should be obeyed without question.
But Smith’s militarism was not fully accepted by all church members.
His son-in-law, F. Henry Edwards, was a British conscientious objector
who was initially sentenced to death for his stand but had his
sentence commuted to imprisonment. He was released at the end of
the war after serving more than a year in prison. Edwards went
on to become an outstanding church leader and theologian, although
his story was repressed when he moved to the US and married President
F. M. Smith’s daughter. 1960 was a pivotal year for this faith movement. Historically
it was the centennial of the Reorganization and the ordination
of Joseph Smith III. It was also the year that the church established
an official presence in Japan. In the next ten years, with good
growth continuing in North America, the church doubled the number
of countries in which it was established, from twelve to twenty-four.
Many of these new nations were in the Third World. This globalization
of the church enabled church leaders to review and challenge the
Midwestern US provincialism of the church and its sectarian assumptions.
In 1960, conscientious objection also received the support of the
church for the first time. With the appointment of Richard Howard
two years before as a professionally trained church historian,
it was also the beginning of moving from a faith-promoting idealized
story to honest, self-critical history. Church leader Charles Neff was also just
beginning a very significant contribution. He moved with his
family to Japan in 1960 to establish
the church there, and over the next twenty years was a major figure
in the beginning of the church in Third World nations. Having grown
up in poverty in the Depression he had an unpatronizing passion
for the poor. A World War II veteran, he also had strong views
about war. He was in Hiroshima three weeks after the atom bomb
had been dropped. In 1982 he addressed the church's World Conference
at the beginning of the Reagan/Thatcher years and warned against
nuclear weapons. He ended his address by suggesting that he and
his wife would consider withholding taxes in protest. This upset
a number of church leaders and outraged some church members. Neff
was also an articulate advocate for the ordination of women. His
theology was very simple: there is a personal God for whom the
worth of all persons is very great. Then in 1984 the church received what it considered inspired counsel, from the prophet- president Wallace B. Smith, to ordain women and to build a temple at the headquarters of the church in Independence, Missouri. The temple was to be dedicated to the pursuit of peace, reconciliation, and healing of the spirit. The church seal with its emblem of peace was finding new expression in a now international religious movement. But peace was not at hand within the church. Ordination of women alienated many conservatives, and 15,000-30,000 left. The church is predominantly a lay movement, with over ninety-five percent of ordained ministers serving bivocationally. Most active families would have an ordained minister in them. To ordain women is challenging enough in mainstream Christian churches, but in ours it was to challenge patriarchy in just about every active family in the church.
Has a violent sectarian people moved to the full pursuit of peace?
That question is still not fully answered in the positive. There
is vocal resistance at World Conferences and on other occasions
from US church members serving in the military or holding a patriotic
perspective. However, there are now more church attendees outside
than inside the USA. US patriotism is also ameliorated by church
leaders who are of the Vietnam generation, and are well traveled
and include a significant number of women and non-Americans. The biennial World Conference of 2,800
delegates from all over the world is the highest authority in
the church. Its legislation
in recent years has been hopeful. The 1998 World Conference passed
a resolution in support of the abolition of landmines, despite
the host nation’s continuing reluctance to act similarly. At the
2000 World Conference, church members passed resolutions for relief
of Third World debt and the abolition of the death penalty, and
questioned the ownership of guns by church members. The same Conference
voted by an eighty percent majority to change the official name
of the church from Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints to Community of Christ. The most recent World Conference
this year voted to begin moving to join the US National Council
of Churches and the World Council of Churches. Homosexuality continues
to be highly controversial, but ways are being sought to be inclusive
and welcoming without dividing the church. New church goals focus on a peace and justice
mission for the church, including encouragement for every congregation
to engage
in at least one peace and justice project. Training in conflict
reconciliation, mediation, and consensus building is taking place
church-wide through specialists trained by Mennonites. New curriculum
for youth includes "Peace 24/7." The Children’s Peace Pavilion,
an interactive peace museum in Independence, Missouri, opened in
1995. This year the Pavilion will have seen more than 100,000 visitors
through its doors, plus an expanding peace education curriculum
project in thirty-five elementary schools in Metro Kansas City.
Young Peacemakers Clubs, birthed ten years ago in the church with
volunteers, now exists in ten different countries and in more than
400 settings. In Toronto, Canada, arguably the most pluralistic
city in the world, the church has a world religions encounter center
working with thousands of high school students annually. The church’s
affiliated development organizations, Outreach International (USA),
World Accord (Canada), and Saints Care (Australia) serve the poorest
of the poor in the Third World and in poorer parts of developed
nations through community empowerment so that the poor can find
release through their own efforts, not just charitable relief.
Those honored by the Community of Christ International Peace Award
in recent years include environmentalist Jane Goodall, conflict
mediator John Paul Lederach, and nonviolent advocate for justice
in South Africa Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mohandas Gandhi. The
annual Peace Colloquies in the autumn of each year have tackled
domestic violence and sexual abuse, the environment, human rights,
the spirituality of peacemaking, and economic justice. At this point in our journey our rhetoric
is hopeful. Pray for us that our deeds might be worthy of a people
of shalom/salaam.
In a post-September 11 world we still have to take Jesus’ words
about loving our enemies fully to heart. However, if we do fully
embrace the teachings of the crucified Jesus and really pursue
radical justice nonviolently, then perhaps we will model a path
for other people of faith to follow out of violent histories, be
they Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus or... Christians.
©2003 Fellowship of Reconciliation |
