The Mormon Worker - Issue 5 - Nov 08

“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith
THE
Mormon Worker
Issue 5 November 2008
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a brief bio and an introduction to his or her article Between Christianity and the
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Libertarian Left: How Wide the Gap?
■ Between Christianity and the Libertarian Left: by Marc B. Young
How Wide the Gap? by Marc B. Young
■ Obedience to Authority by Tariq Khan Although it might make a decent news story in some media
■ Why Progressives Should Vote Nader by Ashley Sanders outlets, an article about the ways in which Christians and
■ A Vietnam Vet’s Vision of Peace by Terry Leichner secular radicals collaborate, on a variety of issues, prob-
ably doesn’t need to take up space in a publication read
■ “Un-terrified Jeffersonian Democrats”: Part I
by Matthew Thomas primarily by activists. After all, every leftist knows that
■ Letter from South Baghdad, May 2008 by Sgt. Jay Dawkins anarchists, communists, greens, socialists and Christians
■ Observations from the 2008 Democratic (at least Catholics, Quakers and members of ‘main-stream’
National Convention by Spencer Kingman Protestant denominations) regularly end up on the same
■ The Beehive and the Steel Mill: side of rallies against, for example, war and in support of
Rethinking the Protestant Work Ethic by Jason Brown immigrants. At least some points of tactical agreement are
■ The DNC Convention in the Street/Jail/Garden/Home simply taken for granted between these players and don’t
by Tristan Call make for that interesting a conversation. What is more
■ Jesus Asked Us to Love Our Enemies: Learning to interesting perhaps is the exploration of why these areas
be a Christian in Occupied Palestine by Cliff Burton of tactical agreement are possible after all, which is really
■ Contributors ■ Navigation an enquiry into what the movement founded by Jesus and
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Between Christianity and the Libertarian Left: How Wide the Gap? 2
his closest colleagues – and not St. Augustine or Henry

VIII – has to say about human liberation.
A Note to Our Readers
But secular radicals, generally happy to have church-
The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour- types at their actions, tend not to want to explore this route.
nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub-
They are at best baffled by religiosity, in a condescending
lished by members of the LDS Church. The paper is mod-
eled after the legendary Catholic Worker which has been sort of way, and at worst nauseated by it, convinced it has
in publication for over seventy years. no place in a rational program. They sense that the Chris-
The primary objective of The Mormon Worker is to mean- tian facet of those believers who are on ‘their side’ of most
ingfully connect core ideas of Mormon theology with a current issues is precisely those persons’ most superflu-
host of political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and ous aspect, that is, unnecessary to their commitment to
social topics.
egalitarianism and liberation – and this idea is obviously
Although most contributors of The Mormon Worker are reinforced by the fact that so many other individuals, some
members of the LDS church, some are not, and we accept
of whom run the country, go around linking their Christi-
submissions from people of varying secular and religious
backgrounds. anity to right-wing politics. The Jesus movement, secular
The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the official radicals often think, can, like all religions, be shaken out
view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. to justify any social posture. So let’s not go there, as North
Americans say these days. And what’s to be gained, wonder
In solidarity, these radicals, that’s worth the potential discomfort that
The Mormon Worker
occurs when religious beliefs are made explicit and then
challenged?
Some insights, possibly. Men and women on the radi-
THE MORMON WORKER cal left tend not to be absolute relativists (or nihilists) of
140 West Oak Circle the sort who hold that all opinions have equal merit; on
Woodland Hills, UT 84653 the contrary, they insist that different interpretations of
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www.themormonworker.org that different points of view and different actions are ei-
themormonworker@gmail.com ther more or less ethical. Certainly there are left-wingers
http://themormonworker.wordpress.com who claim to be Christians and right-wingers who do the
same. Precisely because this is so, we will, in this article,
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proceed on the assumption that one of the Christian camps ethical and other insights they have perhaps undervalued.
is wrong about their man. Either Jesus was primarily a Or it could, practically and strategically speaking, help
prophet of domination and mass passivity, offering conso- promote an alliance between some Christians (genuine
lation to the destitute in some world beyond death, or he ones?) and certain secular activists that reaches further
proclaimed solidarity and sustenance for all in this world. than many think possible. Which in turn could prove a
If the former is true (or truer), then radicals’ disdain for minor boon for American radicals especially, citizens and
the Good News is sensible enough. But if the latter is the residents of a country where polls show most people desire
case, an open-minded review of what Jesus and the early more equality and justice, are inheritors of a tradition of
Christians proclaimed could provide secular radicals with mistrust toward government and proclaim their belief in
God.1 At the very least, secular activists could improve the
way they address believers.
For radical Christians, an enterprise of the sort pro-
posed here, even if it tends to repeat things they already
think, might help them tackle the frequently heard argu-
ment that faith is either not about society – it is a personal
affair – or that it fits comfortably inside a liberal agenda of
political progress that John Kerry or Barack Obama might
support. (Naturally, we assume that radical Christians dis-
count the possibility that Pat Robertson and George Bush
– at least with their current programs and opinions – belong
in their church.) A reiteration of atheists’ critique of faith,
something that will also arise in this piece, might also help
leftist Christians look more closely at what they believe –
with an added dose of reason, as it were. Is their faith soft
and flabby? What of it can be discarded, what saved? Can
one’s religious commitment be thought through, or is there
an irreducible element of belief that is inevitably ‘feeling,’
that revelation that precedes, skips over or, conversely, is
a sort of condition for rationality? These are some of the

hard, never-entirely-answered questions to keep in mind And see right done to the destitute and downtrodden,
in the course of this discussion. You ought to rescue the weak and the poor,
Gerald Brenan, that student of things Spanish and a And save them from the clutches of wicked men.
sympathetic observer of Iberian anarchism, once wrote But you know nothing, you understand nothing,
that “The Bible, and especially the New Testament, con- You walk in the dark
tains enough dynamite to blow up all the existing social While Earth’s foundations are giving way.
systems in Europe, [but] only by force of habit and through This is my sentence: Gods you may be,
the power of beautiful and rhythmical words have we Sons all of you of a high God,
ceased to notice it.”2 Although some readers may be will- Yet you shall die as men die;
ing to take Brenan at his word, those who prefer to see the Princes fall, every one of them, and so shall you.
gospel as a pillar of reaction probably won’t, so it is useful
to reiterate the case for this claim with the help of some Arise, O God, and judge the Earth;
scriptural citation. For thou dost pass all nations through thy sieve.3
Christianity is the subject at hand, so the bulk of this
section won’t be devoted to the Old Testament. But it is es- The wealthy damned
sential in reviewing the program of Jesus and his followers The many references in the New Testament to the worth of
to acknowledge that the Torah was his gospel. For those the poor as well as the dubious ethical status of the rich are
who embrace a theology of liberation, there is probably generally better known. Notable of course is the response
nothing more powerful than Psalm 82. In these 17 lines, attributed in the Gospel of Mark to Jesus himself after a
God appears to inaugurate monotheism by pronouncing well-meaning and prosperous young man addresses him
on the record of those other gods who have had a crack at as “good master” and enquires into the route to eternal life.
things. A full quotation is appropriate: As the author presents the scenario, the Nazarene is mildly
annoyed with the question and its apparently sycophantic
God takes his stand in the court of heaven
tone, for he begins his response with a brusque, Whatta-
To deliver judgment among the gods themselves.
ya-calling-me-good-for. “No one is good but God alone.”
How long will you judge unjustly (Incidentally, this verse, this declaration of humility by
And show favor to the wicked [He asks]? Jesus makes problematic any assertion that the historical
You ought to give judgment for the weak and the orphan, figure regarded himself as a divinity or God incarnate, but
this isn’t our point right here.) He rhymes off some of the

commandments after reminding the enquirer that, as a and a willingness to “lend” with no hope of return. “But
good Jew, nothing he’s going to hear should be news. Jesus’ woe to you who are rich, because you have had all your
mood is clearly one of impatience. But he softens when he consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, because you
understands that the young man is in earnest. “Affection” shall be hungry.”5 Most radical and arguably most difficult
marks his tone as he identifies the one, very material bar- to handle of all this content is the call to love one’s enemy.
rier blocking the young man (not from “eternal life” but In a world of violence and oppression where, nevertheless,
from initiation into that space or community Jesus refers people naturally love their friends – and hate their foes –
to as God’s Kingdom). Wealth. He must sell all he has, give Jesus offers a revolutionary ethic: Reject the means and the
the proceeds to the poor and then join Jesus’ movement. ends of those on the other side. Fire, he seems to imply, is
What follows is not often reflected on by New Testament only truly vanquished by soft, pleasant water.
readers. According to Mark, Jesus is not satisfied with Nor are all the radical words in the synoptic gospels
making his point once. After the young man goes away placed in Jesus’ mouth. Think of Mary’s song, a favorite
depressed, Jesus repeats his thesis twice more. How hard of feminist theologians. Having learned of her pregnancy,
it is for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God, he tells despite her unmarried state, Mary exalts a God who blesses
the disciples and then, as if things aren’t clear enough, he the “low estate of his slave girl,” who “has pulled down the
comes up with that extraordinary if now overly familiar dynasts from their thrones and raised up the humble; he
image of the camel more easily passing through the eye has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich
of a needle than the wealthy man accessing the kingdom. empty away.”6 Of course her praise, despite the tense of
Assuming that this particular scenario, or something like the words, is more of hope than of praise for things already
it, actually occurred, we have to conclude that Jesus was accomplished, but it is a revolutionary hope about things
interested in flagging a decisive point. Certainly the writer on Earth – and invocative of that God from Psalm 82.
of the gospel was.4 One could go on with radical citations from those gos-
Other materials are equally well known. What con- pels that purport to portray Jesus’ career, but that will only
temporary New Testament scholars refer to as the Say- bog us down in repetition. The point that should be em-
ings Gospel Q (an undiscovered source that, it is argued, phasized is that words fill only a small part of the package.
nourished those sections of Matthew and Luke known as The Nazarene’s life (apparently uninteresting to the likes
the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes) reveals a Jesus of Mel Gibson, like many other Christians focused on death
devoted to the material and spiritual interests of the poor, and blood sacrifice) is portrayed as one full of action. A life
a principled non-violence, a practice of mutual forgiveness of including, touching and healing the sick, people with, for

example, diseased skin considered unclean in the society the ‘Agent-of-Reaction’ button. Didn’t he really establish
of the day. Of engaging with women as full human partners the Church? Shouldn’t he have to answer for its errors and
rather than mere serving girls. Of leading a life based on crimes? These are of course fair questions, though it has
looking out for oneself precisely by looking out for others. to be pointed out right off the bat, with New Testament
And of laying down one’s life (not tossing it away), if that is scholar John Dominic Crossan, that insofar as Paul initially
to be the price of fidelity to standards the powerful refuse persecuted the movement, before beginning his career as
to tolerate. Possibly Jesus riled the temple authorities in Je- a Christian, he could not have set it up.7 Nonetheless it
rusalem during Passover. Common sense suggests that the is inarguable that Paul’s contribution to the young faith
Roman occupiers would have been nervous about a holiday was decisive – and his views cannot be passed over on the
that celebrated Jewish liberation from Egyptian bondage; simple ground that he wasn’t a literal companion of the
they would have been quick to neutralize a troublemaker Nazarene.
who had an already demonstrated penchant for going off There is no question that Paul writes certain things
with gangs of men into the countryside to lecture on a sort in those epistles scholars attribute to him that are objec-
of polity that was in its very description contemptuous of tionable to contemporary radicals. But the case against
the prevailing order. Did Jesus decline to behave quietly him from the left, as it where, is by no means a clear-cut
in a socially sensitive situation, possibly provoking protest one. As Pauline analysts like Crossan and Tom Wright (an
in a tension-charged city? evangelical and no doubter of the historical, literal truth
Incidentally, and on the subject of his crucifixion, the of scripture) have asserted, the apostle’s overall political
Easter stories (with the exception of the later version in message is neither tame nor in tune with imperial order.
John) do not depict a Man-God serenely welcoming a false Their argument emphasizes the need to place Paul’s proc-
or temporary passing, a pseudo sacrifice in which the joke lamation that Jesus is Lord in the context of the 1st century
is actually on the killers; rather, they tell of a human in Roman world. At that time, the world had already received
anguish, asking that, if it at all be possible, confrontation its official Lord, Redeemer and Savior, one who through
with the authorities and death be avoided, as the accounts conquest and force had allegedly ushered in an era of peace,
in Mark, Matthew and Luke observe. But to the radically multiethnic collaboration (if not fraternity) prosperity (for
principled, the world, then and now, promises no such some) and justice (of a sort), and his name was Caesar
breaks. Augustus, son of the divine Julius and himself promoted
So that’s Jesus, the critic might say. But that isn’t Chris- to official godliness. In other words, these scholars assert
tianity. What about Paul of Tarsus, so often made to wear that when Paul says Jesus is Lord, he is emphatically stating

that the Emperor and his successors are not. As Crossan all one person in Christ Jesus,” Paul writes in Galatians.11
observes, the Caesars say the sword brings peace; Paul, Love is what must determine conduct, starting now, he
like Jesus, says non-violence and justice bring about that counsels. That is the dominant theme of all Paul’s corre-
end.8 To cite Wright: The gospel claims “to be the real- spondence to the small, struggling Christian communities
ity of which Caesar’s empire is the parody; it claims to be in the decades after Jesus’ death: Act as though the new
modeling the genuine humanness, not least the justice and world is upon you.
the peace and the unity across traditional racial and cultural But no defense of the man from Tarsus, who says a
barriers, of which Caesar’s empire boasted.”9 resurrected Christ spoke to him on the road to Damascus,
can be so simple. Reactionaries throughout history have
Luther preferred the propertied also found in the text of his letters the intellectual am-
munition needed to justify oppression and the slaughter
As there is both explicitly political and religious content of those who dare defy authority. One of the most famous
to Caesar’s empire, so there is in Paul’s version. In what is Martin Luther who, seeing the Reformation he had led
does the latter consist? Clearly, Paul believes that divine getting out of hand and feeding social revolution, turned
intervention of a dramatic sort will occur with the Christ’s to his copy of the New Testament. German peasants and
return, bringing with it social revolution. As he writes in I oppressed city-dwellers had interpreted Luther’s call for
Corinthians, “...then comes the end, when he [Christ] de- scriptural authority over Church practice as an invitation
livers up the kingdom to God the Father, after abolishing to make real life conform to biblical recommendations. In
every kind of domination, authority and power.”10 That’s other words, they were in tune with yet-to-be-born Gerald
pretty clear, and while the new era, in the Pauline version, Brenan. Luther, a sometimes troubled friend of princes
will apparently owe its realization to some sort of magic and landlords, but a friend nonetheless, had no such inten-
rather than, say, human insurrection or general strike, it tions. As they prepared for the battle of Frankenhausen in
is very much about life on planet Earth. In the meantime, May 1525, the members of a large but not especially well-
while followers of Jesus wait for this transformation, they equipped peasant force unfurled a banner that bore the
must neither be idle nor pursue false idols, but rather model picture of a rainbow and possibly a reference to the com-
the new life, one imitative of the hoped-for, rejuvenated munity of goods – that is, socialized ownership. Luther had
and radically different world. “For through faith...You have earlier that month launched a written attack on the militant
all put on Christ as a garment. There is no such thing as rural folk destined to die by the thousands, peasants who
Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female; for you are had had the temerity to welcome religious radicals like

Thomas Münzer into their ranks and believe in that verse Every person must submit to the supreme authorities.
from the Book of Acts that describes how amongst the ear- There is no authority but by act of God and the exiting au-
liest believers, “not a man claimed any of his possessions thorities are instituted by him; consequently anyone who
as his own, but everything was held in common,” where rebels against authority is resisting a divine institution
money was “....distributed to any who stood in need.” 12 and those who so resist have themselves to thank for the
“...Let everyone who can,” Luther wrote in response punishment they will receive. For government, a terror to
to the radical tide, “smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, crime, has no terrors for good behavior. You wish to have
remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurt- no fear of the authorities? Then continue to do right and
ful or devilish than a rebel...Strange times these, when a you will have their approval, for they are God’s agents
prince can win heaven with bloodshed, better than other working for your good. But if you are doing wrong then
men with prayer.”13 you will have cause to fear them; it is not for nothing that
What was the theological fuel Luther employed to they hold the power of the sword...That is also why you
launch his written assault? He pointedly rejected notions pay taxes...14
about the piety of common property with the suggestion The reader gets the idea, if he or she is not already
that while the peasants might have been free to pool their well-acquainted with the verse. Undoubtedly this is the
resources, they had no right to oblige landlords to do the most developed of Paul’s apparently reactionary remarks.
same. Perhaps he thought it was up to God to discipline But only a superficial, out-of-context reading allows one
those wealthy believers who didn’t radically share; in any to employ it as a timeless, universal injunction to cower
case, this defender of nascent German nationalism saw before political power of whatever sort. For as we know,
no reason to read the Book of Acts as requiring at least Paul never regarded Roman imperial authority as even
some mandatory redistribution of wealth among believers. resembling God’s ‘political’ project for the world, except
Luther did acknowledge that things might have been free perhaps as a power heretofore tolerated (and hence en-
and common in Genesis, but “under the New Testament trusted with some role in preparing the ground for the
Moses does not count.” So who did he think was running dramatic changes ‘on the way’). The empire’s modus ope-
to his rescue from the NT? Why, Paul of course. randi, conquest and violent repression, is precisely the op-
The verse employed by Luther is the famous section of posite of the program Paul outlines for followers of Jesus
Romans 13 where the apostle offers advice on appropriate in Romans 12 – not to mention other places. In chapter 12
Christian behavior before the authorities. According to the appear the usual calls to embrace peace, “practice hospital-
New English Bible, it reads as follows: ity,” to not seek revenge, and “use good to defeat evil.” And

then, in Chapter 13, immediately following the above cited

passage on appropriate conduct vis-à-vis the authorities,
Paul returns to the theme of obligations between human
beings, telling his readers that “all are summed up in the There is a tendency to think that what we
one rule, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself...’ The whole law see in the present moment will continue.
is summed up in love.” We often forget how often we have been
But what is the political point? How does this Christian astonished by the sudden crumbling of
conduct relate to the empire? Is it just Goody Two Shoes institutions, by extraordinary changes in
stuff to model as a contrast to the way earthly powers people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions
behave? Paul’s answer is “...remember how critical the mo- of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick
ment is.” He suggests that “it is far on in the night; day is collapse of systems of power that seemed
near.” In other words, he believes, he hopes, that the divine invincible. To be hopeful in bad times is
revolution is just around the corner, even then emerging not just foolishly romantic. It is based on
from its chrysalis. “Let us behave with decency as befits the fact that human history is a history
the day.”15 Paul was, secular radicals would argue, wrong
not only of cruelty but also of compassion,
on timing and flawed in praxis, although we might add that
sacrifice, courage, kindness. If we remem-
revolutionary movements, when still small and vulnerable,
ber those times and places, and there are
have also counseled members to submit to power, for their
own safety as well as in the interests of future growth.
so many where people have behaved mag-
Certainly Paul had a pre-Enlightenment view of how his- nificently; this gives us the energy to act.
torical events occur. Along with this, his apocalyptic sense Hope is the energy for change. The future
of the Kingdom of God possibly differed somewhat from is an infinite succession of presents...and to
Jesus’, who does not seem to have thought of the kingdom live now as we think human beings should
as coming in with that same sweep-all-before-it sort of live, in defiance of the worst of every-
force that Paul seems to imagine. But saying the apostle thing around us, is a marvelous victory.
endorsed domination doesn’t hold water. “And yet I do —h o ward zi n n
speak words of wisdom to those who are ripe for it, not
a wisdom belonging to this passing age, nor to any of its
governing powers, which are declining to their end...[but]

God’s secret purpose.”16 [their slaves] and give up using threats.” In other words,
At this point we should allow some other analyses of discipline and violence are to be renounced by slavehold-
Romans 13 to be at least mentioned. Mark Nanos has made ers who accept Jesus, ripping the coercive heart out of the
the suggestion, and he has convinced many of the merits owner-servant relationship. And again, there is most likely
of his case, that Romans 13 has little to do with conduct a bit of the tactician at work here. The Roman authorities’
under the Roman imperial state but contains Paul’s advice reply to servile rebellion and incitement to rebellion was
to Gentile converts, in the capital, attending synagogue and not complicated; a sect that preached such a doctrine was
still under the religious supervision of its ‘government.’ The inviting state violence down upon its head.
scenario, in this case, involves followers of the Jew Jesus End of part I. Part II continued in next issue.
worshipping together with other, orthodox Jews (which
is to say, ones who don’t regard the Nazarene as the Mes-
siah) prior to the definitive institutional break between the 1. For data suggesting that most Americans favor ‘radi-
two faiths. These new followers, runs the argument, didn’t cal’ socio-economic options, I rely here in part on Noam
understand the movement’s relationship to Judaism and Chomsky. See, for example, Chomsky, Failed States (Met-
couldn’t see why they should have to do what the religious ropolitan Books: New York, 2006) pp. 225-228. As for polls
authorities told them.17 If Nanos is right, then of course showing the religiosity of Americans — these virtually
traditional readings of Romans 13 lose all their force. grow on trees. Both the February 2003 Harris Poll, for
Other left-leaning Christian commentators, not in- example, and a Fox News poll from June 2004 show 90
clined to this interpretation, have tended to regard Paul’s per cent or more of U.S. adults believing in God, while a
advice to the Roman believers as a display of tactical savvy Harris poll from the fall of 2003 shows a more modest but
meant to help shield the brethren in the imperial capital still considerable 78 per cent of U.S. citizens as believers.
from official violence and hostility. Look Rome, this sect After studying 8,000 adults from 1988 till 2000, the National
preaches obedience after all, and it’s in writing! There’s Opinion Research Center concluded that about 80 per
no good reason to hurt its members! But then there are cent believed in a “traditional, personal God,” according
the apostle’s words urging slaves to obey their masters in to journalist John Dart.
Ephesians 6. How can a prophet of liberation counsel this? 2. Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth (Cambridge,
It is probably the same story. The divine re-ordering of the 1969), pp. 190-191
world is on its way. Moreover, Paul goes to the heart of the
3. The Bible, a new English translation with the Apoc-
matter of domination. Masters must “do the same by them
rypha (Oxford, 1970), Psalm: 82
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Obedience to Authority 11
4. Richmond Lattimore (translator), The Four Gospels

and the Revelation (Farrar, Straus, Giroux: New York, 1979),
Mark:10 pp.27-28
Obedience to Authority
5. Ibid., Luke:6 p.136 by Tariq Khan
6. Ibid., Luke:1 p.122
Most evil acts in the world are not committed by abnor-
7. John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity mally mean psychopaths. They are committed by quite or-
(Harper: San Francisco, 1998), Preface, x dinary people who are “just doing their jobs”. Most murder,
8. J.D. Crossan, In Search of Paul. This note taken from torture, and destruction in and of the world is perfectly
an excerpt of Crossan’s book at www.beliefnet.com legal and is carried out by civilized, well-mannered, av-
9. John Dart, Jesus and Paul Versus the Empire. See erage individuals who are “just fulfilling their duties” to
author index at www.religion-online.org governments, businesses, and religions. They’re “just try-
10. I Corinthians:15, verse 24, The Bible, A new English ing to make a living”.
translation A while back I met some veterans of the U.S. military’s
invasion of Iraq; young guys in their early twenties. I had
11. Galations:3, verses 26-29
a chance to talk with them and hear some of their stories.
12. Acts:4, verses 32-35 On first impression they seemed like good, decent people.
13. Martin Luther, Against the Robbing and Murdering Even though I know that torture and murder are part of the
Hordes of Peasants (1525). I found the tract at http://zimmer. military system, I was surprised when one told me tales of
csufresno.edu/~mariterel/against_the_robbing_and_mur- torturing prisoners in Iraq and even of shooting children.
derin.htm Another vet said that he was a sniper and he knowingly
14. Romans:13, verses 1-6 killed innocent people. Neither of these men have a vio-
15. Ibid., verses 11-13. Paul doesn’t mind using military lent disposition. Neither of them have a desire to kill and
imagery either, but his soldiers don’t shed blood. torture. In fact, they hated doing it and they both said that
they hate themselves for what they did over there. One
16. I Corinthians:2, verse 6
of them said that some of the other Iraq War veterans he
17. For a summary of this position, see: www.yashanet. knew have since committed suicide because they couldn’t
com/studies/romstudy/text13.htm live with themselves knowing the horrors they inflicted on
people in Iraq.
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So if these soldiers hated it so much, then why did they shocks were not real, but the teacher was unaware of this
do it? They did it because it was their job. They were fol- and believed the shocks he or she was administering were
lowing orders. The fellow who was a sniper told one story real. Even when the learner seemed to be experiencing a
of when he was ordered to shoot a man who was changing great deal of pain, the teacher, in most cases, continued
a tire. The Army was afraid that the man wasn’t changing a with the shocks as ordered by the authority. In many cases
tire, but was actually setting a roadside bomb. So the sniper the teacher did not want to administer the shocks, but pres-
shot him. When they investigated the scene it turned out sured by the authority to do so, went ahead and obeyed.
that there was nothing there having to do with any bombs Milgram intentionally conducted these experiments with
and that the man was indeed changing a tire. So the sniper people of diverse class, education, race, occupation, and
was very upset. He said that later that night he threw a fit, gender. He performed different variations and situations
throwing around his things and such. The sergeant asked to test different factors. Regardless of race, class, educa-
him what was wrong and he said something like, “Man! tion, or gender; most people obeyed authority even when
That guy I shot was innocent!” So the sergeant sent him obedience meant harming an innocent person and even
to go talk to the chaplain. A chaplain is a religious leader when they clearly did not want to harm the person.
in the military there to provide the troops with “spiritual Milgram concluded that it is the drive to obey author-
support”. The sniper, telling the story, said that he was an ity rather than any kind of innate maliciousness that is the
atheist and had no faith in any chaplain but he obeyed the cause for most horror in the world. Milgram was writing
sergeant and talked to the chaplain anyway. The chaplain, shortly after the fall of the Third Reich and, no doubt,
like a true servant of the state, told the sniper, “Don’t worry was troubled by how it was that so many ordinary, mild-
about it. You’re doing this for God and your country.” The mannered people were led to commit the kinds of sick
sniper thought that it was stupid advice, not helpful at all, crimes against humanity that occurred in concentration
but he went back to his job as a sniper and, against his own camps and Nazi prisons. They were just trying to be “good
conscience, did what he was told to do, including killing Germans.” Milgram wrote, “Tyrannies are perpetuated by
more people. diffident men who do not possess the courage to act out
Half a century ago social scientist Stanley Milgram car- their beliefs.”
ried out a series of experiments having to do with the issue So here we are decades later with ordinary nineteen and
of obedience to authority. In these experiments a “teacher” twenty-year-olds torturing and killing people for god and
was ordered by an authority to administer electric shocks their country. They’re being “good Americans”. We have
to a “learner”. The learner was actually an actor and the Air Force pilots who are nice people, good parents, good

neighbors; they mow their lawns, go to movies, and watch less a stubborn person (the learner). If he understood what
their children’s soccer games and dance recitals, but when this here was, he would’a went along without getting the
in uniform and ordered by higher ranking men in uniform, punishment... The only time I got a little – I wouldn’t say
will drop bombs that end hundreds and even thousands nervous – I got disgusted, is when he wouldn’t cooperate.”
of lives. From an early age we are taught that obedience In other words, the learner brought punishment on himself
to authority is a virtue. The first thing we memorized in by not cooperating with the torturer. How many times have
kindergarten was the pledge of allegiance. We learned that you heard a police officer make a similar argument to justify
“be good” means “do what you’re told”. In the Boy Scouts his own ill treatment of another person? “If she just would
we said, “On my honor I will do my duty to God and my have cooperated, then I wouldn’t have had to pepper spray
country...” In church they taught us that we are here on (or handcuff, or beat, or arrest, or kill...) her.” Notice how
earth to learn to obey. Parents and teachers demand it from the subject in the experiment did not take responsibility
an early age. In school we were given detention for defiance for his own actions of shocking the learner, but transferred
and rewarded for compliance. A core value of the Air Force responsibility to the victim; what we call victim blam-
is “service before self” which means, doing what the Air ing (it’s the same as when a rapist blames the woman he
Force wants you to do is more important than doing what raped rather than admitting his own responsibility for his
you want to do. The university professor who “gets with actions; “Did you see how she was dressed?”). When the
the program” is far more likely to get tenure than the one experimenter pushed the question of who was responsible
who thinks independently. The university student learns for the learner being shocked, the man replied, “I say your
that making waves leads to a bumpy ride while following fault for the simple reason that I was paid for doing this. I
the leader leads to smooth sailing. Anyone who’s ever dealt had to follow orders. That’s how I figured it.”
with a police officer learns that saying, “yes sir” leads to In other words, he was just doing his job, just as police
much less trouble than asking questions does. who abuse others are just doing their jobs, just as soldiers
In Milgram’s experiment some of the more obedient who murder and torture Iraqis are just following orders,
subjects took it as far as to try to justify torturing an inno- just as the businessmen and women who sell the military
cent person. This is what I call the cop personality. Rather weapons of mass destruction are just doing their jobs, just
than admitting that there was something wrong with what as prison guards who abuse prisoners are just following or-
they did, they came up with reasons why the learner de- ders, just as office workers, administrators, and bureaucrats
served to be shocked. When being questioned after the who do the paper pushing of military and law enforcement
experiment, one such man said, “Well, we have more or are just doing their jobs, just as the Nazis who rounded up

Jews for extermination were just following orders, just as a living.

the cop who pulls you over and harasses you is just do- Obedience to authority, rather than being a virtue, may
ing his job, just as the men who clear-cut forests are just be the number one cause of blood and horror in the world.
following orders, just as the people who torture animals All of the war and occupation the world over would not
in slaughter houses and factory farms are just doing their be possible without obedient men and women in uniform
jobs, just as construction workers who destroy wilder- who say, “yes, sir” to the orders from up the chain. It would
ness in order to build mcmansions and strip malls are just not be possible without docile clerks, managers, and bu-
following orders, just as the military pilot who dropped reaucrats doing the administrative and logistical work that
the first atomic bomb on Japan was just doing his job, and makes the death machine run smoothly. It wouldn’t mat-
on and on and on... I’ve had many experiences in which I ter if a Hitler popped up if no one would obey the Hitler.
complain to peers about police brutality or out-of-control And it wouldn’t matter if the U.S. government wanted to
soldiers stomping on human rights, only to be met with wage war if soldiers refused to fight, or better yet, refused
the disapproval of my peers who tell me, “It’s not the cops’ to be soldiers in the first place. Tyranny cannot function
(or soldiers’) fault, they’re just doing their jobs.” I try to without yes men. It is obedience, not maliciousness, that
explain to my peers, “That’s the problem! They’re just do- makes the piles of dead bodies grow.
ing their jobs!” If doing their jobs means abusing, torturing, It may seem hopeless, but in Milgram’s experiment, just
and generally bullying people around, then they should as in real life, there were some dissenters. The problem
get new jobs! The fact that it’s their job is no excuse. The is that both in the experiment and in real life, there are
cops sure don’t let other people get away with that excuse. not nearly enough people who refuse to obey. However,
What if a drug dealer were to tell a cop, “Hey man, I’m Milgram did do one interesting variation of his experi-
just doing my job.”? Do you think the cop would take the ment which resulted in the majority of subjects refusing to
attitude, “Oh, ok. I suppose that I’ll just leave you alone administer electric shocks to the learner. In this situation
then and stop messing with you because you’re just doing there was an experimenter, three teachers, and one learn-
your job.”? But for some reason, mainstream society lets er. The experimenter ordered the teachers to administer
all kinds of official abusers such as cops, politicians, and shocks to the learner, just like in the other experiments,
soldiers get away with that. When a cop once told Emma and the learner (an actor) showed a lot of pain upon being
Goldman that he didn’t enjoy putting her behind bars but shocked, as usual. The difference this time was that two of
that he was just doing his job, she told him to stop being the teachers were also actors, unbeknownst to the subject.
such a coward and to find a more honorable way to make When the learner showed signs of pain and disapproval,

the two teachers refused to administer any more shocks, confirmation for the subject’s suspicion that it is wrong
even when ordered to by the experimenter. When this to punish a man against his will, even in the context of a
happened, in almost every case (36 out of 40), the subject psychological experiment.
followed suit, defying the experimenter, and refused to 4. The defiant remain in the laboratory even after with-
administer any more shocks. Milgram wrote, “The effects drawing from the experiment (they have agreed to answer
of peer rebellion are very impressive in undercutting the postexperimental questions). Each additional shock admin-
experimenter’s authority. Indeed, of the score of experi- istered by the naïve subject then carries with it a measure
mental variations completed in this study, none was so of social disapproval from the two confederates.
effective in undercutting the experimenter’s authority as 5. As long as the two confederates participate in the ex-
the manipulation reported here.” When being questioned perimental procedure, there is a dispersion of responsibility
later as to why they disobeyed, one subject replied, “The among the group members for shocking the victim. As the
thought of stopping didn’t enter my mind until it was put confederates withdraw, responsibility becomes focused
there by the other two.” Another subject answered, “The on the naïve subject.
reason I quit was that I did not wish to seem callous and 6. The naïve subject is a witness to two instances of
cruel in the eyes of the other two men who had already disobedience and observes the consequences of defying
refused to go on with the experiment”. the experimenter to be minimal.
Milgram pointed to some factors that lead to the group’s 7. The experimenter’s power may be diminished by
effectiveness: the very fact of failing to keep the two confederates in line,
1. The peers instill in the subject the idea of defying the in accordance with the general rule that every failure of
experimenter. It may not have occurred to some subjects authority to exact compliance to its commands weakens
as a possibility. the perceived power of the authority.
2. The lone subject in previous experiments had no way The two rebels in the experiment were only actors. For
of knowing whether, if he defies the experimenter, he is the real rebel it takes courage to be the first to say no, or to
performing in a bizarre manner or whether his action is a stand alone in defiance. But that is the role of the anarchist
common occurrence in the laboratory. The two examples in society. Perhaps anarchists can take note of those seven
of disobedience he sees suggest that defiance is a natural points and apply them to ourselves. Maybe that would look
reaction to the situation. something like this (this is by no means meant to be some
3. The reactions of the defiant confederates define the list of “anarchist commandments”, it’s merely something
act of shocking the victim as improper. They provide social worth considering):

1. It is for the anarchist to instill in individuals the ideas 5. It is for the anarchist to let responsibility fall where
of defiance, resistance, evasion, and refusal. It may not have it belongs. When the police go nuts and shoot up the place,
occurred to some people as a possibility, or the individual killing some innocent victim, or when soldiers do the same,
may not know how to go about it. they usually get let off the hook with such silly excuses as,
2. The lone individual in society has no way of knowing “It’s a very stressful job and accidents are bound to hap-
if her dissent is “normal”. It is for the anarchist to let such pen,” or “collateral damage”, but anarchists have to be the
people know that they are not alone. How many people ones to point out that no, that excuse is unacceptable, you
have breathed a sigh of relief and pleasure when reading are responsible for your own behavior, and you cops and
that first radical book, or zine, or listened to that first punk soldiers are guilty and blood-stained as hell.
record that validated the anti-authoritarian sentiments 6. In Milgram’s experiment the consequences for dis-
that everyone else they knew told them they were crazy obedience were minimal, which led the subject to see that
for thinking? How good it feels when one lives in a sea of it was no big deal to say no, but in reality, the consequences
servility, conformity, and mediocrity to meet that single are often much more severe. While anarchists cannot al-
individual who thinks differently, or to find a group of ways, like Milgram’s rebels, demonstrate that the course
people who defy the norm. of disobedience is easy, we can be there to support our
3. It is for the anarchist to provide the individual with rebellious peers when authority’s fist comes crashing down
confirmation that her feelings against what she is being on them. We can see examples of this such as people who
ordered to do are valid. For example, when a soldier is or- set up “underground railroad” type networks for AWOL
dered to torture prisoners; inside he feels that it is wrong soldiers, and those who back up soldiers who refuse to go
to torture, but the military tells him that it is the right thing to Iraq. Soldiers are far more likely to rebel when they know
to do. The anarchist must be the one to give him social that there are dependable people who have their back.
confirmation for his feelings against torture. 7. Every failure of authority to exact compliance to its
4. It is for the anarchist to remain in society, constantly commands weakens the perceived power of the author-
registering disapproval of the horrors that authority is ity.
bringing down. This may seem like nothing, but it’s not al- The rebellious peer variation of Milgram’s experiment
ways such an easy task, when multitudes of servile subjects led him to believe that “when an individual wishes to stand
are waving flags around and cheering for the leader, to be in opposition to authority, he does best to find support for
that one person or one small group of people pointing out his position from others in his group. The mutual support
the madness of it all. provided by men for each other is the strongest bulwark

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Why Progressives Should Vote Nader 17
we have against the excesses of authority. (Not that the leaders, war lords, and corporate CEOs. If the individuals
group is always on the right side of the issue. Lynch mobs that make up the world’s human population would simply
and groups of predatory hoodlums remind us that groups think and act for themselves rather than letting authority
may be vicious in the influence they exert.)” think for them and rather than acting for authority, there
Imagine a society that places more emphasis on being would be a lot less blood-shed, abuse, and coercion in the
true to one’s own conscience and less emphasis on being world.
true to an institution. More emphasis on inner integrity Evil is unspectacular and always human, And shares our
and personal reflection, and less emphasis on outward ap- bed and eats at our own table. –W.H. Auden
pearance and looking good on paper. A society in which To all of us who have been charged, we all agree that we
people act on their own convictions rather than acting don’t feel like we were doing things that we weren’t supposed
on orders handed down from above. Fewer soldiers with to, because we were told to do them. We think everything
their “service before self”, and more Whitman’s with the was justified, because we were instructed to do this and to
dictum, “Resist much. Obey little.” Individuals who think do that.
for themselves and act for themselves. It would be terribly –Lynndie England, one of many U.S. soldiers who physi-
difficult for tyranny and oppression to take root in such a cally, psychologically, and sexually abused Iraqi men at
society because those who would tyrannize and oppress Abu Ghraib prison
would have a hard time doing so with no one to carry out
their orders. Bush could cry for war all day long, but with
no obedient soldiers to fight his war for him, there would
be no war. Sure, he could go to war by himself and even kill
some people, but he wouldn’t get very far, and he would Why Progressives Should Vote Nader
never, even if he wanted to, be able to kill the amount of by Ashley Sanders
people that an army kills. He wouldn’t have much luck set- With two months to go before elections, both Republi-
ting up checkpoints, curfews, and torture chambers either. cans and Democrats are busy driving home their favorite
Those wicked endeavors also require obedient servants point: We are witnessing the election of the century. This
who will carry out orders. The same goes for any power- year, our votes are more valuable than ever; they are the
hungry maniac. Women-hating, queer bashing, reason- instruments of unparalleled hope and change. And this,
ignoring ministers, popes, rabbis, and imams would be out the argument goes, is why it is so crucial to vote for the
of business in such a society. The same would go for gang right candidate and even more crucial not to throw away

votes—and America’s future—on a third party candidate ness. Happily hoodwinked, we don’t dare admit the truth:
like Ralph Nader. that Obama and McCain have failed to offer substantive
The Republicans and Democrats are half right. This solutions to our most pressing problems and refused to
is a critical election year. This could be the year we gave connect the dots between our failed policies and the real-
47 million Americans decent healthcare and a millions politik corporate regime that props them up.
more a living wage. It could be the year that we respected College students stand to lose the most from this
the opinions of 68% of Americans election. We are the ones who will be
and 79% of Iraqis and completely around for the next sixty years, and this
withdrew from Iraq. It could be election will at least partially determine
the year that we cut the 3/4 tril- what those years look like. And yet, as
lion dollar defense budget, repealed an engaged, idealistic voting bloc that is
the “pull down” North American deeply dissatisfied with politics as usual,
Free Trade Agreement, revoked we also have everything to gain—if we
the Patriot Act, rescinded the re- demand it.
vised FISA, restored union rights, We could start by scrutinizing false
weaned ourselves off oil, built a change promises. While most college stu-
green energy infrastructure, disci- dents could talk fluently about the betray-
plined runaway corporations and als of the Bush administration, most are
reigned in the manic speculation much less familiar with the Democrat’s
sponsoring the current food, hous- myriad treacheries. Charmed by Obama’s
ing, and energy crises. More im- message of hope and ostensibly populist
portantly, it could be the year that rhetoric, they are flocking in droves to a
we made the connection between candidate they believe will exorcize the
these problems and the jingoistic Bush demon and bring America back to
militarism, corporatism and American exceptionalism that a state of “original sinlessness.”
underwrite them. There are three major problems with this fantasy.
That, at least, is Ralph Nader’s plan. 1. In 1992, Clinton ran an uncannily ‘Obamaesque’ cam-
But no. Instead, we allow the Republicans to exploit paign, branding himself as a change candidate and peddling
our fear and the Democrats to extort hope from our weari- a vague but comforting populism. Convinced, progressives

rallied behind him. Clinton won, but progressives lost. it”; Warren Christopher, who refused to use the word
Wage disparities between CEOs and workers ballooned genocide during the Rwanda crisis because the US had
449 to 1. Clinton pushed NAFTA, costing 525,000 US jobs no “strategic interests” there; Lee Hamilton, who stopped
and devastating Mexican farmers. And, as a flourish on the Iran Contra investigation before it could lead to the
the way out, Clinton repealed the Glass Steagall Act, al- impeachment of Reagan; Robert Gates, Saddam Hussein’s
lowing the mergers of banks and investment companies chief weapons supplier and author of violent intervention
that are at the heart of our current financial crisis. In short, schemes in Libya and Nicaragua; and Jason Furman, who
progressives got eight years of soft imperialism and a cor- favors decreasing corporate taxes, partial privatization
porate dream economy that Clinton admitted “helped the of Social Security and the so-called Wal-Mart model of
bond market and hurt the people who voted us in.” But 'prosperity.' (Unlike average Americans, corporations don’t
that’s not all. Progressives fell for the same stuff in 2000 have to hope for change. They can buy it. They only hope
and then again in 2004, when anti-war Democrats voted that the public will be duped enough by false promises that
in droves for a candidate who had no intention to end the they won’t demand the real stuff.)
war—who believed Bush was doing “too little” in the war 3. As much as we hate to hear it, Bush is not the problem.
on terror—and lost both the election and the muscle of the America has never been sinless; it has followed a policy of
peace movement. convenient militarism under Republicans and Democrats
2. As any cursory study of history will demonstrate, before Bush and, barring reform, will continue to do so after
pretty words rarely make for a pretty president. What re- him. Bush is not just the most evil president; he is also the
ally matters are the candidates’ advisers and funders. As most powerful, power abdicated to him by the so-called op-
Naomi Klein insists, advisers send a “signal” to Wall Street position party and sponsored by a bipartisan commitment
donors that business will proceed as usual after election to courting corporate cash. Bush’s presidency—the war, the
day. Advisers and financiers are the best indicators of the cronyism, and the inequality—is the logical conclusion of
tone and direction of a future presidency, and Obama’s a political philosophy based on dominance, inequality, and
are sending clear signals that things will be business as unquestioned exceptionalism. Unless Obama and McCain
usual after election day. Bewilderingly, Obama plans to question the Bush’s economic and militaristic assumptions,
solve the nation’s problems by recycling the architects of the demon will still possess us—because, to extend a phrase,
its moral and economic decline: Madeleine Albright, advo- “it’s the military-industrial complex, stupid.”
cate of unilateral aggression against Iraq, who said that US In short, both parties are busy burdening a broken
sanctions which killed 500,000 Iraqi children were “worth machine. Meanwhile, Ralph Nader is offering Americans

what the polls say they want. While McCain sings about Wal-Mart board members, peace activists voting for more
bombing Iran to the tune of Beach Boys songs and Obama Iraq and an escalated war in Afghanistan, environmental-
talks strategically about the difference between ‘smart’ and ists resigning themselves to capping and trading, and the
‘dumb’ wars, Nader condemns war in general, arguing for sub-prime homeless cashing $500 emergency checks and
a strongly negotiated peace in Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Af- hoping for the best.
ghanistan. While Obama dismisses his earlier commitments We could win the election. But instead, we refuse the
to fair trade as “overheated,” Nader argues for renegotiating easiest revolution—the ballot box—because we are afraid
a “pull-up” NAFTA and the WTO and replacing them with others won’t join us. Why resist today, we ask, what we
uniform environmental and labor standards that benefit all could resist next time? Why fight least worsts politics if
peoples. And while McCain chants “drill, baby, drill” and we aren’t sure we’ll win?
Obama prepares to replace Big Oil with Big Corn and Big Answer: Because most of the benefits and freedoms
Nukes, Nader urges efficient, renewable infrastructure you now enjoy came from a minority struggling against an
that eliminates dependence on fossil fuels and a top-down unjust majority. Because that’s what you’ll end up doing
energy cartel economy. Simply put, Nader acknowledges forever with that low set of expectations.
that the crises facing our country are manifestations of the Take a page from the minority playbook. Decide your
same problem: runaway corporate control and unregu- breaking point. What will you refuse to give up? What year
lated financial speculation. He is able to offer substantial will you stop voting for the least worst? What year will you
solutions to problems precisely because his forty years of decide that the government is your representative and not
public advocacy gets down to their roots. your master?
But the mainstream parties will tell us that we cannot I suggest you pick 2008. I suggest you pick Ralph Nader
vote for Nader because there is too much at stake this year. and Matt Gonzalez. Because if not, let’s be serious: you’ll
The Republicans have to win to save us from the enemy get nothing but chump change from cashing in the move-
without, and the Democrats have to win to save us from ment to buy the machine.
the enemy within.
If the Republicans are the Party of Ill Repute, the Demo- Why Radicals Should Vote Nader
crats have become the Party of Perpetual Plan B, an eva-
The word radicalism, as we’ve heard before, means getting
sion they protect by asking us to perpetually defer our
to the root of a problem. Why that would be considered
disappointment. Progressive voters are consequently in
undesirable in a culture—why it would be made to seem
a state of profound contradiction, with unions endorsing

like the organon for some sinister rebellion—is a sign of fight itself.
the sickness of a society, not the sickness of those trying That said, I disagree with those who remove themselves
to heal it. Most of our political discourse occurs inside a from the State and believe that it is possible for personally
philosophy that none of us would accept in our personal good actions to cover the host of wrongs perpetrated by
life: one that depends on greed, competition, and inequal- the political structure. The immediate goal is not to remove
ity. The purpose of a radical philosophy should be to unite ourselves from the State, but to perform two revolutions
the personal and the political until there is no difference at once. The first revolution should be voting in the per-
between the two. If we as individuals do not base our lives son who will begin to dismantle the structures causing
on principles of greed, competition, and inequality—if we widespread suffering, the whole time pushing the second
are not merely self-interested—then why do we accept a revolution—resistance and insistence—alongside it. Cindy
political philosophy based on the same? The purpose of Sheehan put it like this: When someone told her he wouldn’t
big-P Politics is to create structures that limit expressions vote for her because revolutionaries don’t vote, she said,
of selfishness that would, if left unchecked, impede others’ “Well vote for me and start the f—-ing revolution.” This is
ability to be compassionate. The purpose of radical, small-p not an argument for perpetual deferment. I am not telling
politics is to live our lives in a way that refuses to divide you, as so many Democrats tell me, to accept the failings of
the process of living from the product of it. a current candidate or system and be good, sit tight. Don’t
If this is true, we need two revolutions. We need a sit tight. Ralph Nader does not go nearly far enough. So
Political revolution, where we vote for a candidate who start the revolution, and start it immediately. But don’t be
will address the roots of big problems and the rotten as- so cajoled by anti-statism—a belief I share, by the way—
sumptions that foster them—a person who will reinforce that you miss an opportunity to elect a person who would
structures that prevent the powerful from making the con- make your fight so much easier.
sequences of their personal greed a public reality. But we Whether you agree with my argument or not, I would
also need a political revolution, where we recognize that argue that the fights for radicalism, anarchism and revo-
in a very real sense, “there is no such thing as the State,” lution have a lot in common with the third party fight
and that the ultimate political act is to “love one another against the two-party system. All of these movements try
or die,”—where we refuse to accept that there is a distinc- to manifest what people say that they want before they
tion between the personal and the political, where do not are seduced by the claims of big-P Politics—before they
strategize but demand, emphatically, that we get what we are told that their desire to apply their personal values to
are fighting for not when we are done fighting but in the politics is naïve, that strategically dividing the personal

and political is necessary, and that alternatives will never same with third parties. They have the numbers. People
work because people aren’t ready for them. personally agree with them. But the very people who agree
The fight for change depends almost entirely on faith: with them will not help them unless they are sure that they
the willingness to talk outside the logic of an unredeemable will win, which means of course that they will never win
system and the willingness to believe that other people will, and that the power of the State will be reinforced by the
too. It is not as if Ralph Nader or the anarchists don’t have people who most disagree with it but who are afraid to lose
the numbers, after all. How many people don’t want to be the perks of partial agreement. Any great reform depends
equal, to like their job, to be treated well and to live a life on the altruism of initial reformers who refuse to force a
where happiness is not divided from survival? But millions gap between the process of being political and the product
of these same people have convinced themselves to stay of being political, who will not perpetually defer the day of
miserable because they do not believe that enough people their success because they know that deferment, by its very
will join them if they fight for their happiness. nature, is failure. Any process-based philosophy depends
The principle of anarchism, being anti-statist, depends entirely on the masses—more particularly, getting masses
on a swelling and ultimately unstoppable majority of people of people behind them—because every good process-based
who have been transformed by the merits of good argu- philosophy knows that the so-called protections we think
ments rather than the external coercion of power. Until ensure our safety and dignity only truly protect us if we
their numbers are unstoppable, they live inside an ineq- make it impossible for them not to.
uitable system where And so I am asking you to vote for Ralph Nader who,
what they fight for is like a good radical, has stopped tinkering with a broken
That is our doctrine— largely erased by the machine to ask, “Why this machine?” True, he does not junk
a doctrine of inclusion power of inequitable the machine entirely—he believes in regulated capitalism,
...Of all people on this structures. But many representative government, and the rule of law. But he
earth, we should be the people do not join refuses to base his political philosophy on principles that
most loving, the kindest, the fight because they defy our personal sense of ethics; his political vision is
and the most tolerant are afraid to lose the expansive and transformative—it is not an exclusive plan
because of that doctrine. perks of the system for American dominance, but a persistent question as to
— M . Rus sell Ballard they are fighting be- why politics is based on exclusivity and dominance.
fore they are sure they But just as importantly, I am asking you to vote for
will triumph. It is the Ralph Nader because he does not make the mistake that

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 A Vietnam Vet's Vision of Peace 23
so many politicians have made. Since he does not equate rines from December '67 to Feb '69. I was wounded during
political freedom with economic freedom, he knows that the Tet Offensive outside Danang. A concussion grenade
it is possible to be politically ‘free’ and economically en- knocked me unconscious and ruptured my eardrums.
slaved—that ultimately, economic enslavement translates It happened in the middle of the night following a day
into political enslavement. Knowing this, he can criticize of intense battle with an NVA (North Vietnamese Army)
war and torture and the economic crash not as accidents, battalion that had infiltrated into the area to start the Tet
but as the political manifestations of a system based on Offensive. The NVA ran into my squad acting as a blocking
economic enslavement. The constant, sad story of world force at the edge of a paddy. They over ran us, killing our
history is the confusion of political ‘freedom’—the right to radio man and wounding the majority of us with grenades
elect a leader—with economic freedom—the right to basics and rifle fire. The day before, I had held my squad leader's
and to dignity or, worse, the confusion of economic ‘free- body trying to revive him. An NVA sniper had hit him with
dom’—the freedom to shop and invest—with meaningful a perfect head shot behind his ear. At first, I couldn't find
freedom—democracy. It is this confusion that many anar- where he'd been hurt. I had been on one side of a paddy
chists and radicals try to rectify with political philosophies dike in a large rice paddy and he was on the other when
firmly rooted in economic equality. If we can remember the we were ambushed. I found him in a fetal like position. He
relationship between the slow war of economic injustice was motionless. I shook him....tried to resuscitate him.....and
and the hot wars of intervention, we can end not just ‘this only after a few minutes did I realize he was dead.
war’ but all wars, not just ‘this violence’ but the violence of Two other members of the squad were hit with rifle
inequality, and not just excesses but the moral shortages fire. After the night assault on us, we discovered a field of
that they compensate for. dead NVA and American troops. Many of us were wounded.
A village had been hit with napalm across the paddy. We
were made to drag the NVA bodies to a central area for a
body count and photo-op. One of the members of that ef-
fort decided to use his K-bar (survival knife) to remove any
A Vietnam Vet’s Vision of Peace gold teeth from the dead bodies he found. Another member
by Terry Leichner of the company hit a captured NVA soldier in the mouth
I spent 50 years, following my time as an infantryman with with his E-tool (small folding shovel). He'd just found out
the United States Marine Corp, denying the existence of his best friend had been killed in action. I watched as cap-
God or Christ. I was in I Corps of Vietnam with the 5th Ma- tured NVA soldiers were kicked off the tops of amphibious

months made me change that belief. Once home I was

asked to be a trainer at Camp Lejeune's Infantry Training
Regiment.
I'd made E-4 by age 20 and had outstanding perfor-
mance evals from my time in Vietnam. I was salty and
skilled as a Marine in the "art" of death and the Corps saw
potential in turning me into a teacher of that art. The only
thing wrong with that plan was the dark hole in my soul.
Each day of trying to cope with just being in the Corps,
trying to medicate my flashbacks and dreams and trying
to stay awake to avoid the nightmares made the darkness
worse. After a month, what little morality I had left moti-
vated me to go AWOL (absent without leave).
I went back and forth to Lejeune. I was encouraged
to work it out. They sent me to Correctional Custody,
which is akin to going through boot camp again but as a
prisoner. They were intensely trying to get us back to be-
ing programmed as Marines. They would use solitary in a
cell about the size of a middle sized closet for those that
didn't get with the program...in North Carolina that cell
tracks (a troop carrier with tracks like a tank but is also
out in the sun got very hot (it looked sort of like a porta-
able to used in water) and tanks while they were hogtied.
potty with one small window positioned up high so the
That was just the warm up for the next part of Jan 30, 1968.
prisoner couldn't see out but at least go some air). While
After lunch we swept through the burned village and saw
I was there one Marine cut his wrists and bled out inside
up close what napalm can do to the human body. Even be-
one of the solitary cells. He had tried before and was given
ing numb from the events of the past 48 hours, the sight
more time for attempting to harm "government property".
of the small bodies of children burned to "crispy critters"
The Marines aren't much for mental health issues.
jolted me. That was the day I knew there could be no God
I then spent time in the Great Lakes Brig (military
or Christ. Nothing that happened in the following twelve
prison) and took part in a prison uprising against the Ma-

rine guards who were abusing inmates. While I was there, rebelled. We all started asking to go to the head and when
the pods (a large open barracks with jail doors and win- refused went anyway. When the guards demanded we get
dows) were overcrowded with many AWOL and deserted back in formation (it was outside of the large barracks in a
Marines. The abuse (other than the constant verbal abuse) courtyard.) more of us went inside to the head. Finally we
occurred on consecutive days. The guards of our pod (two locked ourselves in the barracks and barricaded the door
at all times...usually three) had morning, noon and evening with bunks and chairs. Probably 20 of the 30 prisoners were
formations to do head counts and generally let us know inside, part of the rebellion. We made a list of demands
what scum we were. In the A.M. and noon formations that included going to the head as needed, cessation of the
each prisoner was assigned a detail (chore), like raking or constant verbal abuse by guards and the mass punishment
cleaning outside areas. On two consecutive days a really for the acts of one individual.
immature Marine asked to go to the "head" (bathroom) The standoff lasted four hours. The commander of the
and was refused while we stood in formation. The kid brig and a riot team responded. The commander (warden)
hadn't been to Vietnam like most of us in there and he re- was a Lt. Colonel in the Corps. He went from demanding to
ally seemed like a slow kid who should never have been finally listening but all the time he was planning an assault
allowed to enlist or be drafted. In the Marines, guys like on us with the riot team. He attempted to get the perceived
him were magnets for DI's or guards to target as the big- leaders to open the door to let him and one guard inside. We
gest screw up. When one guy screwed up the whole unit figured the door would be stormed once opened. We had
of men was punished with extra exercise, no break for cigs, discussions on strategy once the riot team was unleashed.
or something else that would turn us against the screw up. We all knew it was a matter of time before we were gassed
In our pod, however, most of us were combat veterans with CS (a higher potency tear gas). We discussed if we
who were very wise to that game of targeting the weak. would resist or be non-violent. There were a good number
We basically adopted the kid to prevent him from getting that wanted to fight the riot team entering the door. But,
targeted by other inmates and to protect him as much as finally the majority of us talked the group into the non-
we could from the guards. We couldn't protect him from violent method. So, when the gas did come, we had the
his anxiety and bladder, however. plan to get wet towels to cover our airway by tying them
When the guards refused to allow the kid to go to the in the fashion the anarchists of today use with bandannas.
head, the kid wet himself. That set off a loud verbal abuse We also decided we'd sit on the floor with our fingers laced
of the young man by guards as well as extra work for all together and placed on top of our heads. The gas did come
of us. After the second time of the kid wetting himself, we right at 4pm. We had decided once the gas got too strong

we'd remove the barricade of beds and chairs and open black. They were part of a leadership of close to ten of us.
the door. They opened the door quickly and threw in two I was one in the group that planned the strategy and talked
gas grenades. The riot team came in screaming for us to everyone into the non-violent response.
get face down, armed with M-16's and batons. A couple After that there were no more refusals to allow us to
of the prisoners didn't move quickly enough for the team. go to the head and the verbal abuse did decrease. All of
They were kicked down to the floor. All of us were made us received the additional charge of “inciting a riot” to go
to stand in formation for hours as the unit was cleared of with either our AWOL or desertion charge that got us in
the gas and a thorough search for weapons and contraband the brig to begin with. That charge would go with us to
took place. Three of the perceived leaders were taken to our home unit once we were returned. I was returned to
another more restrictive part of the brig. All three were Camp Lejeune after more than two weeks at Great Lakes
to rejoin my unit and face a possible court martial. A group
of ten of us were shackled and cuffed and taken to Midway
for transport by two Marine MP chasers. All of us were
either AWOL or classified as deserters after 30 days of ab-
sent without leave. All of us were combat veterans. At that
particular time almost 40% of the Marine Corps infantry
was said to be in AWOL or desertion status. Once I reached
Lejeune, still cuffed and shackled, we were taken to the
base Provost Marshall's where the base brig was located.
Each of us was processed from a holding cell and told to
report to our assigned company. I was now alone, without
a guard. I decided to go AWOL again. I went straight to
a transition barracks and sneaked in to sleep one night.
After showering, still in civilian clothing, I boarded a base
bus to Jacksonville, NC then took a Greyhound to Denver.
The next time I encountered the Marine Corps was a year
later when the FBI sent six agents bearing handguns to my
parents' home to arrest me (that's another story in itself).
Cory Bushman · Washington D.C. I then spent a month in Denver City Jail waiting for

chasers to arrive to return me to the Corps. On one Sun- I was 50, I went to a grandson's baptism at the cathedral
day a Catholic priest came to give communion and "talk here in Denver. It was Easter Sunday. My grandson was
with us". I asked him if his God approved of sending young baptized just as the noon bells in the cathedral started ring-
men like me to kill others, including kids. The priest gave ing. The priest was pouring water over his forehead as bells
me the rote answer that God would forgive me because I rang. That baptism and the bells were a jump start to the
was in a war to protect my country. I dormant spirituality I had barely re-
yelled that his God wasn't any God I tained since Vietnam. I was struggling
wanted to be part of. I don’t have to approve of any to keep from crying. I lost the struggle
Eventually I ended up with a less particular behavior, but I also once the bells started. Tears rolled
than honorable discharge rather than don’t have to judge people... down my cheeks as my grandson had
go to a court martial. I went to the As with every time of con- holy water poured on his forehead. I
ACLU for legal help. The Corps im- troversy, I think there is a call it my epiphany.
mediately offered me a deal for a dis- I returned to the church and dis-
great potential for division,
charge. I continued angry, violent and covered a personal reawakening. I lis-
for anger, and even for ha-
self-medicating for years. The only tened to the words of Christ, read His
tred. It would hurt me to
good thing in my life was my wife words and came to understand their
and two sons and VVAW (Vietnam
have Mormons thought of meaning. I realized Christ had nothing
Veterans Against the War). I terror- as people who are “against,
” to do with the wars of men.
ized my family for years with rage people who hate, people who I want to tell the Christian troops
attacks, violent destruction of walls call names and ostracize. in the US military to resist the evil
and furniture and verbal abuse. I also — ch i eko n. o ka zaki asked of them. I want to tell them
continued to deny and ignore the ex- to search their consciences and find
istence of God. I couldn't fathom God their moral center to understand the
was present in a world of constant war, injustice and op- war they're being asked to kill or be killed for by a cor-
pression of the rich toward the poor. rupted government. I have often said anytime a young man
I had been baptized in the Baptist church when I was 11. or woman picks up a weapon for the purpose of hunting
I hardly remember what led me to that decision. I suspect down another human to kill, they've lost any semblance of
it was due to pressure and my training to follow the crowd being a peace keeper. It's trite to say, "what would Jesus
since the time I could walk. About nine years ago, when do?" but if we're Christians I believe we must ask if Christ

were actually "with us" would we be killing other humans are supposed to be the people of Christ who would have
for a government that lied to justify their wars? Would we us love one another as we love ourselves, right? I wanted
be calling our "enemy" by the denigrating terms of "gook" that priest to give me more than a pat answer. I wanted
or "haji" to depersonalize them? I believe in the Christ of him to say..."yes, you're right. We humans have lost the
the "sermon" on the mount. Not the vengeance seeking message of God and Christ." And maybe he could have
Christ of the "rapture" driven radicals. I don't think we can reminded me that Paul was one of the greatest sinners who
be pro-life with the unborn but fail to sanctify the lives of killed and did horrible things to the followers of Christ.
the innocent civilians sacrificed in our wars. Since WWII, And Christ still chose him, forgave him and loved him. I
the number of innocent war dead is 90% of the total killed think troops want more than "it's ok, you did it for your
in wars. Of that number 40% were children. That percent- country". I think they want to know they can reclaim their
age is even larger in Iraq where over half the population humanity and the spiritual roots that wars take from us. It
is under the age of 20. Can we say our “shock and awe” deeply saddens me parents are so protective of children
destruction discriminates in killing only the "terrorists" while they are growing up but that they fail their children
or do we acknowledge more children and their innocent when the choice of taking up a rifle to kill another human
families were under those bombs we launched or dropped? comes up. They demand helmets and pads. They demand
Just as we held the Germans accountable at Nuremberg by calls and check-ins. But going to war is like a rite of pas-
saying "just doing our jobs" wasn't an excuse for taking sage we somehow expect of our children. We accept it
part in atrocities, we must hold ourselves responsible by as an institution and wave flags and cheer in parades to
the same criteria. encourage our "warriors".
I want any Church leader to question why we send I became an activist and gave up my job to oppose the
young people to foreign lands as agents of death and ter- war. I marched, rallied and screamed out my protest. And
ror. Where are the Christian leaders speaking out against the beat goes on. War and tragedy never stops, it seems.
the madness of Iraq and Afghanistan? Fighting the Muslim My faith is greatly tested every time I go to mass. I enter
nations shouldn't be the "new crusade". But then I remem- the church angry because I know the priests and deacons
ber it was the Samaritan, and not the Pharisees or others will call for prayers for our "troops who protect our free-
claiming to be righteous, that Christ used in the parable. dom" but fail to acknowledge the innocent victims of our
There was a reason and purpose to the way Christ spoke wars. But I still go, hoping to hear those bells again. The
that parable, I believe. It tells me my brothers and sisters bells of the Church that Easter my grandson was baptized
aren't confined to my tribe, my state or my nation. We were a miracle of sorts. They reawakened me. Now I fear

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 “Un-terrified Jeffersonian Democrats”: Part I 29
the rhetoric of the leaders of my church has drowned out and destructive Civil War, but it still inspired confidence
the true "message". A combination of PTSD-caused despair abroad. The League of Peace and Freedom was an inter-
and my ever failing faith seems to be pushing me back into national organization committed to ending the seemingly
that abyss I thought I'd left behind. endless wars between European states. “[T]here is but one
Terry Leichner’s runs a blog called Visions of Peace: way to bring about the triumph of liberty, of justice, and
A Combat Veteran’s Dream at http://visopeace.blogspot. of peace in Europe's international relations, to make civil
com war impossible between the different peoples who make
up the European family;” Bakunin continued, “and that is
the formation of the United States of Europe.”
Why should the United States be of such significance
to European republicans; particularly with examples set
“Un-terrified Jeffersonian Democrats”: by the revolutions in Europe, England and France? Simply
Part I put it was because the American revolutionary experience
by Matthew Thomas was unique. There was no titular nobility in America, no
deeply ensconced English aristocracy upon these shores;
“The Anarchists are simply un-terrified Jeffersonian Demo-
therefore, European reaction to the American states decla-
crats. They believe that ‘the best government is that which
ration of independence, the Revolutionary War itself, was
governs least,’ and that which governs least is no government
confined largely to military conflict between America and
at all.” —Benjamin Tucker
England, their allies and mercenary forces.
The independence and establishment of the United Once the armies of that action had been defeated, the
States of America was a source of great inspiration for reaction to the American revolution ceased. Because of
the European Left—liberals, republicans, and socialists— this—this limitation upon the “furies of reaction,” and the
because it proved that republican government was not only well-recognized legitimacy of the various state legislatures
possible, but that it functioned well. in the eyes of the American public—the American republic
On September 9, 1867, at the opening Geneva congress could develop in a more liberal fashion than might other-
of the League of Peace and Freedom, Mikhail Bakunin wise have been possible.
called the American republic “the finest political organiza- The English Revolution was a series of civil wars begin-
tion that ever existed in history.” ning in 1642 between the Crown and Parliament. With the
The United States had recently concluded its long Crown’s defeat, and the enactment of the Commonwealth,

the English saw the final and unfortunate emergence of government committed to the ideals embodied in the Dec-
Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate. laration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Instead,
Under the Lord-Protector, puritanical laws, very much there was only reaction and a polity boiling with numerous,
despised by the English, were passed (the closure of the- contradictory interests.
aters and the banning of newspapers were two of the more By the time Napoleon took his seat with the Consul-
onerous laws). The English republic lapsed into authori- ate in 1799, the Republic was already on its way towards
tarianism while the more liberal and egalitarian strains Empire.
of thought, such as those of John Lilburn (1614 - 1657) and When Mikhail Bakunin spoke in Geneva in 1867, the
Gerrard Winstanley (1609 - 1676), were lost in the struggle French had gone through two republics, the Bourbon mon-
between the relatively powerful gentry, and high-ranking archy of the Restoration and that of the July Monarchy, and
military officers. two empires. And so while the French republicans were
The restoration of the monarchy, and the enactment tenacious, they had yet to see the foundation of a stable
of the Bill of Rights, was welcomed because it thoroughly republic. Nevertheless, the French revolution had provided
ended the religious and civil austerity imposed by the Pu- that necessary impetus towards liberty, equality, and fra-
ritanical government. ternity not only in France, but throughout Europe, while
Unlike the English struggle between the Crown and the American republic proved the ideal realizable.
Parliament, incompetence and malfeasance on the part of The American republican tradition is far more radical
the French Ancien Régime was such that revolution was than many realize. We are given, in our schools, a sani-
inevitable in France, beginning in 1789. The end of the abso- tized version of the events surrounding our revolution,
lute monarchy of Louis XVI brought about a constitutional one sadly lacking in understanding of, or sympathy for,
monarchy first and then a republic. But the National Assem- the fervor which inspired a generation to grapple with that
bly fell into disorder as the French defended themselves established authority, the British Empire, and to remake
against foreign threats on all sides and was thus unable to their own society.
address the myriad problems French society faced. The American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre observed,
The reaction to the French Republic was fierce and regarding the American revolution, as it has come to be un-
direct. The Committee of Public Safety, headed by Max- derstood, that: “[N]ame-worship, both in child and man, has
imilien Robespierre, crushed all opposition to the republic acquired such mastery of them, that the name ‘American
in what came to be known as the Reign of Terror. There Revolution’ is held sacred, though it means to them nothing
was no time to develop a functioning, liberal republican more than successful force, while the name ‘Revolution’

applied to a further possibility, is a spectre detested and tion of our own union.
abhorred. In neither case have they any idea of the content Libertarian socialists—from fellow anarchists to those
of the word, save that of armed force.” free social democrats who believe the state may play a ben-
As such, cynicism has overshadowed hope, complacence eficial role in society should it be wholly answerable to the
has obscured attentiveness, and deference has squelched people and uphold certain individual rights as inviolable—
participation. should keep in mind that America’s republican revolution
Too many Americans are disaffected by a two-party started as much with Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common
system which skews popular representation and has led Sense as it did with the Continental Congress’ Declaration
in no small part to the ossification of political institutions of Independence.
and the concentration of political and economic power. “Some writers have so confounded society with gov-
Too many Americans are dismayed that a nation “con- ernment,” wrote Thomas Paine, “as to leave little or no
ceived in liberty” should imprison a disproportionately distinction between them; whereas they are not only dif-
large number of its citizens. Too many Americans are ferent, but have different origins. Society is produced by
disgusted by their government’s endless wars and the im- our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former
perial “projection of power” abroad. promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affec-
And too many Americans are discouraged that the tions; the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”
world’s wealthiest nation should see too many of its citizens
disinherited, homeless, and poverty stricken. The Public Matter: The Commonwealth and Classical
But a re-examination of the republican principles es- Republicanism
poused by that revolutionary generation might dispel the
cynicism which leads to political apathy. And we have an “For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more
advantage which that generation lacked: We can compare subtle – not more just.” —Thomas Paine, Common Sense
the ideals, history, and practices of our own experience By the time Thomas Paine had written those words in
with that of the Hellenic and Roman republics. Jefferson, 1776, the “republicanization of monarchy” in Great Britain
Paine, Madison, Adams, and Hamilton could look back and her territories had long been under way. The subjects
upon the failures of Athenian democracy and the Roman of the English crown were among the freest people in the
Republic and attempt to compensate; we can look back not world. They enjoyed the benefits of a constitutional mon-
only to the polities of antiquity, to scrutinize their failures, archy, where governmental power was vested, by and large,
but to our own history, and see the successes in the evolu- in the Parliament, and a social hierarchy much looser than

those found in France, the German states or Russia. to the American experience.
And of all the subjects of the British Empire, it might be Despite the failure of the English Commonwealth, and
said that the English colonists in North America were the Cromwell’s dictatorship, a precedent had been set. Many
freest of them all. Representative and even democratic in- Americans, not just those of the working-classes, as one
stitutions existed in its colonies, in its colonial legislatures might expect, but also many of the middle-class identified
and town assemblies. And in several colonies, adult male with the Levellers (also called the Agitators), and the demo-
suffrage was rather extensive. Even so, between sovereign cratic rights which John Lilburne expounded upon during
and subjects, there is always tension. Constitutional or the English Revolution more than a century before.
limited monarchy is a peculiar construct, maintaining two Early on, Lilburne had called for reforms within Crom-
antagonistic principles, that of the Crown’s sovereignty, well’s New Model Army, and, later, for a written constitu-
and his prerogatives, and the notion that his legitimacy is tion, religious freedoms, and universal adult male suffrage.
maintained only by the consent of his subjects. This identification with the Levellers was particularly true
On one hand, you had conservatives, who, following the in Philadelphia; a group known as the “Associators,” took
earlier sentiments of Robert Fillmer, believed a monarch to the cause of American independence and were deeply
was necessarily above the law; social order demanded it. engaged in the revolutionary politics of 1775 and 1776.
On the other, you had Whigs and “Commonwealth Men,” Among their proposals, three were quite radical: 1.)
who believed if government’s legitimacy arose from the Militiamen had the right to elect their officers; 2.) all men
consent of the governed, then it was right also to insist that serving with the militia, regardless of social status, were
the people were sovereign, and that monarchies, no matter to be enfranchised; and 3.) those men who refused service
how they were constituted, were an affront to justice. in the militia were to be taxed to support the families of
Americans had lived under republican government militiamen who had been called away from gainful work.
once before, briefly, with the 1649 pronouncement of the When the revolution was accomplished, and the break
Commonwealth of England, which included all of its ter- with Great Britain complete, the Americans had to accom-
ritories. The legislative houses in the colonies were, for the plish self-government for themselves
most part, of a semi-democratic sort, and representative There was a republican sentiment that could not be de-
institutions were deemed wholly legitimate. Those few nied in these States. The Founding Fathers were well aware
attempts to impose a titular nobility upon the Americans of the failures of the Commonwealth, and its promise, they
had never met with any success when proposed. There was, were also familiar, through their schooling as gentlemen, of
in short, from the very beginning a democratic character the history of the republics of antiquity. In their attempt to

bring a new government to America, they had two sets of What is Property?:
influences working upon them: The Commonwealth and A republican! Yes; but that word specifies nothing. Res
classical republicanism. publica; that is, the public thing. Now, whoever is interested
Republic is a much abused and apparently misunder- in public affairs—no matter under what form of government—
stood term. Many on the Right try to distinguish between may call himself a republican. Even kings are republicans.
republic and democracy; the result, confusion. The distinction that James Madison made, in fact,
The root of this attempted distinction, apparently, can was not one between republics and democracies, but one
be found in the Federalist Papers, No. 10, written by “Pub- between those systems of government which are repre-
lius,” better known as James Madison. sentative and those which are participatory. So, while all
“A republic,” he writes, “by which I mean a govern- democracies are necessarily republics, not all republics
ment in which the scheme of representation takes place,” are democracies. But, when one carefully considers the
would have to include, contrary to his intentions, not only meaning of the word republic, this phrase res publica—
the very government from which the Americans just won the public matter, the public thing, the public concern—it
their independence, but the Athenian democracy itself. In becomes clear that a democracy is the most appropriate
both cases, that of the British constitutional monarchy and and consistent republic. The public matter is, after all, the
the Athenian democracy, schemes of representation took public’s concern
place, as both Parliament and the Boule were representa- For many of the Founding Fathers, republicanism meant
tive bodies. Therefore “republic” clarifies nothing. austerity, public virtue, and a concern for the public’s
Historically, the term republic has been used synony- welfare. Most were admirers of Rome, of Cicero and Cato.
mously with “the state.” Systems of “mixed-government” Others were admirers of Lycurgus, the law-giver, and the
and even kingdoms have been called “republics.” Plato’s Spartan republic which he established. There could be no
Republic, that early political treatise, posits that the ideal two greater examples of republican austerity than these.
state would not be a republic as we understand the word, i.e. And even though they were admired, Alexander Hamilton
a state in which the people, collectively, are sovereign, but readily admitted, in the Federalist No. 6, that Sparta was
rather a monarchial state headed by a philosopher king. “little better than a well-regulated camp,” and Rome “was
From this example, Republic is simply a Latin transla- never sated of carnage and conquest.”
tion of the Greek word politeia, that is, polity, state, or, more Then there was Athens. Of all the democracies, Ath-
precisely, the governmental organization of the state. ens is the best known. The system of government there
Further, Pierre Joseph Proudhon writes in his book included all freemen—polites, citizens—and possibly as

many as sixty-thousand might in a given year participate bought with money, whether male or female, is just as free
in the affairs of state. The members of the courts, execu- as his or her purchaser; nor must I forget to tell of the liberty
tive councils, and sitting legislative council of five-hundred and equality of the two sexes in relation to each other.”
citizens, the Boule, which set the legislative agenda, were And indeed, among the freemen there were a few who
all selected by lottery. The military’s generals, the Strat- argued that slavery was wrong. In the 4th Century B.C., a
egoi, were subject to popular election. And the legislative Greek sophist named Alcidams wrote, “God has set every-
assembly itself, the Ekklesia, was open to all citizens. All one free. No one is made a slave by nature.”
could vote. And all were free to initiate matters to be con- How the aristoi abhorred this; how democracy upended
sidered. the “natural order” of things! Athenian democracy was in-
Most of the Founding Fathers regarded democracy terrupted by its “best citizens” on two different occasions,
with contempt. Their denunciation of democracy, no doubt, and they instituted oligarchy, reordering the franchise ac-
relied on Plato, and the criticisms of the Athenian aristoi, cording to evaluations of property.
“the best ones,” as well as their own class interests (as the If there was any reason at all that Athenian democracy
Federalist No. 10 makes clear). might be considered a failure, it was for its lack of equal-
Plato complained of the “evils” of democracy in Repub- ity, for its lack of liberty. Athens was a city-state founded
lic, comparing it ultimately to anarchy, saying: upon slavery, after all. Women lacked the franchise. And
“By degrees the anarchy finds a way into the private hous- the divisions of property were so great that even Plato ar-
es, and ends getting among the animals and infecting them. gued property should be held in common. But the truth is,
“How do you mean? despite the numerous criticisms, the democratic Athenian
I mean that the father grows accustomed to descend to republic represented a high point in the history of western
the level of his sons and to fear them, and the son is on a civilization. Athens gave us improvements in the arts, lit-
level with his father, he having no respect or reverence for erature, medicine, philosophy, architecture, and science;
either of his parents; and this is his freedom, and the metic Sparta gave us an early model for a police state, social
[an outlander] is equal with the citizen and the citizen with regimentation, totalitarianism, in a word, fascism.
the metic, and the stranger is quite as good as either.” The question, ultimately, is this: What sort of republic
It was this equality and liberty that Plato, this lover of do we desire for ourselves and to leave for future genera-
authority and hierarchy, saw as evil. But this was not the tions—one austere or one free; one Spartan or one Arca-
worst of it. He continues: dian; one aristocratic or one democratic?
“The last extreme of popular liberty is when the slave To be continued with Part II

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Letter from South Baghdad, May 2008 35
any nation needing to buy oil had to keep large amounts

of US dollars on reserve in their central banks to pay for
Letter from South Baghdad, May 2008 that oil. This created a constant and worldwide demand for
by Sgt. Jay Dawkins US currency to the extent that it has been said our largest
export is hundred dollar bills.
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowl- Our economy benefits from global oil sales even when
edge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” those sales don't involve us because the transaction takes
—Alan Greenspan place with US currency. Should OPEC ever decide to
Yesterday I was in a small village south of Baghdad change its currency to, say, euros, then everyone import-
talking to a sheik about Iraqi oil. The sheik was telling ing oil would have to dump their dollars for euros and
me that in November 2000, while we were figuring out suddenly you have a lot of devalued Ben Franklins floating
whether Bush or Gore won the election, Saddam Hussein around the world looking for a home.
did something quite extraordinary. He switched the cur- Saddam's decision to drop the dollar had great eco-
rency for Iraq’s oil sales from dollars to euros. From that nomic consequence, not only because Iraq has the second
point on, any nation buying Iraqi oil would have to pay in largest oil reserves in the world, but also because of in-
euros instead of dollars. The move was seen as a political creasing competition with the dollar from rising Chinese,
slap in the face to America, but went largely unnoticed Russian and European Union currencies. The precedent
at the time. Economically it turned out to be an astute Saddam set had the potential to embolden other oil pro-
move by Saddam. The euro eventually increased in value ducers to switch their petrocurrency, causing the dollar to
well above that of the US dollar; and there were other far- dangerously devalue.
reaching implications. A sheik who knows first-hand was telling me all this,
The value of the US dollar is essentially pegged to but I had heard it before from numerous Iraqis over the
OPEC oil. In the post-WWII era the dollar was pegged to course of my year here, and I always say, yes, yes, but then
gold, but Nixon ended the gold standard in 1971 and set our the US invaded Iraq in March 2003 and the first thing we
US currency free to romp and roam unfettered. did was secure all the oil fields (and then we secured the
After a series of negotiations with Saudi Arabia, the potential WMD sites) then we won the war on May 1st and
value of the dollar was tied to oil in 1974 when the Saudis Bush did his flight-suit thing and Mission Accomplished
promised that OPEC would only accept US dollars for all etc. etc. etc.
its oil sales. Thus, the US dollar was held afloat because Fast forward one month to June 2003 when the US

switched Iraq from the euro banking system back to the the same thing the British said from 1917 to 1947 when they
dollar for all future oil sales. Problem solved, I said, crisis occupied Iraq.” I said, “Well in any case we have to protect
averted. Then the sheik and I laughed and he congratulated you from Iran.” He then talked about Iran being a partner
us on our American ingenuity; after a pause he mentioned to the Arab world, fellow Shiite brothers, etc. etc. I cut him
that countries like Venezuela, Russia, and Iran are now off by saying, "Look bro, we're building 14 permanent bases
also moving their oil sales from dollars to euros in an ef- here as we speak. Reasons come and reasons go, but you
fort to thwart our aggressive policies in the region, so.... best believe we've no intention of leaving a strategic gem
yeah, there's that. like Iraq anytime soon."
"Indeed," I said gravely, "this means we may have to This has been a paradigm shift for me. I used to be
invade them too." He nodded his head in agreement. But under the impression we were bogged down in Iraq, try-
then I said, "I’m totally kidding! That would be insane.” We ing desperately to leave if only we hadn't bitten off so
laughed together again. much more than we could chew. I remember learning in
The sheik's bodyguard chimed in for the first time linguistics class long ago that Eskimo soldiers have over
and said something I’ve heard voiced by many Iraqis. He 100 words for quagmire. I thought that's what this was, that
stated, “We Iraqis hate oil.” He said they hate it because we were in over our head.
the whole world has converged on their land to vie for The fact is we never had an exit strategy. We never
the singular resource Iraq is so cursed to be blessed with. had any intention of leaving. I’ve been to several of the 14
The average Iraqi wants nothing more than for the oil to permanent bases the US is building here. They are cities
be gone so everyone will just stop, go home, and leave —complete with neighborhoods, bus routes and a 'mayor's
them alone. The sheik asked me if the US would promise office,' with roads paved, foundations laid, housing built,
to leave Iraq if they were given all the oil. I replied that it shopping malls and Harley-Davidson dealerships next
doesn’t work like that. to Burger Kings and Pizza Huts. All staffed by workers
"The thing is," I said, "we came here to save you from shipped in from the Philippines and India. Many soldiers
Saddam." serve their entire 15 months in Iraq without ever speaking
"Saddam is dead." he said. "But," I told him, "We have to to an Iraqi.
protect you from Al Qaeda." He said, “Al Qaeda was never We are digging in. Whatever politicians are telling
here till you came.” I said, “Yes fine, but we have to stay in people back home, the facts are we have entrenched our-
Iraq or you will descend inevitably into civil war and col- selves so deeply that no future administration will be able
lapse in upon yourself like a dying star.” He said, “That's to justify pulling us out as long as the loss of US lives re-

mains at an acceptable level for the American public (no the doves who get to let them.
more than a couple hundred casualties a year). My hope, however, is that what I have related will
Our role may shift, the numbers may be fewer, but rest encourage people to learn more. It is easy to feel over-
assured we will remain no matter November's outcome. whelmed, our responsibility is to change the things we
My first six months in Iraq were spent moving between have power over. Americans must understand the relation-
four permanent bases. One was a hydroelectric power sta- ship between our daily insistence on abundantly cheap oil
tion before the US took it over. Two of the bases were water and that which is happening in Iraq. We need to educate
treatment plants. The fourth was an agricultural factory. ourselves about the true cost of the things we consume.
We gutted all four and made them into US compounds. Someone somewhere somehow has to pay, and for the last
After 5 years of occupation - much of Iraq doesn't have year I have seen how ugly a reckoning it can be. Our deter-
electricity for more than a few hours a day. Why is there mination to be full and filled and fulfilled as a people has
no safe drinking water in our area? When I look at our base forced our government to enact policies in far-off places
where the former water treatment plant was, and then see that will appease our domestic demands.
villagers drinking canal water containing raw sewage, I am Few Americans ever witness the distant reality of what
forced to ponder the question that Bush asked in a speech is taking place in our name. It is only when we feel the oc-
just a few days after 9/11. "Why do they hate us?" casional blowback of those policies such as on September
He answered his own question by saying, "Because we 11th that we have to ever deal with the repercussions of our
love liberty and progress." This is true; I wake up everyday actions. President Bush asked, "Why do they hate us?"
and marvel at the new and profound development I see in Bin Laden had his own question for America: "Is it
Iraq, the great and sweeping improvements in infrastruc- worth it?" So long as we are okay with what we are doing to
ture, and standard of living. . . but then I leave our base. the world, and willing to accept the occasional September
I'm not sure what my responsibility is in sharing any 11th that inevitably will occur, and accept our government
of this with you. I am not doing it for shock value. People killing people on the other side of the world who look, and
who are against the war will hem and haw and point at the speak, and believe differently from us, it is worth it. There is
raw sewage in the canal water to say, “See I told you so.” no need to change. But if we are uncomfortable with any of
They feel smug in their abhorrence, and justified in their this, then we need to pay the price of virtue and take away
disdain, while those who love war point out that raw sew- the rationale for these wars. The rationale is our demand
age is better than Saddam. Nothing changes in this eternal for excess, made possible and fueled by the resources that
dance between the hawks who get to have their wars and nations like Iraq are so cursed to be blessed with. Our use

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Observations from the 2008 Democratic National Convention 38
of oil has become a moral issue. That means every day, Veterans Against the War (IVAW). When she asked why
every one of us is part of this war. That also means every we were against the war, my friend said, “I really just be-
day, every one of us can be part of ending it. lieve in following Christ and what he said about turning
the other cheek and loving your enemy.” Perhaps a little
surprised by this, she replied, “You also have to remember
what he said right after that about being ready and defend-
ing yourself.”
Observations from the 2008 As the band played through their old hits, I danced
Democratic National Convention and romped and rapped along with probably 10,000 other
by Spencer Kingman people in the dark steambath of the old coliseum. I went
From August 25-29, I was in Denver to protest against the down to the floor where everybody was moshing, mostly
war while the Democratic National Convention nominated sweaty teenage boys with their shirts off. Bulls on Parade
Barack Obama. This is not a political analysis of the elections, indeed. In a crowd like this, there’s a tension between as-
or of summit protesting. It is merely a collection of personal serting yourself and going with the flow of bodies, pushing
anecdotes from my trip. and being pushed. It’s been a few years since I’ve danced
Walking downtown, my friend and I were wondering like this, and I really felt my age in my back (even though
how we were going to get to a free Rage Against the Ma- I’m only 28). It was a lot of fun.
chine concert, forty blocks north. A gray-haired, middle- After the concert, the Iraq Veterans were brought back
aged woman, pulled up in a rental car. She asked us, “Do on stage. Their leader led the crowd in a militaristic recita-
you know where the Coliseum is?” Me and my friend smiled tion, some sort of pledge of support. It was too much for
at each other. “It’s a few blocks north. We’re going there. me, so I left. I didn’t like it, but perhaps these rituals were
Can we get a ride?” She gave us an awkward smile and said important to the Veterans, all of them active-duty, who
quietly, “Don’t do anything crazy.” were about to step out of line and challenge the powers
We got in and pointed her in the right direction. “I amassed downtown. I didn’t quite understand what was at
heard there were riots going on up there,” she said in a stake for them, emotionally, or career-wise.
Florida accent. She told us she was a press photographer, The march was long, hot, and slow. There was no permit,
and listed some websites I didn’t recognize. We told her so the IVAW was in constant negotiation with the police; it
riots were doubtful. The concert was organized by Iraq was very stop-and-start. I was roped into carrying a banner
on the edge of the march. It was actually part of a long line

tah.com/
of banners all made by the same group of Denver anarchists. destination, I found a picket sign on the ground. It said
They were backed with sheets of foam insulation. Maybe “END THE WAR” in big black letters. “Now that’s more
for some kind of shield? Whatever their intended purpose, like it!” I said to myself.
they made it extremely easy to keep the crowd together. It The march lasted five hours. It wasn’t until the very
was much more efficient and less authoritarian than using end that I saw the Iraq Veterans Against the War who
“marshalls,” (people in neon vests that have to constantly were leading the march. There were 50 or 60 of them. They
yell “stay inside the yellow lines!”). were standing in formation, surrounded by riot police on
Most of the people in the march were carrying simple, all sides, while inside the Pepsi Center, Tom Daschle was
sensible signs: “U.S. Out of Iraq,” “No War on Iran,” etc. I lecturing the world on “responsible redeployment.” The
looked over the top of my banner. It read “MAGICAL RE- IVAW were negotiating with police and representatives
ALISM IS A WEAPON.” I looked past the bike cops with of the Democratic Party to be allowed to deliver a letter
their poker faces, onto the streets of workers and normal to Obama and schedule a future meeting.
people, and felt foolish. When we finally arrived at our After a tense half-hour, the spokesperson was finally
allowed in to meet with someone in Obama’s campaign. I
don’t know if they got their meeting scheduled, but all of
the Veterans were hugging and smiling, teary-eyed with
relief. Soon after, the cops closed in. I wasn’t eager to get
arrested, so I walked home parched and tired.
When I arrived in Denver, I had no idea where I was
staying. My contact said he was camping out in the parking
lot of the Pepsi Center, which sounded pretty miserable
to me. Fortunately, we ended up on the floor of an apart-
ment that belonged to a friend of a friend of a friend. He
had a masters degree in critical theory, but he worked at a
cafe. He said that for a lot of kids at the protests, being an
“anarchist” just meant dressing crazy, making one’s self a
target, “going out in the street and yelling things.”
On Tuesday night, I was watching some poets and
Cory Bushman · Washington D.C. bands at the Recreate ‘68 party in Civic Center Park, down-

town Denver. We were sitting in a Roman-style amphithe- the amphitheater, looking at everyone and saying, “Its all
ater with huge white pillars. It was 8:00pm, and night had about the police.” When the prayer call stopped, the police
just fallen. In a different part of the park there was a silk turned off their harsh light and flew elsewhere.
tent structure in the shape of a mosque. Huge portraits of While I was carrying my “End The War” sign through
ordinary Iranian people were printed on all of its panels, a the streets, a young guy walked up to me and said, “Can
visual plea for peace. Five times a day, a recording of the I ask you some questions about the war? I see how some
Muslim prayer call issued loudly from the tent, filling the of it is good, and some of it is bad.” We talked a little bit
surrounding blocks. In respect of this ritual, the woman about war and politics, then he said “I’m asking because
on the Recreate ‘68 stage announced a ten-minute moment I’m thinking about joining the Marines.” I gave him the
of silence. As soon as it started, a police helicopter began names of some websites, beforeyouenlist.org, afsc.org... I
circling above us, shining down a bright spotlight on the asked, “Why do you want to join the marines?” He replied,
amphitheater. Everyone sat silent as the Arabic singing “Well, mostly just to get a roof over my head.” It turns out
floated through the park. One black man walked around he was homeless.
While we were talking, a tall, muscular man with a tight
face, stopped and tapped me on the shoulder. His two front
teeth were chipped. He talked fast, without pauses, point-
ing to my sign, “With all due respect, I did three tours in
Iraq, and we’re not quite done yet. Almost, but not quite.”
We talked for a few minutes. He believed in “the mission”
and was proud of what he had done in the Army.
I asked him, “Are you out?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m happy for you. Are you happy about that?”
“My kids sure are,” he said as he lit a cigarette.
He looked well dressed. I asked him, “Are you doing
alright? Did you find work?” He told me he was a student
at the Community College. I asked if he was getting his
G.I. Bill.
Cory Bushman · Washington D.C. “My tuition is 100% paid by Veterans Affairs.”

“How’s that?” gear. They wore gas masks and carried 3 foot batons. They
“I’m classified as 80% disabled. Do you know how big prowled the streets on vans with big metal running-boards,
a bullet for an AK-47 is?” He’d been shot in Iraq. A camera riding on the sides like firemen. There were also militarized
flash came from somewhere. “Where did that flash come black vehicles that looked like airport stair-cars. Sometimes
from!?” he said, worried. I looked around; there were tour- police stood on these mobile towers, lording over crowds
ists with cameras everywhere. with their weapons. From normal people you would hear “I
“It could have been anyone,” I said. feel so much safer with all these police around,” but others
He said, “I’m really sensitive to them.” expressed feelings of disgust, resentment, and fear. Walking
Wherever I walked in Denver, people saw my “End the through a crowded pedestrian mall, I came upon a detach-
War” sign and wanted to take pictures ment of Riot police in full battle dress.
with me, or of me. Perhaps they liked “Tear gas. Pepper spray. Not necessary,” I
having protesters around to make their Intolerance seeds con- said, pointing at their shiny, new orange-
vacation a little more edgy and exotic, tention; tolerance su- and-black guns. A rich woman in heels
but at times, they also communicated re- persedes contention. walking ahead of me turned around and
spect and solidarity. I was struck by how Tolerance is the key that yelled, “I agree!”
many well-dressed convention delegates opens the door to mutual A Hispanic construction worker
supported us, even as protesters at their waiting for the bus, pointed to several
understanding and love.
unity-themed convention. On the night of the skyscrapers that rose all around us,
that Joe Biden spoke, I came across a —russell m . nels o n naming them and telling us that he had
crowd of people on the sidewalk, frozen “built them.” My friend asked him what
in front of a loudspeaker, listening. the police were like in Denver. “Well,
One night on the street, we ran into young, fresh-faced they shot me,” he replied. He told us that two years ago as
girl who was lost, like us. She was an intern for Fox News. he was walking through an alley, an unmarked police car
We were obviously protesters. Trying to be polite, I steered brushed him as it passed. He didn’t know it was a police
the discussion away from politics. When we parted, she car, and he kicked it. They shot him in the leg. The ACLU
looked us in the eye and said, “I really support what you’re took up his case, and now he has a $1.5 million lawsuit
doing.” against the city.
The streets were filled with menacing police presence. Carlos, a young kid with long black hair, stood next to
Often, they were dressed from head to toe in black riot an old man, waiting for a bus. The old man was leaning

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 The Beehive and the Steel Mill: Rethinking the Protestant Work Ethic 42
on a garbage can for support. They seemed to be related. room split, and the party kind of died.
Carlos explained to us that the city was giving out “hotel It wasn’t just black people who were excited about
vouchers” to people who showed up at the rescue mission. Obama. One morning, as my friend and I stepped out of the
The city didn’t want conventioneers to see any homeless apartments where we were staying, we ran into a young
people. Maybe there were some spare rooms in non-union woman, perhaps 20 years old, struggling with a large can-
hotels (the DNC only uses union ones). vas that was bigger than her whole body. It was a colorful,
As we talked more, Carlos told us that he was Lakota musical painting of a smiling Obama. She said, “I just want
Sioux. He said he had been homeless himself in 2006, but to show it. Obama is the first person that ever made me
he didn’t like to go back to the Reservation in South Dakota. excited about politics.” I saw her later at the amphitheater,
Everything there was “conforming” or “depressing,” and with her painting.
everyone was “poor.” He seemed frustrated that blacks and
latinos were getting so much attention, when his people
had it worst of all. “I would really like to talk to you again
about this, because I never really get to talk about this stuff.”
I gave him my phone number and told him we would be The Beehive and the Steel Mill:
downtown everyday, but he never called. Rethinking the Protestant Work Ethic
I was struck by the amount of black pride on display by Jason Brown
in Denver, and how this was connected to the Obama phe- In Mormon culture the beehive is a symbol of industrious-
nomenon. Everywhere you looked, one saw black people ness that embodies the work ethic as not only a temporal
wearing Obama shirts and pins with slogans like “hope” duty, but as proof of divine sanction. In Mormon cosmol-
“change” and “progress.” Some of the shirts were home- ogy, the final dispensation ushered in by Joseph Smith
made. Some featured MLK or even Malcolm X. When I unleashed a spirit upon the earth which has inspired all
went to a party in a storefront one night, the crowd was of the advances of the past two centuries including the
split between white punks and older black people. A young industrial revolution. Interestingly, this narrative purports
black woman from New York performed some passionate that advances in technology are a sign of blessedness that
poems and songs about Obama, and somebody taped up has facilitated the betterment of human kind and the ex-
an Obama “HOPE” poster on the wall. After this, a white traordinary growth of the Mormon Church. Technology is
activist played some culture-jamming videos, that seemed therefore at worst neutral and any negative consequences
like they were coming from a totally different world. The

can be easily ascribed to human selfishness and misused In this short article, I would like to lay out in basic
agency. terms my interpretation of Mormon assumptions about
The danger of this narrative is that in its praise of tech- the work ethic as it relates to our cosmological ideas about
nology and economic progress as an organic-unraveling of technology. The thesis is fairly simple: Mormon theology
God’s divine will for this last dispensation, it ignores the will never be able to fully challenge structures of social in-
gross inequalities of the economic system which undergirds equality and ecological destruction unless traditional narra-
it (capitalism), and more importantly for this article, the tives which equate material progress with eternal progress
ecological consequences that have followed. This set of are reevaluated and rearticulated in ways that clarify the
assumptions tends to overshadow the elements of Mormon role of technology and work in our lives, and more impor-
theology which could form the basis of a transformative tantly the role of nature in our cosmology. This is then, an
social and ecological movement within the Church. Indeed, initial exploration, which will require additional thought
capitalism’s axiom of infinite material growth seems to fit and depth in the future, it is a first attempt to articulate
nicely within the cosmological concept of infinite (indi- a new work ethic that values hard work in a way that not
vidual) progression. When the advance of capitalist insti- only re-embeds humans in the natural world, but strives
tutions and technology guided by its needs are assumed for technological achievement along the lines of harmony
part of a divine plan, there is little room for constructive and mimicry of nature as opposed to domination, exploita-
criticism of the negative consequences which may follow tion, and destruction.
from technological and economic progress. What strikes
me as ironic is that the sphere from which our inspiration The De-secration of Nature
for hard work is drawn, the natural world, is imperiled and the Spirit of Capitalism
by the economic system which has become the dominant
The origins of contemporary capitalism and the so-called
expression of the so-called protestant work ethic. Because
“Protestant Work Ethic” are too complex and lengthy to
capitalism and industrialism continue to wreak havoc on
relate in such a small article, but I would like to highlight
the earth and her inhabitants (including of course people)
two relevant ideas that were seminal to the flourishing of
a new industrial paradigm and work ethic must be con-
a capitalist society. The first has to do with the radical shift
structed that will not simply equate righteousness with
in humanity’s attitudes toward the natural world and per-
productivity and technological progress, but with how well
ceived alienation from it. As Christianity took center stage
these fit into the boundaries set by ecological systems and
in the struggle for spiritual dominance of the old world, it
meet human needs.

embarked on a war with all things “Pagan.” Paganism and sake became not only a possibility, but a virtue. The shift
indigenous traditions represent diverse cosmologies that from mercantilism to full blown capitalism made use of
place humans within the web of spiritual nature, rather existing technologies, but rearranged the social structure
than outside of it. Many Pagan practices were viewed by of the old world in favor of a system that stratified society
the orthodoxy of the age as idolatrous and diabolical, and in order to unleash massive amounts of productivity in the
countless lives were lost in witch hunts and the burning of form of manufactured goods. This spirit of capitalism is
sacred groves. The foundation for industrial capitalism’s paralleled by reformation Puritanism whose emphasis on
view of nature as a “resource” instead of sacred community, the calling abandons Catholic monastic transcendence for
began with this desecration (literally to make unsacred), a moral obligation to fulfill ones worldly duties (Weber,
of the natural world. God was a transcendent being, apart 1976). Predestination as preached by Calvin made the doing
from the earth which was his creation, made for the benefit of one’s religious duties an imperative ‘sign’ of God’s favor.
of his children. The earth was a fallen and corrupt place The emergence of Protestantism saw a dramatic shift in
that many early Christians hoped to transcend and leave spiritual attitudes toward merit, works, and sacred duty,
behind after this life. An earth divested of spirit becomes as wealth became a sign of God’s favor as well.
nothing more than a building block for a chosen people to
realize its God given dominion over the earth. The Desert Blossoms as a Rose:
Another important idea that contributed to the develop- Colonial Utah and the Value of Work
ment of capitalism was the restructuring of society around
the production of goods. This required a new work ethic After Mormon converts had been driven from several fron-
based on the schedule of the factory, and a shift toward tier settlements, they left the United States for the relative
the accumulation of wealth. While there are many theories isolation of the Great Basin, then a part of Mexico. To
and complex histories about the origin and consequences the prophet Brigham Young, the rugged and desiccated
of Western capitalism, one that emerged from early so- land was a blank canvass upon which a righteous people
ciology and anthropology was proposed by Max Weber. could begin to weave the tapestry of a Zion society, one
In his controversial and important work The Protestant of perfect equity and cooperation, preparing the earth for
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber fleshes out the coming of Christ. The original name given to the terri-
a theory for the economic and political development of tory was Deseret, a word taken from the Book of Mormon
the industrial age. With the emergence of industrial capi- which means beehive, which is today the state emblem
talism in Europe, the accumulation of wealth for wealth’s of Utah. To Brigham Young, the honey bee represented

industry, and in his vision for the fledgling colony, he saw of his chosen people and their way of life. To a subsistence
self-sufficient farm communities that would produce goods agricultural colony, the crickets took on a demonic char-
in great abundance. acter in their challenge to God’s people. Interestingly, if
We are all familiar with the adage in the Old Testa- you had asked the Native Americans at the time what they
ment that a righteous people will make the desert “blossom thought of the little black insects, they may have seen them
as a rose,” (Isaiah 35:1) and we have all heard the stories, as a boon, a reliable source of protein which required little
visited the monuments, and seen the plaques dedicated to or no work to harvest and equal proof of God’s blessings.
the pioneers who, upon arrival in the valley immediately
set about rearranging the landscape to fit their European Industriousness and Technology
agricultural way of life, despite the stark difference in in Mormon Doctrine
climate and topography. Settlers began digging irrigation
ditches and planting grain within hours of arrival in Utah With regard to the building of Zion, Brigham Young stated
Valley. The saints were to prepare the earth for the com- “if we are to build the kingdom of God, or establish Zion
ing of Christ, and in early colonial Utah, there was no upon the earth, we have to labor with our hands, plan with
meaningless labor. Within a few years, after many hard- our minds, and devise ways and means to accomplish that
ships, Mormon settlements were bustling with commerce, object” (JD 3:51). Another interesting statement made by
industry and agriculture. Brigham Young was that “...The angels that now walk in
Early on in Utah history, there were many difficul- their golden streets, and they have the tree of life within
ties, Indian raids, late frosts, and pestilences. The story of their paradise, had to obtain that gold and put it there.
the miracle of the sea gulls is one of many that hold great When we have streets paved with gold, we will have placed
meaning for the Mormon people. On June 9th 1848, as the them there ourselves. When we enjoy a Zion in its beauty
saints clung to life, a swarm of crickets (Anabrus simplex) and glory, it will be when we have built it” (JD 8:354-355).
began devouring their crops. The farmers fought back with Brigham Young here expresses a unique Mormon mil-
everything they could, brooms, fire, shovels. They prayed lennial tradition, one that posits that we are not passive
for relief from the threat of starvation should they lose receptacles of Gods grace, but active participants in our
the years harvest. Soon they saw a flock of sea gulls in the own salvation, and even in the second coming of Christ
distance, which began to gorge themselves on the ravenous and the millennium.
crickets, vomiting and then coming back for more. To set- In contemporary Mormon discourse, hard work contin-
tlers, the sea gulls were proof of divine protection by God ues to be praised as a virtue (missionary program, the suc-

cess of the BYU business school), and technology a boon. big externalizing machine, meaning, it is very good at cre-
Mormon theologian Robert Millet has written, “In short, ating products and profits, but not so good at accounting
the Spirit of God—meaning the Light of Christ—has been for the costs associated with such productivity such as air
behind the rapid intellectual, scientific, and technological and water pollution, community, spiritual values, defores-
developments from the time of the Industrial Revolution tation, and biodiversity loss. As one economist put it: “the
to our own Information Age. Joseph Smith presides over polluter is able to internalize most of the benefits of the
our age of enlightenment and expansion” (Millet, 1994). pollution while only bearing a portion of the costs” (Hatch,
What this idea ignores is that the economic system which 1989). Within a few generations, the environmental effects
brings about these technologies is based on hierarchy and of Geneva Steel were being felt by local residents of Utah
exploitation and it has had massively negative consequenc- Valley. Wetlands that used to border the entire lake were
es on the earth. In contrast I am suggesting that we judge cleared and filled to make way for the developments that
our society and economic system by a broader and more the industrial boom had brought with it and Utah Lake,
holistic moral standard that includes social and ecological which borders the plant, tested for unhealthy levels of
values. PCBs and other pollutants. Fish and birds were routinely
The Beehive and the Steel Mill For over 30 years, the found dead near the plant, and air quality and visibility
Geneva Steel plant was a prominent site in the Utah Val- was significantly impaired.
ley sky line. Built during the Second World War to supply In the 1980s small particulates called PM 10 (smaller
steel for the American military, Utah was chosen to avoid that 10 micro meters) were beginning to receive more and
possible coastal attacks by the Japanese. It officially opened more attention for their negative health effects. Small par-
its doors in 1944 as a US government owned plant, and ticulates come from sulfur, nitrogen produced by refineries,
began producing products for the war, namely structural steel mills, and power plants. Unlike larger particulates,
parts for ships and plate steel. The steel mill was a defin- the body has a hard time ejecting small particulates as
ing symbol of an industrial economy in the 20th century, they move past the body’s natural defenses and lodge in
and it was hailed as a welcome and glorious achievement the lungs alveoli. In 1978 Utah County was identified by
by the local working class. To be a steel worker in those the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a non-
days was a wonderful opportunity which would provide compliance zone, and was required to create a plan for
a good living for a family. particulate reduction. But, because of thermal inversion
But the relative prosperity it brought came at a price. and the Wasatch mountain range, during winter months,
The greatest flaw of the industrial project is that it is one air pollution was essentially being trapped in the valley,

causing serious respiratory problems to local residents and relationships are abundantly found in the natural world,
an increase in health costs (Hatch, 1989). The main pro- which is a perfect metaphor for what a truly stewardship-
ducer of particulates in the area was Geneva Steel which oriented work ethic might strive to emulate. One which
in 1988 accounted for more that 53% of particulates in the forms mutualistic or symbiotic and regenerative relation-
county (Hatch, 1989). ships with the industrial activities around it, as opposed
The steel mill stands as but one example of what I to the parasitic ones that seem to be all too common in the
would call bad stewardship: namely any technology de- current industrial sector. It is a work ethic that I hope hu-
signed to manipulate the natural world that creates enor- manity will take seriously and emulate in designing future
mous amounts of waste while consuming vast quantities technology and industry.
of energy. The steel mill stands at the center of a modern
industrial economy, and is therefore included as part of the Toward a New Work Ethic and Standard
blessedness of which my previous examples have spoken. for Technology
What is not incorporated into the theological discussion is
The Christian concept of Stewardship holds if we are
the very real ecological and health consequences of steel
humble about our interaction with the planet we inhabit.
mills and a myriad other industrial technologies. I would
A steward is not someone who takes the care of the earth
hope that an enlightened view of technology would not
into his or her own hands, but one who is constantly learn-
simply value the productivity and sophistication of a given
ing the language of nature, and attempting to make human
technology, but its affect on society, human health, and
activity as benign and symbiotic in her processes as pos-
creation. That stewardship, not industriousness would be
sible. A truly sacred economy would be restrained and
the superior value.
imagined within the limits of nature and value not simply
In stark contrast to the steel mill, stands the honey
the parts but the whole. Indeed the Permaculture ethics
bee (Apis mellifera), which like many insects and birds
of care for the earth, care for people, and reinvesting all
has co-evolved with a number of plants and trees to form
surplus (profit) back into these ethics seems an ideal way
a mutualistic relationship—meaning both organisms ben-
to think about progress and productivity. Not measuring it
efit from each other. Many plants have have bright colors,
solely in dollars, but in quality of life, biodiversity, health
ultraviolet patterns and rewards of nectar to attract pol-
of entire systems, and dare I say it, happiness.
linating insects. The honey bee converts this pollen and
An exciting and emerging field that is taking these ideas
nectar into honey which sustains the young bee broods
seriously is that of Industrial Ecology, which attempts to
and the colony through winter. These types of mutualistic

account for industrial processes and flows of energy and also beginning to look at cities as ecosystems, and manag-
materials by creating symbiotic relationships within sev- ing them as such. Recently, the city of Los Angeles under
eral types of production. Thus, the industrial process does the leadership of Tree People (www.treepeople.org) began
not have to be abandoned, but the wastes created must planting thousands of trees on city streets and schools and
either be eliminated or uses must be found for them by working with city officials to saturate rain water into the
other industrial activities. The Kalundborg industrial park, ground instead of letting it drain into storm drains and from
located in Denmark, is the most famous example of indus- there the ocean, saving the city millions of dollars.
trial ecology in action; here an oil refinery, a power plant As Latter-day Saints, we cannot continue to attach in-
and a pharmaceutical manufacturer, harvest and conserve dustrial production to our work ethic and our cosmology.
waste heat and use the byproducts of production to make It is in stark contrast to our obligation as Earth Stewards.
plasterboard. Along similar lines, Biomimicry looks at natu- Instead, we must look to natural systems not simply as
ral technologies such as spiders’ webbing, which is even symbolic metaphors of a harmonious industrial society,
stronger than steel yet is produced at room temperature but as models for production, parameters for our economic
with no toxic inputs or byproducts. Urban ecologists are activity and the bedrock of our values.
References
Arrington, Leonard J.; Feramorz Y. Fox; Dean L May
Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation
among the Mormons Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake
City, Utah, 1976. Hatch, Nile W. Hospital inpatient Respi-
ratory Health Costs Due to Air Pollution in Utah County,
Department of Economics BYU, 1989.
Millet, Robert L. ‘Joseph Among Prophets’ Ensign, Jun
1994, 19.
Pope, C. Arden ‘Respiratory Disease Associated with
Community Air Pollution and a Steel Mill, Utah Valley’
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 79, No. 5 May 1989.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 The DNC Convention in the Street/Jail/Garden/Home 49
Uchtdorf, Dieter F. ‘A Matter of a Few Degrees’ Ensign, billy-club side of a police line for hours, boxed in against a
May 2008 57-60. concrete wall in downtown Denver with armored riot cops
Weber, Max The Protestant work ethic and the Spirit on three sides. I spent that evening dodging pepper spray
of Capitalism George Allen & Unwin, London 1976. and trying to make small talk with blank-faced officers in
Widstoe, John A. (ed.) Discourses of Brigham Young: gas masks. My friend Katie missed Hillary Clinton's stirring
Second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- call for unity on Tuesday: it was inconveniently double-
day Saints Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, Utah 1998. booked with her two days in a Denver jail for protesting
imperialism on Monday. On the third day of the DNC, I
sat with five thousand people at the entrance to the Pepsi
Center as Iraq Veterans Against the War delivered their
letter calling for an immediate US withdrawal, full veterans
The DNC Convention in the benefits, and reparations for the Iraqi people, to Senator
Street/Jail/Garden/Home Obama whose wife was headlining the night.
by Tristan Call After the convention I came home to Salt Lake City to
Four years ago, I watched the Democratic and Republican tend my garden, my small family, and my health (a freak
conventions from a Brigham Young University sofa with summer cold blockaded my throat unexpectedly on the
the liberal daughter of a pharmaceutical executive. I was Friday before Labor Day. Karma.) As I watch the footage
Mormon, Marxist, pacifist, freshman; we watched our na- from the conventions and share my experience with friends
tion's political spectacle with the optimism of 18-year-olds here in Utah, I face incredulity, hostility, mockery, and,
hoping for a religion of conscience, an economy where most often, confusion. What and why are they protesting?
people share, and a nation built by and for peacemakers. How are we supposed to understand images of masked
We considered ourselves sophisticated and examined the kids running from mounted police in the Midwest, mass
platforms with narrowed eyes (a habit which would even- arrests, and terrorism indictments? Lips obscured by black
tually steer my vote to Nader), but we still enjoyed the bandannas are not conducive to dialogue; let this letter be
excitement of the partisan moment. my attempt to lift the cloth of anonymity from my own face,
This year, my eyes were on the streets of Denver and to restart the talking where it should not have left off.
Minneapolis, not on their televised convention epicenters. As the RNC Welcoming Committee, one of the umbrella
On the opening night of this year's DNC, I stood on the protest groups at the Republican National Convention in
Minneapolis, asserts, the Republicans came to “celebrate

their latest conquests in global domination and exploita- from home). And our criticisms of Iran only serve to fur-
tion.” DNC? Bigger party, same story. Those of us who ther incriminate United States policy when we compare
risked ourselves in Minneapolis and Denver are fighting them to our own national record: Iran is meddling in Iraq,
a wide spectrum of political sins; we are appalled by both a country that we invaded and occupied; Iran defies the
parties championing a form of capitalism that prioritizes United Nations, an organization that we helped found but
profits over people. We can hardly believe their callous- whose charter we refuse to abide by; Iran might be devel-
ness toward undocumented immigrants and their children oping nuclear weapons, a technology whose development
or their threats of yet another Persian Gulf War, this time and use we pioneered killing hundreds of thousands of
in Iran. Japanese civilians. These are of course weapons that we
Allow me to briefly explain our opposition to what still stockpile, so that when Barack Obama says he will do
would be the United States' third large-scale Middle Eastern “everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining
war this decade. I believe that a war in Iraq could have been a nuclear weapon....everything in my power...everything,”
waged for just and compassionate reasons; ours was not. every anti-American regime will know that there is a suf-
We invaded that country for revenge and for geopolitical ficiently hard-fisted phallus in the American arsenal to
and economic “national interest,” and we later disingenu- make the threat stick.
ously recast the attack as a defense of Iraqi freedom. A On the convention floor during John McCain's closing
US attack on Iran would take place for similar reasons. speech, American militarism took a central role. Represen-
Proponents of preemptive strikes on Iran don't even pre- tative Mary Fallin's polemic blasted the “haters and killers
tend such humanitarian goals yet (but they will later). Our whose only creed is evil,” declaring McCain's willingness
politicians -the American ruling class- talk about military to use a “big stick” so that “goodness can defeat evil,” even
action as if they were debating the designation of a national though our “goodness” seems to always kill more than their
holiday or the patriotic renaming of an overpass. They risk evil. The RNC video on 9/11: The Day the Earth Stood Still
little beyond reputation, and plot the fate of the inevitable begins with the manipulative first line, “the first attack oc-
casualties, balancing them against votes and commodities. curred in Iran,” a cheap attempt to tie 9/11 with Iran just
They talk about war in the language of positive values (na- as Bush did with Iraq. There was no discussion of civilian
tional standing, family, security, stability) while dismissing collateral damage, but the excited audience chanted “USA”
the negative effects (devastation of civilian infrastructure, and McCain repeated his invitations to “fight with me!”
non-combatant casualties, disease, occupations that spur McCain cautions us, of course: “I hate war. It is terrible.”
resistance movements, high costs that divert resources Surely we can trust his experience on this, but the only

'enduring peace' the GOP (or the Democrats) want is one Denver, I missed my apiary class and left tomatoes uns-
that privileges the United States, leaving the vast majority taked, I missed my family and my land. I was certainly not
of the world's population outside of their carefully-drawn happier there. But if we agree that family is our focus, what
“culture of life.” At every clapping break in the speech, Mc- then do we do when our father announces his intention to
Cain's followers flashed their “Country First” placards to kill the neighbor's children? Is our only option to birth more
the camera as televised America looked on. babies and build them the best cribs, or is there something
I do not dislike McCain. I wanted him to be the presi- else? My father killing another's children: this is not impos-
dent in 2000. I am impressed by his achievements in gov- sible. This is not even contested. A UN investigation of an
ernment ethics reform and his opposition to corporate American air strike in Afghanistan last week concluded
welfare. I trust his sincerity. I do not dislike Obama, and I that 90 civilians, including 60 children, had been killed in
think we are right to enjoy his promise of sanity after eight one day. This is war.
years of global and domestic imperialism. But that is not Some observers were shocked when radio-journalist
enough to win my silence. In Salt Lake City, in Denver, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was arrested in Min-
in Minneapolis, we will resist. We will resist at the muni- neapolis. My time in Denver taught me that safety from
tions factories in my aerospace-industry hometown, at police is a constant uncertainty in militarized convention
senatorial offices, at military bases and test sites. We will zones. The police seldom know what their own rules are
offer our bodies as out-of-place cogs to gum up the gears or what orders will arrive about which crowd of 200 to
of war. Again, and again. I don’t enjoy the antagonism charge with mace and which group to allow to disperse.
that activism can breed. I hate to find myself at odds with I've learned that our supposed right to see warrants is a
the compassionate conservatives who raised me and the myth, and that organizers of protests that include misde-
Obama-inspired liberals who weaned me, but my loyalty is meanor civil disobedience -things like street marches and
no kind of quiet. I may one day find my skull fractured by sit-ins- can be indicted as terrorists.
the same billy-club and my body held in the same county One year ago, hundreds of BYU students demonstrated
jail that I avoided this week, but I am willing to risk that in solidarity with the Burmese monks who were beaten
harm to help prevent a slaughter. and imprisoned by soldiers during illegal pro-democracy
My brother tells me that the best way to effect change protests. We championed those monks and cried over their
is to raise a family and beautify the place where I live. He stories; I now find myself in the monks' place, and I learned
says it is the natural inclination of humans. I hope that it that after a few hours of being held behind police lines,
is our natural inclination. It certainly is mine. By going to billy-club at my chest, rifle pointed at my face, that con-

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Jesus Asked Us to Love Our Enemies: Learning to be a Christian in Occupied Palestine 52
fidence falters. Everything in my world—my As we neared the front of the line, an Israeli soldier
instinct for self-preservation, the authorities, began shouting wildly at a young Palestinian boy. The
the media—proclaimed me a fool for tak- soldier overturned the boy’s wagon, loaded with contain-
ing to the streets. But after reflection, I feel ers of olives, and began pushing the boy around. The other
comfortable (though not safe) in my actions. soldiers stood around and watched, some laughing, some
I think that within our political system I am just looking bored.
well within my rights to assemble peaceably I was shocked at the soldier’s treatment of a young
to petition the government for a redress of boy who only wanted to get to town and sell his olives
grievances, and therefore I fully support for a meager profit. My blood began to rush, I was struck
my brothers and sisters in Denver and St. with the urge to grab the soldier and make him leave the
Paul, in the streets, the blockades, the oc- boy alone.
cupations, the marches, the barred cells. We My adrenalin was quickly replaced by fear, as I thought
will be there next time. of what he and his heavily-armed fellow soldiers might do
if I tried to intervene.
My friend John stepped forward, putting himself be-
tween the soldier and the boy, diverting the soldier’s at-
tention. The soldier began yelling some things in Hebrew
Jesus Asked Us to Love Our Enemies: to John, but then finally backed down. John helped the
Learning to be a Christian in Occupied boy put the olives back in the wagon, and stayed near him
Palestine by Cliff Burton until the soldiers finally let him bring his wagon through
Waiting to pass an Israeli military checkpoint is at the the checkpoint.
same time nerve-wracking and mundane. Trying to enter The West Bank and Gaza strip, which make up what
the West Bank city of Nablus, we stood in line with a large is left of Palestine, have been under Israeli military oc-
group of Palestinians. cupation for some 40 years. Located in the West Bank
Israeli soldiers cradling M-16’s stared stone-faced at the are numerous sites of religious significance to Latter-day
crowd. A soldier standing behind a cement block checked Saints, including Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, East
ID’s, asked questions, and searched each person. Those Jerusalem, where Jesus taught and ministered, and Hebron,
making it past the checkpoint would hurry to get a place where the prophet Abraham is buried.
in a taxi waiting on the other side. Over the past 40 years the Israeli government has, in

methodic fashion, forcibly confiscated more and more In the winter of 2003, I was studying Arabic at a Pal-
Palestinian land, in order to build settlements for its Jew- estinian university in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The
ish citizens. Persistent Israeli colonization, and Palestinian second Intifada, or uprising of Palestinians against the
resistance to it, is what drives the long standing conflict in Israeli occupation was in full swing. Israeli military in-
the Holy Land between Israeli Jews on the one hand, and cursions into Palestinian cities and towns were common,
Palestinian Christians and particularly in Nablus and Gaza.
Muslims on the other. Palestinian suicide bombers carried out several attacks
Life under Israeli oc- within Israel during the time I was there. While in Nablus
cupation for Palestinians I was tagging along with some friends who were involved
has been characterized by with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which
expulsions, land confisca- seeks to use non-violent tactics to protect Palestinian civil-
tions, imprisonments, tor- ians from the Israeli army, as my friend John had done when
ture, home demolitions, helping the young boy with the wagon full of olives.
rocket attacks from heli- The day after I arrived in Nablus I saw a large-scale
copter gun ships, embargos, Israeli incursion into the old city. Israeli soldiers began
which strangle the Palestin- occupying Palestinian homes, using them as temporary
ian economy, and closures, bases, detained a number of Palestinians, and engaged in
which restrict Palestinian clashes with Palestinian youths.
movement between towns The youths were throwing rocks at the soldiers for
and villages. several hours, and soldiers were firing rubber-coated bul-
To carry out the Israeli lets back at them.
program of colonizing Pal- An Israeli soldier shot my friend John, who was watch-
estinian land, the Israeli ing the clashes and taking photos. He was only lightly
Army denies Palestinians wounded, since the bullet hit him in the shoulder, rather
the basic political freedoms than in the neck or head. After a quick visit to the hospital,
and protection of human he was in pain but in good spirits, especially after he saw
rights that Israeli citizens a report about his injury the next day in the local Nablus
enjoy, including those Israeli Jews who live in settlements newspaper.
just miles or even yards from Palestinian towns. Walking through the city had a dreamlike feel; we could

hear gunfire very close to us, often on the next street over. wouldn’t let these Palestinians simply go home at the end
This didn’t seem to bother the throngs of Palestinian kids of a long day of studying or working. Not wanting to get
playing soccer in the streets, who apparently were used to involved, I walked up the hill and sat among a group of
these foreign soldiers invading their town. Palestinians. I couldn’t hear much of what was being said
The next day we were walking down a dirt road on the between my friend and the soldiers. After a few minutes
edge of town, and noticed an Israeli tank blocking the road the turret of the tank cannon began to move, conceivably
ahead of us. To the left of the road was a hill, on which to fire in our direction.
twenty or thirty Palestinians were sitting and waiting; some The Israeli soldiers then abruptly raised their guns,
carried school books, others carried basic things they had pointing them at those of us on the hill and looking through
bought at the market. their scopes, perhaps attempting to pick out individual
There was a stand off taking place, between the Israeli targets.
soldiers who were blocking the way, and the Palestinians A sense of panic overtook me and everyone else in the
hoping to reach their villages beyond the road. crowd. We began running as fast as we could, trying to
A German girl who was with us, also a volunteer with get over the top of the hill and out of range. A feeling of
ISM, began speaking to the soldiers, asking why they relief and thanks to God came over me as I finally fell to
the ground in safety on the backside of the hill.
I spent that night with an ISM volunteer from New
Mexico named Brian Avery. We chatted a bit about politics
and Brian’s interest in agriculture before turning in for bed,
trying to fall asleep despite the intermittent gunfire now
being exchanged between the Israeli Army and Palestinian
guerillas on the street outside the house.
The next day we attended a protest against the loom-
ing US invasion of Iraq, in which all the major Palestinian
political factions were represented, as indicated by the
sea of Fatah, Hamas, PFLP and DFLP flags being waved
by the marchers.
We walked through the narrow streets of Nablus as
(Banksy)
the crowd chanted “Wahid, Ithneen, Al-Jaish Al-Arabi
Ween?” 1
A group of young boys carrying sticks designated them- and could communicate only by writing notes.
selves my bodyguards and escorted me the entire way. Bryan felt the Israeli soldier had tried to murder him,
The US invaded Iraq the next day. After a few more quiet since the shooting was unprovoked. The recent Israeli
days in Nablus, I returned to Birzeit to resume my Arabic Army targeting of two ISM volunteers seemed to reinforce
studies. this notion. One was Rachel Corrie, whom an Israeli sol-
Several weeks later my friends from ISM got a call. dier killed by crushing her under a bulldozer as she tried
Israeli Soldiers had shot Bryan Avery while he was vol- to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian doctor’s home
unteering in Jenin for the final month of his time in the in Gaza. The other was Tom Hurndall, whom an Israeli
West Bank. As Bryan and several other ISM volunteers soldier shot in the head while Tom was escorting Palestin-
were walking down a road on the outskirts of town, two ian children away from a clash between the Israeli military
Israeli Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) approached. and Palestinian guerillas. Tom died after laying in a coma
An Israeli soldier manning the machine gun mounted on for nine months.
one of the APC’s opened fire. The group scattered as they The irony of seeing Bryan in a hospital bed, in the very
heard the burst of gunfire. When it was over, they looked same room as an injured Israeli soldier made me think for
back to see Bryan lying in a pool of blood. The soldier had the first time about what it meant to have to love one’s
shot Bryan in the face, the bullet entering one cheek and enemy.
exiting the other. I wondered what feelings Bryan must have had for the
Bryan’s injury was too severe to be treated in a Pal- soldier in the same hospital room; or for Israeli soldiers in
estinian hospital. When the Israeli soldiers at the border general. They had almost killed him, perhaps intentionally,
realized he was an American, they called in a helicopter to had maimed him for life, and were detaining, killing, and
lift him to an Israeli military hospital in Haifa, on Israel’s displacing his Palestinian friends.
northern coast. My friends and I traveled the next day By any definition imaginable, Israeli soldiers were his
to Haifa, thinking Bryan could use the company until his enemies. Though I didn’t ask Bryan such a question, I felt a
parents arrived from the US. strong impression from the Spirit that if I were in his situ-
Bryan was completely unrecognizable. His long flowing ation, Jesus would want me to love these Israeli soldiers.
hair had been cut off, and his face had swollen to twice its Having feelings of hate, or resorting to violence wasn’t
normal size. His face was covered with stitches from the the thing to do, even if such a response would be under-
first of many surgeries he would have to reconstruct the standable. Even though armed resistance targeting the
shattered bones in his jaw and cheek. He couldn’t speak, Israeli Occupation Forces (but not civilians) is in my view

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Contributors 56
justified, I felt the Spirit was encouraging a different, non- For more information about volunteering with the In-
violent route. Amazingly, despite all the wrongs Palestin- ternational Solidarity Movement please visit http://www.
ians have suffered, many, both Muslim and Christian, have palsolidarity.org/
embraced non-violent methods of resisting the occupation.
Strangely, this was the first time in my life I was forced to
seriously think about this most basic tenet of Mormonism,
the command to love one’s enemies, though I had attended Contributors
church pretty much every week since I was a kid.
Marc B.Young is a freelance writer most recently focused
Because of this experience I consider myself a pacifist
on health-care policy and, prior to that, African issues.
most of the time. Though I acknowledge there are times
Poetry is his chief interest. A resident of Madrid, Spain
when using violence is justified in God’s eyes, when we
between 1994 and 2004, he presently lives with his family
choose to love our enemies instead of killing them, the
in Toronto, where he is a member of the Industrial Work-
Lord will reward us for our righteousness (D&C 98:30).
ers of the World... and attends an Anglican church.
When thinking of how to respond to violence, I think of
the example from the Book of Mormon of the Anti-Nephi- Tariq Khan resides in Northern Virginia with his partner
Lehies, who refused to take up arms against their attackers, and newborn baby where he co-edits the anarchist journal
preferring to be slaughtered rather than kill their “brethren” Rebel Stew. He’s been involved in a wide spectrum of anti-
(Alma 24:6-19). authoritarian work ranging from animal/earth liberation to
When I hear people declare that we have no option but prisoner support to immigrants rights and fighting racism.
to invade or bomb another country, I think of the Lord’s He’s a military veteran and has been involved with various
admonition that we “renounce war and proclaim peace anti-militarism efforts such as supporting troop and veteran
(D&C 98:16).” resistance and counter-recruitment work. He’s also played
At the same time, being a pacifist doesn’t mean that we in some Washington DC area anarcho-punk bands.
should, or can, simply abstain from making war; rather, we Ashley Sanders is the youth spokesperson for the Na-
need to put as much effort into peacemaking as others do der campaign. She blogs at www.projectdeseret.com and
in war making. My friend John, who stepped in to prevent www.theworldaccordingtoash.com. She graduated from
that Israeli soldier from abusing a helpless Palestinian boy Brigham Young University in philosophy and english and
is an example of this, as are Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, is currently earning a Masters in English Literature and
and Bryan Avery. creative writing at Middlebury College.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Dorothy Day 57
Terry Leichner is a Vietnam veteran, anti-war activist

and member of the Catholic Church. He lives in Denver,
CO. and blogs at Visions of Peace: A Combat Vet’s Dream.
http://visopeace.blogspot.com
Matthew Thomas lives and works in Salt Lake City.
Sgt. Jay Dawkins is an active duty member of the US
Army currently serving in Iraq. He is a graduate of Brigham
Young University.
Spencer Kingman is a member of the LDS church and an
anti-war activist. He lives in Provo, Utah where he studies
math education at Utah Valley State College and works with
disabled people at a recreational program called RAH.
Jason Brown served an LDS mission in the Dominican
Republic and graduated from BYU in anthropology. He
hopes to dedicate his life to the principles of solidary, sus-
tainability, and cooperation. He can be contacted at jason-
brown644@hotmail.com
Tristan Call recently graduated in Anthropology and Latin
American studies from Brigham Young University. He is
currently working full time for the Nader for President
campaign and raising honey bees and tomatoes in urban
Salt Lake City.
Cliff Burton served an LDS mission to Stockholm, Sweden.
He lives in San Francisco, CA

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 5 Navigation 58
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“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith

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his closest colleagues – and not St. Augustine or Henry

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then, in Chapter 13, immediately following the above cited

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4. Richmond Lattimore (translator), The Four Gospels

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Jews for extermination were just following orders, just as a living.

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months made me change that belief. Once home I was

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any nation needing to buy oil had to keep large amounts

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Terry Leichner is a Vietnam veteran, anti-war activist

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