Mennonite Weekly Review

WINNIPEG, Man. — For Neill von Gunten, pacifism is not passive. The co-director of Mennonite Church Canada’s Native Ministry knows from personal experience that standing for peace demands action.

von Gunten

Von Gunten, who grew up in Berne, Ind., first took a stand for peace when he was 18 and chose alternative service as a conscientious objector instead of fighting in Vietnam. He was harassed for his choice and called names.

Two years later, von Gunten and his wife, Edith — who also served as co-director of Native Ministry — moved to Chicago to participate in the Mennonite Voluntary Service program. Serving together at Woodlawn Mennonite Church, the von Guntens became involved with the civil-rights movement.

Neill Von Gunten participated in several peaceful protests with Martin Luther King Jr.

“When [King] was hit in the head with a rock, he would say, ‘We need to love our brothers and sisters because they don’t know what they’re doing.’ … I often wondered what my own response would be if I were attacked personally,” Von Gunten said.

He found out during an antiwar demonstration in downtown Chicago.

“I was walking with another fellow carrying a sign that said, ‘Peace is the Answer,’ ” von Gunten said. “These men jumped us. Neither one of us fought back. I had my glasses smashed. I got punched, and then the police rushed in and grabbed the men. But I refused to fight back. That was my response.”

He recalls wondering why the young attackers were so angry with him and toward the cause of peace.

“I wondered what kind of background they had and how they were misled,” he said.

He remembers riding on a city bus with his black friends as rocks crashed through windows. The bus careened through a red light in a white neighborhood to avoid a large group of young men threatening to surround and sway the bus until it tipped.