Mennonite Weekly Review

WASHINGTON — Pastor Aldo Siahaan sent a text message from a Philadelphia hospital apologizing that he could not join fellow members of the Mennonite Central Committee East Coast board at a meeting.

A young leader from his congregation had been shot four times while delivering pizza the night before.

Later in that March board meeting, Fred Kauffman, MCC East Coast’s program coordinator in Philadelphia, told the board that a meeting scheduled that day with a Korean Presbyterian church elder was canceled because the elder’s father-in-law had been shot and killed.

MCC U.S. and MCC East Coast are working to curb gun violence in response to calls from MCC workers and church leaders in cities with high rates of gun violence, including New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

Sandra Perez, an MCC local service worker in New York, experienced the tragedy of gun violence five years ago. Her 24-year-old grandson was murdered after leaving a neighborhood store in Brooklyn. Three bystanders also were shot and injured, though they all survived.

MCC service workers in Washington also live with gun violence around them. One night in late May 2008, three men with no criminal histories were gunned down three blocks from the house where MCC volunteers live.

Investigators found 35 semiautomatic bullet casings at the scene of the crime. In response to the triple homicide and a slew of other gun homicides, police installed roadblocks and checkpoints in the neighborhood throughout the summer.

Varying perspectives

Evaluating how MCC should respond to such incidents is fraught with potential cultural and political misunderstandings. Rural, urban and suburban gun usage and perspectives on gun laws vary widely, even among Anabaptist denominations.

To address these differences, MCC East Coast helped initiate a dialogue between a Mennonite church in Lancaster County, Pa., and Mennonite and Brethren in Christ congregations in Philadelphia. Since November 2008, the group has met four times, including a public forum at the Lancaster Mennonite Conference meeting in March.

In January, staff from MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries and MCC East Coast participated in the Heeding God’s Call Conference in Philadelphia, an event co-sponsored by the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church USA and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Quakers).

Participants focused on finding ways for the historic peace churches to address current problems of violence. The conference culminated in a prayer vigil and march supporting the Mayors Against Illegal Guns code of conduct designed to reduce illegal gun trafficking. In 2008, Wal-Mart, the largest gun seller in the United States, adopted this code of conduct.

To assist congregations wanting to address gun violence, the MCC U.S. Washington Office recently released a 16-page education and advocacy guide, Preventing Gun Violence. This resource includes statistics, a faith reflection, policy proposals and tips for contacting elected officials. It also suggests solutions to gun violence that target the trafficking and illegal use of handguns while respecting the rights of hunters and sportsmen.