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  Activities & Ministries

Movie of the Month: Munch  Ron Letnes

While in Minnesota for Christmas, some of us went to see Steven Spielberg's "Munich." It is the story of Israel's response to the Black September massacre of eleven Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Israel's response plan was to form a team of assassins to kill those connected with the massacre. The movie portrays the human side of the assassins, their loyalty to their charge and their moral quandrys as they perform their deadly tasks. Their story is interfaced with scenes from the massacre and the botched attempt to rescue the athletes.

I thought the movie did an outstanding job of lifting up the moral issues of revenge, taking the law into your own hands, violence begets violence, national response to terrorism, and the human toll on those who are victims and who perpetrate violence, even with the blessing of the state. Significantly, the final scene in the movie has the team leader of the Jewish assassination group and the Israeli government contact parting ways, after the assassination team leader invites the government man to come to his house and "break bread." The government man refuses and walks away. This happens in New York City in the mid 1970s. As they part the camera focuses on the NY skyline with the Twin Towers in the center of the screen, seemingly implying that violence begets violence. There is a segway to 9/11 that is unmistakable. And the War in Iraq. Violence against one group plants the seed for vengeful violence against that group. And so it goes. What price retribution? What are the ways of peace?

I think this movie provides a strong opportunity for congregations to engage the above questions and issues. To this end, the National Council of Churches has sponored a discussion foremat on the film provided by the American Baptist Church. Well done. It can be downloaded: www.ncccusa.pdfs/munichresource.pdf.

The Breaking Point  Ron Letnes

     The breaking point came when hearing of two teenage girls and a security officer being blown-up and killed and another 150 people being injured by a bomb strapped to one of the girls.  Enough.  There must be a non-violent way to peace.

A paper: "Nonviolence:  It is Possible",  written and edited by Ron Letnes
An exploration of practical examples of peacemaking and nonviolence in various contexts.

Word and World  Commentary by Ron Letnes

    The November 10, 2001 U.S. News and World Report included an article entitled: "Wishing Upon a Star: It May Not Work.  It Will Cost Billions.  Why Missile Defense is a Done Deal."  In the paper yesterday was a news item stating the sixth successful test of an anti-missile against another missile with a dummy warhead.   The president has sent a budget to Congress with a significant amount for the further development of a missile defense system.  Today there was news that the United States wants to stockpile, not destroy, nuclear weapons "just in case" we may need them.  We have informed certain nations that we stand ready to use nuclear weapons against them.  Meanwhile, weapons developers are designing new nuclear "bunker buster" bombs, again "just in case" we may need them.   Yet, we are trying to lesson tensions with Russia and China, and build some bridges with North Korea.

   The reality is the United States is violating the spirit of the 1972 ABM Treaty with the effect of ratchetting up good old fashioned saber rattling, at a time when the United States and Russia have agreed to "draw down" the number of nuclear weapons at the ready and destroy (stockpile?) thousands of nukes.  Something in my mind says these events do not compute to peacemaking!  We seem to want our cake and eat it too!

   I believe that because we are pursuing the tack of continued development of a missile defense system, we are only stimulating another arms race and slowing progress to becoming a nuclear free world.  We are sowing distrust.  Furthermore, we are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in a system which we will most likely not even use and removing these billions plus people resources from meeting the real threats to our world: hunger, poverty, dictatorships, terrorism, indebtedness, economic devastation, environmental challenges, energy needs, illiteracy and more.   And on top of the money and resources we will invest, imagine the money and resources Russia, China and who else will also have to spend to protect themselves from us!   They are facing the same "scourges" and their resources are more limited than ours.  Truly, I do not see where a missile defense system will help eliminate these scourges.  A missile defense system will only destabilize the affairs of the world.

   It is these scourges that cause wars.  Hence, it is better to invest our resources to eliminate them from the face of the earth.  In this way we will be an example for good to the rest of the world, and we will be encouraging nations to lessen their defenses because we are lessening our own.  We will be helping other nations to address the real human devastations which lead to war.

   As Christians we talk of being wise stewards of our resources.  Jesus came to prepare us to love.  The way of the Cross is suffering love for the sake of others.  Where does Jesus tell his disciples to arm themselves to kill people?  Where does he encourage his disciples to form armed cadres for the sake of converting others?  It is time to stimulate peace and trust.  It is time to re-channel our abundant resources to address the scourges which are the seeds of war.  It is time to reflect the type of love Jesus lived and called us to create.

     No to missile defense!

 Commentary Pastor Michael Mortvedt

I came across two interesting statistics: No two countries with McDonald’s franchises have ever gone to war. (Sojourner’s Magazine, May-June 2002). No two countries with democratically elected governments went to war in the twentieth century. (Rev. Ron Letnes, nonviolence workshop, Synod Assembly 2002).

Pondering these statistics I came up with a theory – people who eat together and talk to one another as peers with equal rights, are less likely to resort to physical violence. (Yes, I know this is not a new revelation to most of you.) So I decided to test this theory.

In my congregation we have an annual clean up day where members come and trim trees, wash windows, reorganize storage, etc. Generally, a good time is had by all and a splendid meal follows. (statistic 1). This year, however the big event promised to be, not the actual clean up, but the skirmish between the women’s group, who just purchased new china they wanted to store in the closet in the double classroom, and the Christian Education Committee, who have stored their supplies in that same closet for twenty years. As you can perhaps imagine, the issue had quickly ceased to be about usable space and became "what right do they have to tell us what to do", and "well, we have every right to use this space and they don’t use this junk anyway". Being pastoral I suggested to one individual that we post a sign on the closet that said "Gaza Strip". What I actually did was talk to both sides and strongly suggest that the leaders meet on Saturday before anything was moved and decide together how the space would be best used. One of the leaders said after the meeting, "It is amazing what happens when we actually talk to each other – we had it settled in fifteen minutes!"

Later we had a splendid meal together and left clean up day happy and full. This experiment in talking to each other was so successful, we might even try it again some day.