A time for protest

There’s been no shortage of headlines involving protest in recent years. The events surrounding the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, the Arab Spring that began that same year, and the Occupy Movement, whose gatherings first began taking place in the fall of 2011, all saw thousands of men and women engage in public demonstration. Given the significance of these events and the actions that accompanied them, what role should protest take in the life and work of the church today?

Ian Stumpf believes that there is a place for more assertive advocacy in the church. Stumpf has played a central role in the organization of and support for demonstrations like those at the G20 Summit, but is careful to avoid identification with one specific group. “I wouldn’t necessarily define myself with all of these specific protest movements, but certainly it is often the case that it is a necessary and important step in achieving what we want—the social change that we are after.”

As a native of Kitchener-Waterloo, and someone who’s faith and work has been shaped in part by Anabaptist tradition, Stumpf has been involved with numerous advocacy organizations. Those include the We Remember Ashley Smith Campaign and Poverty Makes Us Sick, which “works to eradicate the systems of oppression that cause poverty while contributing to creative solutions for immediate relief.”

The Mennonite Church in Canada has historically been known for its involvement in justice, development, relief and peace work both internationally and here on Canadian soil. There is a certain “satisfaction in being a Mennonite, and being concerned with social justice,” given its distinct and central part of the denomination’s identity, admits Ian, who has been involved with various Mennonite congregations in Kitchener-Waterloo.

And yet, while much good work has been done and continues to be done, both through MCC and local congregations, he suggests that there is a sense of urgency that has been lost in the comfort, prestige and careerism that occupies so much of our lives. That is perhaps why Christians are so reluctant to engage more thoroughly in the costly work of social justice which, he argues, will at times require public demonstration.

“The work that the church has been doing in certain areas has reached its potential,” he suggests, “and there needs to be something more assertive.”

When social media campaigns, letter writing, committees, lobbying, and casting our ballot have proved ineffective and insufficient means to enact social change, the urgency of our call to love our neighbour and work for justice ought to compel us to use means more immediate and vocal.

Here he cites a recent example involving the Minister of Public Safety which he finds particularly troubling, both in the news itself, and the lack of reaction he has seen in response. The Minister (himself the son of Mennonite immigrant parents) has been forced to release documents detailing directives given to Canada’s spy service, the RCMP, and Canadian border security to accept and share information derived by means of torture.

“In a sense, we are OK with this, because there will be meetings, there will be letter writing, there will be articles written, but clearly that is not enough right now.” It is that conviction, of things being “not enough right now” that drives Stumpf in his work to what he calls “assertive forms” of justice work.

This work, he explains, whether it takes the form of distributing clothes, public education, or staging protests, is nurtured by community, informed by a life of devotion, and a sustained practice of powerlessness.

“Within the church it really leaves me heartbroken, wondering, how much are we still believing in and depending on God, and submitting to God’s will to be a different voice and counterculture?” For Ian, that understanding of dependence means that, while we are part of the work of redemption here—which will at times take the form of protest—reconciliation is ultimately found in Christ.

“Who am I,” he asks, “to sit back and not actively live out my love, my love that would lay down my life for somebody, knowing that Jesus was tortured, and hung on a cross and died for that person?”

Ian Stumpf of Kitchener Ontario is an anti-capitalist who works for God. Currently he is prayerfully working to have Mennonite churches acknowledge their participation in the Residential School legacy and to offer a meaningful, ongoing and active apology to First Peoples.