Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC U.S. offers conference on countering military recruitment

September 1, 2006

MCC U.S. is opening registration for a Nov. 3-5 conference bringing together youth and adults from across the church to gain tools to counter the lure of military recruiters and increasing militarism in U.S. society.

About the conference

The conference, which will be at San Antonio Mennonite Church in San Antonio, Texas, will explore how to counter military recruiters who promise money for college or job training offers that are especially hard for youth in impoverished communities to resist, said Titus Peachey, MCC U.S. director of peace education.

"The recruiters will go where the recruitment is most effective, and that's always where there's more unemployment and fewer opportunities elsewhere," he said. In the United States, these also tend to be areas with higher concentrations of people of color.

Origins

The idea for the conference was sparked at an Anabaptist consultation in Elgin, Ill., in March 2005, which focused on the potential for military conscription.

African-American and Latino participants, saying their communities were disproportionately vulnerable to military recruitment, issued a strong call for the larger church to address and work at responding to aggressive recruitment efforts in communities affected by poverty and racism. Peachey said the conference will echo that call and provide tools for churches to answer it.

"My feeling is the church needs to respond to that, in the same way the church responded to a draft," Peachey said. "We ought to be providing alternatives or helping people find alternatives. The church needs to be more pro-active in helping young people see what is available."

Workshops

A broad variety of workshops target this and other themes, including helping participants learn more about the realities behind military advertising and recruiting; challenging and equipping congregations to help youth find meaningful non-military opportunities for education, job training, employment and leadership development; and discussing strategies for counter-recruitment work in public schools and other settings.

Military recruiters draw recruits from all economic sectors and are increasingly visible in high schools across the nation. The conference is open to anyone. It is especially intended for young people and adults who are instrumental in helping them make decisions about their future, whether in roles as teachers or guidance counselors, youth pastors or pastors or simply as friends and family.

The core of the issue is to nurture a commitment to peace and nonviolence and to give young people, whatever their economic status, the best possible chance to live out that commitment.

Reaching out

Ultimately, Peachey said, this work can only be done at a local level with young people and adults reaching out to those around them. Like military recruiters who have a presence at high schools, Anabaptists need to be available to young people, offering them another path and serving as a support as they sort through the options ahead of them.

"This is a spiritual issue," Peachey said. "We want to recruit young people to contribute to life, to contribute to well-being, to contribute to peace in the world."

A workshop will focus on the spiritual basis for counter-recruitment work. Times of worship and biblical study will underscore how countering military recruitment fits into a commitment to Christ's way of peace and reconciliation.