Last month, eleven teens, ages 14-19, spent 5 days at Open Door Mennonite Church learning about nonviolent social change through the backdrop of the US Civil Rights movement.
On the first day, we talked about the difference between the world as it is, and the world as it ought to be. We asked them to tell us what the world ought to be like, and boy did they ever.
No hunger, and healthcare and housing for everyone were on multiple lists. They wanted a world free of violence, mental health resources for their friends, and many were concerned about the warming oceans and other consequences of climate change. These young people had a global view of the world – other than the one person who dreamed of a world without mosquitos, these were not wishes for personal gain. They are dreaming of a better world for all of us.
The rest of the week was about how we get there. How do we bring about the better world Jesus dreamed of? How do we change the world to be better than it is?
Over the week, we went on field trips to the Delta, to stand in front of the store where Emmet Till’s fate was sealed, and to sit in a courtroom where the men who did it got away with it. Or did they?
Back in Jackson, we would sit in Medgar Evers’ living room, and saw the bullet hole that remained from a coward’s attempt to kill a movement. We walked through downtown Jackson, and saw monuments to traitors, systemic blight, and learned about resistance movements born from faith communities that changed the world forever. We spent a morning in the MS Civil Rights Museum, where we saw even more examples, and now had the tools to learn from it, not just witness it.
Back at the church, we would sit in circles and learn about nonviolent action, both the theory and the practice. We would learn how to tell great stories (because stories are a shortcut to trust) and how to get people to tell us their stories so we can build collective power (because we can’t do this by ourselves). We watched lots of film clips that showed examples, and watched a few videos for specific knowledge. One of my favorite moments was when we watched a TED talk about nonviolence, and they spent most of the discussion time critiquing the speaker’s presentation, and how they violated most of the storytelling techniques they had learned the day before. They were sharp, I tell you.
We learned about how to find leaders, allies, and accomplices, how to get people to want to tell us their stories, and how to regulate our bodies when we get overwhelmed. And because the bad things that happen are not all that happens, we also made art and told jokes and laughed a whole lot. And because these were teenagers, we spent a lot of time talking about how these ideas play out at school, at home, and on social media.
It was amazing, and they all had a blast and they learned a lot and asked some of the hardest, most insightful questions I have heard in 20 years of sitting in circles with folks. It was an amazing, jam packed week.
I cannot imagine it having gone better. And now, we want to do it again. And again. And we are not the only ones: as they were leaving, some of the participants were asking if they could do it again next year.
We are planning a spring break version and two different summer camps next year – one residential camp filled with teens from around the world, and another a day camp version, with participants from the Jackson area. And we are clear the summer camps for teens should be absolutely free of cost to the teens. Which means there is money that is going to have to be raised to make that happen.
This project began around a table, as some members of Open Door asked, “What if?” I hope you are as excited about what happened in Jackson last month as I am. I hope you too are asking, along with us, “ What if?”
What if we could get teens from the poorest places in the nation and some teens from places with resources and discuss together how to change the things that are wrong? What if Christians from other denominations were exposed to the Mennonite peace witness and began to take it seriously? What if teens from around the country looked at their future and the future of the world differently, and took those factors into account before they decided what to study in college? What if we could give teens the tools to be kinder, less violent, and to activate their huge hearts to make the world better?
What if, indeed.
To all the donors whose financial gifts made this possible, to those who prayed for us every day we were doing it, for the parents who trusted us with their teens, and for the teens who trusted us with their time, we have nothing but gratitude.
