Performance at Frazer Mennonite Peace Festival

On Saturday, May 30 I performed my Drumming for Peace program at the Frazer Mennonite Church Peace Festival, 57 Maple Linden Lane, Frazer, PA. The festival included a photography contest and exhibits, music, storytelling, children's activities, and a World Peace Cafe. The church website is: http://www.frazermennonite.org/home.htm.

I shared my own story as "A Life Journey in Peacemaking and the Arts." Here is the text of the story I shared:


I’m pleased to see Frazer Mennonite connecting peacemaking and the arts. It is important to connect peacemaking with the arts in order that peacemaking not be viewed simply as a political endeavor or something that only activists can be engaged in. In an article I once wrote in the e-zine PeaceSigns on peacemaking in the arts I said:

Peacemaking is not just the work of diplomats, political activists, cultural critics, philosophers and educators. It requires the diverse expressions of human gifts, including those involved in the aesthetic dimension of life: visual artists, poets, musicians, singers, dancers. Peacemaking requires more than addressing pragmatic issues in seeking an end to violence. It calls upon the full expression of our humanity to cultivate a culture permeated with forgiveness, reconciliation and justice. The arts are a powerful medium for communicating a vision of peace for our world.

The tapestry of my personal and spiritual life has been woven together with threads from art, music, ministry, and peacemaking. I was an artist and musician before I ever thought of Christian ministry or ever got involved in peacemaking. Since the age of 10 years old I have cultivated a passion for art and music. My interest in art was sparked when I was in the fifth grade. For an anatomy class we had to draw pictures of the human body, so I drew guts. My teacher praised my drawings. She even let me be in charge of "Herman," the human model with the removable guts! Geee, that was keen! From 5th grade on I played drums in the school band and was the illustrator for our 8th grade class yearbook. In high school I was into hot rods and drag racing, so I used to paint hot rods on t-shirts, like my idol Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. It was during high school I decided I wanted to go to art school and become an illustrator. I also played drums in high school band and was a member of several local rock bands.

Music became more than a hobby. In 1968, at the age of 19 I packed my bags and moved to L.A. with my rock group, Beauregard Ajax, to record an album for Del-Fi Records with Bob Keane, producer for artists like Ritchie Valens, Bobby Fuller Four, and early Frank Zappa and Barry White. When our album was almost finished Keane lost his studio and the album was never released. But, oddly enough, while Googling on the internet in 2006 I came across the album released by Shadoks Records in Germany 38 years after we first recorded it!

While recording our album and playing at places like Gazzari’s on the Sunset Strip, the Troubadour, and other concerts in LA, I was also attending Los Angeles City College with a major in art. I used to go to art galleries around Los Angeles dreaming of being a professional illusttrator. Often I would visit the Art Center College of Design in L.A., a world renowned art school, and dream of studying illustration there. I even got a small scholarship for my artwork.

In the late 60’s I was into the countercultural movement, grew my hair and beard long (Nothing’s changed, right?). I embraced the hippie ideas of peace, love, and anti-establishment, but without the free love, drugs and political activism. I was more of a Jesus Freak. I had an older college friend who used to take me around L.A. to see the wild diversity of religious experiences; Jesus Freaks, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, Catholic cloisters and monasteries, while at the same time my band was playing for the Hell’s Angels or on the same bill as the Birds and the Doors. One weekend I went to the Shrine Auditorium to see the famous healer Kathryn Kuhlman and another to see psychedelic rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. There was no incongruity for me between music, art, and spirituality.

The Vietnam War and the draft put my dreams of art school on hold. I received my notice in the mail to show up for my physical exam to be inducted into the US Army. What a moment of shock. I was being forced to go into the army, be trained as a foot soldier and most likely be sent over to Vietnam to kill people I didn’t even know or didn’t have anything against. Either go into the Army and be forced to kill people or be killed, refuse to be drafted and end up in prison, or leave your home, friends, and family and run off to Canada. Those were the tough choices young 18 and 19 year olds had to face in the 60’s during the Vietnam War.

Faced with what being drafted would mean for me, I came to the realization that I couldn’t in good conscience kill another human being. So, I decided to apply for a conscientious objector status. I scrambled and got my friends, family, and pastor to write letters to the draft board explaining my convictions about not wanting to kill in any and not just this particular war. Unlike young men from Mennonite background, the option of doing alternative service to the military was for me too much to ask for and I didn’t want to end up as a gun-toting, foot soldier. Luckily I was able to secure a A-1-O status as a conscientious objector, which meant would go into the military but I didn’t have to bear arms. I would serve my time in the Army as a medic.

My basic and advanced training as a medic was in San Antonio, Texas. My company included a number of young men from Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist, and Jehovah’s Witness church traditions, which all have pacifist roots. To be honest, the Christian church itself has pacifist roots because it sought to follow in the way of Jesus, that is until Roman emperor Constantine co-opted the church and Christians took up the sword that Jesus forbad to the apostle Peter! No one in graduating company of medics immediately went to Vietnam, though I suspect that there are some listed on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in DC.

Art and music continued to be sewn into the patchwork of my life, along with the cloth of a nonviolent perspective. I did a lot of drawing in my free time when I was in the Army. I also got involved in music in an unexpected way. I was working as a pharmacy assistant in Augusta, Georgia when a trumpet player from the Third Army Soldier Show just happened to come in the back of the pharmacy where I was working and requested some cough syrup for his throat before a show that evening. My ears perked up. Soldier show?! Playing pop tunes and themes from musicals and touring the South? That sounded better than being sent to Vietnam with my red Medic cross becoming a target.

So, that evening after the performance I auditioned for the show. Not only did I serve in the Third Army Soldier Show, like the others who auditioned for this temporary 3 month assignment, but I was permanently assigned as their drummer and finished the last 16 months of my time in the Army touring the South with an interracial musical company!

When I got out of the Army in 1971 I started attending my home church again, a Southern Baptist congregation, and went back to school studying art in college. I played drums in several youth musicals, met and married my wife of 36 years, Iris, and then … had an experience of call to ministry. One thing that kept me from immediately going into Christian ministry was my passionate desire to become an illustrator. My wife suggested that I go ahead and get my degree in art and then go on to seminary. I would have something to "fall back on" if somehow ministry didn't work out. At the time I felt that if I were to go on studying art, my strong passion for art would take over and keep me from going on to seminary. I might drop Christian ministry as a vocation. The idea that I needed to leave behind everything to do with art and singlemindedly focus on studying the Bible, theology, and pastoral ministry didn't last long.

I went to seminary in the Bay area (1973-78) and attended a church in the mission district of San Francisco. In seminary I ended up illustrating for the seminary newspaper, doing numerous paintings for friends and family, adding my drawings to church bulletins, and painting murals on the walls of a Christian coffeehouse Iris and I started in San Francisco. I also played drums in several musical groups at our church and coffeehouse. My wounded passion for the arts just kept bleeding into my ministry.

An ethics class in seminary got me to thinking more deeply about war and peace. My study of the prophets and Christian peace witness started adding substance to my unreflective feelings about violence that I faced during the time of the draft. I started reading Sojourners magazine, got involved in social ministry in the city, read my Bible with a new lens, and reflected more on peacemaking and justice. Art, music, and peacemaking were key ingredients getting mixed in the bowl of my personal and spiritual formation.

For almost 30 years as a youth minister and a pastor I have drawn my own church bulletins, painted murals for musical productions, illustrated sermons, designed worship spaces, and created Christian cartoons. Still, I never had enough time to do as much artwork as I would have liked. For 13 years my drumming fell to the wayside. A big part of the problem was not owning any drums. Then I once again got a drum set in 1996 and started playing for my church’s praise band. What a joy to be able once again use the rhythms in my bones for ministry.

As a pastor my appetite for peace and justice grew stronger over the years by reading books on liberation theology, starting a hunger education organization, forming a congregational peace group, participating in several ecumenical peace groups, getting involved with Baptist Peacemakers, working with an anti-nuclear minister’s group, participating weekly in prayer vigil’s at sites of violence, and serving on South Central and Eastern District Conference peace committees.

A key factor in my becoming a Mennonite in 1987 was my perception that as a “historic peace church” the Mennonites would strongly support my Christian desire to be involved more deeply in peace and justice. Strangely enough, the first conflict I had within my Mennonite church in Houston, Texas was over peace! My naivete about Mennonites being a denomination of peacemakers and a “historic peace church” had to be adjusted to the reality “on the ground.”

Preaching on peace and being involved in community peace and justice activities were part of my understanding of being a pastor, even though being clear about where I stood on these issues often got me in hot water with members of my Mennonite congregations, which I always thought was rather strange. I eventually ended up leaving pastoral ministry in 2002, a very eventful year for me. First, I left pastoral ministry after 30 years of work in local congregations. Second, I got my doctorate from a UCC seminary, focusing on a liberationist model of Anabaptist preaching. Second, I founded Drumming for Peace, an organization that teaches and witnesses for peace through drumming, rhythm and storytelling. And third, I accepted my current position as Minister of Peace and Justice for Mennonite Mission Network.

Here I was, a former fundamentalist, Southern Baptist, now in a leading position a “historic peace church” teaching the denomination about peace and justice! My responsibilities were to teach, preach, provide resources, conferences, and networking around peace and justice.

My Drumming for Peace organization grew out of trying to bring together my passions for drumming and peacemaking. After I moved to Lancaster in 1996 I bought an African djembe at Ten Thousand Villages and started playing in a drumming group called Commit No Violence. It was based on a philosophy of nonviolence and played for community events that promoted peace and justice. After taking leadership of the group in 2002 I, along with my friends Heidi Beth Wert, we developed the Drumming for Peace organization. We created a program called “Joyful Noise” that taught peace principles from a Christian perspective. In several afterschool programs we did “Found Sounds” a secular version of “Joyful Noise.” I was invited by a drum student, the dean of my seminary, to create a drumming course, so I started teaching a credited course on “Sacred Drumming” that introduced drumming in various cultures, drumming for meditation, inner peace, worship, and to learn West African rhythms. I integrated my drumming into my church work and over the past 7 years have performed my programs in churches, conferences, public schools, seminaries, colleges, universities in various denominations across the U.S. Commit No violence performed for Novel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, got a write up in Sojourner’s magazine, and I was even invited to do the Staley lecture at Bethel College in Kansas on Drumming for Peace.

During one period after leaving pastoral ministry in 2002 I was dealing with regrets about not pursuing a vocation in art or music. Where could I have been in my life and abilities as an artist or musician after the 36 years I had spent in Christian ministry? Life is too short, especially after you turn 60, to spend regretting what you could or should have done with your life. Rather than wallow in regrets I decided to use my occasional spare time in the evening to do artwork, after putting to bed my 4 year old grandson, who is in our care and us whole other story.

This burst of creative energy resulted in two series of drawings. First, a series entitled Artisans of Social Change, of 20 drawings of leaders in peace and justice with one of their quotes. Second, I drew a series entitled M.U.S.I.C.: Musicians Undermining Social Injustice Creatively, which is a set of drawings of musicians with a social conscience, including a quote or song lyrics about peace and justice. I offered these drawings to the public for free on the PJSN website. I have found them being used by various peace and justice organizations. My drawing of Oscar Romero, martyred bishop of El Salvador, has been used on a Catholic website on Romero, a peace and justice Lenten prayer book, and on the cover of a book about a children’s village in El Salvador named after Romero. My drawing of a poor Campesino Christ was used on an MCC book on immigration. Recently one of my cartoons was used on a NGO report on the UN General Assembly on disarmament. Awaiting publication is Readings for Radicals: a peace and justice lectionary guide, which I illustrated with peace and justice drawings, like an electric chair to symbolize the cross.

My hope is to continue to use all my creative gifts for engendering a culture of peace. I have started two blogs that connect art, poetry, music, drumming, culture, preaching, theology, and peace and justice. See me if you are interested in how to access them on the internet. In 60 days I end 36 years of church ministry and will be moving to Portland, Oregon to find a job and pursue my creative gifts more intentionally. Through art, music, drumming, speaking, teaching, writing, and poetry I hope to continue to point to that day when peace will reign on earth as in heaven. As one who has been a crafter of words for many years, I leave you with these words of hope from one of my poems:

a day is coming

when wars will cease
nations will rejoice
hope will spring forth

a day is coming

when death will be no more
pain will be healed
tears will be dried

a day is coming

when love will reign supreme
joy will overflow
peace will fill the earth

a day is coming

when the old will feel young
the young will be wise
and the wise will be heard

a day is coming

when guns will become shovels
tanks become merry-go-rounds
and the soldier and peacemaker will ride together

a day is coming…