Baltimore: In The Belly of the Beast

After 23 years of living within community, I'm a good deal mellower. I've discovered something about forgiveness, mercy, and tolerance. Not as much, perhaps as I should have learned, but more than I knew before. I can accept the deficiencies of other people, just as I can live with my own deficiencies, which, believe me, are legion.
Phil Berrigan, The Lamb's War

If God could use Jonah for the works of justice, there is hope for each of us. Are we not all reluctant prophets?
From the official brochure of The Jonah House

On June 1, 1973 (3 months before my birth), the scandalously married priest-and-nun pair Phil Berrigan and Liz McAlister (and a few friends) christened the Jonah House in a 14-foot wide row house in the heart of innercity Baltimore. Many people have actively participated with Jonah House over the years, but Liz and Phil, in addition to their 3 children, were the only members to stay at Jonah House the entire time (Phil passed over to God in December 2002). From the beginning, they were (and had been) thoroughly committed to nonviolent resistance of the Vietnam War. By "thoroughly," I of course mean "willing to get arrested and go to prison for long periods of time."

Those uncomfortable with the notion of good Christians getting arrested ought to be reminded of the rich 2000-year legacy of such a practice within the Christian Tradition. The list goes on and on and on, from the earliest martyrs of the Roman Empire to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King in the 20th century. And, far-too-often-overlooked, the ministry of Jesus himself was fraught with civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws and mores of Temple and Empire. He defiantly broke the Sabbath, boldly issued forth forgiveness (a radical form of inclusion, pre-empting a power only reserved for the priests) and publicly interacted with women (who, in that society, would never talk openly/publicly with a man who was not a husband or relative), not to mention his radical Temple Action that precipitated his arrest and execution.

In the mid-90s, Jonah, name after the wavering & whimpering prophet of the Hebrew Bible, moved their operations to an overgrown cemetary plot owned by the Baltimore archdiocese. They are dedicated to living out peace and specifically the issue of nuclear weapons, educating themselves and strategically and creatively plotting symbolic resistance actions--from Michigan to Colorado--at military bases with nuclear weapons installations (more than 10,000 nuclear weapons remain in the U.S.).

McAlister has been joined by Dominican sisters Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert since the mid-90s and are currently in a time of transition, as two young couples, Amber & Kevin and Ted & Amy, will be organizing and administering the daily operations of Jonah House by the end of the summer. The community is structured around highly routinized days and weeks. They meet every morning for Scripture reading and prayer. They eat lunches and dinners together (except for Saturdays), trading off cooking duties each day. They mow and weed the 22 acres of the cemetary grounds. They work the garden. They make food runs to the local pantry every Monday morning. They organize the non-perishable food to give to members of the community who come to Jonah House every Tuesday morning. On Sunday evenings they meet to organize the weekly schedule which includes events such as joining the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House at peace vigils at the Pentagon and White House and attending the Bradley Manning trial at nearby Fort Meade.

These nuns, who have all served significant prison time as a result of nonviolent civil disobedience, believe that they serve a unique role in witnessing for peace and justice, but that they aren't any better than anyone else involved in the Cause. On Sunday night after we watched a documentary on one of their actions in Colorado Springs, Carol clarified, "There is not a hierarchy when it comes to social action."

She explained that a woman who commits to raising children as peacemakers in a society of greed and violence is doing work just as important as the Plowshares Action. And at all the protests and rallies and vigils and organized arrests, everyone is joined together with different duties united in a common mission to be faithful to the nonviolent Jesus. They just want to be faithful to what they believe God is calling them to do...and they encourage everyone to pursue their own calling in regards to peace and justice...and to do it consistently and faithfully.

On Sunday morning, Jonah House hosts a liturgical community of worship. Members of the community rotate facilitating and leading discussion on the weekly Gospel passage from the Catholic lectionary. They celebrate the Lord's Supper together as an inclusive interfaith People of God (the bread is baked every Saturday night by a Jewish member of the community). This intergenerational blend of radicals includes teachers, students, professionals, blue collar workers and activists.

After a time of prayer, we all sat down to eat a potluck meal together.

In the early afternoon, we teamed up in the basement to organize food for Tuesday morning pickup.

On Monday morning, we joined the community in a lectio divina session at 6:30. Lectio is an ancient Benedictine practice of reading the daily Scripture passages multiple times and listening for the voice of God "shimmering." Each person then shares a word or phrase from any of the readings and follows up with a more specific response about what that shimmering means for them. Ardeth's shimmering phrase was "do not be afraid, stand your ground" from that morning's Hebrew Bible reading (Exodus 14):

Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today.

She shared that the Trayvon Martin tragedy was still burdening her heart and then went on to share beautiful stories of people nonviolently standing their ground in a way that diffuses the violence in front of them (one example was of a friend who hopped out of bed and cooked breakfast for an intruder standing over her, no doubt about to rape and/or steal from her. He instead had breakfast with her, demanded nothing further, and left in peace), subverting the Stand Your Ground laws in more than 20 states that allow citizens to use force when feeling threatened.

After our lectio time, Lindsay and I went for a 30 minute run through the row house neighborhoods of Baltimore and came upon a park and reservoir with a gigantic statue of Columbus raising his sword and standing his ground. This was a simple reminder that the glorification of violence and domination is everywhere, from our history to our contemporary contexts of fear and anxiety. The lives of these beautiful women testify to that Alternative Lifestyle covenanted to Love, Gentleness, Humility, Service and Compassion. Not success. Just faithfulness.

Thomas Merton once wrote that there must be 20 people in the world who see things precisely as they are and who are not dominated or even influenced by any attachment. According to Merton, these are "the ones who are holding everything together and keeping the universe from falling apart." I'm pretty sure we met some of these folks at the Jonah House.

Liz stands in the door frame of her room at Jonah House. Above her head, the sign reads (translated from the Latin) "Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down." A desperately appropriate reminder.

Liz led us on a tour of the 22 acre grounds:

The garden is planted on the northwest corner of the land. The tent and hanging shirts are there to keep the deer away from the fruits and vegetables:

Truly, we've never met anyone quite like these radical nuns (and their proteges) at Jonah House. We were intimidated in the days leading up to our trek to inner city Baltimore, but quickly, we were put at ease by their humble service, passionate convictions, curious questions and grandmotherly wisdom.