On April 5, 2018, nine protestors were arrested at the Cargill Poultry plant in Dayton, Virginia. They attempted to take a petition with hundreds of signatures to the Cargill management. The protestors chose the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s assassination. They had an agreement to deliver the petition to company management, but the company backed out at the last minute. The petition asked Cargill to give jobs back to three workers who had been unjustly terminated. Ten signatures were folks from my home church, a Virginia Conference congregation. Four of those arrested and released from jail are members of Mennonite Church USA from the Harrisonburg area.<\/p>\n
After an appearance in Rockingham County Court on April 27, the judge dropped charges, though they were required to pay court costs, they were put on probation, and they were ordered to stay off the Cargill property for a year. The Cargill Nine includes my 25-year-old son.<\/p>\n
The Cargill Nine are helping many in the Shenandoah Valley learn more about the difficult working conditions in poultry factories and the company\u2019s resistance to any kind of organization by workers, who are often recent immigrants.<\/p>\n
Part of the significance of the Cargill Nine for me is that my extended family has been reflecting on the story of our grandfather, John J. Yoder, who refused to wear a uniform and cooperate with the US military during WWI. It was a hundred years ago, in March of 1918, that John was drafted by Uncle Sam. He was among some 2,300 Amish, Mennonite, Brethren, and Hutterite men who refused to cooperate with the U.S. government. John was beaten and placed in a sweatbox in order to break his will. An Amish farmer with an 8th<\/sup> grade education, John had learned the way of peace and he stood firm. After the War John and Emma had a dozen children, one of whom is my mother. John and Emma\u2019s sons, my uncles, were conscientious objectors in WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n In reflecting on the meaning of John J. Yoder\u2019s story a hundred years later, it dawned on me that my son\u2019s courage to step off the sidewalk at the Cargill factory in Dayton, Va., with the police waiting in force, was somewhat like the courage of his great-grandfather John in WWI. Both resisted the powers, and while John J. Yoder\u2019s life was at risk from the officers\u2019 brutality and his great-grandson\u2019s life was not at risk, it also took courage for the petitioners to step off the public sidewalk, confront the powers, and speak for voiceless workers in a giant corporation, knowing that they would be arrested for doing so.<\/p>\n Menno Simons used an ancient metaphor in his Foundation Book<\/em> that describes the body of Christ as being made up of many grains of wheat.[2]<\/a> A hundred years ago most conscientious objectors cooperated with the US government, though a small group of men kept the grains of absolutism alive in the bread loaf of Anabaptist community and refused to cooperate with the US military. My grandfather John Yoder bequeathed me the courage to resist the powers when necessary.<\/p>\n My son and the Cargill Nine have given me new resolve, in the twenty-first century, to speak up for the marginalized in the Shenandoah Valley. For what purpose do the grains of resistance in the Anabaptist tradition serve but to speak on behalf of strangers in our midst. As the gospels instruct, \u201cI was a stranger and you welcomed me in.\u201d<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> John J. Yoder\u2019s story of conscientious objection during WWI can be read in Through Fire and Water<\/em>, Herald Press, Loewen and Nolt, 2010, pages 15-17.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Complete Writings of Menno Simons<\/em>, Herald Press, 1984, p. 145.<\/p>\n https:\/\/themennonite.org\/grains-of-resistance\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On April 5, 2018, nine protestors were arrested at the Cargill Poultry plant in Dayton, Virginia. They attempted to take a petition with hundreds of signatures to the Cargill management. The protestors chose the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s assassination. They had an agreement to deliver the petition to company management, but the … Continue reading Grains of Resistance<\/span>