Peace and War in the Heartland - Invitation to Leaders of Faith Communities - To Initiate an Intergenerational Dialogue

INITIATING AN INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE
WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY OF FAITH

The most dramatic contrast between the Sixties and today is that very few are talking about the war and the draft. This is especially notable among faith communities.

It is as if we Americans are not at war. It is as if there is no draft.

Both are very real, and very “happening.” So I ask, Are these topics of concern to your faith community? Should they be? (See, “virtual draft.”)

Peace and War in the Heartland’s prime objective is to initiate an intergenerational dialogue. It does so through an entertainment, the play, “Peace Crimes,” and campus-based war and peace educational events.

Since PWH (February 19 – March 9) occurs during The Season for Nonviolence (January 30 through April 4) that remembers the deaths of Mahatma Gandhi (Jan. 30, 1948) and Martin Luther King Jr (Apr. 4, 1968), as leaders of faith communities, you are encouraged to:

• Initiate an intergenerational dialogue by
• Preaching on the theme of how faith informs a citizen’s response to peace and war,
• or sponsoring a post-worship ceremony meeting/discussion on this topic
• with the objective of asking your community’s families to discuss these issues in their homes with their draft age sons and daughters (18-25 years).
  

Since it is always difficult to find a common ground for the generations,

• invite your community to entertain themselves and attend the play, “Peace Crimes: the Minnesota 8 vs. the war,” (runs from February 22 to March 9, 2008 at UM’s Rarig Center. Buy Tickets. Ask for group sales.)
• NOT to validate the views and actions of the “Minnesota 8,” but to use them as an historical marker of how some young people responded to their perception that the government was acting illegitimately,
• and to set the stage for discussing how things were “then” and how they are “now.”
  
  
  
  

PWH executive director and “Minnesota 8” defendant, Frank Kroncke, argued a “Defense of Necessity,” based upon the moral theology of the Roman Catholic tradition. The “Documents of Vatican Council II” were accepted as evidence. Among the thirteen trial witnesses were four theologians. Frank and others of the “Minnesota 8” claimed a “Higher Allegiance” grounded in their various faith traditions. Frank served 14 months on a five year sentence at Sandstone federal prison, Minnesota. He has a Masters in Theology from the University of San Francisco, and an “ABD” in Historical Studies from a joint doctoral program of UC, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. He served at the Newman Center, U of Minnesota campus, and, after prison, for four years directed a prison reform project for the American Friends Service Committee. After twenty-five years as a corporate senior manager for small and medium size firms, Frank returned to Minnesota to promote “Peace Crimes.” The youngest of his two sons is still of draft age.

Contact: Frank Kroncke, 387 Pelham Boulevard #B, The Cottage, Saint Paul, MN 55104 cell: 651-895-0607 fkroncke@pwh-mn.org

For more on the “Season of Nonviolence,” see, Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers www.mapm.org

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

The military Selective Service Draft has been activated!

What is your Lottery number? Click here to find out.