By Tori Jones Long, Salford (Harleysville, PA) congregation
Tori Jones Long reflects on why she participated in an act of civil disobedience that led to her arrest during the Jan. 16 Mennonite Action demonstration for a ceasefire. Republished with permission from MC USA.
On Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, I was arrested with 134 other Mennonites by Capitol Police for demonstrating inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington D.C. The group that was arrested inside the building was supported by a group of 200 Mennonites and allies demonstrating outside. Many more were with us in spirit and virtually. Mennonite Action organized our peaceful demonstrations, and hundreds of us travelled to Washington from across the U.S. We were calling for our elected officials to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a release of all hostages, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
We made our voices heard in a quintessentially Mennonite way – through hymn singing. We gathered in the rotunda of the Cannon building, unfurled banners that read, “Let Gaza Live,” “Free All Hostages,” “Mennonites for a Ceasefire” and “Send Food Not Bombs.”
The Capitol police were quick to snatch our banners and arrest our song leaders, wading into the center of our encircled bodies to grab them. They must have thought or hoped that without our initial song leaders, we would fall silent. But we sang, and we sang, and we sang.
New leaders would emerge as the group in the middle dwindled, but the design of the rotunda was to our advantage. Those who were already arrested wrapped around the perimeter and continued to carry the songs coming from the middle. Reverberating throughout the building was a unified voice, singing songs of lament, hope and liberation. The words echoed off the literal walls of power. Eventually, we were all arrested and put in zip-tie handcuffs, but still we sang, and we sang, and we sang.
We were split up and shuffled around the building in smaller arrest groups, and we sang, and we sang, and we sang.
We were invasively searched, had our belongings taken and were made to wait, and we sang, and we sang, and we sang.
My arrest group only stopped singing when we were loaded into transport vans and taken offsite for processing. Hymns and liberation songs rang through the halls of power for hours, until every one of us was removed.
Why I participated
I had multiple motivations for participating in this act of civil disobedience. One was the words of Seth Malone and Sarah Funkhouser, who are directing Mennonite Central Committee’s Palestine-Israel-Jordan program. Several weeks ago, they wrote, “We ask for your action in this moment. Do not let this government rest from your letters, calls and protests. We cannot be complicit nor complacent in this moment – now is the time to act.” Their words continue to ring in my ears.
I had been calling, emailing, faxing, posting online, signing petitions, donating money, demonstrating, and organizing legislative visits for months. All I could show for that hard work was dissatisfying form responses from my elected officials.
Despite pressure from so many, the U.S. continues to send billions of dollars in military aid to Israel and rejects any accountability measures to ensure that the money is used in accordance with human rights and U.S. laws. These are my tax dollars at work. The blank checks to Israel make Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, and Arab peoples in the region and around the world less safe. More bombs and munitions are not the answer.
Civil disobedience seemed like the next step and the least a self-identifying peacemaker could do.
To work for peace is at the core of who I am, particularly because I identify as a Mennonite. Jesus calls me to oppose oppression and violence, especially state-sanctioned violence. As the apostle John wrote, “to not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
I am grateful for the many ways that Mennonites pray with their feet and value community, mutual aid and service.
I am also deeply troubled. Christians have been largely silent. Most ceasefire and Palestine solidarity actions have been primarily led by Jewish and Muslim people. To participate with Mennonite Action on Jan. 16 was to continue our long history of peacemaking in and solidarity with Palestine and to stand publicly stand against the rising tide of Christan Zionism and nationalism. I participated in the hope that other Christians would be inspired to act for peace.
I believe in a liberating Christ, who calls us very clearly to love our neighbor and to care for the orphan, widow and foreigner among us. To be in alignment with my faith and the teachings of Jesus is to be brave and bold. It is to grieve and hope, to act in a way that honors the truth that all life is precious, and that all people are made in the image of our loving creator. It is to dream of and usher in a new world, as we face the inhumanity of our current one.
Tori Jones Long
Tori Jones Long (she/her) is a local organizer for Mennonite Action in Bucks and Montgomery, PA counties and an active member of Salford Mennonite (Harleysville, PA). Tori navigates life with her husband, Zach, and spends her time spoiling her two dogs, Frank and Eddie, and enjoying small-town life.
The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.