Peace and Justice and Some Clarification
on How I Got Here

Jeremy Simons

   When I tell people that I spent six years in the Marines they wonder how I ended up at Eastern Mennonite University. I often find myself with similar feelings of paradox and incongruence. In one of my classes, I heard about spirited efforts to demilitarize the US-Mexico border by peace activists. I was a little taken aback because I had considered patrolling that border as an option for my summer duty with the Marines. It is a bit startling to see the feelings of people opposed to military action when I only finished service several months ago. It shows me that my journey from committed Marine to ambivalent pacifist is still a work in progress. I more often feel like a baby being weaned than a peace crusader.

   It really all started with an aborted attempt immediately after college to work for the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in one of their 10,000 Villages stores in Boston. I decided that if I were to apply to work for a pacifist organization I needed to brush up on some peace theology and ideology which I had been introduced to in college. My answer to the MCC application question concerning violence, military training, and war elicited a rather lengthy reply from the MCC personnel department. They asked for further clarification on my "semi-militarist" stance, and at that point I chickened-out of the application process.

   However, my thoughts had been stirred. I was trying to decide what I should do with these thoughts about peace and justice that seemed to be leading to a reevaluation of my identity as a Christian and as a Marine. I had found in other situations that the only way I could keep my sense of priorities was by fasting and prayer. The act of giving up something that is vital to life has a way of clearing of my spirit and sharpening my focus. So I spent the church season of Lent in 1998 fasting about my commitment to the military. Through reading of peace literature, Biblical and sacramental meditation, I came to the conclusion that commitments to war and to Jesus were incompatible.

   At the same time, another change converged with this commitment to peacemaking. Since college, I had tried to be serious about the practical implication of these ideals, justice, and peace. I finally came to the conclusion to leave my full time job in international investment banking after two and half years. I had initially gotten into that work (after my flirtation with MCC) because I wanted to see how money moved around the world. I realized, however, working to keep the infrastructure of international capitalism greased and lubricated was not congruent with my core values.

   The convergence of my thoughts surrounding my full time job in banking, and my part time "job" as a "weekend warrior," eventually led to concrete changes in my life direction. I did not want to spend the rest of my life enabling people to invest in foreign stock markets or supporting military solutions to social problems. I began thinking about my background growing up in the Philippines, my undergraduate interest in international relations, and what my next step should be. Eventually that path dropped me off at Eastern Mennonite University. MCC, if you're still wondering about my semi-militarist stance in question 26, hopefully my life will be a start at clarification.

Jeremy Simons is currently contemplating work in Central America, along with his wife, a community health nurse.