We might dismiss them as historic curiosities except that Chief Justice John Marshall invoked both Papal documents in a unanimous Supreme Court decision in 1823 that established the right of the United States to dispose of the lands occupied by Native American tribes and of the people themselves. They were a charter for enslaving and exploiting the people of Africa, Asia and America. These documents together gave European Christians exclusive rights to the land and resources of the rest of the world. Muslims) and pagans whatsoever, and all dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods." We hope to bring our concerns to the conference assembly this year and to Kansas City next summer.An earlier Papal decree, Romanus Pontifex, which was issued and reissued by several of his predecessors, had established the right of the King of Portugal "to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens (i.e. We expect to soon have curriculum and study group resources. We on the task force are committed to helping congregations Southeast Conference and Mennonite Church USA connect with farm workers and support their efforts to improve their living and working conditions. In January the Leadership Board of Southeast Mennonite Conference created a Task Force on Farm Worker Justice. Pastor John Wierwille and his congregation reached out to other Atlanta churches and to our own conference to enlist their support for farm workers.įast forward to 2014. With our partners we’ve been working ever since to implement that Biblical vision.īerea Mennonite Church (Atlanta, Ga.) had a similar experience hosting the Immokalee workers when they came to Metro Atlanta. Our congregation was the first to join the Gainesville Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Justice (IAIJ) , which is now a coalition of a dozen faith communities. Kimberly drew up a statement for the initial meeting, showing that the call for justice was a Biblical imperative rooted in the prophets and the words of Jesus. In 2010 Kimberly Hunter asked Eve MacMaster, her pastor at Emmanuel Mennonite, to help organize the churches of Gainesville. We learned that this kind of servitude is commonplace in Florida.įarm workers found allies in churches and on campuses. They then worked eighteen months on a farm a few miles from Gainesville while the contractor pocketed their wages to pay the debt. These laborers agreed to pay him large sums for a legal job in Florida. When they came, our local newspaper was running stories about an unscrupulous Haitian labor contractor who recruited laborers in Haiti. We invited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to bring their Modern-Day Slavery Museum to our new meeting house. We learned about difficult working conditions, the impossible number of huge buckets of tomatoes needed to earn close to minimum wage, the prevalence of sexual harassment, and what farm workers themselves are doing to change this. We Mennonites may be familiar with migrant farm workers, but how many of us have heard their stories and know what life is really like for them?įor our congregation, Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville, Florida, a Sunday morning sharing time with workers from the tomato fields of Immokalee in 2009 was an eye opener.
The men, women and children who harvest the vegetables and fruits we eat are invisible to most Americans. Last month Ervin Stutzman as executive director of Mennonite Church USA joined other religious leaders calling Wendy’s restaurants to sign the Fair Food Agreement with other major tomato buyers, 95% of growers, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to assure fair wages and decent working conditions for farm labor. He is a retired history professor and a member of Emmanuel Mennonite Church, Gainesville, Florida. Richard MacMaster, speaking here at a rally, is chair of the Southeast Mennonite Conference Task Force on Farmworker Justice.
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