UMKR Leader Passes Torch

Rev. John Wagner

Ever the bridge builder and a lighter of torches, Rev. John Wagner is now retiring from leadership of UM for Kairos Response (UMKR) and passing the torch to Lisa Bender, with whom he has been serving as Co-Chair. As an expression of that cooperative spirit, John and Lisa have also served as the UMKR representatives to the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC).

“At LYNC, we want to celebrate John’s work and glean the wisdom he’s developed as a patient and persistent voice for justice and especially in Palestine,” said Mittie Quinn, Co-Chair of LYNC. “John’s gentle consciousness raising helped LYNC with an ever-expanding understanding of global Methodism and the interconnections between oppressions.

John says about his own growth of his intersectional perspective: “It was Cindy Kent who helped me make the connection between the theft of Native American land and the theft of Palestinian land. I have long been concerned for LGBT rights. When my daughter was born, it became even more important because, no matter who she loved when she grew up, I wanted her to be accepted.”

“UMKR members range from conservatives to progressives. But what they have in common is that most have gone to Palestine and pushed beyond the typical Christian tour of Holy Land sites to learn what was actually happening between Israel and Palestine.”

John described the situation. “Most Palestinians are Muslim but many are Christians. For both, the issue is not religion but the theft of their land and curtailment of freedoms, through militarized checkpoints, passes, and massive 200 foot walls. Caterpillar bulldozers raze towns and olive groves –some almost 2,000 years old… and it has not stopped. Massive walls split towns in two and even separate farm owners from their farms.”

“When I went to Palestine on a tour organized by the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, I was changed forever. I knew I had to act, so I was a founding member of UMKR in 2010, and in 2016 I became the Co-Chair,” said John.

John brought experience in both organizing and ministry. In his early years, John was a Saul Alinsky-style community organizer but became disenchanted with objectifying his opponents. He then went to seminary at Yale Divinity School to explore other approaches to liberation.

His intern year at the Church of the Savior in Washington DC grounded him in evangelism and justice and led to pastoral ministry in Indiana and Ohio. His ministries included anti-Iraq war efforts, prison reform, and support for LGBTQ people. Throughout, John built bridges between evangelicals and progressives. These bridging experiences are vital to UMKR’s ministry.

John shared that when the UMKR steering committee was first asked to become a member of LYNC, some members had doubts and it was voted down. With conversation and time, the second vote narrowly passed,and John continued to build bridges of understanding in multiple directions.

On the other end of the spectrum, John noted that a few progressives cannot move beyond unquestioning support of Israel and have blocked important legislative efforts to defend Palestinians.

To John, it takes all of us. “We must be in relationship and talk to each other if we want to be persuasive,” he said. “First-hand engagement makes all the difference. One advocate who is conservative in many respects noted that at a demonstration for Israel-Palestine reconcilliation, he found himself between a lesbian and a gay man. That advocate confessed,‘I hesitated to hold hands with them, but they were willing to hold hands with me.’” John noted, “Just holding hands helped him become much more accepting of the LGBTQ community within the Church.”

Change is possible, and UM Kairos Response is using a range of strategies to inform and mobilize people. U.S. companies that make a profit off of the suffering of Palestinians face boycotts of products related to illegal Israeli settlements. They have worked to divest from Caterpillar and other companies that sustain the occupation. The United Nations and other international bodies are being asked to use sanctions against Israel for human rights violations and theft of land.

John said, “These strategies are summarized as BDS: boycott, divest, and sanction. Although The UMC defeated efforts to divest from Caterpillar, The UMC Board of Pensions excluded five Israeli banks from UMC investment since they bankroll illegal settlements in Palestinian land. This was a significant victory for advocates for Palestine but was not well received by some.”

The work goes on. “Resistance to change can be intense. Support for Palestine is often caricatured as anti-Jewish, although many of the major leaders in the BDS work are Jewish,” said John. “Thirty states now have laws that prohibit boycotts of Israel on their books or being proposed. In 2016, [former New Youk Governor] Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order to ban such boycotts without even bringing it for a vote. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream entrepreneurs decided not to sell their product in the illegally occupied West Bank and were severely attacked, despite the fact that they were not boycotting all of Israel and they are both Jewish.”

UMKR continues to be a voice for nuance and encouragement to action for the sake of reconciliation and justice. LYNC partners express our deepest gratitude to John Wagner for his bridge-building and justice-seeking. As John explores what retirement means for him, there will be those among us, whether progressive or conservative – or somewhere in-between – who take up the mantle to work for Israel-Palestine reconciliation.

To learn more about UMKR’s work, visit www.kairosresponse.org.