For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 33,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2008-08-19 issue:

MVS heroes fight male-pattern violence

Three men ‘take a stand against violence’ on the streets of Elkhart, Ind.

by Mayeken Kehr

Print Article

It took a week of soaking costumes in a bathtub to wash the sweat out, but for three superheroes, it was worth it.

















Nicholas Cloutier (right) talks to Mark McCain about an upcoming event to help end male violence against women. Photo by Katie Rogers.

The superhero personas successfully brought attention to the need for men to become active in stopping violence against women.

Nicholas Cloutier, CJ Irelan and Jason Shenk, all residents of the Elkhart (Ind.) Mennonite Voluntary Service house, donned Superman, Spider-Man and Batman costumes, respectively, for two hours in nearly 90-degree weather.

Cloutier, of Universalist Unitarian Church, Waterville, Maine, organized the event, “Be a real-life hero: Take a stand against violence,” through Individuals & Families in Transition (formerly Family Services of Elkhart County), where he serves. The event is part of iFiT’s larger campaign, Men Encouraging Nonviolence (MEN).

On June 13, at Elkhart’s Civic Plaza, the MEN superheroes organized cooperative children’s games. Adults received information and talked about gender-based domestic violence prevention.

“One by one, person by person, [our efforts] are making a difference,” says Cloutier.

Shenk, Eighth Street Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind., says, “Often people talk about domestic violence in the passive voice. We say ‘300 women have survived domestic violence’ instead of ‘300 men committed domestic violence.’ There are so many men involved in acts of violence. We need to promote a nonviolent and healthy masculinity.”

MEN intends to collaborate and remain in conversation with preexisting women’s organizations to prevent domestic violence.

“To be a part of the feminist movement is good, but to take it over would be a travesty,” says Cloutier.

Although one-time events don’t change a lot of things, explains Shenk, “Be a real-life hero” brought attention to MEN and allowed participants to establish relationships necessary to creating nonviolent solutions.

“Nonviolence isn’t just about not having a gun or not going to war,” says Shenk. “It is an active respect or reverence that I seek to cultivate in all my relationships.”

MVS workers at Jubilee House attempt to live an ethic of nonviolence. They hold each other accountable to avoid language that is infiltrated by violence, Cloutier says.

According to Irelan, that violence could be something as simple as changing “mankind” to “humankind.”

Cloutier says that living in the MVS house has “increased my spectrum of what service can be. It doesn’t have to be my work at iFiT with MEN. It can be my interactions with children or going door-to-door to get to know my neighbors and have a conversation with them—that can be service too.”—Mayeken Kehr of Mennonite Mission Network

Related Resources

Discussion Guides:

Current Stories

Articles

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

Columns

Readers Say

Subscribe