PHILADELPHIA -- Among those frantically campaigning to stop the execution of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal is a little known Christian sect of German immigrant farmers. Called the Bruderhof Hutterian Brethren, its 2200 members live and dress much like 16th Century German peasants, preach radical pacifism and hold all property in common.
The Brethren, which maintains seven communities in New York and Pennsylvania, lack the visibility of Abu-Jamal's better known defenders -- the NAACP, the Republic of New Africa, Hollywood celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, E.L. Doctorow, Ed Asner. But the group has established itself as Abu-Jamal's major spiritual support center. And its personal identification with the fate of the black urban radical convicted of murdering a police officer suggests how religious convictions are increasingly blurring the left-right faultlines of America's political landscape.
Founded in Germany in the late 1920's and early 30's, the Bruderhofs -- like the better known Amish -- are a spinoff of the non-violent 16th century German Anabaptist peasant movement whose members swore loyalty to God over the state. Unlike the Amish, they have a long tradition of political involvement. Alarmed in the late 1920's by the rise of the Nazis, the Bruderhofers' resistance ultimately led to their expulsion, at gunpoint, by the new Nazi state. Today, Brethren members worry that a similar drift towards repression is occurring in America. They view Abu-Jamal as an innocent man persecuted for his political beliefs. And they see his impending death as an ominous sign of the two conditions that paved the way to the Nazis' rise to power -- public apathy and a corrupt criminal justice system.
The Bruderhofers first learned of Abu-Jamal when, galvanized by the pro-death penalty gubernatorial races in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, members joined forces with the NAACP in a May 1994 anti-death penalty march outside Sing Sing prison. There NAACP local chapter head Walter Brooks filled Bruderhof leader Christoph Arnold in on the details of Abu-Jamal's life, his arrest and conviction for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and his decade-long struggle to publicize his innocence and the inequities of the criminal justice system.
Shortly after, virtually every member of the group -- from a four-year-old boy to a 90-year-old woman -- wrote to Pennsylvania governor Thomas Ridge urging a stay of Abu-Jamal's execution and a new trial. The group sent Abu-Jamal copies of each letter. Grateful, he wrote back saying he was probably "the only Death Row prisoner who could complain of getting too much mail," and thanking the entire community "for this explosion of love."
The exchange marked the beginning of a personal relationship between the black radical and the German Anabaptists, as well as the publication of Abu-Jamal's prolific writings through the Bruderhof magazine, "The Plough." When Christoph Arnold invited Abu-Jamal to critique his book on marriage, the prisoner accepted, expressing amazement that he as a non-Christian would have such an opportunity. Recently, Abu-Jamal invited one of the Brethren to serve as his spiritual advisor.
In recent months the Bruderhofers have co-sponsored several Philadelphia rallies on Abu-Jamal's behalf. At the rallies Bruderhof children read excerpts from his new book, "Live From Death Row" which National Public Radio originally planned to air but subsequently canceled under pressure from police unions.
"Mumia has in a sense become one of us," says Arnold. "Even though he is not a believing Christian, his writings have brought the Gospel of Christ alive to us in a new way. He reflects the same faith in the possibility of redemption despite terrible sufferings."
"For some reason, we Bruderhof mean an awful lot to" Jamal supporters, says another Bruderhof elder. At one rally, the elder recalls, a coalition organizer was asked by police who the group's internal security force was. The organizer pointed to the "brothers in blue" -- a reference to the Bruderhof men's distinctive use of blue work shirts. "Imagine that! Us as security! We who are nonviolent!" the elder exclaimed. In fact, coalition members credit the Bruderhof presence -- including Bruderhof children -- with restraining police from moving in on the Philadelphia demonstrators as they have in other cities.
"These are people who stand up for their religious beliefs," says Pam Africa, a member of the Philadelphia black radical organization known as MOVE. "Once they heard about the case, and found out about the truth, they didn't sit around and philosophize about it. They put their religion into practice."
In a letter supporting a motion for a stay of execution, 60-year-old Bruderhofer Richard Thomson states that, if the stay is rejected, "I want to offer my own life in place of Mumia's, and accept the lethal injection... so that he may live and our law be satisfied."
COMMENTS? Email Rudy
