Is Utopia Possible?

Not many books on my “To Read” list are 500 years old, but Utopia was on that list until I read it recently. “Utopia” was a term coined by the author, Thomas More, for his book with that title published (in Latin) in 1516.

Introducing More

Many of you probably remember that More was a staunch Catholic who opposed King Henry VIII breaking away from Rome and declaring himself the head of the Church in England. Accordingly, in 1535 More (b. 1478) was convicted of treason and beheaded.

A few of you also may remember that “A Man for All Seasons” was the movie which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1966. That is a fine film about Thomas More, a fine man.

During the seventeen semesters I taught one of the required theology classes at Rockhurst University, a Jesuit school in Kansas City, Thomas More was always a part of my lecture about the beginnings of the Church of England. I would always tell my students how I admire More because he was a man of great integrity.

It is hard to know what to make of his Utopia, though

More’s Utopia

“Utopia,” from the Greek words meaning no place (ou topos), is said to be a pun on the Greek words meaning good place (eu topos). The first definition of utopia in the online Miriam-Webster dictionary is “an imaginary and indefinitely remote place.” But when capitalized, it means “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions.”

The island of Utopia in More’s rather complex book was inhabited by people who lived quite differently than people in England—or in other parts of the world, for that matter. It was a socialistic society where people lived with little interest in gold (and all that that represents) and with a high level of equality—and satisfaction. 

Attempts to create Utopia

Since the time of More’s intriguing novel, there have been several actual attempts to create a utopian community. One such example was New Harmony, which I mentioned in my Aug. 20 blog article. Started by one idealistic group in 1814, the whole town was sold to Robert Owen, a wealthy Welshman.

The Wikipedia article about Owen (1771–1858) says, “In 1824, Owen travelled to America to invest the bulk of his fortune in an experimental 1,000-member colony on the banks of Indiana’s Wabash River. . . . New Harmony was intended to be a Utopian society.”

But guess what? It didn’t work. In spite of all the grand plans and lofty ideals, they were unable to create a utopian society—and so has been the case of similar experiments throughout the last 500 years.

Pride, greed, sloth, and other inherent human weaknesses (sins) seem to have doomed most (all?) attempts to create Utopia.

The best examples I know of utopian societies that have existed for any length of time are those which did not seek to form Utopia but rather simply to follow the example of Christians in the Book of Acts.

For example, the Bruderhof, the Hutterites, and to some extent the Amish all seem to have been successful, at least to some degree, in creating utopian communities. Those groups all have roots in the Swiss Anabaptist movement that began in 1525, just a few years after More wrote Utopia—and a movement he would have opposed.

Does More’s Utopia, or especially the groups I just mentioned, have anything to teach us today? Most likely—if we just had the will to put the needs of all ahead of the privileges of the few.

In Memory of the Hutterite Martyrs of 1918

As was commemorated earlier this month, World War I, which began 100 years ago this past summer, officially ended on November 11, 1918. But it didn’t come to an end then for four Hutterite men from South Dakota.

David, Michael, and Joseph Hofer, three brothers, and Jacob Wipf, Joseph’s brother-in-law, were inducted into the U.S. Army in May 1918 and sent to Washington State.

Upon reaching Camp Lewis there, the four Hutterites, who in allegiance to the Anabaptist tradition were staunch pacifists, refused to don military uniforms or follow other orders.

Consequently, they were court-martialed, tried and convicted, and then in June sent to solitary confinement in the dungeon of Alcatraz.

Three days after the war ended in November, the four men were sent by train to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. There on Nov. 29 Joseph Hofer died at the age of 24, and on Dec. 2 his 25-year-old brother Michael also died.

The cause of death for the two brothers was listed as pneumonia. It may have actually been the “Spanish flu,” which was so deadly in 1918-19.

But malnutrition and their weakened physical condition due to the torturous treatment they received at Alcatraz were, doubtlessly, the main reason for their untimely deaths.

David Hofer, the oldest brother, was released from prison the next day, but Jacob Wipf was held until April 13, 1919. From his hospital bed in Dec. 1918, Jacob shared the story of the shameful treatment the four Hutterites received; that disconcerting story can be read here.

The complete, sad narrative of the Hutterite martyrs is engagingly told by Duane C. S. Stoltzfus in his book “Pacifists in Chains: The Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War” (2013). (Stoltzfus, b. 1959, is a professor of communication at Goshen College, a Mennonite institution in Indiana.)

Part of the indignity of the situation is depicted by Stoltzfus on pages 173-4 of his book. After Joseph Hofer died, the guards said that family members could not see him. But Maria, Joseph’s wife persisted, and was finally granted permission to see her husband’s body. Stoltzfus writes,

With tears in her eyes, she approached the coffin, which was set on two chairs. When the lid was opened, she found Joseph in death dressed in a military uniform that he had steadfastly refused to wear in life.

As I wrote in my 5/30/12 blog article, in May 2012 June and I visited some Hutterites in South Dakota. Norman Hofer, a relative of the Hofer brothers mentioned above (but not a Hutterite), was our most gracious host/guide.

(On page xvii of his book, author Stoltzfus thanks Norman Hofer for sending him materials and for taking him on a tour of several Hutterite colonies.)

Norman told us the touching story of the Hutterite men of South Dakota whose pacifism cost them their lives. He also took us to the cemetery where we saw the grave markers pictured here.

In his opening chapter, Stoltzfus points out that for the Hutterites “there could be no just war.” They took Jesus’s words in Matthew 5 literally, so they “were obligated by their faith to refuse” military service (p. 8).

I am most grateful for the faithful witness of people such as the four Hutterites in 1918, two of whom became martyrs because of the seriousness and fortitude with which they followed the words of Jesus.

Would that all of us Christian believers were as dedicated to the one we call Lord!

Greetings from the Dakotas!

Last Friday, June and I left our home in Liberty, MO, and set out on a car trip to the Dakotas. This trip is in celebration of our 55^th wedding anniversary, which was last Saturday. We decided to take the trip to the Dakotas, for they were the only two of the fifty States I had never visited.

We spent Friday night in a motel in Yankton, SD, which was the original capital of the Dakota Territory. Yankton is sometimes called “River City,” due to its proximity to the Missouri River and the importance that the river played in the city’s settlement in 1859 and subsequent development. As part of the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark visited the area long before that, in 1804.

We spent part of Saturday visiting some Hutterite colonies near Freeman, SD. Norman and Darlene Hofer, new friends who live on a farm near Freeman, helped us learn about the Hutterites, a communal branch of Anabaptist Christians who trace their history back to the 1520s. They have continued faithful to the teachings of Jacob Hutter (born c.1500), who was executed for his beliefs in 1536. That was in Tyrol, now in northern Italy.

From the beginning until the present, with a few exceptions, the Hutterites have practiced living completely in community (with a common “purse” for each colony) and have been strict pacifists. They also have the reputation of being excellent farmers, although now many engage in various manufacturing projects in their various colonies, which now number more than 450 in the U.S. and Canada.

On Sunday we drove through the spectacular Badlands on the way to Rapid City where we spent the night in the historic Alex Johnson Hotel, built in 1928. Designed partly as a tribute to the Sioux Indian Nation, the hotel has played host to numerous dignitaries, celebrities, and Presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.

Next was a visit to nearby Mount Rushmore, which is the main reason we drove to southwestern South Dakota. As you probably know, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot sculptures of the heads of four U.S. Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The sculpting on Rushmore began in October 1927, and it was not finished until the end of October 1941.

We also visited Crazy Horse Memorial, the huge mountain carving that has been under construction since 1948 and is not nearly finished. Crazy Horse (born c.1840) was the famous Native American leader of the Lakota people. He was killed at the close of the Great Sioux War (1876-77). The head of Crazy Horse in his monument is nearly 50% larger than the heads of the Presidents on Mt. Rushmore.

Yesterday we drove up into North Dakota, and now, I am happy to say, I have visited all fifty states. We enjoyed visiting the Capitol, which is quite different from most capitols.

This has been a very enjoyable trip with very impressive sights. But for me the highlight has been visiting Mike and Kathy Wipf and other Hutterites in the Oak Lane colony. Their successful persistence in maintaining a unique Christian tradition and lifestyle is impressive, indeed. Their way of life is also a challenge to the compromised lifestyle of most of us Christians in the modern world.