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Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
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or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Great concern
Great concern has prompted me to respond to “An open letter to MCC” (June 21).
As an evangelical Christian, for the last 5 years I have been in the employ of a Catholic health care facility in the field of pastoral care, a position I cherish in a hospital I highly value. In this connection, I am taking a three-year Catholic Health Care Leadership course, one session of which subtly introduced feminism as a positive and inclusive aspect of spirituality. Sensing a challenge, I studied and wrote my required paper on the topic – and was horrified at what I found. The readings helped me understand that feminism is not about equality for women, but a very insidious religion looking for a god that is not the God of the Bible. Sandra Schneiders, who appears to be a guru of feminism, wonders “whether the God of Judaeo–Christian revelation is the true God, whether Jesus can be Messiah and Saviour for those who are not male”. (Feminist Spirituality: Christian Alternative or Alternative to Christianity.) If Jesus is not the Messiah for the feminist, then the whole argument of “Christian feminism” falls. Without Christ, it is not Christian.
Joan Conn, in Toward Spiritual Maturity, wrote that persons who see the Bible as pervasively sexist, as feminists generally do, “have concluded that to sustain personal integrity they must separate from Christianity and seek a spiritual path elsewhere”. That would certainly be the ethical thing to do, but sadly that is not what is happening. In the Catholic Church, feminists are attempting to tear Catholic teaching apart by promoting a doctrine that is neither scriptural nor Catholic.
Whether or not we agree with the teachings of others, as Christian believers we must unite against a feminism that is proving itself to be destructive to the churches.
I strongly alert women of the Mennonite Brethren Church who are seeking to be more included in ministry, to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves as they consciously seek the direction of the Holy Spirit about the feminism that seeks to raise its ugly and vicious head within this fellowship of believers.
Dianne Holland,
Port Moody, B.C.
Part of the solution
I appreciate the concerns James Toews raises (June 21) about the future of the MB Conference and whether the next generation of leaders will pick up a dropped baton or receive a passed one. As one who has a passion to encourage younger leaders and a passion for our MB values and vision, the question for me is not so much, “Do we want the MB Conference?” Rather, it is, “Do we want one another?” We can either journey together or we can journey alone. The Conference is us – people and pastors, churches and schools, agencies and boards. Families, teams, communities, associations and conferences (or whatever term you choose) form because people feel it is better to go together than go alone. Toews says he has been content to be a “sideline critic”. Perhaps the well-known quote that “we must become part of the solution instead of being part of the problem” might serve all of us well in these days of needed change in our MB Conference.
Roger Helland,
Kelowna, B.C.
Keep the Conference, drop MCC
An MB ocean without an MB Conference (June 21)? Having drifted a bit from the MB world, but keeping in touch online, I say my preference would be to keep it, even if as a scaled down association. We need a body to debate these times from an anabaptist view.
Re the “MCC letter” by Ron Redekop (June 21): I have had similar views for some time, and would express them in even stronger language. MCC has long overstepped its boundaries and strayed from the original intent. Churches should cut funding to MCC unless there are big changes.
Horst W. Unger,
Victoria, B.C.
Should be involved in justice issues
I read with dismay that Ron Redekop (June 21) would like MCC – and I presume all Christians – not to be political. Just tell that to the Good Samaritan, to Hosea or to the countless others we hold as models for our faith.
This desire to have MCC be non-political is a red herring, indeed, ironic, coming just before major church conferences and invoking the office of pastor and elders. That’s how politicians operate, isn’t it?
I am as disdainful of party politics as any of the signatories. But when injustices occur around us, God does not say: “Just sit this one out.” MCCers are right to be involved in justice issues: They serve in the midst of pain and suffering, not at the sidelines. I find their reports impartial and perceptive, just the “minority reports” one would expect from a Christian.
Bill Redekop,
North Vancouver, B.C.
Not open
I found the title “An Open Letter to MCC” (June 21) confusing.
The title should have been “A public reprimand to MCC from a community church that does not want to get enmeshed in complicated issues.”
Inflammatory language like “not acceptable”, “inclusion of such twisted biblical perspectives in its literature”, “The minute one gets embroiled in the politics of the situation, he sets himself up to be used as a political pawn” and “It is too complicated for us to get enmeshed in” did not set up a chance for dialogue. Rather, Ron Redekop and the elders of Northside Community Church wanted MCC to follow in step to their conservative thinking.
The issues that are raised in the letter are important and need to be discussed. I appreciate that MCC is trying to be faithful to its mandate and continuing to stretch our thinking.
I was especially confused with the Northside leadership’s response to the Referendum. As a community church wanting to be representative of its community in Mission, which has a large First Nations population, I wonder if, when their First Nations brothers and sisters asked them to stand in solidarity with them against the Treaty Making Referendum, the Church leadership responded, “We are sorry. This issue is too complicated to get enmeshed in.”
I hope that that the editorial staff of the Herald does not take the advice of the Northside leadership to not get enmeshed in complicated issues, and will invite an open letter from MCC and give it the prominence of a page 4 placement.
Al McKay,
Burnaby, B.C.
Care in using statistics
A wise friend told me not to believe any statistic that I didn’t invent on my own. The truth of his statement appears to be proven by the Herald’s inclusion of Jason Berry’s “estimate” of the pervasive nature of homosexuality within the Roman Catholic Church (People and Events, July 12). The estimate that 20–80% of Catholic priests have homosexual tendencies is not offering us insight. Perhaps we should offer similar estimates of our own. Maybe 10–90% of evangelical pastors are addicted to pornography.
Maybe 0–100% of MBs carry unhealthy stereotypes of Catholics and are guilty of being judgmental. I encourage the Herald to be more selective regarding what is and is not worth printing. Perhaps we are doing nothing more than hearing what we want to hear and using “statistics” to prove our points.
Gil Dueck,
Coaldale, Alta.
Last modified September 5, 2002.
© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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