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 1310 Taylor Ave. Winnipeg, Man.  R3M 3Z6 or send via e-mail. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.)

Changes to Herald

I was sorry to learn last year that certain editorial changes and some limitations had been imposed on the Herald by the Conference. I just hope general readership doesn’t drop with any loss of anecdotal, devotional material. Grassroots need nourishment. Hopefully the Herald won’t become merely a listing of reports.

Ruby Cleroux,
Lethbridge, Alta.

Christians must speak out

Why are Christians not more outspoken against the war in Iraq? Is it because we are afraid we may offend our neighbours, or it would hurt us economically, or we may be accused of siding with the “enemy”? Or is that we have come to think that this war is okay or even necessary?

We should be reminded by history that killing the “enemy” does not bring closure to conflict. The scars of war have a way of lingering and causing new conflicts. We surely cannot be hoping that bringing the gospel, the “Good News”, to Muslims in the world will be made easier through this war, especially as it is perceived that Christian nations are the aggressors. There are also Christians in Iraq who are being deeply affected by these events. How must they feel to be under attack? Think how much good could have been done in that country, and others, with the money that is now being used to destroy. That could have been the best way to win the hearts and minds of those people in the first place.

What has happened to Jesus’ teaching that we must love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us (Matthew 5:44)? We live in the days of the new covenant, where revenge and retaliation are to be replaced with love, generosity and forgiveness.

H. Friesen,,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Reconsider Encounter

I just finished reading the Feb 28 issue. As always, I found it encouraging and inspirational. I was, however, sorry to read that the Encounter evangelism issues have been suspended due to financial cutbacks. I hope this is not sending a message of a lack of evangelism priority in our Conference. I hope the Board will find ways to continue this important evangelism paper. It is really the only evangelism tool we produce as a Conference. We need it. Please reconsider.

James Nikkel,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Scripture taken out of context

Re: Peter Thurley’s letter (Mar. 21). First, to make a case for dance in church worship on the basis of David having danced before the Lord is a weak application of Scripture. Using that premise, one must also be ready to incorporate the whole of Old Testament worship such as the offering of sacrifices.

Second, Romans 12:1 is used out of context in connection with the use of the body in worship. Presenting our bodies as “living sacrifices” means living and working for God, being willing, if need be, to “wear ourselves out” in the process. It has nothing to do with performance in a formal worship service.

Third, one verse further in Romans 12, Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world.” In much of our church worship it seems that we have fully conformed to the world’s style of entertainment. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:20 advises, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” He was referring specifically to the disorders of “prophesying and the speaking in tongues”, but the principle is there. Much of modern worship is far from decent and orderly. Some of the physical motions of worship teams are quite disorderly, give occasion for the unnecessary arousal of passions that are less than spiritual and create distractions. While there is much display of enthusiasm in the contemporary worship service, I think the Lord would be much more honoured if all of us would display even half of that enthusiasm in living committed everyday lives for Him.

Art Isaac,
Abbotsford, B.C.

What’s included?

The March 21 Herald says that Mennonite Central Committee sent over a million dollars worth of relief kits to Jordan for Iraq. The same Herald quotes a publication in Iran that evangelists Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham should be killed. The same articles states that MCC is sending 28,000 school kits to Iraq. Does MCC include gospel literature with the blankets and school kits? If not, why not?

Jake Peters,
Winnipeg, Man.

Stopping the war with the pen

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Even with all the problems we have on this planet, I hope that the writings below can be of some help.

• “There was never a good war, or a bad peace.” Benjamin Franklin
• “War is the blackest villainy of which human nature is capable.” Erasmus
• “If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another.” Duke of Wellington
• “I had finally become anti any kind of war for whatever reason.” Giles, World War II British cartoonist
• “I emptied the whole clip into him; then I cried.” Vietnam vet
• “If you want to take revenge on somebody, you better dig two graves.” Chinese proverb
• “War is not heroics nor is it pride / It’s a shame to lose all those precious lives. . . . / Where’s the glory? Never again!” War Amps of Canada theme song
• “As far as I am concerned, war itself is immoral.” Omar Bradley, US general”
• “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
• “There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.” General Grant
• “The more I study the history of the world, the more I am convinced of the inability of brute force to create anything durable.” Napoleon, on St. Helena
• “More than guided missiles, all the world needs guided men.” Poet Helen Steiner Rice
• “Old soldiers never die, but ninety-nine soldiers in a hundred are pitiably young, and they in their millions, without beginning to guess why it is that life asks that of them.” John Keegen, et. al., in Soldiers
• “Does the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill’ mean nothing to us? Are we to interpret it as meaning, ‘Thou shalt not kill except on the grand scale,’ or ‘Thou shalt not kill except when the national leaders say to do so?’ Linus Pauling
• “War is not only the denial of Christianity, but of all the most sacred things of life.” Major-General John O’Ryan
• “The churches have sacrificed the teaching of Jesus to exigencies of the state.” W.E. Orchard
• “War is as contrary to the spirit of Christianity as murder.” Adam Clark
• “God is forgotten in war; every principle of Christianity is trampled upon.” Sidney Smith
• “Love, not deadly force, is the Christian’s weapon.” John D. Roth
• “We Christians teach against the great vices of the world but sad to say, we almost overlook the greatest of vices, war.” Theodore Epp
• “I call to everyone, Christians and the followers of other religions, to work together to build a world without violence, a world that loves life and grows in justice and solidarity.” Pope John Paul II
• “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul
• “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus
• “Thou shalt not kill.” God

Stan Penner,
Landmark, Man.