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.)

All equal in the sight of God

I rejoiced when the Board of Faith and Life announced that women should have exactly the same opportunities as men when it comes to ministry in the church, including senior pastoral roles.

Re “Better hermeneutic needed” (Letters, Sept. 23), I make the following comments: To suggest that those who have been participants in preparing the resolution, biblically trained and spiritual leaders, have not carefully considered the so-called demands regarding restrictions on Christian sisters is embarrassing. To indicate that the recommendations are superficial indicates clearly that the writer has not taken the time to read and understand the rationale behind the resolution. To suggest that the resolution be rejected goes against everything the Scripture says about all being equal in the sight of God. We dare not reject this resolution.

David Wiebe,
St. Catharines, Ont.

Poor use of Scripture

Re “A different view of leadership” by David Wiebe (July 22). I wish to respond to a few statements made and the Scriptures used. 1) What does salvation and baptism have to do with women in leadership? 2) Ephesians 4:11–13 and 1 Corinthians 12 do not at all address women in leadership. 3) Romans 16:7 (not 9) states that Junias was a kinsman, not probably a woman. 4) Finally, Wiebe says the restriction in 1 Timothy applied only to Ephesus and Corinth. He could, as well, suggest that nothing written by Paul applies to our culture today and we can do our own thing outside of Scripture.

Henry Klassen,
Simcoe, Ont.

Verses out of context

Re Board of Faith and Life resolution on women in ministry leadership (July 22).

I am deeply saddened that the board, after consultation and study of the Word of God, would come to such a resolution. What is troubling to me is that they used Scripture verses that do not speak of leadership in the church and yet use them to justify their decision. Any diligent Bible student knows that you cannot take verses out of context and still be true to the whole counsel of God.

I am disappointed that the Board totally ignored the Scripture passages that clearly teach who should lead the church, such as 1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:5–6, 2 Timothy 2:1–2, 1 Corinthians 11:3, and Ephesians 5:22–23. We do not find any command in Scripture to ordain a woman to the pastorate or to be the leader of a church. I am deeply saddened that the board chose to interpret 1 Corinthians 14:26–35 and 1 Timothy 2:1–15 as not being restrictive.

Bernhard Baier,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Women should play hidden role

A woman should, as a rule, play the hidden role. It is for her protection. I do not believe a woman should be put in the leadership role as senior pastor in our churches, “for her to wear the pants,” to use an old-fashioned phrase.

Men and women are not equal. We’re different. We have two very different functions in life, praise the Lord! To quote W. Phillip Keller from his book Wonder O’ the Wind, “It is a fortunate person whose life and work is safeguarded by the outpouring of some unseen, unsung soul behind the scenes.” However, this does not mean that a man should never play the hidden role and support a gifted woman on the front lines.

Hildegard Thiessen,
Abbotsford, B.C.

A laugh at ourselves

Our family loved the article by Helen Rose Pauls (July 22), “A Wee Proposal from a Scottish Wanna Be.” I sent the Herald to my sister-in-law who is of Scottish–Irish descent. She thought the article was hilarious. I believe we sincere, genuine Christians can have an innocent laugh occasionally at our own stereotype. We enjoyed the article tremendously.

Lori Dyck,
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

As rocks in the tide

Re What does it mean to be Mennonite Brethren? (“Forum,” May 20).

What does it mean – today – to be an MB Christ follower? As the shadows of decadence and spiritual darkness creep over Canada’s cultural landscape, it may be that MBs have overlooked part of the gospel as well as part of who they are.

Although we as Mennonite Brethren have at our foundation those who suffered at the hands of tyrannical governments and who came to Canada at great personal sacrifice, it seems we have hesitated to defend the peace and religious freedom these forefathers found here.

As parliament approved same-sex marriage earlier this summer, some MBs lamented, “How did we get here?” Perhaps we got here because we haven’t been watchful and didn’t act until it was too late. Where are our watchers on the walls?

Others hid behind the past, saying, “We are the quiet in the land.” We are? On what biblical basis? Did we bring the muzzle of Catherine the Great with us? When we consider the sacrifices our forebears made in their quest for freedom, it would seem Mennonite voices would be heard on the frontlines of public policy.

Perhaps we have also failed to intercede for our political leaders. How often do we pray corporately for those in authority over us?

Canada’s leaders are progressively rejecting godliness and holiness. Legalization of prostitution and euthanasia are now on the horizon.We must stand as rocks in the tide, but as this country hastens its deep descent into darkness and decay, the steadfast influence of believers will not be welcome.

May we strive to understand not only what it means to be Mennonite Brethren, but also what it means to be sacrificial and passionate disciples for such a time as this.

M.R. Heinrichs,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Seminary weakens biblical discipling

Celebrating 50 years of seminary training for MB church leaders (Sept. 2) highlights a curious evolution for an Anabaptist movement that only began to have permanent, professionalized leaders about mid last century. I think we looked at other denominations around us and coveted their leadership style, just as the Israelites did when they desired a king.

After living 15 years in Latin and indigenous America, I am convinced that the professionalization of church leadership, of which seminary training has become an integral part, weakens biblical discipling of local church leaders.

I have always had the impression that integral to our beliefs about the church is the priesthood of all believers. I in no way desire for our church leaders to be ignorant. I believe that discipling as Jesus did would involve at least as much intellectual activity (though perhaps not crammed into three years) welded to real leadership apprenticing in the very context of our local church, preparing to be a life-long learner. Local leadership would be inherently plural, involving all the gifts of all the believers, reproducing freely and organically.

Robert Thiessen,
Oaxaca, Mexico

There’s walking and then there’s walking

Re “An ode to walking” (July 22).

If it is true that modern transport “annihilates space” and that walking takes the world on its own terms, takes people seriously, contributes to life and moves one at human speed, and that, implicitly and lyrically, walking is somehow more Christian than motorized movement, then meet a truly exceptional Christian.

Onias, age 13, lives somewhere in southern Zimbabwe. One day, after I had delivered coffins to the village of Makwe, I spotted the wiry youngster walking in the same direction as I. His uniform told me he was on his way home from school. The conversation we had was akin to the following:

“Do you walk to school everyday?”

“Yes.”

“Both ways?”

“Yes.”

“How far?”

He shrugged.

“When do you leave in the morning?”

“Four o’clock.”

“When do you get up?”

“Three-thirty.”

“Every day?!”

“Yes.”

“How long does it take you?”

“Three hours.”

“For how many years have you been walking to Makwe?”

“Since primary school.”

We had travelled about ten kilometres.

“Did you start school when you were six?”

“I started school when I was eight.”

“How old are you now?”

“13.”

I felt somewhat overwhelmed in the presence of such a remarkable human being, and a teenager at that. His zeal for knowledge was astonishing and his English was exceptional. His favourite subjects were math and science.

There was a singular keenness about him, and I wondered how such a youngster could grow into such as he, in what seemed to me to be a kind of deprived and arid village environment here in the African bush. I made the assumption that his family probably had electricity, and that both his mother and father were professional people, providing him with stimulating material to nurture his curiosity.

When he finally indicated his home, we stopped adjacent two simple round thatched homes, one for cooking and eating, the other for sleeping. No electricity. We had travelled 14 kilometres from Makwe. This was the distance walked twice a day, five days a week for the last five years of this African boy’s life.

In his ode to walking, Layton quotes C.S. Lewis: “I number it among my blessings that my father had no car. . . .” I wonder if Onias has ever had kindred thoughts. I rather doubt it; he was unusually expressive in his thanks upon alighting from my vehicle and disappearing into the approaching dusk of home.

Henry Rempel,
Zimbabwe