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.)

Troubling article

Re “Do we need a ceremony for divorce?” (Feb. 3). I found John Longhurst’s comments troubling on a number of levels.

First, I wonder what these ceremonies communicate about the role of the church. Scripture seems to present a fairly consistent theme here: the Israelite nation and the church of Christ are both called to have a prophetic role. They are to embrace their role as God’s people and to challenge the dominant assumptions and practices of their day, not capitulate to cultural trends or grudgingly “come to terms with reality.”

I wonder how the public acknowledgment of broken marriages fits in with this prophetic role. The church is undoubtedly to be a place where Christ’s compassion and forgiveness are received, and while I appreciate these efforts to stand with hurting people in the midst of painful moments, I wonder if a church ceremony is the best way to accomplish this.

Second, Longhurst’s comments leave me wondering how seriously we take our freedom and responsibility before God as moral agents. Having a ceremony to acknowledge the tragic reality of fractured human relationships in a world stained by sin seems to be nothing less than advocating a form of “moral determinism,” where sin and failure are nothing more than inevitabilities, rather than features of life to be resisted with all our strength.

This seems to present a rather impotent picture of the church, not to mention of moral human beings, created in the image of God to do good works and bring glory to our Maker. The church was not intended to merely reflect reality, but to challenge it and point to a time when it will ultimately be re-oriented and redeemed.

Ryan Dueck,
Vancouver, B.C.

Don’t celebrate sin

Re “Do we need a ceremony for divorce?” (Feb. 3). Divorce ceremonies sound very nice, but there is something sinister to them as well. If someone off the street walks into a ceremony in the church (marriage, death, baptism, dedication), the person will see a group of people who agree to support those who are being celebrated. If they walk into a divorce ceremony, they will think the church is advocating divorce, and they would be right.

If we are going to accept worldly values in our church, what is to stop us from celebrating gay marriages or a night of gambling? If we celebrate one sin, we may as well celebrate them all. Yes, some marriages don’t work out and yes, people need healing from those marriages. But a public ceremony only promotes that we are viewing divorce as a part of life.

We can accept the people and love them, but we should not be so accepting of their sin.

Julia Warkentin,
Campbell River, B.C.

God hates divorce

Re “Do we need a ceremony for divorce?” (Feb. 3). I was truly dismayed and perplexed after reading this article.

What does God’s Word say about divorce? “ ‘I hate divorce!’ says the Lord God of Israel” (Malachi 2:16). My heart is so troubled that we might consider a ceremony for sin, because like it or not, divorce is a sin. Is there forgiveness? Yes, and thank God for that. But a ceremony? In a church? I cannot fathom what God is thinking about this.

As a child of divorce, I know the ripple effect reaches far and wide, and the consequences are for life. Should we as sinners find healing from the pain? Yes, without a doubt. Should we find counsel and care in our church family? Yes, absolutely. That is why we are the family of God. Should we have ceremonies for our sinful ways that give us nice warm fuzzies? Absolutely not.

Tracy Dueck,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Churches must be proactive

Re “Do we need a ceremony for divorce?” (Feb. 3). Divorce is not something to celebrate, it is something to mourn. It’s tragic that born again Christians get divorced as often as the culture at large. It means that we as the church have not done a good enough job in helping members sustain their marriages. Before couples get married, the church needs to help them come up with strategies that will prevent the breakup of the relationship long before conflict arises.

Part of the issue is that usually we don’t know a marriage is faltering until it is too late. Churches need to be more proactive in keeping track of the marriages of their members. Let’s not give in to our culture, rather let’s be an example of how to do a better job in sustaining marriages.

Helmuth Graewe,
Calgary, Alta.

Reacting to Muslim outrage

It’s been a very interesting few weeks, to say the least. Since the printing and reprinting of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, the commentary, anger, and protests against the cartoonist and publishers have been fascinating to observe.

As a Christian pastor, I’ve heard just about every kind of rhetoric about Islam versus Christianity (or vice versa). Of course, we’ve all heard the reactions from western Christian leaders to the 9/11 attacks and subsequent events. It’s not hard to understand some of the rationale behind the Christian rhetoric, and I confess to feelings of pride that, as Christians, we don’t react to injustice by demonstrating with live weapon fire, vandalism, and placards calling for the beheading or extermination of the people (and their friends) who have offended us.

However, Christians have reacted publicly over the years. When movies are made that offend a Christian sense of respect for Jesus, when art galleries feature depictions of Jesus that disgust us, when slanderous “jokes” are told that malign Jesus, there’s good reason for us to be offended and offer public reaction. While I can’t recall Christian demonstrations that called for violence, I do remember protests that expressed vehement anger against, for example, abortionists. When we express hatred for them, aren’t we murderers, in the sense Jesus describes in the gospels?

While we watch the Muslim world reacting, we must back away from characterizations, comparisons, and expressions of competitiveness. The logs in our eyes should prevent us from removing even visibly obvious specks in others’ eyes.

Tim Thiessen,
Lethbridge, Alta.

Thumping our denominational chests

Re “Sound the trumpet” (Editorial, Jan. 13). I appreciate any effort to celebrate our rich Mennonite heritage. The information that “the first written protest against slavery in America, though often credited to the Friends, was actually signed mostly by German Mennonites” was interesting, and indeed noteworthy. However, I find it a bit of a stretch to be thumping our denominational chests for something that happened almost two centuries before there was a Mennonite Brethren church.

By contrast, I appreciated the more inclusive perspective of a recent B.C. Mennonite Historical Society event. The evening was devoted to giving recognition and thanks to our Swiss Mennonite brothers and sisters for their acts of compassion at a critical time in our history. We were reminded that, although the pathways of Swiss and Russian Mennonites rarely cross, without our (Old) Mennonite friends in the early 1920s, many of our parents and grandparents would not have survived.

A golden opportunity was missed to be a little more inclusive – and, perhaps, a little more humble in our perspective.

Henry Klippenstein,
North Vancouver, BC

Wonderful missionaries

My wife and I were moved to read the brief account of the untimely death of Paul Friesen in early December (News, Feb. 3). In the early 1970s we spent some time with the Friesens in Peru and observed how they related to the tribal people who came to the Bible institute to deepen their knowledge of the Bible and faith in Christ.

Even though Peru was wracked by Shining Path guerilla activity much of the time the Friesens worked in the interior, they never moved away. Their involvement continued even after formal retirement.

Some years later, I visited the area again. The growth of the church there owes much to Paul and Maurine and others who have given their lives to the salvation of the people in that region. If there is a heavenly hall of fame, they belong in it. They did wonderful, selfless work!

Harold Jantz,
Winnipeg, Man.

Crisis in family life

Re “Different faces of family” (Feb. 3). Thank you for drawing several issues regarding family life to our attention.

I wish to differ with the editor on our inability to imagine or predict the future state of our families. Social science has been predicting the future state of our families for some years.

For example, I was involved in a research project with Mennonites in the Fraser Valley in the early 1980s. The project found that newly married couples had wide differences in the expectations of the role each spouse would take in the family. Wives in the sample expressed very strong egalitarian expectations while husbands insisted on maintaining traditional expressions of family roles and authority. If issues relating to male authority (male senior pastors) are becoming conflictual within our churches today, they have been areas of conflict within marriages and families years earlier.

Regrettably, church leaders have done little to anticipate this situation or to respond purposefully to strengthen marriage and family life in our churches. Even such parochial activities as marriage preparation are done haphazardly. We have not developed policies designed to strengthen family life, including programs for marriage and family enrichment, parenting, or conflict resolution. This is simply not good enough in our complex and conflict-ridden society. I trust readers and leaders will take seriously the concerns regarding family life in our churches today.

John Friesen,
Vancouver, B.C.

Letters of peace?

There’s been a lot of commentary in the Herald on pacifism. As a member of the MB church I uphold these ideals, too. So after enjoying edifying articles upholding the way of peace, it is disconcerting to encounter letters evidencing a rather different spirit.

The vibe I get from many letters written to the Herald is condemnation, indignation, disparagement, and the will to coerce and dominate. We may espouse a commitment to resist physical war, but I often see a war of words that seems to contradict the love of Jesus.

I don’t think Jesus intends us to trade our guns and bombs in exchange for words to continue the war underground, with those of other faiths or with fellow Christians. The Old Testament wisdom literature and the New Testament are saturated with the idea that to listen and discover is usually better than speaking (or writing), and is an example of loving wisdom. The attentive reader is advised that if they must speak (or write), let it be infrequent, sweet, and persuasive.

But if you really want to influence another’s opinion, do it with actions that incarnate the self-sacrificial love of Jesus, not with gospel-grenades lobbed from afar.

Kerry Varcoe,
South East Asia