From dogmatism to mindless tolerance

On a rainy evening at Abbotsford’s Bakerview MB church last fall, more than 100 people gathered to hear two elder statesmen from Canada’s largest Mennonite groups reflect on the faith communities that nurtured them and changes they’ve seen in recent decades. The B.C. Mennonite Historical Society arranged the event.

John Neufeld is a former Winnipeg pastor and president of Canadian Mennonite Bible College. David Ewert is a well-known New Testament scholar who taught at Mennonite Brethren Bible College. Both men reflected on changes in their denominations and personal lives. “Life is not static but demanding,” Neufeld said. “[It’s] a continuous process of learning, changing, and hopefully maturing.”

Relying largely on official MB documents, David Ewert focused on significant changes in MB theology and ethics over the past half century. Scripture is unchanging, he said, but our understanding of Scripture changes. Major issues for Mennonite Brethren have included eternal security, teachings on the end times and dispensationalism, the charismatic movement and spiritual elitism, creation and science, baptism, homosexuality, the role of women in the church, scriptural inerrancy, abortion, divorce and remarriage, and spiritual warfare.

Rather stormy

David Ewert

These matters were referred to the Board of Faith and Life, and eventually resulted in recommendations to MB national conventions. “We have come through a rather stormy half century,” Ewert said.

On science and creation, Ewert said, “It was recognized that the Bible is not a textbook on biology, geology, or astronomy, but is a history of salvation . . . [and] that the age of this earth cannot be established on the basis of the genealogies of Genesis.”

Regarding baptism, Ewert noted that MBs moved from a rigid adherence to baptism by immersion to the acceptance as full members of those baptized by other means. More recently the issue of baptism and church membership has become controversial, with a recommendation that they remain linked.

In discussing the role of women in the church, Ewert noted an important principle: “When the Scriptures point in two different directions it is not proper to choose one or the other emphasis alone; both have to be taken into account.” Thus the biblical rationale for changing the role of women was based in part on the view that the restrictive passages of the NT were culturally determined. It was felt, as well, that the freedom the gospel offered pointed to a time when it would be acceptable for women to assume leadership positions.

On the issue of inerrancy, Ewert stressed we “should not get hung up on definitions of interpretation,” but be challenged to live under the authority of God’s Word.

Responding to Ewert’s presentation, Bruce Guenther of ACTS seminary, Langley, B.C., noted that positions on some of the issues identified by Ewert have changed. “If Scripture hasn’t changed, what has changed?” he asked. He further wondered why MBs have been absent from the development of an Anabaptist theology.

“We focus on personal ethics, not social ethics,” Guenther said. “Why can’t MBs name the idolatries, the principalities, and powers?”

Social cohesion

John Neufeld

John Neufeld drew on his experiences of growing up in a relatively closed community in the Fraser Valley, where conformity and tradition were valued, and where home, school, and community together helped internalize values. Church leaders enforced beliefs for the sake of social cohesion. Biblical admonishment to “not be conformed the world” and to be “in the world but not of it” were common. (Neufeld speculated that most of us have not heard a sermon on non-conformity in 10 years.)

Neufeld recalled the contentious transition from German to English and the pressure to be able to identify a specific personal conversion time. He observed that biblical illiteracy is increasing.

“Our culture has left its mark on each of us, probably more than we realize,” Neufeld said. “We have moved from certainty to ambiguity, from dogmatism to mindless tolerance, from clarity about nonconformity to ambivalence, from separation from the world to unthinking and unchallenged assimilation.”

Ethical issues are no longer black and white. “People were utterly sincere, but in retrospect they were sincerely wrong on a number of counts,” he said, wryly adding that 60 years from now people might say the same thing about him.

In the future, suggested Neufeld, our thinking about morality and ethics might need to be more oriented to Jesus’ teaching than to our traditions. He called on pastors and teachers to “share what we know and believe about the Bible as a whole with congregations.”

In responding to Neufeld, Gareth Brandt of Columbia Bible College noted the continuing plague of individualism and also said churches are not speaking out enough about our culture of violence. The recent actions of the Amish showed the most effective witness, he said: the witness of love.

The B.C. Mennonite Historical Society is to be commended for prophetic courage in planning this event. Church history is important not for nostalgic yearnings for the past but to teach us about the present. Unfortunately, current B.C. Mennonite pastors were virtually absent at this event.

—Henry Neufeld