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.)

Issues more complex

Re “Medicine and faith” (August). Thank you for publishing several articles that explore the intersection of medicine and faith. I’m a neurologist, and as I often struggle with the ethics of my profession, I read this issue with keen interest. I agree with Mr. Cooper entirely when he states that Christ is the source of all healing and that medical intervention is not always the answer.

However, I believe ethical decision-making is more complex than his recounting of the story of Twin A and B. Lewis Smedes, in his book Mere Morality argues that the command “Thou shalt not kill” does not require us only to abstain from murder. “We have not read its real demands unless we hear in it God’s will for us to do all we can to protect our neighbor’s human life and help it flourish.”

Is then an act of omission (refusing to terminate the life of Twin B, thus substantially diminishing Twin A’s chance of survival) morally different than an act of commission (terminating Twin B’s life, which dramatically increases the viability of Twin A)? Mr. Cooper writes that by advising parents to terminate the life of Twin B medical staff “give advice from a moral perspective very different from that of a Christian.”

I don’t know what the right answer is, but I become concerned when the complexities of medical ethics are reduced to a simple answer. Is it entirely clear how a Christian must act? My heart goes out to any parent who must make decisions such as these.

Kerri Schellenberg,
Edmonton, Alta.

Not just warm fuzzies

Re “Get rid of marks” (Letters, August). Mr. Morris’ anti-intellectual logic confuses the task of the educator with the task of the parent. Getting an education is not properly viewed as an exercise in building self-esteem. Whereas Mr. Morris would have us believe that getting an education should be about “wonder and meaning-making,” I would contend that it’s about building a knowledge base. Certainly marks do matter, because applying yourself to a learning task (i.e. developing the capacity for critical thought) is critical.

Any pedagogy that emphasizes feeling warm and fuzzy over and above merit is ultimately destructive because the meta-message it communicates is that we’re only responsible to ourselves. This isn’t a kingdom value and it’s not how the world works either.

Brad Wilton,
Waterloo, Ont.

Consider Jesus

Re “By slow ascent” (Intersection, July). My wife and I generally read the MB Herald with great interest and find, particularly, that we are challenged and inspired by the writings of James Toews. In his July article, Toews writes, “For God’s people, a far more formidable peak [than Everest] looms before us. It’s the inner battle of the soul, the conquest of the ‘natural man’ by the ‘mind of the Spirit.’ ” There’s one minor addition I think would make the piece even more meaningful, and that is: “Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” I’ve found at low points in life that the meditative consideration of Jesus most definitely changes things.

Walfried Klassen,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Both sides enemies

Re “Talking to the enemy” (Editorial, July). Laura Kalmar notes that Mennonite Central Committe has come under scrutiny for initiating dialogue with the president of Iran and the Khomeine Education and Research Institute. It’s not the first time MCC has been criticized for dialoguing with so-called enemies in the course of its activities. But there’s a saying that “if you have enemies, you are one.” It needs to be assumed that Christianity, as represented by the Western world, is also an enemy.

It’s rather astounding that religions don’t recognize they’re a large component of world strife. The underlying love concept of world Christianity is still very much tainted with a strategy of “win them over to our camp and everything will be fine.” The Christian love concept would ring more true if there was a desire to come as equals; equals as enemies to each other and in the sense that all religions have far more spiritual truth yet to discover than they already have. With such a starting point they would have an opportunity to embark on a journey of discovering God.

Jake Janzen,
Abbotsford, B.C.

A pertinent reminder

Re “Rising up against the disorder of the world: When the church unites in prayer” (Features, July). Christine Longhurst’s article was a very pertinent admonition, especially to those of us who have spent a lot of time discussing music styles in worship and neglecting the prayer aspect of worship. Thank you for bringing us face-to-face with the need for prayer to be a vital part of congregational worship.

Our church service has prayer both at the beginning and the end, and until recently allowed time for prayers from the congregation. Maybe we need to get back to that, too.

Bertha Klassen,
Winnipeg, Man.

Inconspicuous prayer

Re “Rising up against the disorder of the world: When the church unites in prayer” (Features, July). Christine Longhurst challenges churches to practice public intercessory prayer. But is corporate prayer in our worship services a measure of the faithfulness of the church in intercessory prayer, or even the primary venue for such prayer?

Our church bulletins typically contain weekly prayer panels. People are publicly encouraged to use them at home. Prayer bulletins from a number of our denominational organizations are distributed. A telephone prayer chain responds to specific issues during the week. Via email, our members are alerted to certain matters and, through the church office, may call people to pray for those matters. And what about people who, in the autumn years of their lives, spend hours in prayer (privately in their rooms as per Matthew 6:6)? “Prayer warriors” we call them, typically at their memorial services.

This morning I received a widely distributed email from Thailand. It was a call to prayer for yet another shower of miracles to follow many others that have already resulted from intercessory prayer. Are God’s people praying less – or simply less conspicuously?

Alf Poetker,
Winnipeg, Man.

Wonderful issue

Re “Rising up against the disorder of the world: When the church unites in prayer” (Features, July). Thank you for such a wonderful issue of the MB Herald. The emphasis on prayer is so needful and was so well presented. We’ve posted the cover in at least two of our prayer rooms.

Bob Gibson,
Kelowna, B.C.

Poverty of language

We lament our general poverty of language for God, especially in the evangelical church. Some years back, Paul Smith, a Southern Baptist pastor, wrote the book Is It Okay To Call God “Mother”? We think it’s time for its sister book to be written: Is It Okay To Call God “Father”?

To both these questions we would give a qualified “yes.” Scripture provides us with more than 90 names and metaphors for naming God. “Father” is one, yet we persist in using that male metaphor designating relationship almost exclusively. In a patriarchal world – dynamite. God is more male than female – ergo, men are closer to God than women. The Bible teaches that God made people in God’s own image – male and female God created them. Yet we persist in our Father idolatry.

Yes, it’s okay to call God Father, if we remember that the ancient world’s understanding of “father” was “source of life.” Our penchant for reducing God to an alpha male diminishes the “I Am.” In the absence of a gender-neutral personal pronoun, we’d do well to use both “he” and “she” in referring to God. Using both male and female images and descriptors of God could contribute to a richer and fuller experience of our Eternal Loving Presence.

Hal Toews, Roland Balzer,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Think about reasons for divorce

Re “Divorce” (May). We appreciated your excellent coverage on divorce. However, we were left wondering why the reasons behind the high incidence of divorce weren’t explored.

“Close to Home: Dealing with Spouse Abuse,” the new resource from the Board of Faith and Life, quotes a 2004 online poll conducted by Today’s Christian Woman, saying that 52 percent of respondents indicated they had been emotionally abused by their spouses, 30 percent said they had suffered physical abuse from their spouses, and 18 percent said they had been sexually abused by their spouses.

Dr. David H. Olson, who developed the commonly used PREPARE/ENRICH marriage material, surveyed 21,501 couples in 2000. The results of his survey indicated that 81 percent of couples where both spouses perceived their relationship as egalitarian (a co-partnership of equality) were happily married, while 82 percent of couples where both spouses perceived their relationship as traditional (with the husband in a position of authority over his wife) were mainly unhappy. The survey also showed that the top stumbling block to a happy marriage was the inability to share leadership equally.

Perhaps these statistics give us some clues as to where the preventive answers to the problem of divorce may lie.

Walt and Elsie Goerzen,
Sardis, B.C.