Low German colonies in Bolivia weigh tradition vs. gospel

Getting excommunicated for reading the Bible on your own is something Anabaptists faced five hundred years ago.

But try reading the gospel today in some ultra-conservative Low German Mennonite colonies of Bolivia, and you could be risking your livelihood, or even your life.

Dan Klaue, recording engineer at the MB rooted media agency, Family Life Network (FLN), visited the colonies last summer to distribute receivers pre-tuned to TransWorld Radio, which reaches the 50,000 Mennonites in the area. The station broadcasts Bible programs by FLN’s Jacob and Helen Funk, and Klaue’s original Low German worship songs.

FLN recording engineer and songwriter Dan Klaue gathers Bolivian Mennonite colony kids, some holding radios, to celebrate God-given creativity through technology.

“Members claiming to have accepted Jesus Christ run the risk of severe punishments, excommunication from the church and expulsion from the colony,” said Klaue.

Evangelical church leaders outside the colony report that last summer, a woman who accepted Christ through a Bible study led by Jacob Funk was taken by her husband and other elders to a mental institution, where doctors were asked to write a diagnosis which would admit her for life. Outsiders learned of this, and took her out. Though an extreme example, the story is the tip of the iceberg on abuse, says Klaue, in many cases ignored by elders, including generational sexual abuse.

Any such information is controversial among Mennonites in Canada, since Mennonite Central Committee has been working in the colonies for years, establishing relationships with elders and addressing them within their cultural context. It is easy to judge from an outsider’s point of view, but another to establish trust and encourage healthy change among authoritarian leadership.

That’s why FLN’s evangelistic programs are sometimes seen as stirring the pot. Since the Canadian Bible Society (CBS) distributed their latest Low German translation in 2003, TransWorld Radio reported a surprising increase in listeners.

“Each Sunday alone we get up to 40 or more calls,” said Jake Fehr, director of TransWorld Radio. “The people are so needy, if we took [the program] off the air now, we would have a revolution on our hands!”

Though there’s a high risk involved, more families are tuning into their clandestine radios. “We decided to openly listen to radio and to declare that we accepted Jesus,” a family with six children told Jacob Funk. “Colony elders have now taken our land and farm away from us.”

One of Klaue’s goals this June was to visit youth who had been listening to Helen Funk’s children’s program, produced in 2004.

“We began receiving letters from kids and teens who listened to these programs where radios are prohibited by colony elders,” said Klaue. “Through them we learned of addictions, depression, and sexual abuse common in the colonies. I was convinced that more needed to be done for these kids,” said Klaue, himself a missionary kid who spent four years as a teen on a Mennonite colony in Paraguay.

“With the proceeds of each of our Low German CDs in Canada, we bought one solar-powered, pre-tuned radio. I took a whole suitcase of these radios to Bolivia.”

Klaue also shared his vision for children’s creative media production, and gave workshops on his new Low German songs to worship leaders.

“Ironically,” he says, “it’s the so-called rebellious youth that are accepting a message of light and hope in the midst of a community that values tradition over evangelical Bible teaching.”

For years, Mennonites in Canada have turned a blind eye to issues of abuse and persecution by their South American kin. As a global Mennonite identity takes shape through the Mennonite World Conference and the International Community of Mennonite Brethren, Klaue is hopeful that Canadian Mennonites will begin to ask the question: “What is our responsibility towards fellow Anabaptists?”

—Andrew Siebert