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Monday, January 30, 2023

Of Elephants And Mice: An Appeal For Unity

An edited version of this post was published in
the June 16 edition of the Anabaptist World.
"There can be no peace among nations without peace among religions." Hans Küng

What if we were to paraphrase Küng's words to ask, "How can we spread a gospel of peace without demonstrating shalom-like peace among ourselves?"

While nice folks like us may not be openly un-peaceful or hostile, we are all too prone to give up on each other and go our separate ways. In that sense we (peacefully?) "ex-communicate" one another, not by formally expelling congregations or groups of congregations with whom we disagree, but by simply withdrawing from them, no longer "communicating" with them when it comes to maintaining regular fellowship or communion together.

Our Amish cousins are at least consistent in their practice of this form of excommunication, in that they declare those judged to be out of order as deserving the ban, writing them off as no longer being fellow members of the body of Christ.

I once asked a member of a congregation that had left our Virginia Mennonite Conference if those of us who stayed would still be welcome to join them at their communion services. 

"Of course!" he assured me, "We will always welcome you to the Lord's Table."

"What?" I asked. "So you're not OK with worshipping and working with us in our conference assemblies, but you would welcome us to be one with you in the most intimate and sacred part of your church life?"

To me it felt like a divorcing couple announcing that while they could no longer tolerate living in the same household they would still be OK with occasionally being in bed together.

Here is the kind of Christ-based, covenant-bound church unity I keep praying for:

  1. That we celebrate a God-given “unity of the Spirit” while continually working, for as long as it takes, at gaining an ever greater “unity of the faith.” 
  2. That having largely abandoned the practice of excommunicating individual church members, that we commit to no longer “excommunicating” whole groups of congregations with whom we differ. 
  3. That where past church separations have occurred, that we keep the door open and the invitation out to becoming reunited and to reconciled wherever possible.
  4. That our congregations, district conferences and MCUSA would be bound together not so much by our constitutions and bylaws, as in a Gesellschaft (an organization) but as sisters and brothers in God's beloved Gemeinschaft (a community).
  5. That if necessary we would be willing to review our organizational structures, constitutions and confessions, say every Jubilee (50th) year, and wait prayerfully and expectantly for Pentecost-style rebirths, ernestly seeking new wine and welcoming new wineskins.
  6. That we would not allow current issues we define as "elephants in the room”—like a loss of trust in church structures or policies, or  disagreements about how to fully include members who identify as LBGT+—from distracting us from the multitude of threats we seem inclined to see as mere "mice in the room," such as:

...the ever increasing hold of Mammon, money, and material wealth that is threatening to choke the spiritual life out of our communities of faith. Our families, congregations and church institutions are claiming the right to ever more privilege, status, state of the art accommodations and lifestyles that are creating ever widening gaps between us and a world experiencing unprecedented hunger and homelessness.

...an increase in the hold that readily available media are having on our daily lives, with our children, teens, young adults and members of all ages being exposed to an unbelievable barrage of pornography, propaganda, deceptive and seductive advertisements and other distractions from a life of faithfully following Jesus.

...an astonishing lack of concern on the part of the heterosexual as well as the non-heterosexual community over a kind of sexual permissiveness that has elevated eros over agape, short term pleasure over lasting covenant-based commitments, and promiscuity over fidelity.

...a plague of violence and carnage in our nation, fed by an increased level of hurtful and divisive rhetoric that is dividing our communities and our congregations, amplifying our fears and our animosity toward named “enemies," and feeding the flames of an unprecedented military madness hellbent toward worldwide holocaust.

...an overconsumption of natural resources and fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and which threaten the very survival of our children and grandchildren, all of whom will be dealing with increased famines, wildfires, floods and ever more extreme weather events.

These troublesome and rapidly multiplying rodents are the ones our youth and young adults are typically seeing as the real “elephants in the room.”

Kyrie Elision,

Lord have mercy.

6 comments:

  1. What a profound list of "mice in the room"! Yes, thankfully the coming generation is seeing them as bigger than mice.

    You began with reference to "a gospel of peace" and the need for us to "demonstrate peace among ourselves." Yet there are things higher than peace, not? If a VMC congregation said Buddha is Lord, we would respond in peace (I pray!) but also firmly and clearly tell them that they are "counter to [VMC's] understanding of the gospel." If they persist, wouldn't we want some separation there? Some elements of our Confession are higher than peace.

    Some of us in VMC feel that full inclusion of those in same sex marriage ends up going against one of those elements higher than peace. Now what?

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  2. I so understand and respect your point. One of my questions is about when and under what circumstances something needs to be considered a "disputable matter." Thankfully the question of whether Buddha is Lord is not disputed in our conference, but some things are, and many things have been in the past, including the matter of accepting divorced and remarried people as members and more recently as ministers.

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  3. Probably "Buddha is Lord" is kind of a ridiculous example, no controversy in VMC on it. But marriage as male-female was not disputed for all of church history. I've eagerly read all the revisionist arguments, kinda hoping they would at least have some weight, so I could relax and say "it's disputable, so let's give each other space." But instead it's become more and more clear that the texts and themes of Scripture show that all forms of same sex intimacy are contrary to God’s intent. On other matters (like divorce, and women in leadership, and even nonviolence), we see diversity in Scripture; but not here. Every time it speaks of same sex relations it sees them as wrong. (This is not something I say lightly or easily, but out of much listening and study.) So this matter doesn't feel disputable. And I, like you, worry about our next assemblies.

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  4. Hi Harvey, Thanks for posting this. I agree more or less with your basic argument as I understand it. And just note that what is disputable is also what we dispute over!!!

    Here are some things I ponder. There is a conference in MC USA that has an active credentialed pastor who is also credentialed by the Universalist Unitarian Church. This is on the Mennonite church website that he pastors. Is this a disputing over the basic Biblical doctrine of the Trinity? The Incarnation? It would seem to be, to me.

    In 2013 or so Conrad Kanagy did a large research project of MC USA leadership beliefs about a variety of things including human sexuality. About 30% of leaders would accept LGBTQ persons with no expectation of monogamy in gay marriage or celibacy. Others would expect either monogamy or celibacy. Does the Brethren and Mennonite Council on LGBTQ Concerns expect monogamy in gay marriage? I don't think so. Many who practice polyamory identify as Bisexual. I could go on and on. In a telephone conversation with a former staff member of MC USA who now is with another Mennonite agency he told me that there is at least one conference in MC USA that does not expect monogamy in gay marriages. This from a conversation he had with the conference minister... Given the May, 2022 resolution won't Menno Media need to push this agenda in its publications? Including SS materials, books and the like?

    So how do we understand these realities? Do we ignore them? Just say, "well we changed our mind on divorce so we might as well change our mind in this too?" Or that what happens in Colorado stays in Colorado? Or that our structures such as MC USA, VMC are the ultimate deciders not matter what I think or what has gone before? So we should just submit?

    The Apostle Paul describes unity in the book of Ephesians as a result of our love for and discipleship of Jesus. God brings unity as we gather around God incarnate in Jesus the Messiah. Correct me if I am wrong but I doubt that when Paul wrote about unity he was thinking of bureaucracies such as VMC or MC USA or districts or MDS or MCC or MEDA or Everence or any of the other agencies we have created. These are human creations and have served good purposes ( hopefully will continue to serve good purposes) yet are not over the scriptures in my opinion.

    Our basic problem in the last 30 years has been failure to understand our culture. We rightly preach against materialism but have missed individualism: its origins in the Enlightenment and then philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach, Carl Marx, Fredrich Nietzsche, Jean Paul Sartre, Michael Foucault who in a disciplined and convincing fashion created a world in which God is an illusion and human initiative and identity are the only reality. Nietzsche's "will to power" is what defines much of the social sciences now... Its no wonder that male and female now are not rooted in our bodies and biology but rather rooted in our minds, that is our opinions, feelings, desires and the like.

    I have gone on too long. Let me know if you think I have gone off the rails...

    Jim

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  5. Would you consider submitting this in some form to Anabaptist World? Perhaps as a Letter to Editor or for a longer piece?

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  6. Thanks for your affirmation and suggestion to send the piece to Anabaptist World.
    And thanks to you, "Jim," for your thoughtful response. You certainly haven't "gone off the rails," and I would love to have some more conversation with you and with others. Will you be at the Virginia Conference Winter Delegate meeting Saturday? Also feel free to email me at harvyoder@gmail.com.

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