ESSAY Yoder, Sex Abuse, & War

Mark Tooley

Photograph of John Howard Yoder, by Carolyn Prieb. Source: Mennonite Church USA Archives - Goshen, IN, via Flickr.

his journal was founded partly to counter the ongoing pacifist Tinfluence of John Howard Yoder (1927-97), the highly influential Mennonite theologian whose 1972 book The Politics of Jesus redefined Christ’s crucifixion as a rejection of all violence and “empire.” Still unfolding revelations about Yoder’s sexual exploitation of students and religious devotees, numbering at least 100 women, are compelling some of his admirers now to question his legacy.

In unpublished responses, age. Of course, Yoder’s view pastor. His theological justifica- Yoder justifies these sexual en- contravenes historical Christian tions for these encounters are at counters theologically, citing teaching about the human body very least false teaching, if not touching between Jesus and and marriage. As a husband heretical. women in His day. He also ad- and father, his behavior across mits disdaining the “consen- decades was adulterous, among Reinterpreting the crucifix- sus of our respectable culture,” many other problems, and amid ion as primarily a rejection of and believes there is greater the #MeToo campaign would violence—rather than atone- latitude in sexual standards in today be called a gross abuse ment for sin, which Yoder calls the church’s new revolutionary of his authority as a teacher and “hocus-pocus”—is in my view

46 decidedly heretical. Traditional Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2 sexual scandal, and he recently Anabaptist thought, whose un- (2017) is another leading ex- admits: derstanding of the cross is or- ponent. So too is Brian Zahnd thodox, requires pacifism of of Word of Life Church in St. I was too anxious to have individuals and communities Joseph, Missouri, whose latest John resume his place as called to nonviolence, but the book is Sinners in the Hands of one of the crucial theo- theology does not dispute the a Loving God (2017). logians of our time. I state’s vocation for violence thought I knew what was through its police and military By far, Yoderism’s most well- going on, but in fact I did functions. Yoder, who studied known follower and popular- not have a clue. In my de- under Karl Barth after World izer is Stanley Hauerwas, now fence—and it is not a very War II and observed Europe’s semi-retired at Duke Divinity good defence—I think it is postwar destruction, universal- School. Still enormously in- true that I simply did not izes the Mennonite message to fluential, his best-known book understand what was go- pacifism for all Christians, so- is Resident Aliens: Life in ing on. However, in truth, cieties, and even governments. the Christian Colony (1989). I probably did not want to Hauerwas was a disciple and know what was going on. Any cursory glance at today’s friend to Yoder, whose rise Hauerwas naturally struggles Christian blogosphere and so- to prominence was aided by cial media will quickly evince with the extent to which Yoder’s Hauerwas facilitating his move Yoder’s pervasive impact. misconduct discredits his theol- to the University of Notre Dame Fidelity to Jesus entails abjur- ogy: “I do not want what he has from Goshen Biblical Seminary. ing all coercive force and politi- taught us about how we should In a recent and lengthy review cal power. Dissenters from this and can live as Christians and of troubling revelations about perspective are compromised how we think theologically to be Yoder, Hauerwas writes in ABC Constantinians who serve em- lost.” And: “We cannot avoid the Religion and Ethics: pire over God. Followers of question of whether his justifi- Yoder’s perspective typically cation for his sexual behaviour are not consistent. They usually I had no idea that John’s is structurally similar to his de- demand the state provide for the engagement in his “ex- fence of Christian nonviolence.” poor, protect the environment, perimentation” was so enforce non-discrimination, extensive both in terms Quoting critics of Yoder, and make other pledges. But of time and the number Hauerwas writes: they refuse to acknowledge their of women he seems to agenda definitionally requires have involved. I am not They conclude that given coercion. Their expectation that sure, moreover, if I ever Yoder’s configuration of government should renounce all recognized how troubling Christian discipleship lethal force is utopian and ulti- it is that John refused to as nonviolence and the mately renders their viewpoint acknowledge that his kingdom of God with the politically irrelevant. views about what is possi- church’s peaceableness, it ble between brothers and is “unclear how he, giv- Yoderism’s incoherence and sisters in Christ were just en his behaviors (even if irrelevance have confined it wrong. occasional), could con- largely to Christian elites in ac- sider himself faithful as ademia, activism, and chatter- In the 1990s, after revela- a disciple of Christ or as ing spheres, especially among tions of Yoder’s misconduct, a witness of the church.” left-leaning Evangelicals and Hauerwas along with fellow A judgement I find hard post-Evangelicals. Shane anti-violence theologian Glen to deny. Claiborne of The Simple Way Stassen of Fuller Seminary en- movement and author of Jesus couraged Yoder to cooperate “As one deeply shaped by and for President (2008) is a lead- with a Mennonite church dis- beholden to what John has ing Yoderite activist. Greg Boyd ciplinary process. Yoder co- taught me,” Hauerwas writes, of Woodland Hills Church in operated only reluctantly and “what I think is missing in St. Paul, Minnesota, and au- seems to have continued his John’s theology is quite sim- thor of Myth of a Christian misconduct afterward. In his ple[:]…insight and wisdom Nation (2007) and, his latest 2010 memoir Hannah’s Child, about learning to live well as a work, The Crucifixion of the Hauerwas minimizes Yoder’s human being.”

47 Although Hauerwas agonizes too valuable to abandon. He was not just esoteric but kooky, over Yoder and the “relation asks: “Does the immorality of not dissimilar to charlatan tel- between morality and the in- a person invalidate what they evangelists or Eastern swamis tellectual life,” he ultimately have had to say?” And his an- who cloak their exploitation in decides that unlike others who swer is no. sham spirituality. no longer recommend Yoder’s works, “I need John’s clarity of But the challenge of Yoder is Hauerwas has built a career on thought if I am to try to think far more complicated than his Yoder’s theological malprac- through what I think I have sexual misconduct. Although tice, so his reluctance late in learned from him.” he, as Hauerwas does, champi- life to reconsider is humanly oned the church as the supreme understandable. But others who Quoting another friend of Yoder, polity, Yoder was an ultra-Prot- are younger and less invested Hauerwas observes, “there is estant American individualist should watch and learn from simply no way to tell the story who boldly stepped outside the Yoder’s imbroglio. Our project of 20th century historic peace church’s traditions and teach- at Providence is not to ramble as church theology—much less to ings to proclaim new, contrary solitary, actualized individuals appropriate it—without drawing truths. Millennia of under- but instead to rediscover on Yoder’s thought.” Hauerwas standing about war and peace, together the riches that the adds: “Nor do I see how we can about government and power, Body of Christ corporately has do without him.” were jettisoned in favor of his to offer on political power and new, preferred reality. Junking global statecraft. We believe Hauerwas is correct to surmise Christian teachings about mar- this journey will be far more that his project of redefining riage and the human body were rewarding. Christianity as a wholly paci- only parcel to this project and fist project that inconsistently should not be shocking. Yoder’s Mark Tooley is the president rejects empire while still de- unpublished theological justifi- of the Institute on Religion & manding its benefits depends cations for his sexual miscon- Democracy, and the editor of inextricably upon Yoder, who’s duct of women indicate that he Providence.

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