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TM March 2012 INSIDE: • Reckless worship • Journalism and that tattooed girl • Mennonites and the Holocaust • On biblical inerrancy • Good soil a a t t t t o o r r i i T T n n h h o o J J : : o o t t o o h h P P Let’sLet’’ss growgrow together WeWe offerofferfer nancial services rootedrooted in faith and values toto help you grgrowow and thrive. t Banking services t Investments and retirement plans t Charitable giving, trusts and estate planning t Employee benets t Health, life, disability and long-term care insurance t Credit and debt counseling SeeSee how we can help. Visitisit Everence.com. EverenceEverence is a ministry of Mennonite Church USAUSA and other churches Everence offers credit union services thathat are federally insured by NCUA.NCUUA.A. WeWe also offer securities and other products thatthat are not federally insured and are subject to loss of principal. All products are not available in all states. March 2012 | Volume 15, Number 3 CONTENTS 12 Walking the way of peace —Hedy Sawadsky with Joanna Shenk 17 Mennonites and the Holocaust —Gerhard Rempel 23 Nearer my God to thee —J. Denny Weaver 26 Reckless worship —Mark Schloneger 29 Unlikely outcomes —Roy A. Borges 32 Executive Board cuts expenses by $160,000 —Anna Groff 33 A significant drop in funding —Everett J. Thomas 35 Racial Healing group works for transformation —Jessica Farmwald 36 Mennonite Arts Weekend draws 225 —Everett J. Thomas 40 Laurelville retreat celebrates 25 years —Brian Paff 41 Rick Warren: The Anabaptists were right —John D. Roth 42 Hope trumps angst for mission leaders —Lynda Hollinger-Janzen 43 Kenyan Mennonites make history by writing it —Debbi DiGennaro 45 College thanks employee with Habitat house 17 —Jacob Maldonado Nafziger and Alysha Landis 36 DEPARTMENTS 4 Letters 32 News 6 News Briefs 33 News Analysis 8 Grace and Truth 47 For the Record 9 Global Anabaptism 51 Classifieds 10 Miscellany 52 New Voices 12 Features 53 Mediaculture 30 Leadership 55 Mennonite Church USA 6 31 Opinion 56 Editorial ON THE COVER: Photo by Tim Nafziger March 2012 | TheMennonite 3 LETTERS March 2012 | Volume 15, Number 3 in 1995 (the delegate sessions of both The Mennonite is the publication of Mennonite This publication welcomes your letters, Church USA, which established three purposes either about our content or about issues the General Conference Mennonite for the magazine: to provide a forum for the facing the Mennonite Church USA. Church and the Mennonite Church voices within the denomination, to promote the adopted it) is now causing divisiveness ministries of Mennonite Church USA and to Please keep your letter brief—one or two and disunity. offer an editorial voice distinct from, but paragraphs—and about one subject only. collaborative with, other leadership voices. The We reserve the right to edit for length My humble suggestion is that if we Mennonite (ISSN 1522-7766) is published on the and clarity. Publication is also subject to are to look or look again at this docu - first Tuesday of each month by the board for The ment, we would do well to look at the Mennonite, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at space limitations. E-mail to Scripture that was quoted in it, under - Elkhart, IN 46517 and additional mailing offices. [email protected] or mail to Subscription rates for one year: $46 to U.S. Letters, The Mennonite, 3145 Benham girding it. As Rempel wisely points out, addresses and $54 USD to Canadian addresses. Avenue, Suite 4, Elkhart, IN 46517. it is how we interpret Scripture that Group rates available. The views expressed in contributes to what our confession of this publication do not necessarily represent the Please include your name and address. faith is and where we part company in official positions of Mennonite Church USA, The We will not print letters sent anony - Mennonite, or the board for The Mennonite, Inc. mously, though we may withhold names that confession. Scripture references are from the New Revised at our discretion. —Editors This is my second year of living Standard Version unless otherwise noted. daily with the Confession . The blog is POSTMASTER send address changes to: called “a simple desire” and is found at The Mennonite Food, faith and animal welfare http://asimpledesire.wordpress.com. I 3145 Benham Avenue, Suite 4 I admire Matthew Eaton (“The Gospel extend an invitation to one and all to Elkhart, IN 46517 of Peace to all Creation,” February) for come and read the blog daily.— Carole STAFF his decision to become vegetarian as a Boshart, Eugene, Ore. Editor: Everett J. Thomas direct result of his faith and deep con - [email protected] nection with the other species of God’s Associate editor: Gordon Houser creation. For those of us with bountiful Regarding John Rempel’s, “Naming [email protected] Associate editor: Anna Groff food supplies, our food choices tend to What Divides Us”: Rempel first points [email protected] stem more from egocentric, cultural to the tension between the authority of Advertising, subscriptions: Rebecca Helmuth norms and convenience rather than the Bible and the authority of the Holy [email protected] from a conscious, faith-based and ethi - Spirit. If the Holy Spirit of truth is the Bookkeeper: Celina Romero Editorial assistant: Nora Miller cal commitment to the welfare of the source of the Holy Scripture, then how Design: Dee Birkey other species that share our planet. I can it be that the Holy Spirit’s leading would really like to see more articles today would cause tension with that WEB SITE www.themennonite.org like this dealing with food choices, faith same Holy Scripture? OFFICES and animal welfare.— Steve Houck, Rempel says much more is at stake 3145 Benham Avenue, Suite 4 Pleasant Gap, Pa. than the issue itself. The fundamental, Elkhart, IN 46517 underlying assumptions identified by phone: 800-790-2498 fax: 316-283-0454 Naming what divides us Rempel as conservative Republican and I read with joy and delight John Rem - liberal Democrat are in neither case 718 N. Main St. pel’s article, “Naming What Divides biblical assumptions but social in na - Newton, KS 67114-1819 phone: 866-866-2872 Us” (February). That there are divi - ture, pitting “traditional (American) fax: 316-283-0454 sions has become evident. Being one values” against a moral imperative of P.O. Box 1896 who does not follow political party “individual rights.” If Rempel is right, 504 W. Choctaw Drive tenets, I felt a little lost at times. But then in both cases the Bible is used im - Whiteriver, AZ 85941 all in all, it is a good article. properly to defend the imperatives of phone: 928-338-6016 It is interesting, though, that the social values imposed upon Scripture, fax: 316-283-0454 Confession of Faith has come into the whether it be the values of left or right. limelight now, when it has been in exis - Regarding “privileging different tence since 1995, predating much of parts of the Bible”: Taking some parts Mennonite the integration work that was culmi - of the Bible as definitive while margin - Church nated in 2001/2002. I do not know alizing others is what happens when USA whether this “new” focus is because of the fundamental center of values its being mentioned during the most comes from some aspect of culture recent Mennonite Church USA conven - rather than from the administration of tion. But I suspect so. the Word and the work of the Spirit. It It is interesting to consider that is syncretism with American culture what came out of a general consensus that creates this problem. 4 TheMennonite | March 2012 | www.themennonite.org LETTERS Rempel also asks whether mission authority of some passages. That shift Professionals and laypeople is about changing individuals and/or in language might make us “conserva - I appreciated Robert Hartzler sharing structures? Rempel describes the em - tives” feel uncomfortable. But we his concern about the change in our phasis on social gospel on one side and should give Rempel slack here. After view of church leadership (“Servant the emphasis on individual salvation on all, virtually all of us in Mennonite Leaders or Christian Executives?” the other as the cause of division when Church USA “reject” the authority of January). It reminded me of an article I each side excludes the other’s contri - the apostles’ multiple commands on clipped from the July 1989 Gospel Her - bution. I doubt this is true. The real the holy kiss. ald . Katie Funk Wiebe raised a ques - cause is a loss of the center. An Ana - Hopefully you can help us see that tion, “Can the Church Survive baptist hermeneutic begins with Jesus the “rejection” flows from an attempt Professionalization of its Leadership?” and makes him the center. to honor the whole thrust of Scripture. The article compared the Mennonite The right justifies violence at the If the “rejection” is people trampling church moving toward professional level of national identity and denies the on Scripture, we can’t find common leadership to the Old Testament Is - lordship of Christ over the political ground with them no matter how long raelites begging for a king, to be like order. But equally with its agenda for we dialogue.— Harold Miller, Broadway, the other nations. She asked if the marriage, the left does violence against Va . church could survive the growing gap the foundations of what it means to be between professionals and laypeople. human, even though I thoroughly sym - Formation/transformation at center Over my 50-plus years serving in pathize with its concern for those who Thanks to Dave Stevens for his excel - the Mennonite church as a layperson, I have been belittled, bullied and bro - lent essay, “Christian Formation” (Jan - have seen choices and changes in the ken.— Philip Friesen, Minneapolis uary).
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