1609finalwads2_TM 2012 template 8/20/13 8:49 AM Page 1 INSIDE: • An elder’s side job • An African-American male as a human • Dialogue’s demands and discoveries • Like a man? • Stealing wages 1609finalwads2_TM 2012 template 8/20/13 8:50 AM Page 2 18 2 TheMennonite | September 2013 | www.themennonite.org 1609finalwads2_TM 2012 template 8/20/13 8:50 AM Page 3 September 2013 | Volume 16, Number 9 CONTENTS 12 Lois Gunden: a righteous Gentile —Mary Jean Gunden 17 Questions to women leaders —Marsha Yoder-Schrock 18 Dialogue’s demands and discoveries —LeRoy Bechler 22 Special section on stewardship An elder’s side job —Gloria Diener 25 Mutual aid and generosity —Beryl Jantzi 26 Like a man? —Anonymous 32 Thomas to leave The Mennonite—Gordon Houser 34 Congregations switch membership—Everett J. Thomas 35 Local history and international cultures converge —Linda Moffett 38 Undocumented woman threatened by husband —Emily Will 40 An overview of edgy Mennonite blogs, websites —Anna Groff 44 Unfinished business with John Howard Yoder —Sara Wenger Shenk 45 AMBS adopts statement on teaching Yoder 18 47 MWC launches study of its global members DEPARTMENTS 4 Letters 32 News 6 News Briefs 44 News Analysis 8 Grace and Truth 48 For the Record 9 Global Anabaptism 51 Classifieds 10 Miscellany 52 New Voices 12 Features 53 Mediaculture 30 Leadership 55 Mennonite Church USA 7 35 31 Opinion 56 Editorial ON THE COVER: Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church USA Archives, Goshen, Ind. September 2013 | TheMennonite 3 1609finalwads2_TM 2012 template 8/20/13 8:50 AM Page 4 LETTERS September 2013 | Volume 16, Number 9 with Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Con- The Mennonite is the publication of Mennonite This publication welcomes your letters, ference will be made as appropriate Church USA, which established three purposes either about our content or about issues for the magazine: to provide a forum for the with students, future faculty and schol- facing the Mennonite Church USA. voices within the denomination, to promote the ars.” This is waffling. These results Please keep your letter brief—one or two ministries of Mennonite Church USA and to should be published openly. offer an editorial voice distinct from but paragraphs—and about one subject only. I should say that before my father collaborative with other leadership voices. The We reserve the right to edit for length Mennonite (ISSN 1522-7766) is published on died he forgave John (albeit posthu- and clarity. Publication is also subject to the first Tuesday of each month by the board for mously). He viewed him as a sort of space limitations. Email to The Mennonite, Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Jean Calvin, however that may be Elkhart, IN 46517 and at additional mailing [email protected] or mail to taken.—Ross Lynn Bender, Philadelphia offices. Subscription rates for one year: $46 to Letters, The Mennonite, 3145 Benham U.S. addresses and $54 USD to Canadian Ave., Suite 4, Elkhart, IN 46517. Please addresses. Group rates available. The views Phoenix convention coverage include your name and address. We will expressed in this publication do not necessarily I found the coverage of the convention represent the official positions of Mennonite not print letters sent anonymously, very helpful, since I wasn’t there. I’m Church USA, The Mennonite, or the board for though we may withhold names at our The Mennonite, Inc. Scripture references are grateful for the work to describe what discretion.—Editors from the New Revised Standard Version unless went on in Phoenix. Now I feel like I otherwise noted. have a sense for the meetings. POSTMASTER send address corrections to: Results should be public I did notice a strange addition of a 3145 Benham Ave., Suite 4 Regarding John Howard Yoder and the “(sic)” in the middle of a quote of Elkhart, IN 46517 statement posted on the Anabaptist someone who was talking about “the STAFF Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) kindom of God.” I take it the editor Editor: Everett J. Thomas website (see also page 45): The state- thought the person meant to say “king- [email protected] ment falls short of an apology. In fact it dom of God” but forgot the “g.” Actu- Associate editor: Gordon Houser [email protected] comes off more as an appreciation of ally, “kindom of God” is language Associate editor: Anna Groff Yoder’s scholarly work than as a pro- developed in Latina theology (particu- [email protected] found statement of contrition. It reads, larly in what’s called “mujerista theol- Advertising, subscriptions: Rebecca Helmuth “We regret the hurt. …” This is a ogy”) as a way to get around the [email protected] Bookkeeper: Celina Romero statement of regret rather than a patriarchal and hierarchical image of Editorial assistant: Nora Miller clearcut statement of apology. kingship. If interested in “the kindom Design: Dee Birkey My father, Ross T. Bender, served as of God,” read the work of the late Ada WEBSITE www.themennonite.org AMBS dean for many years and found Maria Isasi-Diaz.—Isaac Villegas, Yoder a difficult personality, to say the Chapel Hill, N.C. OFFICES least. Dad left the seminary in 1984 for 3145 Benham Avenue an extended leave to pastor at Glennon Editor’s note: We appreciate this infor- Suite 4 Elkhart, IN 46517 Heights Mennonite Church in Lake- mation. We added the “(sic)” after find- phone: 800-790-2498 land, Colo. When he returned, the fac- ing no definition for “kindom” at fax: 316-283-0454 ulty had finally made the decision to bar dictionary.com. 718 N. Main St. Yoder from campus. My father never re- Newton, KS 67114-1703 ceived an apology from the man. As a person who was not able to attend phone: 866-866-2872 After my father died in the spring of the convention in Phoenix, I just want fax: 316-283-0454 2011, I wrote to president Sara Wenger you to know that now I feel like I was P.O. Box 1896 Shenk and other faculty members de- there (almost). The August issue was 504 W. Choctaw Drive tailing my concern about the abuse my truly one of your best, if I may say so. Whiteriver, AZ 85941 phone: 928-338-6016 father suffered from working with this My husband and I read it cover to fax: 316-283-0454 man—not sexual abuse but manipula- cover. Thank you so much for the ex- tive behaviors. Also, before the final cellent coverage of a very broad range faculty witnesses to Yoder’s sexually of topics.—Linda O. Krueger, human re- abusive behavior (in AMBS class- sources coordinator, Mennonite Mission rooms) pass away, it needs to be Mennonite Network Church spelled out in explicit detail how this USA man operated. Censorship and ‘graphic’ images The AMBS statement says: “Refer- Gordon Houser once again makes us ences to Yoder’s submission to and stop and think, this time with his completion of the disciplinary process “Graphic Images in Media” (Mediacul- 4 TheMennonite | September 2013 | www.themennonite.org 1609finalwads2_TM 2012 template 8/20/13 8:50 AM Page 5 LETTERS ture, August). He quotes Conor Fructose does not cause obesity Mennonite statement I’ve found so far Friedersdorf saying, “the American In response to Gordon Houser’s article is from a single author, Daniel Kauff- media sanitize almost all death. … Dur- on obesity and fructose (Miscellany, man, in 1898. It is time for an update, ing the Iraq War, an American could August): I believe it is inappropriate for and I suggest the following resources watch hours of TV coverage without The Mennonite and publications like it as a starting place: ever seeing the dead body of a U.S. to get on a “band wagon” or suggest di- In 1952, Walton Hannah published soldier.” rectly or indirectly that others do. It is the first version of his book Darkness Friedersdorf is soft on the near- nonsensical to think that any complex Visible: A Christian Appraisal of complete military censorship of cover- problems can be reduced to one simple Freemasonry, which delivered verbatim age of violence in war zones. At the item. transcriptions of Freemason rituals. outbreak of the first Gulf War, the U.S. Obesity is not the result of fructose The 2008, Baronius Press edition military leadership vowed not to let or any other single item in our diet. It states that the accuracy of these tran- photographers into the live battle areas is not due to any single food item in our scriptions was confirmed by Com- because “the media lost the war in diet or even a food group. And remov- mander Higham, Grand Secretary of Vietnam for us, and that’s not going to ing single items from our diet will not the United Grand Lodge of England. happen again.” So they created a sys- have any significant effect. People are In his pioneering book Masonry, tem of one “pool” reporter to go in but obese because they eat too much, not Conspiracy Against Christianity (Pub- only exactly where the military wanted. because they eat the “wrong” things. lius Press, 1997), historian A. Ralph Thus, censorship. Obesity is related to when we eat, Epperson examines passages from Then, a reflection on one of the where we eat and why we eat. Obesity Masonic publications and provides a most misused words in the English lan- will not be affected by campaigns wealth of citations for further study. guage, “graphic.” As an art teacher, I against specific items or foods but by a There are other resources to help know that “graphic” means a repro- change in our “culture of food.” Christians who are caught in Freema- ducible image, such as a wood block The readership of The Mennonite sonry.