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Can churches be sustained by a commitment to questioning?
Re: “Question-shaped faith,” Feb. 6, page 13.
I resonated with much of what Troy Watson wrote in his column. I agree that questions are an essential dimension of the life of faith. In line with his premise, the article raised several questions for me:
- Can a vibrant Mennonite church ultimately be sustained by an openness and commitment to questioning?
- Watson asks, “What if it is God that holds us together—not our answers about God.” But how does God hold us together if the very notion of God is uncertain and under question?
- What are the basic Christian convictions that faith communities should insist upon when people seek to join as members?
I am not critiquing Watson’s column. He raises very important issues for our churches today. I believe, however, that our challenge is to nurture true conviction and identity while at the same time being open to insights and questions from science, secular culture and other religions. How can we do this?
Scott Brubaker-Zehr, Kitchener, Ont.
Person of Interest is not a peaceful crime drama
Re: “Promoting peace” review, Jan. 23, page 30.
Recommending Person of Interest as the latest Anabaptist witness to peace in troubled times deserves a response, and hopefully you are getting many?
My private and secret hobby is watching crime and legal dramas of all sorts, and I certainly had to follow up on this lead. I have been reading Canadian Mennonite and The Mennonite Reporter for its full 45 years and can’t remember network television being recommended to us before.
Unfortunately, Person of Interest promotes vigilantism, self-righteousness, conspiracies and lawlessness, none of which I find entertaining or theologically satisfying. Good old Law and Order does more to understand and resist evil than Person of Interest ever imagined.
Do encourage your reviewer and your readers to widen their viewing if they are truly interested in finding Anabaptist qualities in popular television. Indeed, since you still carry “Canadian” on your masthead, they might be reminded of Street Legal, Cold Squad and the current Flashpoint as worth watching for their latent peacenik messages. They certainly all have more complex and useful understandings of evil than the single-minded perspective of Person of Interest.
So I do hope that this is the beginning of Canadian Mennonite looking for Mennonite messages in popular culture and look forward to this discussion continuing.
Ernest J. Dick, Granville Ferry, N.S.
Reader takes biblical injunctions seriously
I was stimulated by Gareth Brandt’s letter in the Feb. 6 issue of Canadian Mennonite, “Delight in the reading and hearing of Scripture,” page 11.
It was in 2007 when I decided to read, copy and memorize Scripture. The benefits have been most salutary.
I no longer need to take lithium. My pill is Psalm 119:93: “I will never forget your commandments for you have used them to restore my health and joy.” Not to disparage medical help, but no more depression since I claimed this truth.
“Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11) and many more passages like it have significantly reduced my levels of greed, lust and envy.
Psalm 141:5 has encouraged me to invite and encourage my friends to practise King David’s wisdom on me: “Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it.” Sadly, my brothers and sisters have largely not practised that rebuke/admonition on me as they should. Now that I asked for it, it may happen. Please do!
In Job 34:4, Elihu gives this counsel to Job: “So let us discern for ourselves what is right and learn together what is good.” This would greatly promote community—an antidote to our privacy—by sharing what the Holy Spirit has taught us privately and then sharing it and being open to correction and applying the ethics.
I was humoured in discovering that the Berean Christians “examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). And notice the results in verse 12. Wow!
The Meserete [Mennonite] elders of Ethiopia practised this sharing of insights and applying them, which resulted in that Mennonite church increasing from some 5,000 members to about 150,000 during the 10 years of communist rule.
A scripture which tells how unique and significant each individual is in God’s economy is Revelation 2:17: “I will give each one a white stone and on it will be engraved a new name that no one knows except the person who receives it.” This is not to make a case for individualism. It is the nurture and faithful care exercised by the gifts God has given each of us to help us arrive at reception.
George H. Epp, Chilliwack, B.C.
‘Consider me an Anabaptist who is countercultural’
The Young Voices articles, “I am from the Mennonites” and “Mennonite: culture or denomination?”, Feb. 6, pages 34 to 36, reflect different experiences.
Elise Epp is finding richness in her culture and community, and I am glad. However, when Mennonite is used as a single word for both faith and culture, it is less helpful than Ukrainian Catholic, which brings together faith and culture while separating them.
Karen Allen writes of seeking to fit in while respecting her South African roots. I wish her well! After 30 years in a Mennonite conference, I clearly hitched my horse to the wrong cultural cart. Discomfort is common, yet Anabaptist theology remains attractive.
What is ironic, though, is that a tradition loudly claiming to be part of the Believers’ Church is often willing to overlook how seriously it has veered from its early theology, early Anabaptist history and Scripture, when it is content to consider Mennonite a culture or an ethnicity.
Since when can members of a Believers’ Church be identified by their last name? Since when should serv-ants of the Word also become keepers of a particular culture? We can enjoy the richness of Dutch-German-Russian culture, but when it comes to equating Mennonite and culture, consider me an Anabaptist who is countercultural.
Rev. Terry M. Smith, Mitchell, Man.
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