Readers write: February 21, 2022 issue
MC Canada executive ministers release statement on ‘freedom rallies’ The day after thousands of truckers and other protesters converged on Parliament Hill in late January to call for an end to COVID-19 mandates and other public health restrictions, Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers released a statement decrying the white nationalism being expressed at related protests…
Readers write: February 7, 2022 issue
Writers speak out in support of sexual-abuse survivor Re: “A survivor of sexual abuse speaks out,” Jan. 10, page 13. I love that phrase that you use to describe yourself: “a fierce pacifist.” That is what I want to be, too, and yet it is sometimes just easier to be meek and go with the…
Readers write: January 24, 2022 issue
Talking will hopefully lead to learning Re: “ ‘We might learn something’ ” letter, Dec. 6, 2021, page 8. I definitely agree with Henry Bergen’s comments concerning our need to talk about vaccinations. I am also “fully vaccinated” and have friends and family members who are not. I do not see blaming and shunning the unvaccinated as…
Readers write: January 10, 2022 issue
Thanks offered for ‘defunding police’ feature Re: “Defund the police?” feature, Sept. 27, 2021, page 4. Grateful to Aaron Epp and Canadian Mennonite for taking up this conversation, for featuring Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land’s critical framing alongside reflections on how abolition overlaps with Anabaptism from David Driedger, Michael Pahl and Daniel Friesen, among others. —Jonathan Dyck (Twitter…
Readers write: November 22, 2021 issue
‘We are in a climate emergency’: MC Canada Mennonite Church Canada leaders released the following statement on Nov. 4 during the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland: Climate scientists have been sounding the call for decades, and the urgency of this call is being emphasized again at the COP26 Climate Summit happening in Glasgow, Scotland.…
Readers write: November 8, 2021 issue
Readers respond to ‘living simply’ Re: “What is enough?” Sept. 13, page 11. Randy Haluza-DeLay beautifully draws our attention to a way of life marked by enough—sufficiency. Without discerning what is a need and what is a want, we will never have a sense of sufficiency, and thus no sense of abundance either! Thanks. I…
Readers write: October 25, 2021 issue
No religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines: MC Canada Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers released a statement at the end of September responding to inquiries from constituents regarding exemption from COVID-19 vaccines. It states: “For a religious exemption to be granted, rationale for exemption must be clearly indicated within our sacred texts or confessional statements. “We…
Readers write: October 11, 2021 issue
Idea of defunding the police based on false premises Re: “Defund the Police?”, Sept. 27, page 4. This response is not addressed to the generalizations made in this article (police “don’t prevent crime,” “officers spend most of their time…,” and “police are very effective at turning people into our enemies”), but to several premises in…
Readers write: August 16, 2021 issue
‘Big’ farmers can be ‘Christians with a conscience’ too Re: “Germinating conversations,” June 7, page 16. It seems to me that this article has been written with a negative outlook. Will Braun is right when he says that this is more a “rant” than an attempt to consider any other point than his own. It…
Readers write: July 19, 2021 issue
Beware of pulling up the crop with the weeds Re: “Author, bookstore owner dispute ‘censorship’ claim,” June 7, page 21. Censorship versus freedom of speech is a hot topic in the news and, rather than debate thoughtfully about it, we’ve again chosen to quarrel. Censorship, as in the silencing of contrary voices, is everywhere. It’s…
