Is it time to cancel cancel culture?
At first I thought cancel culture was a good idea. The phenomenon, which emerged a handful of years ago, refers to “ending (or attempting to end) an individual’s career or prominence to hold them accountable for immoral behaviour.” That’s according to University of Cambridge psychologist Rob Henderson. Writing for Psychology Today, he says cancellers seek…
Grace, guilt and CO2
1. Grace There is more grace in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. That does not let anyone off the hook; it promises that we can face the grim fate of the Earth and the compromises of our lives without being utterly overwhelmed. (And it means I can break bread with sisters and brothers who do…
A different frame of reference
When I ponder the question of what Mennonites and Anabaptists can bring to the conversation about climate change, I think about the language that many governments and corporations use. The words “fight,” “tackle” and “battle” are commonly used when discussing the imperative to quickly solve the climate crisis. The time frame that our global community…
Mend our beating heart
My grandfather, Harry Giesbrecht, referred to the country, language and people of Ukraine as his “beating heart.” The many trips back “home” breathed life into his aging lungs. The cool water of the Dnieper, the pothole-riddled roads near Lichtenau, Molochansk and Nikopol, and the patriotic anthems transformed my 80-year-old grandfather into a young man. During…
‘Whatever happened to simple living?’ – Part 2
For 45 years, the More-with-Less Cookbook has been a beacon of the Mennonite legacy of simple living. The popular, and much more recent, cookbook, Mennonite Girls Can Cook, is rooted in a decidedly more First-World spirituality. The divergent books illustrate something of the tension faced by Mennonites living in a land of plenty. Kenton Lobe…
Good graces
As human beings, we’re generally pretty lousy at grace. We long for it in our deepest and truest moments, and we desperately need it, God knows. But we often struggle to receive it. We’d prefer to earn, to justify, to merit. Grace is for the weak, and that’s not us. At least this is the…
The importance of patience in settling marital conflict
(This Viewpoint piece was inspired by Christina Bartel Barkman’s recent “Marriage and conflict” column.) Conflicts seem to occur even in the best marriages, and sometimes even church policies can become the cause of a marriage conflict. There are different ways of solving them. Sometimes patience is more effective than “fighting it out.” I was married…
Pandemic denies us shared rituals of grief
By everything that is right and good, Helen Penner’s life should have been celebrated with singing. Singing was a passion for her and her late husband John, and they ensured their eight children found their melodic voices at an early age. The kids grew up singing in church, blending their voices in the four-part harmony…
A church once sacred and safe is now suspect
My grandfather smoked, but I didn’t know it. Grandma didn’t want us to see him smoking and pick up the habit, but they agreed he could continue as long as it was out of sight. I had no idea until years after his passing, when a coworker returned from a smoke break smelling just like…
Mennonite encounters with contemplative prayer
Doug Klassen, who now serves as Mennonite Church Canada’s executive minister, confessed to a fellow pastor that he couldn’t pray for more than 10 minutes. “I came to a place where I kept running into myself when I was praying,” Klassen recalls of his early days as a youth pastor. “I’d make my request, then…
