Mennonite Culture

Here is a short excerpt from a paper that I recently wrote on Mennonite culture and community. (I'd love to hear your comments)

The Individual
Community must be composed of alive and very real people who experience life in very alive and real ways. If community is composed of "real living" and very "real experience," the individual’s experience of community is of vital importance to this topic. We may ask, “what has our culture done for the poor and oppressed individual?” How does Mennonite culture differ from a worldly culture? According to my study, it would be quite safe to say that all the cultures of the world are ruled by a powerful minority, who are sure to shape culture to the benefit of their own power. It is this very same question that plagues us. How are we different from the cultures of the world in this aspect? How have we also fallen into this power conservation program that most assuredly foretells failure of community from the outset. Political, social, and economic inequality is experienced as an inequality of culture, a prime example of the un-community; however, before I am labeled socialistic, may we unpack and examine such a statement?

The Masses
To our shame as Anabaptist people, Science and technology have shaped our culture more than the humanities. The impact of cell phones and the internet has had a revamping effect on our culture while those suffering individuals swarming around us have had only marginal impact on how we actively participate in community. Social and political structures within our communities have been revamped by the internet and evolved methods of communication. All the while our political and social structures have remained unfazed by the base needs of the masses that pass within mere feet of us every day.
Unfortunately this is where the very problem is sourced. It is our view of the masses that has allowed us to discard the shared social project of healing the broken hearted, binding up the wounded, and giving to the poor. Of course this shared social project is the shared creative response to a creation gone wrong that should be at the core of our strongest communities. If this shared response is not present, we have done one of two things. Either we are back at building a wall without bricks, or we have adopted the worlds art and are building a strong wall that must be destroyed before the Kingdom can be built.
Who are the masses? In every case, for every individual, the masses are “other people.” To someone, we are the masses; to us, they are the masses. There are no masses. The term “masses” is simply a way of seeing the people around us. Sadly our Anabaptist culture has been shaped heavily by science and technology, and consequently we now live in a culture that sees people as masses. This view dehumanizes the individual. We gain much from this view. This view allows cultural and political exploitation, for the individual is dehumanized and our consciences are cleared.

Forgot to close with prayer.....

Compassionate History (response)

I have enjoyed reading the responses that I have received concerning my last post, "Compassionate History." Most have been thought provocative. I especially thought this was well said....

I for one appreciated the mild diatribe. I was struck that the Egypt memories were to have an ethical import beyond just "our God can beat up your God." Another words, Yahweh's confrontation with the self worshiping empire/emperor was no mere tribalism (there was after all mercy for Egyptians who feared Yahweh), rather heaven's way is set against human sin. - Marlin Sommers

Compassionate History (continued)

Ok so I've gone off on my rant...this is long...nobody has to read it)You're free to slay me...just do it by email so I can forward unkind remarks to God:)



We see this first in the story of Cain and Able. God told Cain that Able’s blood cries out to him….God will not shut His ear to that cry. The cry changed the course of history and Cain was cursed.

In Egypt, Pharaoh responds to the growing number of Israelites by forcing them into slavery, which is the ultimate form of oppression. Once again God acts, and leads his children out from under the heel of Egypt.

God blessed the children of Israel until they became like Egypt. The Children of Israel are commanded, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan…do not deny justice to your poor people.”

As I read the Old Testament, I’m pretty sure God emphasized that THEY MUST NOT FORGET EGYPT! God stresses over and over again that they must tell the stories to their children…they must remember…they must remember Egypt.

We go back to Solomon. Solomon was given great wealth, but what did he do with this wealth? He began to build. He built an empire…then he had to build military bases to protect his empire. If you read Exodus you will find that Solomon not only bought horses and chariots…he began to sell them to neighboring Kings. He begins to amass wealth from violence and finds that war is profitable. Before long Solomon is largely building and protecting his empire with forced labor, not to mention his enjoyment of his many wives. Once again scripture tells us that Solomon turned his heart towards other gods and he was not completely devoted to the Lord our God. Jerusalem has now become Egypt…Jerusalem is now the oppressor. Solomon no longer used his resources to liberate the oppressed…he used his resources to oppress.

Is it any surprise that Solomon built the temple largely from forced/slave labor. Though I’m not sure how important it is, I am not surprised to hear both the prophets and Jesus talk about tearing the temple down and rebuilding it in 3 days.

Solomon must have forgotten Egypt. I think there was a reason God was so concerned that the Children of Israel would forget Egypt. The Ten Commandments were supposed to help them remember, but Solomon forgot.

Prophets like Amos show up to rescue Israel. They say things like, “hear this word you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy.” Yet Israel doesn’t listen, and God WILL hear the cry of the oppressed….we soon find Israel in exile.

The stories of empires rising and falling have followed this pattern over and over again. Empires rise to the point of oppressing those around them in order to build a bigger barn...its amazing to me how they all seem to disintegrate at this point. The desire to build bigger and bigger barns seem to be the human nemeses.

Spain was a “big dog” in the world scale until their powerful navy was supernaturally destroyed on the rocks just north of England and they encountered their own economic obesity. Most history books don’t tell you that prior to their sort of miraculous disintegration as a world power they were enslaving and oppressing the Caribbean natives in a horrendous manner.

The blood of the oppressed cries out to God just as Able’s blood cried out. It is this cry that has continually changed the projected course of history. It is Gods compassion toward his children under oppression that does not allow him to sit silently in their distress. Could it possibly be this divine compassion that drives, shapes, even molds the story of the creation….literally making history, “His story?” Yet we are arrogant enough to think it is US…OUR bigger king with the bigger barn, who kills the weaker king with the smaller barn….it is these guys who drive history forward. Our history books prove to me that this is what we believe.

For even an amateur historian, the list of oppressors who have created their own demise is endless. Who respects God? Who stands in awe of His compassion? Who trembles in the presence of God’s love? Who believes God when He says that Able’s blood cries out to him?

Does America think that the blood of her aborted babies does not cry out to God? Does America think that the lives of her fatherless children do not cry out to God? Does America think that the pain and suffering of those whom we stand and trample upon in order to uphold this “great empire” do not cry out to God. Does our great empire built on the industrial revolution believe that those who suffered at the hands of big business and industry do not cry out to God?

Like Jesus told the rich young ruler…. “sexual purity, honesty, good stewardship, non-violence…these are all good things….but there’s one major thing you’re forgetting….you’re FORGETTING EGYPT!” You’ve been a “good” man, but you’ve done nothing to free the oppressed, downtrodden, and poor….have you sold all you have and given to the poor? NO…you’ve been building…building bigger barns! When the rich young ruler could only hang his head and walk away sad, Jesus laments that it is hard for a rich man to do what he was just talking about. In fact you could cram a camel(whatever that is) through the eye of an needle before…..(I’d rather not think about it)

The worst thing is that empire…the institution…and business…they all tell us that Jesus didn’t really mean what he said.

They tell us that building bigger barns for ourselves is good.

They tell us that God does not hear Able’s blood crying out in our day.

They tell us that we don’t need to remember Egypt.

They tell us that the prophets were liars.

And sadly it is they who write our history books!

Compassionate History

I am a man therefore I like reading war stories….or maybe I should say I LIKED reading war stories before I became a teacher. Once I found that every history book is simply a book of war stories in chronological order I began to get tired of some of them. Has it ever occurred to you that those who get to write history are always the winners? Of course the winners are going to make it sound like their victory is what drives our story forward. Dead men and empires can’t tell their tales.

As I follow Jesus deeper into His own heart, I revolt more and more against egotistic bragging/humanism…therefore, I tire of hearing the winners tell their war stories…therefore, I’m sick of war…therefore, in my mind most of our history books are humanistic.

If there is anything that God cannot do, it is shut his ear to the distress cry of his children. God’s immense ocean of love cannot ignore the desperate cry of the oppressed, in fact I believe God refuses to ignore such a cry. God WILL act when his children are oppressed and cry out to him.

We see this first in the story of Cain and Able. God told Cain that Able’s blood cries out to him….God cannot shut His ear to that cry. The cry changed the course of history and Cain was cursed.

I feel a huge rant coming on....this will have to be continued.