Mennonite Weekly Review

We are living in times resembling those about which the prophets wailed. A global food crisis and countless conflicts end thousands of lives each day. Many Christians in the United States have been living comfortably in a modern-day empire, believing no harm could befall them or their stock portfolios.

The current U.S. economic crisis results from missteps by the government and large financial institutions, rather than being God’s punishment, as biblical prophets proclaimed about societal distress in their times. Yet, like people living under biblical empires, many U.S. Christians are beginning to awaken to our nation’s fallibility and our own vulnerability.

Whether or not the U.S. government negotiates a multibillion-dollar bailout of large investment institutions, the poor in the United States will continue to suffer because of this crisis, as many families who have lost their homes and jobs already are.

We can’t trust the government to always act in the best interest of the least of these. We can advocate that it do so, but we know it is the task of our churches to care for the poor and marginalized, whether the government does or not.

Times such as these call for creative, courageous mutual aid and outreach to our neighbors. Not all U.S. Anabaptists are in the same economic situation. Some wealthy or middle-class families will take a relatively small hit to their retirement investments or home equity. For less well-off families, the current crisis may mean falling deeper into debt and poverty.

We must reach out to each other and look for the needs in our communities. We have been good at providing food and clothing. We must do more. How can our churches provide affordable housing? How can we provide health insurance? (The Mennonite Church USA Healthcare Access for Church Workers plan would be a great place to start.)

As we look to these challenges, we are blessed to have examples of Anabaptists who have sacrificed their own comfort to fully confront the economic crises in their own nations.

One courageous model is Héctor Mondragón, a Colombian Mennonite and economist. Mondragón has been threatened recently by a false claim printed in Colombia’s national newspaper. This may be because Mondragón has been outspoken in opposing the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement, which he believes will hurt the majority of Colombians. (See “ ‘Slander’ endangers Colombian economist,” Sept. 22.)

In a Sept. 15 letter to Mennonite brothers and sisters, Mondragón describes being a youth in a middle-class family reading the Luke 18 story of the rich young man whom Jesus tells to sell all he owns.

“Since I didn’t have anything to sell, I decided to surrender what I had to the poor; I gave my life for the poor, with the assurance that among the poor and in each poor person was Christ,” Mondragón wrote.