DownloadSept. 28, 2009 issue
Mennonite, not Christian?
By Matthew KrabillPage:
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Ever had to explain to a non-Mennonite what one is? Most often in my experience, I have found answering this question difficult because I don’t know where to start, what details to include or what to leave out. Do I start with Menno Simons? Persecution? Pacifism? Hymn singing?
Krabill
It would be an interesting exercise to explain the relationship between the following three words: Mennonite, Anabaptist, Christian. In fact, I think this should be part of the job description for all church leaders and a discussion in every Sunday school class.
How you articulate the relationship between each word reveals a lot about how you tell the Mennonite story.
Let me explain.
There could be any number of ways to reconcile these terms. But my guess is that many of us “ethnics” get bogged down in telling the story to the point that one of the details we leave out, intentionally or not, is the word “Christian.”
I could be wrong, but I feel like some of this ambiguity about the term “Christian” is indicative of the experience of some in my generation of young adults who would claim a Mennonite identity but not necessarily a Christian one.
And here is my point. This isn’t just an oversight on our part. It reflects deep-seated historical tendencies toward counterculturalism and is indicative of a crisis in mainstream North American Mennonitism.
Part of the problem is that we can be so thoroughly Mennonite that we are no longer Christian. Culturally, this is actually possible, since Amstutzes, Yoders and many others represent ethnic clans with historical ties to Europe.
Theologically, however, this is a serious problem. Mennonites are sometimes so inherently oppositional that we define ourselves over against the rest of the Christian family, to a point where our “distinctives” (peace and justice, etc.) become the only story we tell — or at least they are disconnected from central Christian convictions.
Put another way, in faithfully being neither Catholic nor Protestant, we adopt an isolationism that has the potential to distance us from our Christian roots altogether.
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Comments
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A very thoughtful insight. I'd love to hear more from this author!
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At last...a voice in the wilderness!
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Thank you Matthew for the courage and clarity you exhibited in this essay.
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Thanks, Matthew. I find truth in what you write. In the Church of the Brethren, we as teens tended to identify ourselves as "Anabaptist" but not to embrace "Christianity." This reflected some of what you articulate. The downside for us involved a lack of the sense of grace, forgiveness, or hope, to the extent that we held onto a "works righteousness" in living out our faith. At the same time, one needs a valid way to critique modern American "Christianity." So thanks for a good beginning examination of some important questions.
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