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Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
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or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Spiritual warfare through weakness
As a delegate to the Spiritual Warfare study conference (see MBH, Jan. 25), I was deeply disturbed by how few connections were made between spiritual warfare and our Mennonite Brethren Anabaptist emphasis on peaceful reconciliation (variously called pacifism, nonresistance or peacemaking). Spiritual warfare and peacemaking are both taught in Scripture, and both are of particular relevance as we respond to the tragedies of Sept. 11 and the months which have followed.
Given that (a) the spiritual war was won at the cross by God in Christ, (b) evil exists within us and (c) by living in love we may confront the powers of evil around us, we must reject the weapons of this world – weapons which kill, maim and destroy. In the last two millennia, the church has too often borne these weapons in the name of Christ. Instead, believers are called to vigorously resist evil. (We are not to be “nonresistors”!) We can only resist evil with the weapons of truth, trust, integrity, proclamation of the gospel, salvation, God’s Word and prayer (Ephesians 6). With these weapons, we attack evil powers most directly, while we continue to live in this material world. This kind of battle will often be misunderstood and opposed, but Jesus told us to be prepared to die in this conflict; He Himself died in His attack against and victory over all the powers.
We can only wage spiritual warfare out of weakness. The weapons I mentioned look weak and useless to our society. Our weakness is also seen as we confess our sins, as we boast in our troubles and frailties (2 Corinthians 11,12), as we refuse to dominate other people (this is especially important in our institutions, including churches) and as we live in submission to Christ. God’s power is displayed and completed in weakness, both individual and corporate. When Simon Peter rejected the way of weakness and suffering, Jesus rebuked Peter as “Satan” (Mark 8:27-38).
In a time of “holy war”, we as Anabaptists have the opportunity and responsibility to demonstrate God’s upside-down way of overcoming evil. Then our witness as Jesus’ disciples will be effective not due to our zeal or strategies or techniques, but through the power of the Spirit of God.
Andrew Dyck,
Abbotsford, B.C.
Great issue
Congratulations on your Jan. 25 issue! I enjoyed the contents and layout, especially Marshall Janzen’s great piece on paranoid Christians. I appreciated the way you reported the conference on spiritual warfare, and I enjoyed finding some humour in the issue as well.
Dorothy Siebert,
Winnipeg, Man.
Enjoyable even with typos
Today I had the rare luxury of reading through the Herald from beginning to end. I enjoyed the Jan. 11 issue issue very much. My favourite piece was A.J. Mittendorf’s poem on dying. I laughed hilariously (especially over the two little words “Used maybe” – my sentiments exactly! What a great thing that our faith enables us to find humour in this most solemn topic.
Thanks also to Ted Loewen and John Klassen whose line, “We had no burning desire to make candles,” brought chuckles. What a marvellous article about what must be a wonderful place to work.
However, I fear that alas, we have become victims of technology. When I came across one typo, I thought, “Oh well, it happens.” When I came across a second (“What does is take to . . . ” p.9), I noted it. The third, in John Redekop’s column, “Muslin faith”, sent me to the keyboard to compose this response. Obviously, all three are products of spell checkers that let the words go by because they were indeed spelled correctly, even though they were not the words intended by the authors. While spell and grammar checkers are great, they still, thank God, cannot replace the human brain. Keep up the good work stimulating our brains. These are minute errors in an otherwise excellent issue.
Waldo Berg,
Waldheim, Sask.
We are embarrassed by the typos, which were missed not only by electronic spell checkers, but also by at least half-a-dozen proofreadings by brains, that are, alas, all too human! – Ed.
Journalist should have known better
I was surprised to read the debate in the Jan. 11 Letters column between John Redekop and Art Babych about the use of the term “fundamentalist” in reference to Stockwell Day’s family. I remember hearing several years ago that The Canadian Press Stylebook was changed, largely through the influence of Brian Stiller, to recognize that “fundamentalist” is now a pejorative term and therefore should not be applied to any person or group that does not choose to identify itself by that word (see www.lifesite.net). I would have expected Mr. Babych, as a professional journalist, to know that. Even the CBC, during the last federal election, avoided the precise word “fundamentalist” in describing Mr. Day. However, they did title their documentary about Mr. Day and his critics “The Fundamental Day”.
Alan Chattaway,
Surrey, B.C.
We have read the reports about the change in The Canadian Press Stylebook, but cannot find any reference to “fundamentalism” in the Stylebook itself. However, The Associated Press Stylebook apparently cautions: “Fundamentalist has to a large extent taken on pejorative connotations . . . In general, do not use fundamentalist unless a group applies the word to itself. – Ed.
Perspectives on Perspectives
In an attempt to help readers understand the religious underpinnings of the Sept. 11 terrorists (Personal Opinion, Jan. 11), I believe John Redekop has unwittingly left his readers believing that the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims actually think like violent fundamentalist extremists. Will this not lead to Christians labelling and prejudging Muslims out of fear and suspicion rather than embracing them as fellow human beings, seeking to understand them personally and entering into honest dialogue?
Using the atrocity of Sept. 11 as a springboard to interpret Islam’s beliefs is akin to Islam’s judgement of the world’s Christian population based on the bulldozing of Palestinian homes in the West Bank (a Jewish action, but backed by Christian indifference), the bombing of Baghdad or the atrocities committed against Muslims in Bosnia.
Redekop shows differences between the two faiths but does so in a way that denigrates Muslim beliefs. It is also true that Christians have no place for Mohammed as the Seal of the Prophets, reject the Islamic belief in the Eternal Qur’an in heaven, seem not to promote justice as much as Islam does, and seem to have a greater capacity to be content living in a decadent society, but these were left unsaid. It is also noted that Christian militant extremists occupy extraordinary positions of power in the West, even at the highest levels of government.
Redekop quotes the Qur’an without any interpretation or context. Would we appreciate Muslims categorizing all Christians based on Jesus’ words “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death” (Mark 13:12) or “The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:50,51)?
Redekop zeroes in on events and locations where Islamic fundamentalist intolerance has resulted in persecution and violence against Christians. There is no denying that Islam, as certain governments practise it, is pathological; much like the pathology evident in Christian-influenced governments in South Africa, Ireland, Rwanda and Central America, not to mention the ‘blessed by God’ violence of US foreign policy. Perhaps it is more legitimate to inquire how governments abuse religious beliefs as a means to engineer social policy.
Finger pointing and generalizing are counterproductive in the long run as we live and work and play with Muslims whom we hope to impact with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be encouraged to love them as God does.
Ken Peters,
New Westminster, B.C.
It does no good to point fingers
I was upset by John Redekop’s “Perspectives on Islam” (Jan. 11). It would be easy to write a rebuttal from the point of view of a Palestinian, an Iraqi, a Vietnamese, a Guatemalan or a black South African, with the first sentence beginning, “In the wake of the acts of terror, many people are unclear about how they should view Christianity.”
Leaders in the Christian world have rarely been bashful about stating their religious bent while carrying out acts of terror and repression throughout the world, including the crusades, persecution of the Anabaptists, the slave trade, acts of terror toward native groups in Canada, atrocities committed by groups funded by the United States in Central America, and the US-led embargo against Iraq, which includes bombs being dropped.
Acts of terror and repression can be religiously motivated, and acts of terror and repression have been carried out in the names of all major religions. As Jesus indicated, it does no good to point fingers at others when our own eyes are filled with fingers.
A viewpoint such as Redekop’s can serve no purpose other than to add to the division between Muslims and Christians. Instead of waiting to “be impressed by ‘this milding of Islam’”, perhaps we should work at ensuring our actions as Christians are true to the message of the gospel.
Mark Reimer,
Black Creek, B.C.
Last modified March 7, 2002.
© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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