Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 13
June 25, 2007
Letters
This section is a forum for discussion and discernment. Letters express the opinion of the writer only, not necessarily the position of Canadian Mennonite, the five area churches or Mennonite Church Canada. Letters should address issues rather than criticizing individuals and include contact information. We will send copies of letters referring to other parties to them to provide an opportunity to respond in a future issue if their views have not already been printed in an earlier letter.
Please send letters to be considered for publication to letters@canadianmennonite.org or to Canadian Mennonite, 490 Dutton Drive, Unit C5, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6H7, “Attn: Letter to the Editor.” Letters may be edited for length, style and adherence to editorial guidelines.
Shilling’ for Israel charge denied
I am writing in response to Vern Ratzlaff’s letter, “Tourists need to visit real Palestinian villages,” May 14, page 11, which was itself a response to the April 2 article, “Nazareth Village ready for its close-up,” page 16.
Ratzlaff challenges Nazareth Village’s apparent encouragement for tourism to Israel, to see our “first-century Jewish village under Roman occupation,” to see life as it was in Jesus’ time. He suggests that visitors should, instead, go to Palestinian villages today to see the effects of the brutal Israeli occupation forces. His cultural/archaeological knowledge is not too well honed, as the differences are substantial.
Yes, Jesus was born into a society under brutal occupation and this information is given in rather graphic visual detail in the Roman period room at the beginning of every Nazareth Village tour.
Nazareth itself, while in Israel proper, is the largest Arab city in Galilee. In the midst of it, 500 metres from Mary’s cave house, stands our authentic reproduction of a Jewish town 2,000 years ago, where visitors spend three hours walking the land among animals and people dressed in ancient costumes. Understanding the biblical text in context is an important goal for us in welcoming our many visitors—Jews, Muslims and Christians.
If all this is shilling for Israeli tourism, I encourage Ratzlaff to follow another person’s advice about Nazareth: “Come and see” (John 1:46).
Naming donors can divide wealthy, poor
I recently read two good news stories about significant financial support for two fine Mennonite Christian camp building projects—Stillwood Camp and Conference Centre at Cultus Lake, B.C., and Camp Valaqua in Alberta. There was a subtle, yet not so subtle, difference in the reporting.
The Stillwood story (the Mennonite Brethren Herald, April 2007, page 6) named the donor of $2.5 million to the gymnasium complex. The Camp Valaqua story in Canadian Mennonite (March 19, page 28) told the story of another fundraiser to which an unnamed donor gave $50,000, with the balance of $5,000 being given by other unnamed donors.
As I thought about the named Stillwood donor of $2.5 million, I felt sorry for him when I recalled Matthew 6:1: “Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly to be admired, for then you will lose your reward from your Father in heaven.” How tragic for this person to be deprived of his later reward. Verses 2 to 4 provide for more instructions and warnings from Jesus on this topic.
Having ruminated over these lessons of Jesus, some other thoughts came to mind. When these stories of great generosity are broadcast, some readers of less means might argue, “Well, now I am off the hook; let the rich guys donate.” This mentality could give the person of less means an excuse to just withdraw his “mite.”
I have a hunch that fundraisers think “generous” stories will motivate others to do the same. It may motivate people of wealth, but think also of the downside—a loss of community. Focusing on the wealthier donors in the Christian community easily leads to disruption of community and builds barriers.
Just this morning, I read this insight from Blaise Pascal’s The Mind on Fire, “Noble deeds are most admirable when they are kept secret. For the finest thing about them is the attempt to keep them secret.” Is Pascal simply quoting Jesus, do you think?
Winnipeg church opposes military co-op program
Re: “Mennonite pastors oppose military co-op program,” March 5, page 25. The combined board of Spiritual Concerns and Deacons of Sargent Avenue Church has discussed the article and is very concerned about the issues that the article raises.
It is very disturbing to see the military embark on such an aggressive recruiting program in Essex County, Ont. Not only will the military shape the students’ thinking—the military propaganda machine is very powerful—it will also put students under moral obligation towards the military for the professional training they will receive. When we add to this the financial gain for students choosing to enroll, this program is alarming.
We are thankful for those who presented an opposing voice to the school board’s direction. Does this concern only the churches in Essex County? How should the larger Mennonite Church react to this issue?
The military profile is rising all around us. We, as a board, are very appreciative that Canadian Mennonite has published excerpts of MC Canada’s letter to the prime minister concerning the re-direction of the taxes that go to the military.
We hope these concerns will find discussion time in our churches and at the Abbotsford Assembly in July.
Wealth can become more important than faith
Will Braun’s article, “A complicated wealth,” May 14, page 10, made some interesting points about giving.
My wife is a member of a Mennonite church, which I attend with her. I did not come from a Mennonite background, but have admired Mennonites’ simple living and community. But as Braun pointed out, there seems to be a turning away from these values. The story of the widow is one example. This widow gave everything and trusted in God to provide. The rich people gave what was extra. The building of wealth in and of itself is not “bad,” but I find more and more the wealth becomes more important than faith.
CCP judge needs grammar lesson
I have enjoyed your publication since its inception and am not given to writing letters to the editor as a general rule. However, I could not help smiling at the irony appearing in the May 28 editorial, “An award-winning publication” on page 2: “The best writing never forgets who it is writing to.”
Here, the esteemed judge, in 10 words, makes a grammatical error and breaks a cardinal rule of good English. I refer, of course, to the use of “who” instead of “whom,” and the ending of a sentence with a preposition.
(The Canadian Press Stylebook, XI Edition, concurs with the grammatical error, but disagrees with the writer about what was once a “cardinal rule of good English,” stating, “If a preposition falls naturally at the end of the sentence, leave it there.” Ed.)
Aren’t all people God’s people?
In the “Finding new life in the Spirit” article in the May 14 Faith&Life section, Dave Rogalsky writes, “Even those who are already God’s people sometimes need experience and prodding to hear God in new ways.”
I always thought that, since God created heaven and Earth, all humans are God’s people, regardless. But according to the above, this is not the case.
Is it not blasphemous for a mortal to claim this knowledge—to know who is, or who is not, God’s people—since to determine this question would require omniscient knowledge?
A train to nowhere?
I left China the week the rail line to Tibet opened up. If I was a good journalist, I’d have been on that train to be part of making the roof of the world that much more accessible. But I’m not a good journalist and I was leaving the country behind after two years. Besides, I’d been to Tibet already.
But this train was all over the news. How it was pressurized and had oxygen tanks for people, the queues for tickets, and the benefit this would be for Tibet and its people. They wouldn’t be marginalized by their inaccessibility any more. They wouldn’t have to be backwards and poor—because they would be connected to the pulsing heart that is the Chinese economy.
When I went to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, I had to fly there. Even with that pre-railway layer of inaccessibility, it’s not like Lhasa was so different from any other backwater Chinese city—apart from the easily walkable area around Jokhang Square. The Jokhang temple is the centre of Tibetan Buddhism. Worshippers prostrated themselves with kneepads and mats to protect themselves from cold stone. Pilgrims walked around the temple, spinning prayer wheels and buying religious implements.
Walk a couple of blocks, however, and you can shop in the same chain stores that are everywhere in China. This could be a good thing. Many Chinese people seem to see it that way. Tibetans now have more access to the trappings of middle class life. They can wear parkas instead of wool smocks. Or buy an electric heater and not have to burn yak dung in the winter. Heck, western tourists can even buy Oreos!
Before the train connected them, all these goods were dangerously and expensively trucked in. Now the Tibetan consumers aren’t being neglected by the successful world just because they’re on top of a mountain!
And that’s sort of sad. I’m not saying I wish people were forced to starve or freeze to death. It’s really easy to romanticize a fading culture, and I’m not saying that if people would go back to mud-brick houses, everything would be better. What’s a shame is that a neglected mountain kingdom must become the same as downtown Beijing to be seen as developing.
The closer you get to the centre—which in China means the big coastal cities—the more religion becomes a novelty. The cities are where China’s middle and upper classes are growing. Young people are getting richer than their parents would ever have dreamed possible. What they feel they owe it to is “looking forward.” It’s the same kind of development that will put a McDonald’s in Lhasa before too long.
The Chinese college students I taught were very concerned with success. They were mostly farm kids who wanted to move up to the middle class life. For these kids, the English word used when talking about faith was “superstition.” “You can’t be superstitious and successful. Only stupid people are superstitious, and I don’t want to be stupid,” is how their line of thinking goes. They pointed to countless examples of ignorant peasants who were superstitious, and look what that got them—knee deep in human excrement, picking vegetables. It’s a difficult visual to argue with.
That’s not to say there isn’t a veneration of the past and tradition, but when it comes to religious things, they’re preserved for tourists, not necessarily for worshippers. Like the five blocks around the Jokhang temple. It feels like they’re part of a living museum for the developed middle classers to gawk at. “And this is what belief used to be,” they’d say. “Look at the crazy things those people did.”
There are places that are different, but they’re way out on the periphery, far from where most people want to end up. But one Friday, in a city far from the eyes of the emperor, my friend and I stood huddled behind a shoe-seller’s cart while people overflowed into the street from an ancient mosque—all facing west and praying.
But with a train connection to Beijing, how long will they survive?
To pledge or not to pledge
God, money and me
If you have ever assisted your church in planning an annual budget, you know how difficult it can be, especially when planning revenue amounts is reduced to guessing. Encouraging people to consider annual pledges not only helps with planning the budget, it fosters better ministry in the church.
Consider this scenario. It is Sunday morning with only a few weeks left before budget year-end. In the bulletin you read an announcement that says a major shortfall in giving is projected unless people open their wallets widely and soon! To ensure the severity of the situation is not lost on anyone, a member of the finance committee makes a pulpit announcement that morning of the impending “tale of woe.”
Sound familiar? Sundays like this make everyone squirm and for all the wrong reasons. It makes giving to the ministry of the church something that happens out of guilt, fear and probably a lack of planning.
Now consider this scenario. Several months before year-end you receive an invitation in your mailbox asking you to participate in the financial ministry of the church. “Just as God has shared blessings with you, you have the opportunity to share with the ministry of the church.” You are asked to prayerfully consider what you and your family would give to the church during the following year. The invitation goes on to highlight the various programs of your church and denominational body. It mentions missions programs your church is involved with and highlights ministry opportunities that could happen provided adequate funding is received.
Over the next few weeks the bulletin and pulpit announcements do not sound like doom and gloom for the church, but rather talk about mission and possibilities. The link between the mission of the church and the budget is clearly articulated. You are told of an upcoming Sunday when people will have opportunity to offer their completed pledge forms in a special offering of celebration. Your pledge information will be held in confidence and will be used only by those individuals given the task of drafting the church budget.
Ministry costs money. Good ministry costs more! If our churches are left to guess at annual revenue amounts for the coming year, planning for the future will always prove difficult and the ministry of our churches will never reach its full potential.
Breaking the bully cycle
Family ties
I was bullied as a kid. For me, this took the form of hitting, punching, humiliating words and tormenting threats to hurt my beloved cat.
According to Canadian researcher Deborah Peppler, one in 12 children is regularly harassed, one in five is bullied on occasion, and more than one in seven students admit to bullying. Some of you have been on the bullying end of a relationship. Maybe, like myself, you can see times when you were the target of bullying as well as times when you were the one who bullied or participated in the cruelty as a bystander. Sometimes adults gloss over abusive behaviour in children as “playing” or “normal” sibling rivalry. I find it helpful and healing to name it as bullying.
I carry at least two legacies from these experiences. First, I am fiercely sensitive and protective towards children who are being bullied.
Second, I am intrigued by the dynamics of bullying. Why does it happen? What motivates people to be cruel towards each other? These questions have led me to consider bullying in the church.
Drawing on material from school and workplace bullying, and church bullying information from Great Britain and New Zealand, I led a workshop on the topic last January. Sixty people showed up to talk about their experiences of bullying in the church. Some of our questions included: How does it happen that Christians—followers of Jesus who taught and modelled respect, compassion and self-giving love—encounter bullying in the church? How does it happen that Christians act like bullies? Or become tongue-tied bystanders seemingly powerless to confront such bullying?
Barbara Coloroso—writing about child and teen bullying in The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander—zeroes in on the hurtful nature of bullying. It happens in situations of power imbalance, she says. Bullies want to hurt the person whom they’re bullying. And the bullying tends to be repeated. One hopes that children could be safe and free from torment in schools. Families and churches, too, ought to be places where people are free from bullying, where each one’s voice is welcomed, and where each person listens to others—to respect and draw out their perspective even when it differs from their own.
When bullying is addressed in schools, things improve! Life gets better for the child being targeted, and bullies learn more effective ways to use their social power. The entire community becomes a kinder, more just and moral place.
The same thing can happen in our families and churches if we extrapolate from these school initiatives. Helpful strategies include naming bullying behaviours, creating codes of conduct and holding each other accountable to them, and cultivating respectful, assertive ways to disagree. Those who are bullying benefit from invitations—or expectations—to use their power to build up the body of Christ, rather than to control or destroy others.
With God’s grace, I have come a long way from the pale, nervous child who was bullied. My experience as a target of bullying drew me to a place of empathy. I consciously decided not to bully those younger or weaker than me, and I acted to break the cycle of violence. I marvel at the love I now share with those who bullied me as a child, a miracle of forgiveness and reconciliation.