There is not a single extant Christian author before Constantine (in the fourth century) who said killing or joining the military by Christians is ever legitimate. Whenever the surviving Christian texts...
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EDMONTON, Alta. — Each week, a little band of disciples known as Edmonton Christian Life Community Church meets at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, where many homeless people congregate. The...
[read more]After being charged for alleged solicitation of prostitution in January 2019 in Fresno, Calif., a Mennonite Brethren leader resigned from a conference leadership position and withdrew from another. Gary Wall,...
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JEPARA, Indonesia — Harjo Suyitno uses a traditional Indonesian art form to portray the concept that everything in the world is under the authority of Christ. His wood carving at the Mennonite church in...
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Another Mennonite denominational publication is ending. Beacon, the monthly magazine of CMC, is going out of print at the end of the year. The CMC Publication and Literature Committee made the announcement in...
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When Alisha and I and our son, Asher, moved to Barcelona, many things didn’t make the cut in our attempt to “leave all things behind” and follow Jesus. However, Martyrs Mirror was never on the chopping...
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An acquaintance said to me, “Another year is almost over. Christmas will soon be here. I can’t get into the spirit with all the divisiveness around me. When will it stop?” She was expressing what many...
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This autumn I participated in a retreat for CMC overseers and bishops in Columbus, Ohio. Serving on a panel, I and others were asked to share our vision for CMC, a 13,000-member association of Mennonites...
[read more]The second commandment God etched in stone warned the Israelites not to imagine what God looked like. There must be no “graven image” of Yahweh. Israel’s invisible God would permit no idols. The rule...
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After Major League Baseball’s regular season ended, Erik Kratz played fall baseball in a different kind of world series. Representing Team USA as the starting catcher, Kratz was part of an effort that came...
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After hearing a series of sermons on Jonah, I’ve started seeing this reluctant prophet in unexpected places. Jonah used to be safely confined to a wooden puzzle at my Aunt Ruth’s. You removed the big fish...
[read more]Thank you, Eldon Claassen, for your Nov. 11 letter condemning the murder of the unborn child. Followers of Jesus Christ must speak out in behalf of those who do not have a voice. The Mennonite church has been...
[read more]As a Franconia Mennonite Conference native, I was deeply gratified to read that the decades-long effort to reconcile with Eastern District Conference will be completed in 2020. When I was born in 1937, the...
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This column is a combined effort by my fiance and me, written before our wedding on Nov. 23. Ivan: I like to read; therefore I get a few book catalogs. One day I noticed an ad for a new book, Anything But...
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Does America have a problem with pain? Specifically, do we have a problem with coping with pain? Perhaps with managing pain? And if so, does this problem lie at the very root of our widespread addictions? This...
[read more]Ronald J. Sider’s attempt to rationalize genocide in the Hebrew Scriptures (“Jesus and the Old Testament on Killing,” Nov. 25) is just that, rationalization. Theologian Marcus Borg writes: “The Jewish...
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WINNIPEG, Man. — Over the span of a single weekend, Sean Goerzen sang or played every hymn in Hymnal: A Worship Book. All 658 of them. “I feel like I know the hymnal in a very intimate way now,” he said...
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In the first three lessons of this quarter, we looked at how 1 Chronicles 15-17 presents kingship and the temple in ancient Israel. Now we turn to a story that seems to stand in contrast with David and...
[read more]The U.S. Conferences of Mennonite Brethren Churches submitted a letter on Nov. 8 to the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service, affirming “many of the convictions” that other...
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“I did not give you a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” So wrote Paul to Timothy (2 Tim. 1:7). The church doesn’t believe this, or so it seems. It rarely talks about...
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Advent is a season of patience and reflection, even confession and tears. It is a time of observing, watching, staying awake. The Isaiah texts that mark this year’s Advent scriptures are anything but quiet....
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NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Bethel College avoided probation in November when it learned its accrediting body chose instead to put the college “on notice” due to concerns about its financial health and...
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