BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo — The 12 new toilets at Institute Katuze Secondary School do more than prevent disease better than the two old pit toilets they replaced. They also reduce violence and...
[read more]
In 2016 and 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region was devastated by an armed conflict. Rebel militias gathered around a traditional chief, Kamuina Nsapu, to fight against the central...
[read more]
Peter started out as a man of delusional hope. Paul began as a man of irrational fear. Both are parables for our time. The role of tens of thousands of Christians in the election of the current president of...
[read more]Statements of regret, confession and grief for harm done to LGBTQ people punctuate the report of the Membership Guidelines Advisory Group. Mennonite Church USA policies “have done violence to the...
[read more]
Mennonites in Mexico are promoting a bright new Christmas tradition — one born of somber origins. The “Parade of Lights,” a nighttime procession of decorated vehicles and holiday party that took place on...
[read more]
In Matthew’s story of Jesus’ arrest, the most relevant part for “creating peace” is obviously when one of the disciples pulls out his sword and starts swinging. Then Jesus says: “Put your sword back...
[read more]
Violent protests and political turmoil in Haiti have prompted several Mennonite Central Committee workers to leave the country as the unrest interrupts work and causes safety concerns. MCC representative...
[read more]
Back-to-back murderous acts of gun violence left at least 29 dead and 53 injured in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 3-4. Many Americans want to help but feel helpless to do so. One doesn’t have to...
[read more]
BRANTFORD, Ont. — How do you repair a disaster 142 years in the making? For Mennonite Disaster Service Canada and Mennonite Central Committee, it will happen one desk, one table and one bench at a time. This...
[read more]
We write as victims of violence, who know the trauma inflicted by evil people who target the “other.” As the pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and the rabbi of the New Light Synagogue in...
[read more]
A Congolese army colonel has been arrested in connection to the death of a Mennonite United Nations investigator. Michael J. Sharp and fellow U.N. sanctions monitor Zaida Catalán of Sweden were abducted and...
[read more]
BOGOTA, Colombia — The group stood in a prayer circle, holding hands. Some of the hands, figuratively, were likely bloody. They were the hands of guerrillas — high-ranking, longtime members of FARC, the...
[read more]Weapons have no place in churches, whether they are carried by someone concerned with harm or with self-defense. Followers of the God of peace are right to indicate this in a visible way. It is true that a...
[read more]In “Evangelical Evolution” (North of the 49th, Nov. 5), John Longhurst points out that evangelicals have not always opposed abortion. Their evolution on this issue is a positive thing. Martin Luther and...
[read more]“You can’t imagine how it is to be hated,” wrote David Koehn and William Frantz, Mennonite pacifist conscripts at Camp Greenleaf in Georgia, during World War I. Can’t we? Compassion compels us to...
[read more]
First Mennonite Church of San Francisco found itself in a unique position to offer support to a Jewish community shaken by the Oct. 27 shooting that killed 11 people and wounded six at Tree of Life synagogue...
[read more]
In a few days we’ll observe Thanksgiving. We will pause to thank our Creator for the blessings we have received. But some of us may ask: How can we give thanks in the midst of animosity? In the United...
[read more]
“Woman’s Protest Exposes Cruel Political Ploy.” This could be a headline for the present day or for the story of Rizpah. We don’t hear much about Rizpah. Her perplexing narrative is found in 2 Sam....
[read more]
After seven years, a suspect has been arrested and charged for the 2011 murder of Goshen (Ind.) College biology professor James Miller. Elkhart County prosecutor Vicki Becker announced Oct. 30 that Winston...
[read more]
NEWTON, Kan. — As Mennonites gathered in a church basement Oct. 27 to discuss how they might respond to a shooter in their church, cell phones buzzed with news of a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The...
[read more]
Throughout this year a group of us within Mennonite Church USA has been meeting to discuss Mennonite and Jewish relations. We are pastors, scholars and laypeople. Some of us work for Mennonite agencies and...
[read more]
Women in Odessa, Kherson, Zaporozhe, Dnipro and Kiev adorn themselves in the colors and fragrances of happy gardens that belie Ukraine’s brutal history. Men without shirts in the villages of what had been...
[read more]
While on the faculty of Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., J. Lawrence Burkholder participated in an integration effort on March 31, 1964, in Saint Augustine, Fla., which made headlines in newspapers...
[read more]
In 2015, the Delegate Assembly of MC USA passed the Churchwide Statement on Sexual Abuse. It says: “We lament that sexual abuse exists not only in our society but also within our own homes, congregations and...
[read more]
The good news is human beings are a lot less violent today than at any other time in human history. The bad news is religion has been — and continues to be — a major contributor to violence. Those are a...
[read more]
