A dove image often used by Mennonites symbolic of its peacemaking and nonviolent theology superimposed over the Divergent novel book cover. The tie-in to this book occurs at the end of the article 🙂
A number of recent articles from The Mennonite, an online publication of Mennonite Church USA, stoked the embers of my love for Mennonites/Anabaptists and the promise I think the movement holds for a transformative Christianity. I’ll briefly summarize them here and in the next article share my story of finding the Mennonite Church, including some context about Mennonite beliefs.
A Mennonite woman and teacher in the Kansas public school system was required under state law to certify that she is not taking part in any divestment or boycott activities of Israel (usually done in protest of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians). She worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to fight this in court, and at the time of the article won a court injunction against it.
A black Mennonite man shared some of his story of finding other people of color at a conference in the predominantly white (and might I add, peculiarly ethnic) Mennonite church, coming to a deeper realization that there is room for people like him in this particular Body of Christ.
Jess King, a Mennonite in Lancaster, PA is running for Congress. She worked in business and sustainable development to help combat poverty but saw that many systemic and policy issues were instead working to increase poverty.  She was motivated by her faith and its focus on love of neighbor to run for office, also saying she “doesn’t fit neatly into one party” and believes that the country’s “two-party system is ineffective.”
Glen Guyton is the new Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA and also wrote a great article about the future of the Mennonite Church based on the Divergent book trilogy. In the Divergent series, humanity is facing the task of rebuilding after some major un-named catastrophe and has split into five factions each based on a wholesome-sounding character trait. Yet there is conflict between the factions, and people who manifest multiple traits are labeled “divergent” and dangerous. Guyton writes that more divergent leaders and less factions are needed for the Mennonite Church. (Amen!)  In my view, Jesus is a shining example of divergence, something the institutional church has failed to grapple with.
This is a very important point. Just an hour ago, my aunt received a wedding invitation from a nephew, and learned his intended was black- a big surprise in this conservative branch of her Southern family. She is 96, and while she intends to welcome this young woman, also knows that even in 2018, this will cause an upheaval in the family. In short, our cultural prejudices continue to impact us in negative ways, despite the progress made in the last half century. And this in a family who calls themselves Christian. We need to talk about this out loud, over and over. The younger generation is my hope in this.
Hi Marma! I forgot to follow up on this – please do tell me more of this story next time we talk!