Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Home at Plett Foundation

in Latin America and police raids for drugs
are an almost daily occurrence in areas of the
Province where Mennonites are in the majority,
or is this somehow also the fault of the
Old Colonists?
Mennonites and Evangelicals
An editorial column in the July 4, 1998,
Globe and Mail referred to the immense hatred
against gays and lesbians spewing forth from
the religious right, the so-called Evangelicals.
The article brought forth the imagery of promiscuous
homosexuals indulging in wanton
behaviour noting that the glossolalia manifestations
of charismatics such as the so-called
Toronto Revival and/or the Vineyard Movement
frequently displayed on National Television,
are equally obscene and distasteful in the eyes
of the general public.
At the same time, the religious right, often
portrayed in the media as a spiritual support
group to the ultra right-wing political movement,
takes itself extremely seriously, claiming
not only to be the exclusive purveyor of truth
but also the sole arbiter of salvation, decreeing
all others, including other Christians, to
be “unsaved” heathen and dammed to eternal
Hell fire.
Nothing is more fascinating than the study
of the origin, evolution and development of
religious ideas and cultures. Mennonites have
had an ongoing love affair and fascination
with the Evangelical movement for the past
decades, and prior to that, a flirtation with
American Fundamentalism, Revivalism and
German Separatist-Pietism, in that order. It
is an eye-opener to examine these religious
cultures with all their variant subspecies, in an
attempt to understand their appeal.
Before going any further, there are always
those who say, the critical point is to separate
scripture from culture and, therefore, we must
abandon the Mennonite faith as it is articulated
by culture and not by scripture.
Such a statement is nonsense. No one, not
even the Apostles, could or can read the scripture
divorced from a historical and/or experiential
context. Typically such claims are made
by Evangelicals, and what they really mean is,
you can only get the “correct” understanding of
“The anti-communal premise of
Patrick Friesen’s “Shunning” is
only one small drop in this raging
storm surge of anti-communitarian
thinking.”
scripture by reading it from the perspective of
my particular cultural and historical heritage,
namely, Calvinist triumphalism.
To say that faith and culture can be separated
and experienced on two separate tracks
is about as valid as saying that faith and works
are separate and divisible entities.
What is it that has attracted so many to
the religious cultures of Fundamentalism and
“Calvinist religious ideas dovetailed
nicely with the concept of
laissez faire,...”
Evangelicalism which are often seen as fanatical
by main stream churches such as Catholic,
Anglican, United, Orthodox, etc? Certainly
Mennonites who have joined and/or adopted
the religious language and culture of Evangelicalism
tend to share one commonality, a great
ignorance both of the faith they have rejected
as well as the religion culture and language
they adopted.
It is important to distinguish here between
“evangelical” as in the sense of a faith articulated
by scripture, and “Evangelicalism” as in
a particular historical social movement and
religious culture which arose out of American
Fundamentalism during the 1950s and 60s.
Part of the difference between the two
religious cultures is explained by the ways
Mennonites and Evangelicals read and interpret
scripture. So-called Evangelicals trace
their interpretation to Calvin in Reformation
times where Paul was read as superseding the
Gospels. Fundamentalists held to a “flat” Bible
where all scripture had equal authority, thus
allowing for unlimited proof-texting--decide
what you want the Bible to say, and then find
a line-up of verses which can be massaged into
supporting that view. The decision is made, for
example, that the words in the Bible “Thou
shalt not kill” cannot be taken literally, and
then the Calvinist gurus go to work dreaming
up some contrivance to circumvent something
inherently foundational to the teachings of
Christ.
Mennonites, on the other hand, read the
Bible as “progressive revelation”, essentially
as documenting the unfolding of history, with
the Gospels, and Christ as the focal point. In
the case of apparent conflict, the Gospels were
accepted as paramount.
The two interpretations have resulted in
very different religious cultures. The Pauline
interpretation has resulted in a Calvinist triumphalism
as reflected in the Scofield Bible
which was the “Bible” of the Bible School
movement of the 1930s and 40s. As odd as
it may seem from today’s more tolerant perspective,
Scofield and his supporters actually
believed that the teachings of Christ were not
applicable in the present time (Scofield called
it the “church age”) and that in fact any attempt
to practice these teachings was sin, a form of
works-righteousness.
Scofield arrived at this startling conclusion
by a teaching called “dispensationalism”, the
result of which was that the Gospels were
dispensed with and only applicable in a future
age, after Christ’s Second Coming. Anyone
doubting this is referred to the 1967 edition of
the Scofield Bible published by Oxford University
Press, page 996. When Christ preached
(Matthew 4:17) that the “Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand”, Scofield explained it by stating
that “The Bible expression `at hand’ is never
a positive affirmation that the person or thing
said to be at hand will immediately appear...”
What is most amazing is not that someone
would write things like that, after all a crackpot
is born everyday, but that so many thousands
of Mennonites flocked to these teachings in the
1930 and 40s, as if Scofield had received new
tablets of stone on Mount Sinai.
The difference between Evangelical and
Mennonite religious culture can also be understood
in terms of a communitarian ethos
verses individual freedom. In the latter half of
the 19th century, the small “l” liberal philosophy
of John Stuart Mills and others permeated
Western European academia. Although initially
an economic teaching, as in the laissez faire
economy, these ideas were transferred to and
applied to other areas of life, including political,
religious, etc.
Any emphasis on individual liberties was
seen as a positive extension of laissez faire and,
in the converse, any attempt to promote communitarian
values was seen as evil and sinister.
Because the individual profit motive was seen
to be the best engine to drive the economy,
presumably the same concept would be equally
valuable in other areas.
This unstated premise of Patrick Friesen’s
“Shunning” is only one small drop in this raging
storm surge of anti-communitarian thinking
which enslaved the English-speaking world in
the 19th century. It was certainly a startling
concept for students of history, as the expanse
“The two religious cultures are
fundamentally and inherently
incompatible and in conflict with
each other.”
of time has demonstrated over and over that
the nations and communities that continued
to operate on a communitarian ethos, were the
most successful.
The obsession with individual liberties
and values has resulted in lawlessness and a
victim orientated society starting in our public
schools, glorifying disrespect for authority. As
libertarian ideas continue to eat away at the
core values of Western Civilization, the role
of communities is once again on the rise with
law-abiding citizens seeking refuge in gated
suburbs and even criminals flocking into gangs
for mutual protection.
Another difference between Mennonite and
Evangelical teachings is found in the view of
salvation. Calvinist religious ideas dovetailed
nicely with the concept of laissez faire, fostering
and accommodating the idea that salvation
was a subjective, internal and individual matter
between penitent and Saviour. Because the
Mennonite faith was articulated by a communitarian
ethos, they saw salvation as something
taking place through the community of saints,
namely, between God, His/Her people and the
penitent, within the context of a communitarian
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 13