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

people against questionable theology and predator
sectarians by indoctrinating them early in
the precepts and conceptions of their own faith
and heritage. Give young people a primer in
the tactics and philosophy of religious predators
so they understand how they operate and
function. What are their techniques, their sales
pitches? Their nomenclature and language
should be analyzed and explained. What kind
of lies and falsehoods do they use to denigrate
the community they are targeting?
When challenged, “immunized” teenagers
will be in a better position to survive the
pitches of proselytizers, most of whom, it must
be remembered, are modelled on the most
clever sales strategies available to Corporate
America and Wall Street merchandising.
For example, some so-called Evangelicals,
the modern-day antecedents of Fundamentalists,
claim to be non-denominational or interdenominational
and that they have no theology
and/or culture, they only follow the Bible. This
has been characterized as the “nusch Gemeinde”,
or church without teachings.
This claim in and of itself would typically
characterize those propounding it as devout
Scofieldians, it being a favourite marketing
strategy. To assert that a particular Biblical
interpretation and/or religious culture takes
place or functions in a vacuum without historical
influences or theology is deceitful. Every
religious idea and practice has historical and
philosophical origins. Only the very naive will
be misled by such preposterous claims.
A much higher percentage of “inoculated”
young people will survive these onslaughts. In
many cases, if properly prepared, they will turn
the tables by being in a position to explain their
own more genuine faith and religious culture.
It will also give them a feeling of empowerment
and purpose.
Education and Culture.
In 1873 the Dominion government granted
Mennonite immigrants from Imperial Russia a
Privilegium to induce them to come to Canada.
This included the right to operate their schools
and to educate their children.
During the ethnic-cleansing measures of
the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments
of 1919 to 1926, these rights were heartlessly
abrogated and abolished. Ministers and teachers
such as Bernhard Toews (1863-1927),
Weidenfeld, West Reserve, were imprisoned
in Winnipeg on January 2, 1920, for exercising
the rights granted by the Dominion government
in 1873.
Some 10,000 conservatives Mennonites
were “exiled” or driven from Canada, seeking
refuge in Mexico and Paraguay. This was
a brainless measure costing the Canadian
taxpayer about 3 billion in lost annual gross
national product.
The Confessional schools were replaced
with district schools imposed by the force of
law, penalties and jail terms. A serious decline
in the literacy of Mennonites resulted,
two generations literate in neither English or
German and considering themselves second
class citizens.
One of the worst effects was that the
symbols of conservative Mennonite religious
culture could no longer be used in the schools
and were replaced by the symbols of the State
and dominant Anglo-Canadian culture.
Conservative Mennonite symbols were derided
and its languages--the Danziger High and
Prussian Plaut--were prohibited in the schools
and even the schoolyards. An entire generation
of Mennonite youths were educated to believe
that the forces of Anglo-conformity were good
and proper and that their own culture was inferior,
narrow, confining and backward.
Ironically the Hutterian Brethren educational
system in Manitoba was to encounter
some of the same problems as the confessional
schools of the conservative Mennonites in the
1920s.
Even though “outside” teachers in their
schools were expected to refrain from proselytization,
they could do immense damage by
using the symbols of the majority culture and
not those of the community. These symbols
modelled appropriate behaviour and tastes
while simultaneously suggesting to students
that their own cultural icons and paradigms
were of lesser worth.
The Hutterian Brethren in Manitoba have
now established a program whereby they train
their own teachers at the University of Brandon.
In this way they expect to enhance the
level of knowledge and literacy within their
communities and at the same time continue
to reinforce the norms of their own Gospelcentric
culture for their young people.
For the past three centuries conservative
Mennonites have realized the immense effect
which education can have on a religious culture.
Unfortunately they have made only limited
headway in developing their confessional
educational tradition in the area of secondary
education and teacher training.
Conclusion.
The forgoing are some thoughts regarding
the ongoing dilemma and paradox of faith
and culture.
Those who believe they can escape the embryo
of their religious culture by abandoning
Social Control.
Humour and other more subtle forms of social control are often employed by predator religious
cultures as important weapons in their arsenal.
The use of humour is best illustrated by an anecdote. After years of concerted effort, Diedrich
Harms, the Rudnerweider missions director, had finally persuaded poor Abram Friesen
from Cuauhtemoc to move away from the Mennonite community in Mexico and to settle in the
southern Manitoba Bible Belt among his fellow Evangelicals, and away from those “unsaved”
Old Colonists.
Some years later the Ohms in Mexico were discussing their former brother and wondering
how he was doing. Ohm Isaak was delegated to travel to Winkler to visit him. When he returned
to Cuauhtemoc, the other Ohms were very curious.
“How is Abram doing?” they asked eagerly.
“Oh,” said Ohm Isaak. “They’ve already convinced him to quit smoking but at least he’s
still honest.”
The foregoing illustrates the jokes sometimes heard around coffee shops in southern Manitoba.
The difference being that the jokes are invariably told about the Kanadier returnees (especially
Mexican Mennonites) by assimilated Mennonites and often by those who have converted themselves
to Evangelical Fundamentalism. The jokes invariably portray the Kanadier as stupid,
closed-minded, immoral, unsaved, crude and ignorant and their leaders as corrupt and evil. In
reality such jokes are not funny - they are tasteless, absolutely false, racist in content and based
on nothing less than bigoted stereotypes.
An example of social control used by predator religious cultures to establish cultural dominance
over conservative Mennonites is found in obituaries of those brought to faith in conservative
Mennonite Gemeinden but later induced to convert themselves to Evangelical Fundamentalist
denominations. Such obituaries invariably go to considerable length to note that coming to faith
by the Timothy (II Tim. 1:5-7) or Zacchaeus (Luke 19:9) models are not recognized as valid but
that conversion to the man-made doctrines and Calvinistic traditions of Evangelical Fundamentalism
is genuine. Each time such an obituary is published the point is painfully driven home to
conservative Mennonite relatives of the deceased that coming to faith and making a commitment
to follow Jesus and to obey His teachings is deemed not to be a valid conversion but that only in
adopting Evangelical Fundamentalist religious tradition is real salvation to be found.
This is not to suggest that such actions and conduct are always motivated by cold-hearted
spite and manipulative cultural imperialism - indeed, they are invariably camouflaged in the
language of genuine pastoral concern. But to the eye of the unpartisan observer, it does appear
that adherents of Evangelical Fundamentalism are so deeply radicalized by their triumphalistic
religious culture that they no longer realize how hurtful and spiteful such actions can be.
The end result of such techniques is that the Kanadier - and particularly their youth - are
made to feel ashamed of who they are and about their heritage. Many children of Kanadier
returnees go into a denial mode relative to their background as a coping mechanism. In far too
many cases, adherents of predator religious cultures are successfully able to instill animosity
and disdain for their parental roots.
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 19