Preservings $20 Issue No. 26, 2006 - Home at Plett Foundation

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Colony Church groups, to new homes in Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay and in a great many cases back to Canada again, have left these people at a tremendous disadvantage. A large percentage are functionally illiterate. U of M geographer Leonard Sawatzky estimates as many as 70 percent or more have been leaving their schools without an ability to read and write. Virtually all of their learning has been rote. Their language skills in the language of the countries in Latin America that they live in are so poor that they cannot adequately deal with the societies around them and their institutions. The Mennonites of Cuauhtemoc, one of the most progressive groups among the Mennonite in Mexico, created a credit union of which they are justifiably proud. Yet virtually all of the staff other than the management are Spanish. Old Colony villages could not supply the staff. And the culture created in the colonies would not encourage young Mennonite women to work in such a setting. The social problems among the conservative groups are great. A note in a recent issue of the Mennonitische Post suggested that as many as 50 percent of the young people in Mexico are experimenting with drugs. Alcoholism is a major problem. The rebellion of the young people takes forms that indicate the limited horizons with which the communities struggle. Racing and spinning circles with half-tons, drinking, experimenting with drugs, engaging in sexual activity (incest is a serious problem, says a well-known anthropologist who knows the colonies well), are some. The church, on the other hand, has often discouraged young people from gathering to sing choruses and hymns, to conduct Bible studies or to carry on with organized sports, because these weren’t done in the past. Because the church has embraced retaining the practices of the past as one of its key values, for many Old Colony churches virtually any change becomes almost impossible. Though a good many have already made changes against church wishes, rubber tires were wrong because they made travelling into the city easier. Electricity was wrong because it connected the community to the world. Anyone who wasn’t part of the church community was a part of the world, even other Mennonites. People who left Mexico for Canada, even if they joined Old Colony churches here, or went to groups in Mexico, were excommunicated, causing great pain and in many cases leaving people here unable to join anywhere. In Bolivia, where some of the colonies have struggled very hard to survive, individual farmers have had to give up trying to succeed on their landholdings. A recent issue of the Mennonitische Post states that “dozens” had been ex-communicated by their church leaders for going to work for Bolivians, because that too is against church teaching. They can’t work for “people of the world.” Studies have shown too that because of their rapid growth (the 7000-8000 who left Canada in the 1920s now have probably 140,000 descendants) more and more of the people in Mexico and Bolivia are landless. Their population has doubled every 15 years and a bit. If world population had grown at the same rate, we would have 30 billion people on the planet. That is part of the reason many have returned to Canada. Even the land once held by small landholders is increasingly moving into the hands of large landholders. Thus it is curious that even though in numerous places and in Diese Steine too (pp229, 248) Plett refers to an Abraham F. Thiessen, who advocated for the landless in Russia and was exiled to Siberia for his efforts, where it concerns the landless now, he is curiously silent. Where Thiessen is concerned, Plett is quite ready to reproach Mennonite society for not acknowledging Thiessen’s critique. But he cannot somehow concede that the Old Colony church might be contributing to the problem today. He can’t see how the very attitudes and practices he praises might be creating the problems for which he has so roundly condemned the mainstream Mennonite leadership in Russia. Indeed, he has even criticized MCC for the work it has done in Mexico as it has attempted to address exactly such needs. Summary of church history Plett has become so convinced of his own interpretation of the truth among Mennonites that he even provides us with a summary of the history of the church from its early beginnings, writing it so that it will reinforce his view that the Old Colony and Kleinegemeinde Mennonites represent true “evangelical Christianity” while others somehow represent a corruption of that faith. As a result he has arrived at a number of very strange conclusions. (Again, one would not be terribly concerned if he wasn’t making such an effort to feed this into conservative Mennonite communities in Mexico and elsewhere where it will only serve to perpetuate what have been highly damaging perspectives.) It has many very misleading statements. Just a few will suffice to illustrate. For example, he tries to define what he is says is the “evangelisch-zentrischen Glauben” [the evangel-centred faith] of the conservative Mennonites in contrast to the “Evangelikelen- -einer bestimmten amerikanischen ethnokulturellen religioesen Bewegung” [Evangelicals- -a certain American ethno-cultural religious movement]. The one, he argues represents true biblical Christianity and the other is something ethno-cultural and clearly a deviation from the faith of the early Christian church. One does not need to argue that everything about North American evangelical Christianity is okay in order to see the nonsense in what Plett is claiming. If anything has characterized American evangelicalism it has been its willingness to embrace people of many ethnic backgrounds. No other Christian movement worldwide in the last half century has been as effective in bringing new people into the household of Christian faith as evangelicalism. In many places individual churches often have people of dozens of different nationalities. It surely takes a huge twist of logic to put people who have literally fled from those of other backgrounds forward as a model of evangelical Christianity while writing off evangelicalism as a narrow “ethno-cultural movement.” Another example. Plett picks on the famous Scopes “monkey trial” of the ‘20s to try to illustrate the obscurantism of fundamentalism and its offspring evangelicalism, to which, he writes, Mennonite groups like the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference and the Evangelical Mennonite Conference have succumbed, but the Mexican Mennonites didn’t (p632). The implication would be that Mexican Mennonites would have been on the side of the angels in the Scopes trial, would not have embraced a six day creation, could have accepted evolutionary origins, etc., etc. Many of the criticisms that Plett levels at contemporary evangelicalism could be accepted if he had the ability to temper his language or make distinctions between voices or groups, or if he had the honesty to acknowledge the serious problems in his conservative colony Mennonite backyard. But he constantly demonizes the one while lauding the other. Targets in the persons of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jack Van Impe, Jerry Falwell or Hal Lindsey and others are huge. But they are only a part of the story. If some have embraced aberrations because of their preoccupation with prophecy, their over-readiness to support Israel, their leaning toward success theologies and consumerism, their militarism, or their easy acceptance of cultural norms, others have moved in quite different directions. These have given themselves and their resources gladly for a world in need, they’ve learned to use the media responsibly to convey a witness for Christ and the gospel, they’ve begun countless ministries to respond to the needs of their world, they’ve built schools, and they’ve welcomed large numbers of people into the household of faith. This balance is missing in Plett’s writings and notably in Diese Steine too. By haranguing and assaulting the Pietist, evangelical influences as he does and in turn exalting the Old Colony- Kleine Gemeinde teaching and practice, he is doing the Old Colony people in particular a great disservice. Their needs are so great and so urgent that one could reasonably argue that his flood of publications are harming the Old Colony people more than they’re helping. They are obscuring what should be a great concern to the entire Mennonite church family. And that is the tragedy. Last revision: Harold Jantz February 6, 2006 The writer is former editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald and founding editor of Christian Week, a national evangelical newspaper. He also serves on the board of Mennonite Central Committee Canada. Response Since Delbert Plett is gone, and not able to respond, let me make a few comments. Harold, in your letter you raise some good 100 - Preservings No. 26, 2006
questions that deserve consideration. Delbert himself, was interested in divergent views, and solicited them, even if he did not always accept them. You are right in observing that Plett wrote history with a particular bias, and presented an interpretation that many people within the pietist/evangelical orientation found grating. The reason why Plett wrote from such a strong anti-evangelical view point was because he felt that most Mennonite history had been written from a strong anti-conservative bias, and he wanted to correct the imbalance. Your letter itself reflects some of the imbalance of previous historians, against which Plett wrote. In the discussion of Mennonites in Russia, you say that, “Yet it is quite unlikely that renewal would have come to Russian Mennonites without the influence of Pietism.” This statement is a value judgment written from within the Pietist stream. It negatively judges those who were not Pietist, and ignores their genuine efforts of reform and renewal. Subsequent parts of the letter characterize the conservatives as narrow, ethnic, and closed. The letter makes little attempt to understand them from within their own perspective. In the latter part of the letter, in the discussion of the Old Colonists and Kleine Gemeinde in Latin America, their faults are lifted out. You discuss them from the standpoint of an evangelical outsider, noting their failures and weaknesses. However, little attempt is made to see their genuine strengths. Essentially, from this letter I gather that your main problem with Plett is not that Plett criticizes the evangelicals, nor that he sees the conservatives through rose-coloured glasses, nor that he tries to correct an imbalance of historical interpretations. Your primary problem with Plett is that you are unwilling to accept Plett’s view that the conservatives’ understanding of faith in Jesus Christ is legitimate and genuine. Is this view not arrogant and self-righteous? If you would be willing to acknowledge that the conservatives’ view of being Christian is a valid biblical view, then fruitful discussions about problems and weaknesses in both the pietist/evangelical and conservative churches could be undertaken. Then the questions and problems that you legitimately raise about the Old Colony Churches in Mexico and elsewhere, could be discussed, not within a context where one side is assumed to be right and the other wrong, one Christian and the other false, but where both can learn from each other. - John J. Friesen, co-editor. ________________ To the Board of the D.F Plett Historical Foundation, It is very difficult for me to write this email. I have tried to “cool-off” for about two weeks now but every time I open the December 2005 issue of Preservings, my temperature rises. Here’s my ‘BEEF’: Several years ago, I was approached by the late Mr. Delbert Plett about writing an article about Faith Mission (FriedensBote) Inc for the Preservings paper. I did submit my article and some pictures to Mr. Plett. I don’t remember exactly what all transpired but I do remember several telephone conversations with the late Mr. Plett where we discussed Faith Mission, our purpose, our activities here in Canada as well as our mission in the FSU. I thought we were off to a good start but after I had submitted my article to Delbert, he rewrote most of it, adding information which he assumed to be correct and changing the wording to suit his “extreme conservative views.” After proof-reading the final copy, I again discussed some of these discrepancies with Mr. Plett, hoping to get him to correct the copy to the original meanings as I had written them. However I soon realized that he was not prepared to make these changes so I told him, in no uncertain terms, that we did not want any part in his Preservings. We did not want the Faith Mission name to appear in the paper. I also mentioned at that time that we as the Old Colony Church of Manitoba would not be offended at all if we would not receive any more of his “Free Literature.” (It was at this time that we came across some small tracts from Delbert. I do not know what it was called, but I believe it was about some Mexican young people going to their Bishop for some spiritual help.) I know that the leadership in the Old Colony Church was very disappointed about this false teaching. Well, you are probably wondering what was wrong with his version of the article. To start off, Delbert always came back to the fact of the “Old Colony” - Faith Mission. I told him, again and again, that Faith Mission had absolutely nothing to do with the Old Colony Church. We have a five man Board of Directors. Yes, three are from the Old Colony Church, one Sommerfeld Mennonite Church member, and one Reinland Mennonite Church. We are incorporated as a separate charity with no church affiliation in our by-laws. Another issue I had with Delbert was about the way he always managed to glorify the Old Colony Church, no matter where it was, in Manitoba, Mexico, Bolivia, or wherever. I am a member of the Old Colony Church of Manitoba and I know for a fact that our church has as many, if not more, problems than any other church. Delbert was also one of those extreme traditional legalists who believed that we can not have assurance of salvation as the Bible teaches. They believe we can only live by the hope that we shall be with Jesus in eternity. (I understand Delbert did feel the joy of the assurance of salvation just before he passed away. Praise the Lord!) Now for the current issue that we need to rectify! Where did you get your facts as printed on page 20 of the December 2005 Preservings? Did you dig them out of the back of Delbert’s filing cabinet or garbage bin? It looks to me like some of this is possibly from the same information that I threw out a number of years ago. However, I have a couple of questions: (1) Who is ‘another well-informed source in Winkler?’ (2) Where are the seven Old Colony Congregations in Canada? (3) Please provide the scripture reference that makes “it clear that affusion is THE biblical mode” of baptism. (I know that we, the Old Colony use this mode but to me the Bible has never been very “clear” in defining one mode over another.) (3) Yes, we do distribute our humanitarian Aid through the Baptist churches of Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Moldova, etc. but the teaching and preaching of the EChBc of the FSU is much closer to the teaching and preaching of the Old Colony church here in Canada than any ‘Mennonite’ mission abroad that we know of. We have been richly blessed and honoured to be able to work with them for the last 15 years. (4) You mention that ‘something seems to be wrong.’ I agree something is wrong. I would suggest the ‘WRONG’ as being page 20 in the December 2005 Preservings. The whole article was obviously written to stir up controversy. We, the Faith Mission Board would like to sit down with ‘some’ of the Preservings Board of Directors and discuss this misleading information. Possibly we could agree on something positive about the work that Faith Mission is doing. Yours sincerely, Jake M. Elias - Manager of Operations Faith Mission (FriedensBote) Inc. Winkler, Manitoba Response by Abe Rempel, Winkler John Friesen, co-editor of Preservings, asked me to respond to the email since I am a board member on the D.F. Plett Historical Research Foundation, which publishes Preservings. I am also from the Winkler area, thus making me somewhat more familiar with the situation. First, Elias mentions that every time he reads this article, his temperature rises. This presumably means that he is angry or upset, because of remarks made by a different person. This is not a Christian attitude, as the Bible teaches us to be meek, patient, and refrain from anger. One of the duties of the Plett Foundation Board is to continue the publication of Preservings. The attempt is to provide interesting reading material, with most of it having a link to the conservative Mennonites who migrated to Canada in the 1870s. In the past, numerous articles and books have been written about the conservative Mennonites, portraying their way of life. However, many authors wrote very negative articles about them, and the positive side was ignored or overlooked. This was a concern of Delbert Plett, and he felt the positive must also be exposed. There is still considerable interest for the Preservings, as inquiries have been coming in regarding the publication of the next issue. However, if there are some churches on our mailing list not interested in receiving it, then we should remove them from our mailing list. The Bible teaches in Matthew 7:11, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” To use statements that these who live in hope and trust of receiving eternal life “are extreme traditional legalists,” is very judgmental. We know that if our faith will Preservings No. 26, 2006 - 101
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~ A Journal of the D. F. Plett Hist
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D.F. Plett Foundation Names Executi
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Interior of the church in Witmarsum
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An engraving of Menno Simons by Pie
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this first wave of persecution. Som
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The Frisian-Flemish Division Causes
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practice actually prevailed, such a
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Inter-church conversations with the
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concerning the Points of the Christ
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to their children, for all inherita
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Hamburg (after 1641 the Danish mona
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Dutch-Flemish Words in Mennonite Lo
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Henkel und Deckel. goblet, mug with
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According to definition, any means
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The history of Mennonites in Amster
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Rembrandt van Rijn 1606-1956 . Van
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Wife of Cornelis Claesz Anslo. Deta
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Some Rembrandts In America John F.
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Biographies Aeltester Johann Loeppk
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Old Colony delegates to Mexico in t
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Old Colony Mennonites departing to
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give heed first to the son, then th
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Tribute to Aeltester Herman J. Buec
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mass emigration. In 1872 Jansen pub
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Page 53 and 54: Hamm Family Journals Translated by
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Page 59 and 60: The Wiebe Family. Grandmother came
Page 61 and 62: The Von Stauffenbergs and the Klass
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Page 85 and 86: Another Look at the Creation-Evolut
Page 87 and 88: Hutterite Life Hutterite Christmas
Page 89 and 90: Graduation Address At The Oak River
Page 91 and 92: Our Christmas Wonder by Linda Maend
Page 93 and 94: Mennonitische Forschungsstelle Gary
Page 95 and 96: For the 3,000 dead in the fall of t
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