Hugo Schwyzer

I know you aren’t all keeping up with the Mennonite Weekly Review, but two articles this week caught my eye.

James Schrag has a short editorial on “bridging the gap” between the antiwar and the pro-life movements (given that Mennonites are just about the only folks regularly to march for both causes). Here’s an excerpt:

Mennonites are prime candidates to bridge the gulf between the antiwar and antiabortion causes. Our pacifism grows from a desire to follow Jesus’ teachings fully. It is based on a conviction that it is always wrong to kill, not on an analysis of whether killing might be justified in a particular situation. Our antiwar position therefore has an affinity with the prolife movement, which is based on a similarly absolute conviction that human life is sacred.
Yet here’s where the tension arises: Each group views the other as inconsistent. “How can you claim to believe all life is sacred,” says the antiwar person, “if you don’t object to the killing of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?” The antiabortion person replies, “How can you claim to believe killing is always wrong if you don’t object to the destruction of life in the womb?”

The convenient thing about dwelling on other people’s inconsistencies is that it saves us from facing our own. Rather than denouncing the failings of others, people in both camps could more profitably search their own hearts and ask themselves: Ought I develop a stronger conviction against abortion? Ought I develop a stronger conviction against war?
We need to lay aside the attitude that says, “I won’t listen to you about war unless you agree with me about abortion,” or, “I won’t listen to you about abortion unless you agree with me about war.” This approach leaves everyone stuck in their own rut, tearing each other down.

And on a marginally lighter note, all Anabaptists should be troubled by this: UPN is proposing a new reality show, to be entitled “Amish in the City.” When I first became a Mennonite, I had to do a lot of explaining to folks who got us confused with our distant cousins, the Amish. Though most contemporary Mennonites live far more modern lives than the Amish, our theologies are still quite similar, both rooted in the 16th century “radical reformation”. So I feel a personal anguish when I hear that the Amish might become a subject for ridicule and exposure.

Here’s what the jack#@s who runs the network said: “To have people who don’t have television walk down Rodeo Drive and be freaked out by what they see, I think will be interesting television,” CBS chairman Leslie Moonves, who also oversees UPN, told the Associated Press. “It will not be denigrating to the Amish.”

Anabaptist historian and sociologist Donald Kraybill responded: “It’s really ridiculous for a whole host of reasons. I think it’s highly sensational and it sort of makes the assumption that the Amish are unenlightened, and that these other people are going to enlighten them, and then everyone’s going to laugh… It’s just really repulsive to me,” Kraybill said. “I think there could be a substantial movement against it, if someone would organize it.”