What is the Church to Say? Letter 2 of 4 to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF

In a few short months the American government will start to fulfill its campaign promises to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. The responsible cabinet members have already been appointed. By early Spring 2025, Mennonite pastors/leaders who supported Trump will need to speak to and address the matter in their congregations. It will be difficult to find words. How might they prepare?

Sometimes a template from the past is helpful. To that end, I offer my summary of a text by retired Mennonite pastor and conference leader Gustav Kraemer. (There is a nice entry on him in the Mennonite Encyclopedia, GAMEO).

My summary is faithful to the German original, 1938. With only a few minor changes, it could be useful for the coming year. Adaptations are mostly in square brackets, with the key at the bottom of the post.

------

Retired [American] Pastor and conference leader [__] was invited by the Mennonite congregation [__] to speak on Mennonites and [America]. He structured his talk along the [MAGA] platform. He was preaching to the converted: “We” Mennonites, should have nothing less than deep gratitude and praise for the [President] who answered the call “to lead our people out of the darkest night and into the light of a new morning.”

Under the previous administration, millions of [Americans] were unemployed, without hope and destitute, Pastor [__] reminded the congregation. But now the economy is strengthening and [Americans] have work again. With the new [President], we have been spared the “hellish chaos of the radical left.” And [America] will no longer be taken advantage of by its enemies on the world stage either. We are strong again because of our [President] and his faith in a higher justice, in destiny, and in the [American] people, according to Pastor [__].

But [MAGA] is much more than a political and economic movement, the retired denominational leader told the congregation. It is a social and cultural movement in which virtue and values are rooted in [America]—the wellspring of the health and renewal of our families and people. Once again, young men will be trained to be clean, honest, hard-working, healthy, and close to nature. Our young [American] women too, rich or poor, will be not shy away from the high calling of motherhood. New maternal health regulations are designed “to promote” healthy childbearing in [America] and keep out “bad genes.” With the new [President], [America] is a new community of destiny with equal rights and responsibilities to the benefit of all hard-working [Americans].

The [swamp] is already being [drained]. Arts and media funding is being purged, no longer “dependent on the praise or ridicule of [woke] media bandits” or subject to “the defilement and devastations of perverse demons.” It will reflect the cultural heritage of all [Americans].

Our Mennonite divisions and our differences as [American] Christians too are yielding to the common destiny and goal of renewal in line with the [MAGA] platform, namely, to “defend the freedom for all religious denominations, provided they do not endanger the existence of the State or offend the concepts of decency and morality of the [American] way of life.”

In his address, Pastor [__] recognized that [undocumented immigrants] and their families are now being excluded from the new [America]. He reminded his listeners that any revolutionary movement like [MAGA] must take risks—in doing so, some errors will certainly be made. However, judgements should only be passed on the basis of the goals, highest desires, program, and direction of the [MAGA] movement. It is within that broader context and in view of the great crisis that [America] was facing under the previous regime that the “[undocumented immigrant] question” must be understood, according to Pastor [__]. In this regard the international media criticism of [America] has been one-sided for years; [Americans] suffered and no one said a word in the main-stream media. But now, suddenly, “if [undocumented immigrants] are somehow impacted,” they “know how to scream” according to what one [immigrant] told the pastor, and the “world press” takes notice. Again, no one highlighted the suffering [Americans] endured because of the [undocumented immigrants], many of whom are criminals.

Of course, there are “decent and base elements” in every community, including with the [undocumented immigrants]; “personal hatred against individual [undocumented immigrants]” cannot be what this about for Mennonites. Pastor [__] refused to endorse the claim that “every [undocumented immigrant] is a demon.” No, no! Nonetheless, the “fate” of individual illegal [immigrants] must be seen within the larger developments, intentions, and goals of [MAGA]. Its platform is not [anti-immigrant], according to Pastor [__], but [illegal immigrants] are crippling [Americans] and our businesses. Like “parasites,” [undocumented immigrants] have choked us economically. Whenever [undocumented immigrants] take a job, real [Americans] lose. [Illegal immigrants] have shown hatred and contempt towards all of us. They will do whatever it takes to suck benefits from [America]. [American]-Christian "idealism" once extended safety and hospitality to [undocumented immigrants], “but unfortunately without the desired results.” That our [open border] has been abused and misused is well-known, according to the pastor; the complaints and cries of those who [entered illegally] are full of political lies and “impudent mockery of all that is [American] and Christian.”

While Pastor [__] knows and respects many [Americans] whose parents or whose spouse is an [undocumented immigrant], and while he feels very sorry for their individual lot, he also understands that this “hard battle” to remove and expel them is necessary. The tone of this does not suit him; the “sound” of deportation does not make “for beautiful, harmonic music,” but it is necessary. At first, the new [anti-immigrant] laws “appeared very brutal and unjust to me too, but later I could appreciate that … in the ordering of this world, which of course is God’s order … we live as members of a community, in both good times and in bad.” And in this case too, the children are punished for the sin of the parents “to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7). The pain of exclusion will fall upon the decent and innocent individuals as well. [Undocumented immigrants] have sinned against a nation that offers hospitality. Again, the Mennonite pastor stated, he really is “very saddened for individuals” impacted, but what is necessary for [America], and the “private happiness” of the [undocumented immigrant] are two very different things. “Great floods engulf the guilty and the innocent alike in the life of a people,” the retired conference minister reminded the congregation. But in the case of [undocumented immigrants], it is mostly “evil seed sown that is now being reaped.”

This should be an important reminder to Christians who tend to focus piously on their own souls and the afterlife, and who define “kingdom work” very narrowly. Rather, we all do well to see in the intentions and work of our federal troops what they are really doing: “casting out demons” and creating space and form for the good, "just as Jesus did."

--Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

This is my summary of Pastor Gustav Kraemer’s text Wir und unsere Volksgemeinschaft (We [Mennonites] and our National Community). It was well received by the denominational chair, Elbing Pastor Emil Händiges, who recommended it to all churches.

I have only changed a few words from my original summary of the German (square brackets: Jew / undocumented immigrant; Nazim / MAGA; Führer/ President; Germany/America, etc). It is, however, faithful to the German text.

At the time, Kraemer was Pastor Emeritus of the Krefeld Mennonite Church. He delivered the guest presentation at the Heubuden Mennonite church in West Prussia, on January 25, 1938 in advance of the fifth anniversary of Hitler’s seizure of power (Jan. 30). It was published by the Krefeld congregation later in the year in time for the "Fifth Annual German Mennonite Gathering.” Here is the German original: https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/1938,%20Kraemer%20Wir%20und%20unsere%20Volksgemeinschaft/.

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "What is the Church to Say? Letter 2 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 14, 2024. https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2024/11/what-is-church-to-say-letter-2-of-4-to.html

Comments

Swiss and Palatinate Connections

Sometime after 1850 Andreas Plennert and his family immigrated to South Russia from the Culm Region of West Prussia. Though there was at least one Mennonite “Plehnert” who had already immigrated to Russia in 1793, it is not a very common Prussian-Russian Mennonite name. As such, however, it is easier to trace than many and offers a minority narrative and identity within the longer and broader Russian Mennonite story. The account below is adapted largely from information in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten , vol. 1, though I have expanded upon his work to offer a slightly different narrative. In 1724 there was a group of Mennonites forced out of the Memel region in East Prussia for political and religious reasons and were given assistance to resettle back to West Prussia in areas populated by Mennonites. Among the 23 households that went to the Stuhm region there is one Plenert listed, namely Christian Plenert. We know that Mennonites entered the Memel region ...

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2 is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

Snapshots of Danzig Mennonites, late 1600s & early 1700s

A picture can be worth a thousand words. We do not have photographs, but we have a few colour paintings of life in and around Danzig in the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as maps. We also have a limited number of "textual snapshots" of Mennonites at this time and place, which offer an instructive window into that foreign world. These snapshots of work, worship, health, education, community relationships, smaller repressions, and security can contribute to the creation of a larger collage of Mennonite life in Danzig and Polish Prussia. Snapshot 1 : In 1681 there were approximately 180 Mennonite families who lived in the “gardens” or villages outside Danzig, with 113 of those families within the jurisdiction of the city. At this time Mennonites were barred from owning houses within the walls of the city. Of these 113 family heads, we know: 43 were retailers of spirits, 24 merchants, 9 lacemakers, 7 dyers, 3 silk dyers, 3 pressers, 2 brokers, 2 treasurers, 2 waitresses, et...

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

Jews and Mennonites Together in Danzig's Suburbs

There has been very little reflection on the relationship of Jews and Mennonites in the suburb of Schottland (or Alt-Schottland or Stare Szkoty) where Mennonites first settled in the mid-1500s. Here Mennonites and Jews lived in the small community together for two centuries, quite literally on the margins outside the gates of the city of Danzig. Many historic maps that include Alt Schottland have become available in recent years ( note 1; pic ). H.G. Mannhardt’s book on the Danzig Mennonite church community plus some archival membership lists are our best sources for the Mennonite experience, while illustrations from the day bring many of those episodes of prosperity, repressions, war, plague, emigration, flooding etc. in an urban environment to life ( note 2 ). Peter J. Klassen’s writings on Mennonites in Poland and Prussia also present newer research on Mennonite life in and around Danzig in helpful ways ( note 3 ). There is one small sentence in Klassen’s larger volume that sugg...

Polish-Prussia? Royal Prussia? West Prussia? Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Notes for Clarification

The historical jurisdictions, names and political powers under which Mennonites lived since their arrival in lands that are today Poland are difficult to keep straight. However they are important for telling the story right. This post simply provides some notes for orientation with reference to the late sixteenth-century map below. Polish- or Royal Prussia comes into being with the defeat of Teutonic Knights by the Polish Crown in 1466. See the pink-shaded area of the map below. Ducal Prussia is a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland after 1525 (see stiped on map). In 1618, this duchy (voivodeship) is inherited by Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, who separated it from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1657. After 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg is the “King of Prussia” when in that territory. With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, it becomes East Prussia . By 1569 Polish- or Royal Prussia was fully integrated into Kingdom of Poland and part of the larger Polish-Lithuanian...

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle...

The Selbstschutz (Self-Defence Units) and Benjamin H. Unruh

Abram Kröker, editor of the Molotschna (South Russia/ Ukraine) -based Mennonite Friedensstimme , wrote that Mennonites are “predestined to foreshadow … even in an imperfect way, the great peace among nations in the Thousand-Year-Reign [of Christ].” And among all denominations, “it has pleased God,” according to Kröker, to “present and manifest” through the Mennonites this “pearl of evangelical truth gained at great cost by our fathers” ( note 1 ). And it is because of this theological hope and inheritance that “our youth are raised differently,” Kröker reminded his readers; “not military bravery or fighting are presented as the highest civic virtues, but rather sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others. In all our schools, non-resistance is explicitly taught and impressed [upon students] according to the Mennonite catechism” ( note 2 ). But taking up arms in self-defence was nuanced differently by his colleague and influential 37-year-old teacher and theologian Benja...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog