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

"They are useful to the state." An almost forgotten Prussian view of Mennonites, ca. 1780s-90s

In 1787 Mennonite interest for emigration was extremely strong outside the quasi independent City of Danzig in the Prussian annexed Marienwerder and Elbing regions. Even before the land scouts Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner had returned from Russia later that year, so many Mennonite exit applications had flooded offices that officials wrote Berlin in August 1787 for direction ( note 1a ). Initially officials did not see a problem: because Mennonites do not provide soldiers, the cantons lose nothing by their departure, and in fact benefit from the ten-percent tax imposed on financial assets leaving the state. Ludwig von Baczko (1756-1823), Professor of History at the Artillery Academy in Königsberg, East Prussia, was the general editor of a series that included a travelogue through Prussia written by a certain Karl Ephraim Nanke. Nanke had no special love for Mennonites, but was generally balanced in his judgements and based his now almost forgotten account of Mennonites on perso...

Russia: A Refuge for all True Christians Living in the Last Days

If only it were so. It was not only a fringe group of Russian Mennonites who believed that they were living the Last Days. This view was widely shared--though rejected by the minority conservative Kleine Gemeinde. In 1820 upon the recommendation of Rudnerweide (Frisian) Elder Franz Görz, the progressive and influential Mennonite leader Johann Cornies asked the Mennonite Tobias Voth (b. 1791) of Graudenz, Prussia to come and lead his Agricultural Association’s private high school in Ohrloff, in the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotschna. Voth understood this as nothing less than a divine call upon his life ( note 1; pic 3 ). In Ohrloff Voth grew not only a secondary school, but also a community lending library, book clubs, as well as mission prayer meetings, and Bible study evenings. Voth was the son of a Mennonite minister and his wife was raised Lutheran ( note 2 ). For some years, Voth had been strongly influenced by the warm, Pietist devotional fiction writings of Johann Heinrich Ju...

Why study and write about Russian Mennonite history?

David G. Rempel’s credentials as an historian of the Russian Mennonite story are impeccable—he was a mentor to James Urry in the 1980s, for example, which says it all. In 1974 Rempel wrote an article on Mennonite historical work for an issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review commemorating the arrival of Russian Mennonites to North America 100 years earlier ( note 1). In one section of the essay Rempel reflected on Mennonites’ general “lack of interest in their history,” and why they were so “exceedingly slow” in reflecting on their historic development in Russia with so little scholarly rigour. Rempel noted that he was not alone in this observation; some prominent Mennonites of his generation who had noted the same pointed an “extreme spirit of individualism” among Mennonites in Russia; the absence of Mennonite “authoritative voices,” both in and outside the church; the “relative indifference” of Mennonites to the past; “intellectual laziness” among many who do not wish to be distu...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (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 Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

The Jewish Colony (Judenplan) and its Mennonite Agriculturalists

Both Jews and Mennonites in Russia were dependent on separation, distinct external appearance, unique dialect, inner group cohesion, international familial networks, self-governing institutions, a sojourner mentality, sense of divine mission, and a view of the other as unclean or dangerous. Each had its distinct legal privileges, restrictions, and duties under the Tsar, and each looked out for their own. For both, moderation, spiritual values, family, learning and success were important, and their related dialects made communication possible. But the traditional occupation of eastern European Jews was as “middlemen” between the “overwhelmingly agricultural Christian population and various urban markets,” as peddlers, shopkeepers and suppliers of goods ( note 1 ). Jews were forbidden to stay for longer periods in German colonies or to erect houses or shops there. “If they try to stay, they are to be reported immediately. If they are not, the German mayor will be held responsible” ( no...

Flight from Flanders to Friesland

In the latter half of the sixteenth century Protestantism gradually spread throughout the northern Netherlands in the form of Calvinism—which had a direct impact on Anabaptists. When the Northern Provinces of the Netherlands led by the exiled Protestant Prince William of Orange went to war against Spain in 1568, persecution of Anabaptists in Catholic Flanders increased again. Long before the Protestant Northern Provinces would declare independence in 1581, the inquisition against Anabaptists in Bruges, for example, had achieved its goal. With the last two Anabaptist executions in the city in 1573, the once large and thriving Mennonite congregation was extinguished. Subsequently Mennonites lived in Bruges only on rare occasions, and when present, for only a short time, as for example the well-known art historian Karel van Mander in 1582 ( note 1 ). In the Northern Provinces Calvinism had become attractive theologically and politically. Not only was Christian resistance to tyrannical gov...

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor), 1932-1933

In 2008 the Canadian Parliament passed an act declaring the fourth Saturday in November as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (‘Holodomor’) Memorial Day” ( note 1 ). Southern Ukraine was arguably the worst affected region of the famine of 1932–33, where 30,000 to 40,000 Mennonites lived ( note 2 ). The number of famine-related deaths in Ukraine during this period are conservatively estimated at 3.5 million ( note 3 ). In the early 1930s Stalin feared growing “Ukrainian nationalism” and the possibility of “losing Ukraine” ( note 4 ). He was also suspicious of ethnic Poles and Germans—like Mennonites—in Ukraine, convinced of the “existence of an organized counter-revolutionary insurgent underground” in support of Ukrainian national independence ( note 5 ). Ukraine was targeted with a “lengthy schooling” designed to ruthlessly break the threat of Ukrainian nationalism and resistance, and this included Ukraine’s Mennonites (viewed simply as “Germans”). Various causes combined to bring on w...

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...

Non-Resistant Service: Forestry Camps

The 1902 photos are of the Mennonite Crimean Forestry ( Forstei ) “Commando” in the vineyards and orchards of southern Crimea on route to Yalta (" Gut [estate] Forroß"; note 1). The tasks for the units or commandos were to plant forests, lay out nurseries, and raise model orchards—work not directly or meaningfully connected to non-resistance, but deemed by the state as an acceptable alternative to state or military service. This non-combatant, alternative service program was the largest, most expensive and most formative, faith-based undertaking by Mennonites during the Mennonite "golden era" in Russia ( note 2 ). The first cohort of young men were chosen and sent for their term of alternative service in 1880: “On November 15 [1880] in Tokmak the first German youth were chosen [by lot] in the presence of the [Mennonite] district mayor and also of Elder A. Goerz. There, with singing and prayer, they beseeched the Lord for His mercy, which interested the Russian ...

"Between Monarchs" a lot can happen (like revolt). A Mennonite "Accession" Prayer for the Monarch

It is surprising for many to learn that Russian Mennonites sang the Russian national anthem "God save the Tsar" in special worship services ... frequently! We have a "Mennonite prayer" and sermon sample for the accession of the monarch ( Thronbesteigung ) or its anniversary, with closing prayer-- and another Mennonite sampler of a coronation ( Krönung ) prayer, sermon and closing prayer ( note 1 ). After 70 years with one monarch, the manual is made for a time like this--try sharing it with your Canadian Mennonite pastor ;) Technically there is no “between” monarchs: “The Queen is Dead. Long live the King!” But there is much that happens or can happen before the coronation of the new monarch. Including revolt. Mennonites in Molotschna had hosted Tsar Alexander I shortly before his death in 1825. Upon his death in December, Alexander's brother and heir Constantine declined succession, and prior to the coronation of the next brother Nicholas, some 3,000 rebel (mos...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog