RESPONSE AND LETTERS

Response

Michael A. King’s comments on anger in "Kingsview" in the Winter 2003 issue of DreamSeeker Magazine stirred some rumblings for me. More often than not (way more often than not), I squelch the beginnings of red-hot feelings as quickly as possible. Better to do that than to let them come out in unseemly ways, right?

Michael’s identification of his own anger and the possibility that some of it might be healthy gives me hope for handling anger in my own life. And even within the church, could it be that anger, even toward wrongs within our own community, can be channeled as "well-aimed rage"?

In addressing "denominational organizations" and "ideologues," however, could it be that Michael has settled for feelings of anger when he could take more meaningful steps toward change or correcting his own misperceptions?

Reading Michael’s comments, I find myself caught between my own anti-establishment self-image and the realization that I am now a denominational bureaucrat. The young man who marched and lived in urban communities has grown older and is in a denominational role working hard to hold the pieces together in our new church.

Michael did not name particular situations in his critique. However, Mennonite Church USA, to which a good many readers of DSM no doubt belong, is a small denomination, not an impersonal, faceless entity. It’s our congregations, conferences, and agencies. Most of us touch these institutions in very direct ways, or know people who do. Thus I couldn’t help but read Michael’s concerns with specific examples in my mind. When trouble hits the church, the half-truths and the not-quite-the-whole-story stories can be frustrating.

For example, have workers been trampled over at Mennonite Publishing House, where many employees were downsized? Or were difficult decisions forced by lack of financial support from the church? Has Eastern Mennonite University, which asked its faculty to reaffirm the MCUSA confession of faith, outlawed dissent? Or have university leaders tried to honestly respond to the constituency they represent? Has Mennonite Mutual Aid, along with other church agencies and bodies, disregarded mutual aid by refusing to insure some at-risk individuals? Or have they managed to salvage an insurance program for our pastors?

It all depends on how you tell the story and the preconceptions you choose to honor when telling it. In actuality, there is usually truth at both poles and at many points in between.

Mennonite Church USA—all the parts of a new denominational entity organized within recent years from older denominational bodies—is beginning to take shape. As it does so, we need to give voice to our concerns and misgivings. We also need to support and encourage the leaders of our congregations, conferences, and agencies.

I need to learn to express my own anger more often, even as I serve the denomination. Between the realities and challenges of institutional responsibilities is the role of the prophet I too often overlook.

Others, too, need to express their anger when warranted. They also need to talk to those who have more information and to those able to make needed changes. In each of the institutions mentioned above (and in others that may perhaps more accurately reflect Michael’s concerns), there are people working hard to follow God’s leading and to create a network of relationships that can benefit the whole church.

Yes, Michael and others stirred to anger, the church—whether the denomination is Mennonite or another—does not always get it right. But you are part of that church. Don’t settle just for anger when you can get involved in your congregation, conference, and churchwide agencies. Help the church make the decisions that will make us more truly Christian and Anabaptist in our institutional styles and that will help make us a more just, healthy, and faithful church. When justified, the church deserves our anger. And it deserves even more.

—J. Ron Byler, Elkhart, Indiana,
is Associate Executive Director, Mennnonite Church USA Executive Board.

Letters

Dear Editors, Dreamseeker Magazine online has been a tremendous blessing and inspiration to us since our discovery of it.

Thank you so o o much for the fine choice of subjects, especially your concern for the mental health of our friends, and how we need to be there for them. The article "Show Up" (Summer 2002) was so encouraging to us. Keep up the good work. Blessings to you in this ministry.
—Jim Herr, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Dear Editors: I received my first issue of DreamSeeker Magazine (Winter 2003) and have read it, cover to cover. I particularly liked "The Enigma of Anger," by Garret Keizer and Michael King’s response, "What Amos Might Rant about Today." I understand Michael’s strong attraction to the Keizer article. The powerful storm is a stunning event when compared to the almost insignificant source of previous anger. We tend to rant about things that don't really matter when there is injustice of unbelievable magnitude all around us.

I also liked the poem "Dinnertime," by Tina Swartz Burkholder, very, very much. So many dinners entangled with so many memories! The format is pleasing. Here's to many more issues. Don't forget to include things that make us laugh.
—Dorothy Cutrell, Deland, Florida