How to become a non mission driven universality
The monthly posting of the Declaration of Mennonites for the Preservation of Religious Diversity:
We are Mennonites who oppose Christian evangelism programs and other forms of religious proselytizing. Sharing one’s journey with an interested inquirer is fine, as long as the initiative comes from the inquirer and efforts to proselytize are off the table. But it is unethical, in our view, to approach folks who haven’t solicited your input and try to get them to trade in their religion for yours. We ask missionaries this question: How would you feel if people from other religions moved into your neighborhoods and tried to convert you and your children?
We love human diversity and seek to preserve it. We think the world would be poorer if all adherents of other religions were converted to Christianity. Therefore, we reject mission boards and mission agencies, no matter how well-meaning they claim to be. “Charity work” performed under the banner of “missions” always has proselytization as part of its agenda, and therefore is not true charity at all. “Mission work” under the banner of “charity” is more insidious, because it amounts to proselytization by subterfuge. Sending “teachers” to Asia who are really missionaries-in-disguise is shady churchwork.
We contend that proselytizing non-Christians was not part of the original Anabaptist program. When the Anabaptists went out and invited people to join their movement, they were addressing fellow members of the Catholic community. Their goal was to radicalize fellow Christians, not to convert Jews or Turks or other outsiders. Most Anabaptists were advocates of religious liberty for everyone. Felix Manz, for example, said people of other faiths should be left undisturbed to practice as they saw fit. While Anabaptists were seeking freedom of belief and freedom of association for themselves, they believed non-Christians should be able to enjoy those freedoms as well.
We are universalists. In our view, everyone who has ever lived gets a seat at the celestial banquet table. We reject the notion of a vengeful deity. We do so using the reasoning powers that God gave us. For us the concept of eternal punishment is irrational. How can pacifists believe in a God who would torture her own children? How could any empathetic person enjoy the afterlife knowing friends and family are in torment? We assert, with Anabaptist leader Hans Denck, that compassion and mercy are God’s defining attributes. Any teachings or texts that contradict these attributes carry no weight with us.
We reject the authenticity of the so-called “Great Commission.” We just don’t think Jesus said it, because:
1. Statements attributed to the post-crucifixion Jesus must be called into question, for obvious reasons. Every version of the Commission in the gospels was supposedly uttered by him after coming back from the dead.
2. The global scope of the Commission is contradicted by Jesus’s instructions in Matthew 10:5-6 to steer clear of Gentiles. The activities of the historical Jesus did not extend beyond Israel.
3. In Mark, the Commission is found in the “Marcan appendix” (16:9-20), which wasn’t part of the original version of Mark. In other words, the earliest version of the earliest gospel did not contain the Commission.
4. Jesus’s brother James (head of the Jesus community in Jerusalem) didn’t know about a mandate to reach Gentiles. If Jesus told the disciples to “make followers of all nations,” wouldn’t his brother know about it? Sure he would. Thus, the impulse behind the Commission didn’t come from Jesus, but from the early churches.
2. The global scope of the Commission is contradicted by Jesus’s instructions in Matthew 10:5-6 to steer clear of Gentiles. The activities of the historical Jesus did not extend beyond Israel.
3. In Mark, the Commission is found in the “Marcan appendix” (16:9-20), which wasn’t part of the original version of Mark. In other words, the earliest version of the earliest gospel did not contain the Commission.
4. Jesus’s brother James (head of the Jesus community in Jerusalem) didn’t know about a mandate to reach Gentiles. If Jesus told the disciples to “make followers of all nations,” wouldn’t his brother know about it? Sure he would. Thus, the impulse behind the Commission didn’t come from Jesus, but from the early churches.
We are people who’ve come to know and love folks from many paths: Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sufi, Native American, and more. We recognize the common qualities that make religions more alike than different: compassion, mercy, empathy, humility, forgiveness, generosity, etc. These qualities, no matter where they’re found, emanate from the same place: The Source of All Truth and Beauty in the Universe.
Therefore, we call on Christian missionaries to:
1. Renounce the doctrine of eternal punishment as inconsistent with God’s mercy and compassion.
2. Change their mandate from “conversion of the masses” to “the preservation of mass diversity.”3. Make amends to people harmed by missionizing practices, including “missionary kids.”
4. Send representatives around the globe to investigate the truth and beauty in other religions, and bring new insights back for the edification of folks at home. Without proselytizing.
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A publication of the Marginal Mennonite Society Tract & Propaganda Department. Last revised December 25, 2019. Written by Charlie Kraybill, MMS Page Administrator.
46You, Margaret Bywater, Hank Fay and 43 others
10 comments
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Barbara Richardson-Todd Me too. I am a quaker but find much in these too
Doug Hamilton This is Quakerly in its way and very profound. Thanks for sharing this.
“We are Mennonites who oppose Christian evangelism programs and other forms of religious proselytizing.”
Nathan Shroyer We just may consider sharing how Way has been opened for our faith when we were invited and interchanged with our testimony of community and equality. If we also are truly in Simplicity, Integrity, and Peaceful existence it’s true that a creation based in Christ may rise from these good ideas and right sharing
46You, Margaret Bywater, Hank Fay and 43 others
10 comments
View 4 more comments
Barbara Richardson-Todd Me too. I am a quaker but find much in these too
Doug Hamilton This is Quakerly in its way and very profound. Thanks for sharing this.
“We are Mennonites who oppose Christian evangelism programs and other forms of religious proselytizing.”
Nathan Shroyer We just may consider sharing how Way has been opened for our faith when we were invited and interchanged with our testimony of community and equality. If we also are truly in Simplicity, Integrity, and Peaceful existence it’s true that a creation based in Christ may rise from these good ideas and right sharing
