Anabaptist Witness in a Postmodern Society: A Canadian Case Study

Titus F. Guenther

Assistant Professor of Theology and Missions, Canadian Mennonite Bible College

As the one presenter from Canada this morning, I shall speak about the reality I am more familiar with. As will become apparent, Canadians do claim a distinctive culture for themselves, although that distinctiveness is threatened and may be fading for reasons that are related to today's postmodernist cultural tendencies. However, in speaking about Anabaptist/Mennonite mission in postmodern Canadian society, I am of course not suggesting that Canadian Mennonite (or other) churches are superior to those in the U.S.¹ I am sure the US Mennonite churches are facing the challenge of postmodernism with equal courage to that of the Canadian counterparts.

For my discussion on Anabaptist evangelism in postmodern society, I shall assume the postmodern categories or values which I presented to you last night in point form, namely, a) the rejection of universal knowledge and values, b) the local community as the only referent for (local) moral values, c) difference and uniqueness only (not commonalities) is celebrated, d) the "atomization" of human existence that disallows the sharing of meaningful experience and leads to insulation and life without meaning, e) absolutisation of today's pluralistic relativism, and f) the secular "cultural myths" of "individualism, materialism, militarism, and a worldview which denies the reality of anything beyond the grasp of the five senses and reason."²

More or less in contrast to these values are the following dimensions of the Anabaptist confessional, cross-cultural witness—cross-cultural also in relation to our own majority culture in that the church is an alternative culture in society. This witness fosters indigenization of the Gospel but connects the local community of believers to the larger, worldwide church, is unapologetically Christian, and celebrates both difference and works at sameness. This witness is dialogical and not coercive, is voluntarist and non-imperialistic, and believes with Bartolome de Las Casas that the only right way of doing missions is the peaceable way, whereby peace must go hand in hand with justice.

While postmodernism presents certain dangers to the Christian life, Mennonite churches do welcome the greater opportunities which postmodernism is offering them, at the same time, for the churches to present more openly their confessional witness as a way of life in society, for which believers' churches have always been striving.

If I may anticipate already, many Canadian churches regard the witness to their culture as a holistic exercise. For them the challenge of witnessing in postmodern society is closely related to Canada's relations with the international community as well as to the social services (or lack thereof) in their own country and its cities. For opposing the onslaught of the negative trends in postmodern society, our churches are using, among other means, the positive heritage of our history and culture, discerned from our faith perspective.

In terms of procedure, I shall lean on Douglas Hall's recent, profound analysis of Canadian culture for developing a critical overview of the Canadian reality in which our churches are called to give an account of the hope we have in us (1 Pet. 3:15).³ Thereby a number of pernicious aspects of postmodernism will become apparent.

Following this I will briefly look at how the Mennonite churches in Canada⁴ respond to this postmodern society, that is, how they are attempting to "live confessionally" in their socio-cultural contexts. Their mission efforts are being pursued on a number of levels, both within and beyond the church, as well as at home and abroad.

Clearly, since the witness of the church is related equally to the spiritual and material well-being of society and the nation(s), church renewal and evangelism may not ignore cultural and economic ailment caused by postmodern trends. Jesus' program for his ministry was centrally concerned with the well-being of the poor. The poor and downtrodden, the captives and the sick of our time, may not be indifferent to our evangelistic efforts either.

Douglas Hall sketches some of the postmodern trends in his lecture with a view to both global and the national dynamics. His topic was, "What Can the Canadian Churches Do for Canada Today, and Why Should They?" He admitted there is "less and less—alas!" that "is distinctive about Canadian culture." This is hardly surprising to him, since "nearly 90% of the television Canadians watch comes directly from the U.S.A."—quite a cost-savings for the nation!

The problem is however that Canadians end up knowing more about George Washington than about John A. MacDonald or Sir Wilfred Laurier; are better versed in the gossip from the White House than about our own homespun gossip from Parliament Hill (p. 57). The church's task then may be to ensure that the memory of our distinctive Canadian cultural heritage, however much or little, be preserved and passed on to new generations.

Hall is well aware that the real threat to Canada's cultural uniqueness, resulting from its location next to the "American empire," is not due to malice of the US people or its government. Like many Canadians, he has experienced the warm friendship of people south of the border. But there is no getting around it: living next to a neighbour 10-times your size is rather powerful. Hall is convinced that our "otherness" holds out valuable contributions to the global society and the wider church. Thus it is vital to nurture the good in our culture.

Hall presents three areas of distinctively Canadian culture, rooted in "the historical, cultural and religious experiences that created Canada in the first place," but which may soon be swept away by globalization if not carefully nurtured (p. 57). These are: social consciousness, hospitality towards difference, and the capacity for critical thought.

Our distinctive culture traits have to do with Canada's geography and historical development. Geographically, its vast landmass is situated between a cold, hard place (Northern Shield) and the empire. To say it with Hall:

For both historical and geographic reasons, there developed in Canada, rather early on, a cooperative social consciousness that militates against the crass individualism of the capitalist approach that dominates the public spirit of the United States and grows increasingly militant in Canada today (p. 57).

From the vulnerable existence in the pioneering years in Canada's cruel vastness, only sparsely populated, sprang a spirit of cooperation. In time it developed into Canada's remarkable "social safety net" that has been the envy of many nations, even the US. It consisted of a fairly well rounded net of social services, crowned by the exemplary medicare system—threatened by increasing capital interest after the Free Trade Agreement.

It should be noted that our social consciousness did not result from spontaneous generosity; rather it was a necessity for survival. Canadians realized early on that "only through solidarity would we be able to survive," states Hall.

But with the conditions gone which gave birth to things like medicare, many present-day urban Canadians (susceptible to the evolving postmodern cultural myth) tend to take social safety for granted but feel little responsibility to help keep it going for others if this requires personal sacrifice.

Since the creation of the social safety net was powerfully driven by churches to begin with, our churches must counteract the spirit of consumerism and individualism, coupled with the spiritualization and privatization of the gospel. If Canada's popular religious movement must look to the USA for inspiration, challenges Hall, why not imitate communities like Sojourners for whom spirituality and social commitment are integrated, rather than taking their cue from "the Christian Right" of popular religion in the US? Canada's churches should remember that in the Gospels the individual and the social parts of life are totally intertwined, and that a healthy private morality without a "serious social ethic" is not possible.

This quality of embracing cultural and ethnic difference in Canada is again deeply rooted in our history. Canada never was a "melting pot,"⁵ boiling all cultures down to one. Again this attitude of welcoming many cultures—Icelanders, Ukrainians, Chinese, Haitians, Italians, German Mennonites, Hispanics, etc.—into one Canada, all preceded already by the 50 or so First Nations cultures, was at first necessary if the nation was to survive. Hall takes the concept of "hospitality" in the biblical sense rather than in the sense of "inclusivity." Its biblical practice "takes seriously the 'otherness' of the others; it lets them be who they are, does not try to 'include' them in some preconceived image of what . . . Canadians should be" (p. 58f.).

In terms of history, Canada has not one but "two founding peoples, with original people[s] present and active from the outset of our history and still today" (p. 59). The Anglo heritage has been dominant since the early 1800s, but the original francophone legacy has continuously influenced and qualified Canadian culture. People far beyond the province of Quebec enroll their children in French Immersion in schools, which results in many youngsters growing up bilingual (a precondition for many posts in the civil service).

In Canada, accidentally and/or intentionally,

Two different, and indeed—in the European situation—frequently quarrelling peoples, French and British, have managed, and (let us please note!) with far less difficulty than might have been the case, to live together, and to create between them a country that is, at its best, the envy of many of the planet's inhabitants. Through the fact of being two founding cultures, the very idea of such co-existence of peoples is built into our root experience. Historically we have always known the difference within our borders; geographically, we have been large enough to let various peoples live and develop the cultures that are indigenous to their origins, while benefiting from and contributing to the common good. And we are the richer for it—culturally (Hall, p. 59).

Thus Canada can be called a "'first international nation': a nation where representatives from various peoples of the world could demonstrate to the rest of the world that difference need not mean segregation, morbid suspicion, and continual violence" (p. 59).

It would be dishonest to suggest that this trait of Canada's bi- or multi-culturalism is secure and easy. Au contraire, it is gravely endangered from within and without: 1) Within, in keeping with the postmodern trend towards atomization: many Canadians now stress particularity to the exclusion of the "other" in the diversity-rich federation; 2) Without: economically and technologically driven globalization threatens to strangle all diversity, without of course frontally attacking it (cf. Hall, p. 59).

What can churches do about this? They can help Canadians remember that the church has almost 2000 years of experience in "living the life of plurality in unity." The church is like "one body [with] many members; one vine [with] many branches, one gospel, many cultures." Hall is convinced that the Christian churches have the "ethical mandate" of helping the peoples of Canada to "recover and develop further [their] native capacity for hospitality towards difference" (p. 60).

Churches must help Canada's people to realize that it is not only our inherent duty to the francophone culture (or the other cultures in our midst) that we cherish and preserve it. It is more. It is perhaps our best insurance against today's threat of global homogenization of all cultures and nations. Hall says it best:

For Quebec is unique . . . and, what is more important, the uniqueness of francophone culture within this country is absolutely necessary for the preservation of Canadian distinctiveness. Perhaps the greatest bulwark against the monoculture of technological society, emanating as it does, chiefly, from our nearest foreign neighbour, is the presence in Canada of a well-rooted and self-conscious francophone population, whose very language provides, if not insulation, at least a kind of barrier against a total captivation of the national soul by economic and cultural globalism and sameness (Hall 1997:60).

Hall is even more emphatic in declaring: "But let us make no mistake: our [Canadian] distinctiveness . . . is gravely threatened; and without the francophone component it would be threatened, I think, almost beyond endurance" (p. 60; my emphasis).

Clearly, Hall does not advocate a "wild-eyed" nationalism. But to him it is imperative that Christians and their nations must treasure and cultivate the precious heritage resulting from their unique "nature and history" if we would keep life meaningful and contribute to the life in the community of nations. If we do this then "Canada can be a force for peace, justice and understanding within the community of nations" (p. 60). Canada has in fact been such a force in recent times, e.g., in its international peacekeeping efforts and by keeping up relations with countries like Cuba when the US was shunning it. If Hall were giving that talk now, he would surely add Lloyd Axworthy's successful efforts in producing "a treaty signed by some 90 countries in Ottawa last December," a multinational agreement "banning anti-personnel land mines, which indiscriminately kill an estimated 26,000 people worldwide every year."⁶

While the initiative for banning land mines by Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Lloyd Axworthy, (and his courageous action on behalf of Cuba) remains admirable, it is rather puzzling how the Canadian government could give in to the US's bullying tactics towards Iraq just months later (early 1998) and authorize the sending of a Canadian warship to the scene of conflict, thus giving moral support to the "genocidal" trade embargo against that beleaguered country.⁷

Here we shall not go into so much detail. Because Canadians have always had to struggle for survival, we have developed a culture of critical thinking. Threatening our survival and our independence, again, are the merciless Canadian Shield (symbolic of the harshest of climates) and the US empire. Over time, through first hand experience and frequent second hand observation of how the US empire deals with other nations, Canadians are less prone to "illusory dreams of utopians" than are US citizens. Rather Canadians have become "reluctant realists," who look "at the world with eyes wide open" and who devise "practical schemes for living and coping." According to Hall, "Canadians are far more hesitant" than US people "to embrace: nation, institutions, way of life, the future—yes, and also religion" (p. 61).

Again Hall urges churches to keep this commendable habit alive. It is "gravely under [siege] today," he asserts, as we are being conditioned to "mindless, thoughtless, unquestioning submissiveness" by the dictates of consumerism or by a generic religion that calls itself simply "Christian" (p. 61). By what means are we being conditioned? Hall declares:

The medium by which Canadians are most influenced—television, before which the average Canadian, by statistics, spends a full nine years of his or her life—does not cater to thought, . . . Its mode of persuasion is sheer conditioning (p. 61).

TV tells us which products to buy, which politicians to support, and how to see the world. In short, it is really the corporations behind the TV ads who aim, successfully, at instilling in us a hunger for things, rather than critical thought or concern for social justice.

This blending out of the concern for social issues is already becoming a reality. In his talk, "The Rise and Fall of Social Justice," Stephen Lewis, former NDP leader, notes that "Social justice is no longer at the heart of political debate; fiscal policy is."⁸ Lewis expresses concern about the "worldwide spread of 'Reagan/Thatcher economics,' with its mania for budget balancing and frenzy of cost cutting." Our impressive "social infrastructure . . . including unemployment insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, and health insurance" are being eroded steadily since 1980, notes Lewis, and specifies: "In Canada . . . which only a few years ago pledged to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000, one million children live below the poverty line and in wrenchingly desperate circumstances" (Ibid.). Also on child poverty, Garry Loewen, of Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba, states: "Canada has the second-highest rate of child poverty among industrialized countries, second only to the U.S. In 1997, one in five Canadian children lived in poverty, an increase of almost 50 per cent since the beginning of the decade." Then more generally: "Food bank use in urban centres has increased as much as sevenfold in seven years."⁹

Can Christian churches then avoid seeking to revive and exercise these critical faculties, so that we can take a responsible stand in the international community, and at home? But what should Canadian churches do a) to maintain, build up, and renew their fellowships, and b) to extend their churches in the postmodern cultural climate. And how do Canadian Mennonites relate to the postmodern Canadian society sketched by Doug Hall and Stephen Lewis? In short, how do believers' churches credibly present a confessional witness as a way of life in society?

I expect a sizable number of Canada's 114,000 Mennonites would readily agree with this assessment of the trends and challenges these critics identify for us. Mennonites would agree that uncritical use of the media leads to consumerism and materialism, which erode our Christian values and make us forget our transcendent source and destiny as well as our neighbour in need; they would also agree that justice and peace and well-being require both prayer and hard work;¹⁰ require that we counter the trend toward selfish gratification and profit and instead reach out in service to those in need; that we ought to be "nationalistic" and culture-affirming in the good sense of these terms, preserving our heritage for our own good and that of others.¹¹ If I may borrow from an unpublished article by Jack Suderman, grace needs a structure from which to operate in human life, which may consist of any of the societal structures when these are used in a way that is conducive to the fullness of life. The chief social expression of grace of course takes place in the concrete life of the church when it is faithful to its calling in and for the world.

However, our churches, while conscious of and engaged in the national and global community, would translate Hall's concern further into local communities also. In fact, we could look at the lived witness of Mennonites in Canada on the levels of equipping and building up existing conference churches through Christian worship and education, on the one hand, and mission through service, relief, and development at home and abroad, on the other hand.

Many Mennonites in Canada would agree with Hall that the churches should call society and its leaders to responsibility: namely, to resolutely oppose the postmodern trend toward social atomization through a growing individualism, consumerism, materialism, and now a renewed militarism. There were many who sent protest letters to people in government during the renewed threat of war against Iraq early this year. Mennonites would agree that the churches must urge society to return to and mend the torn "social security net," lest the increased suffering of the impoverished sector become unbearable.

Poverty must and can be reduced through "fairer global trading systems, creating more jobs, increasing supports for the unemployed, raising minimum wages, developing fairer tax policies, and increasing skill development programs [all of which] would make strides toward the community of shalom which Jesus calls us to," Loewen writes (Ibid., p. 12f.). These changes we ask not just of governments. We as employers, investors, and consumers all have ethical choices to make that can speed up greater justice and lead a human community of shalom and the wholeness of creation.

When the churches exercise this role in their nations, such actions are to a great extent symbolic, perhaps "sacramental," actions of living confessional Christian lives in postmodern society. They are however "real signs" of the coming of God's rule of true peace with justice, "real" in that they offer a real experience of the abundant life and "signs" in that they are more promise than fulfillment.

Notes

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