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2008-02-05 issue:

Don’t water down martyr-tested tradition

by Joseph Yoder, Middlebury, Ind.

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Chad Mason’s argument that we “end cannibalism in Mennonite churches” was convoluted to say the least (“Mennonite but Not Anabaptist”). What would he have us change first, our Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective or the Bible?

I applaud Mason in his ecumenical quest to bring the body of Christ closer together, but I fail to see how public baptism made on a person’s confession of Christ to those who were baptized—on the less-than-biblical infant baptism—is being rude to Catholics. I also fail to see how this is “predation and cannibalism.”

A matter that needs more attention is the insistence of closed Communion by our Catholic brothers and sisters. In northern Indiana, a group of Mennonites and Catholics are working together on issues such as peace and service. Catholics and Mennonites have much to offer each other from our distinctive Christian traditions. But watering down our biblical, martyr-tested tradition of voluntary adult baptism is not what Mennonites need to hear at this vulnerable juncture of our history. Incidentally, I’m writing this on the birth date of the Anabaptist movement, Jan 21, 1525, when some courageous radicals in Zurich refuted infant baptism by baptizing each other.

Associated Issue: Mennonite but not Anabaptist - Jan. 8, 2008

Associated Article: Mennonite but not Anabaptist