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2008-04-01 issue:

Pay debt to MPH retirees

by Carl L. Smeltzer, Harrisonburg, Va.

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I have waited a long time to write this letter because I wish history was different. I refer to two sad chapters in our publishing history. The first chapter is dramatically written in the book Bless the Lord, O My Soul. It deals with the publishing work of John F. Funk (my mother’s minister for a time). Funk had many misfortunes. One misfortune was that he was promised a $500 (“as long as [he] lived … whether he did anything or not”) annual pension and part payment of the publication from the early predecessor of Mennonite Publishing Network. He lived more than 20 years more. The way I read it, Funk received one payment of $500, later reduced to $200 paid once. “So $700 was the total amount Funk ever received personally for the sale of all his publications,” says the book. He never wanted to talk about it the rest of his life.

The second sad chapter is that some of the retirees from Mennonite Publishing House have never gotten their full payment. Some months ago it was happily published that the Mennonite Publishing Network was out of debt (“A Debt Repayment Milestone and Challenge,” Ron Rempel, Sept. 18, 2007). I don’t think so. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another,” says Romans 13:8 (NIV). I urge that we pay the outstanding debt to the MPH retirees. It is too late to pay our debt to brother Funk. But as I read that chapter in his biography, I had a great deal of sadness, even tears. Maybe that chapter should be read by the members of the board of Mennonite Publishing Network. Peace to us all. We are all in it together.