Celeste Kennel-Shank’s flexible position on permitting abortion is outrageous and unthinkable (“To Strive for Life,” Living Simply column, Feb. 26). I joined the Mennonite church because I believe Jesus doesn’t want us to kill other people. The early church, like our Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, opposed war, abortion and the death penalty, without exceptions. If I believed abortion could be tolerated, why would I oppose war or the death penalty? Since the death penalty kills someone judged guilty of a crime, and abortion kills an innocent person, the wrongness of abortion is more obvious than the wrongness of the death penalty. Abortion is lethal discrimination against our unborn sisters and brothers. It is a form of domestic violence and child abuse.

Some Mennonites support war and the death penalty in spite of our position against these forms of violence. Many of them would admit they do not fully support our church’s peace position. However, many Mennonites who think abortion is acceptable consider themselves advocates of our church’s peace position. They are wrong. Since they are just as selectively homicidal as just war advocates, they are just as guilty of opposing our church’s peace position.

Jerry C. Stanaway
Villa Park, Ill.