Elkhart, Ind., November 10, 1880

Dear brother and family…

Oh, I tell you, I was so caught up in this election. My whole family was, I guess. My husband, Abraham (they call him A.K. down at the publishing house) has campaigned for the Republicans since the 1860 presidential campaign! His brother, John (yes, the famous John F. Funk), was campaigning back then, too, for the Republican’s “Wide Awake” club. But ever since he was ordained in ’65, he hasn’t voted. Our Mennonite ministers aren’t supposed to vote.

Here in Indiana and the rest of the Midwest, the Mennonite people are real hesitant about voting. Much more so than back in Pennsylvania where the Funks and Landises came from.
The conservatives argue that we are to be separate from the world, and “what can be more worldly than politics?” “True followers of Christ confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, for they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” “The way of governments is not the way for Christians.” They say that to elect someone else to use the oath and wield the sword is just as bad as using them ourselves.

So, over in Ohio, the “old” Mennonites are only allowed to vote for the road supervisor, the director of the poor, the school director and the postmaster. And they don’t want their members “mingling in politics.” Heavens, they think the parades and debates and barbeques are pure hoopla, “an idolatrous Babel business.”

Well, I disagree. I quite enjoy seeing the community come together at the picnics and marches. It’s exciting and a good cause, too. I agree that Christians shouldn’t participate in war or violence, but why can’t we use the vote to spread peace principles?

We Mennonites are simply not as separate from our world as some like to think we are. We are citizens of our communities—many of us leaders, and we take advantage of much that our communities offer. We can’t just refuse to help set the direction of our towns and counties and nation!

Besides, if we believe that God instituted government for the good of people, and we live in a democracy where we are the government, isn’t it our duty to help our government do the things God instituted it to do? We Christians can do a lot, through the government as well as outside it, to improve the condition of our fellowman, to promote Christian order and justice and the reign of peace. Goodness, with all the drunkenness in our land, we certainly can vote to promote more Christian behavior.

I’m sure some Mennonites and Amish have voted since colonial times. But we’ve never been very vocal about it, maybe because the church frowned on it. But things have been changing lately. There have been more issues that matter to us—slavery, war, prohibition, the tremendous needs of our cities.

And we Mennonites are changing, too. We’re more in touch with people outside our own church group. And the Mennonites who have been arriving from Russia in the last few years have always elected their own governments. Most of them see voting here in the United States as a way to witness and be the “salt of the earth.” “Good voters make for good government,” they say. So nowadays, the leaders are a little more reluctant to tell us that we shouldn’t vote at all! Of course, they still don’t all agree.

Why, just a few years ago, a minister from Franconia wrote to my brother-in-law John F. and said that his people liked the Herald of Truth but they didn’t want to see any articles against voting! In Virginia, they said they preferred that members not be involved in politics, “but if they desire to vote let them do so peaceably and quietly.”

But here in Indiana, we had one leader advising us to “stand aloof” from politics and by no means to take on party names. So to find a careful path through all these views, my brother-in-law has been suggesting that Mennonites should either not vote at all or vote without party divisions.

He has to say that now that he’s a church leader. But back in the 50s, he used to denounce Democrats for the “accursed demon of slavery.” His father Jacob Sr., my father-in-law, used to call them the “traitors” of Bucks County!

I don’t know of many Mennonites who aren’t Republican, especially back in Pennsylvania. Why? For me, the Republican policies seem best for our economic future, and they were against slavery, like us, when many of us began to vote.

But around here, there must be more Mennonites who vote Democratic. When our Indiana conference was discouraging us from voting, they gave all the theological arguments, then said, “besides, Mennonites are so politically divided that their votes merely cancel each other!”

Oh my, look at the time. I must get back to my letter to brother, but first I had better finish supper. I’m making bean soup tonight, one of my little daughter Maudie’s favorite dishes… (exit)

This 1997 compilation written by Janeen Bertsche Johnson was taken from two letters by Anna Landis Funk.