Do the terms “Mennonite peace church” and “army ammunition plant” belong in the same sentence? The congregation was Madison (Wis.) Mennonite Church. The facility was the Badger Army Ammunition Plant, which provided powder and propellant for the rifles, machine guns, artillery and helicopter rockets of three international wars but was now considered surplus property by the government …

Did Jesus practice violence? The fact that some people think he did illustrates our difficulties in defining and visualizing violence. It may be a case like the Supreme Court Justice who famously said about pornography: It is difficult to define but “I know it when I see it.” Unfortunately, we do not all see the same thing …

Years ago I saw a poster with the following words: “For every difficult social problem, there is a simple answer … and it’s wrong!” I decided it was true: There are no simple, one-size-fits-all answers to difficult social problems …

Suburbia: depending on your perspective, it’s the home of those who’ve arrived or those who’ve sold out. Alternately sacralized (think Leave it to Beaver) and satirized (think The Truman Show), suburbia still holds mythic sway in the imaginations of many Americans …

Karl Barth, one of the great theologians of the past century, famously said that when we read the Bible we should hold the daily newspaper in our other hand. He was making the point that the ancient Scriptures are a tool for interpreting modern life. The old text is the key to understanding the events happening all around us in our community and the world, and these events in turn are the context in which we read and interpret Scripture …

Every fall we put a fence around our raspberry patch to keep the rabbits from feasting on too many thorny berry branches. If we want fruit next year, a keep-out is fence essential. Down the road is a keep-in fence. It keeps our neighbors sheep in and away from the crazy drivers on our road …

Every year Mother’s Day provides an opportunity to hear tributes to mothers and many suggestions for gifts. It also provides an opportunity to think about Mary, Jesus’ mother, and ponder what her life was like. What did she experience as a woman, a wife, a mother? What can we learn from her and her faith? …

It may seem the ancient rift between Jews and Christians has largely been healed. Reform Jews and mainline pastors gladly trade pulpits and attend social justice rallies together, while Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians work together to fund the settlements of Israel …

I first encountered Bertrand Russell’s “Why I Am Not a Christian” in a college philosophy class. It could not have been found within five miles of my Mennonite high school’s library …

I am not saying you should put up a tent at the next wild party that goes on. Maybe you should just go into the party and be Jesus there. I don’t want to say much, because I don’t want this to be about the four of us who were there that night. I want to show what happened …

For the last decade or so, Franconia Mennonite Conference (FMC) and Mennonite Church USA have been on a journey to recapture our voice. It has been a shift from decades and even centuries of being more inwardly focused and “the quiet in the land” to finding our voice as people Jesus has called to live the Great Commission by sharing the Good News and making disciples …

Evangelism is sharing the good news of Christ. It is not to proselytize or be coercive to share the grace of Christ by conversation. Evangelism in the spirit of Jesus is sharing with love that respects the freedom, thought and decision of the other person …