Many Mennonites, at least those watching movies in the 1980s, likely remember the stir caused by Witness, the 1985 film set among the Lancaster, Pa., Amish community. Rather than joining the debate about whether the movie transcends the standard pattern of action flicks, my mind after all these years remains fixated on a small encounter between an obnoxious tourist and Harrison Ford, who is posing as an Amish man …

I teach chemistry (not everyone’s favorite subject), so I’m used to people not wanting me to give a presentation. When someone called in a bomb threat, however, after reading that I would speak at Markham (Ill.) Mennonite Church on a Sunday morning in 1988, it involved a topic more important to me than chemistry …

Romans 13 starts with this phrase: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities.” What does that mean? Are we always supposed to obey everything the government tells us to do?

Ten years ago, delegates to General Conference Mennonite Church, Mennonite Church and Conference of Mennonites in Canada gatherings voted to create Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada …