Consensual Governance

Daughters of Zelophehad, courtesy Wikiimages.com

    I have come to look forward not only to the old favorite Scripture readings in church, but often even more to the more esoteric ones I would otherwise be inclined to skip or gloss over.  Rev. Joetta Schlabach of Faith Mennonite in Minneapolis, Minnesota, delivered one such offering in her examination of the text Numbers 27: 1-11, Those Audacious Daughters of Zelophehad. 

English:  Numbers 27: 1-11 (NIV), courtesy Biblegateway.com

    In summary, as the nation of Israel was preparing to enter the Promised Land, a census had been taken in order to divide up the land amongst the male-headed households.  The daughters of the deceased Zelophehad were to find themselves disinherited from an equal portion of the land due to their father’s death and appealed to Moses that despite being female, they should in fact be allocated the proper portion due to their deceased father who had died faithful to the Lord.

    For our purposes, Schlabach’s sermon also contains three major observations pertinent to traditional Mennonite cultural organization and self-governance (though not necessarily unique only to the Anabaptists). 

Faith, Lists and Consensus

The Fundamentalist writings

en Gruntsteen 

    Sometimes, contemporary Anabaptism seems to have become almost pre-occupied with the concept of written confessions and statements of faith.  Statements similar to “you must believe…”, “We Believe…” or “Anabaptism today is defined by…” are seemingly increasingly common.  Make no mistake, Liberal Anabaptists, so-called Traditional Anabaptists, Fundamentalist Evangelicals and the Evangelical Mennonites all seem to be just as determined to increasingly define both themselves and others in the narrowest terms possible.  Amongst the Brüderthaler and former EMB, people are still being asked the two questions – “What do Mennonites believe?” and “Do you identify with the Evangelical creed or the Mennonite creed?”.