[Craic] Mennonite minister tweets perfect response to freedom convoy

[Robert Spencer]

Thanks to you,  Alan.
I need some hope too.
Human rights has to be a top priority in these days of Russian "hit" lists.
Bob

On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 2:10 PM Allan Baker via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Friends;
>
> This is from Broadview Magazine, a magazine dedicated to “Spirituality,
> Justice and Ethical Living”.
>
> Stay hopeful;
> Allan
> *Mennonite minister **tweets perfect response to freedom convoy*
> *By Chloe Tejada*
>
> Hello, dear *Broadview* readers,
>
> In last week’s newsletter, I talked about how protesters in Ottawa were making
> life difficult for Shepherds of Good Hope
> <https://broadview.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e7bb561f7f940952a3aaf474c&id=bf16fdc8aa&e=a469a56538>,
> a homelessness-focused organization. They announced on Feb. 10 they had
> raised over $750,000 over the previous two weeks, which is a nice bit of
> good news to come out of this turmoil.
>
> But the protesting continues, and not just in our capital. Similar convoys
> have popped up across the country, and some are reaching out to churches,
> including the Mennonite church in Canada.
>
> As Michael Pahl, the executive minister of Mennonite Church
> Manitoba, recounts in a recent Twitter thread, he was forwarded an email
> with a request to support the Winnipeg Freedom Convoy, and at first, he wasn
> ’t sure how to respond.
>
> After talking to a colleague, he crafted his message and shared it on
> Twitter. As *Broadview* digital editor Emma Prestwich writes, “Pahl says
> that he understands why the convoy organizers reached out to Mennonite
> Church Canada since some church leaders and prominent Christians in
> Manitoba and in other parts of Canada have backed their efforts. But he
> wanted them to understand that his definition of freedom might not match
> theirs.”
>
> This is his response:
>
> Dear Organizers of the Winnipeg Freedom Convoy,
>
> Thank you for your email and letter sent to Mennonite Church Canada. As
> this is a regional concern, your letter was forwarded to me as Executive
> Minister for Mennonite Church Manitoba.
>
> I read your letter with interest, and not without sympathy. The past two
> years have been hard for all of us, including churches and children, as you
> have rightly noted. The restrictions necessary to curb a deadly virus have
> saved lives, but they have also made life challenging in themselves.
> Nonetheless, as Christians our highest calling is to love God by loving our
> neighbours, especially our neighbours most vulnerable to harm. In a
> pandemic this places the elderly, the immune compromised, and other health-
> vulnerable populations such as Indigenous peoples and disabled persons at
> the top of our list of neighbours to love. The restrictions have been
> difficult, but the death or long-term debilitation of these people and
> others is a much greater burden than we who are still living and healthy
> have had to bear.
>
> I was pleased to see that you “condemn all manifestations of hate, racism,
> misogyny and disrespect.” That has been the one dimension of these convoys
> that all Christians, indeed all Canadians, have found most abhorrent. I
> would encourage you to make this sentiment clearer in all of your public
> discourse and to take immediate and practical steps to distance yourself
> from those, including some national convoy leaders, who espouse those
> hateful words and follow them up with hateful actions.
>
> As Christians, we are naturally concerned with human rights and basic
> freedoms. Christians have long been among those at the forefront of
> establishing and ensuring human rights for all people regardless of race,
> gender, sexual orientation, physical or intellectual ability, and more. The
> goal of this action as Christians has been to protect those most vulnerable
> to harm and historically most prone to marginalization and oppression by
> powerful people. We also do not take our freedoms for granted, including
> freedom of religion and freedom of peaceful assembly. We use those freedoms
> every time we meet to worship, whether on Zoom or in person, and every time
> we rally to protest laws which cause harm to powerless persons or a
> greed-ravaged earth. We are grateful to live in Canada where these freedoms
> are guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
>
> Nevertheless, as Christians this does not define all that “freedom” means.
> We are free in Christ Jesus to serve one another in love (Galatians
> 5:13-14). We follow Jesus as Lord, who give up his divine rights and
> privileges to become a servant of humanity, walking in solidarity with the
> suffering and oppressed even to death on a cross, condemned by the state
> (Philippians 2:3-8). This Christian understanding of freedom takes
> precedence over any worldly conceptions of “freedom” or “rights,” and it
> calls us to “look not to our own interests but to the interests of others.”
> Against this love “there is no law” that can constrain us (Galatians
> 5:22-23)—we are always free to love in the way of Jesus, even if being
> constrained by the state. No government can take that freedom away from us,
> and this, our Scriptures teach us, is the freedom that really matters.
>
> If you wish to have further conversation about the Christian understanding
> of freedom and human rights, and how we should discern as Christians when
> and what laws to protest, I would be glad to do so. I pray for continued
> good health for you and your families.
>
> Sincerely, Michael Pahl
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