John Howard Yoder: My Untold Story after 36 years of Silence
It was 1979, and I was 22-years-old and employed by the Mennonite Church in a leadership position. When Yoder was in his late 50’s he began a campaign of actively pursuing me as one of his proteges. I was initially flattered, until it turned ugly. Ultimately, after 2 short years of employment, I suddenly resigned from my church position and moved from Pennsylvania to California, largely as a result of Yoder’s outrageous actions directed at me. I have never looked back.
.. Persons who question why the alleged victims did not report anything are horribly naive about the depth of denial and the cover-up skills within the Mennonite Church. Or perhaps, how incapable Mennonite church leaders can become when having to deal with conflict, confrontation and deviant evil.
.. After reading the article I contacted Marlin Miller whom I had known personally through my previous work with the Church. I told him what I had experienced with Yoder and he asked me to send the cassette tape to him that I told him I possessed; I had transported the tape with me all the way to California from Pennsylvania in 1981. What was on that tape? Yoder had recorded his unique sexual philosophy for me in no less than 60 minutes, as his deep sonorous voice repeated intellectual-sounding theories about how the Mennonite Church, because it is so limited in its thinking, doesn’t understand sexual intimacy and how it was to be played out in the true community of believers. He sent that tape to me, admonishing me to keep it private, never share it with anyone, and then record over his words with my own thoughts and reactions to what he had said. I was then to send it back to him.
.. The Church will either have to morph into a new church that is far more accountable, open and accepting of all persons, or continue to die. I observe a dying Mennonite Church here in North America, because extremely talented people have lost patience with the Church and left. If you have to ask why then you need to ask some more hard questions and do a little bit more critical thinking about pacifism and whether the Mennonite Church is truly a pacifist church. Is it possible that it is just a passive church? What a humbling thought to those who have devoted their lives to the Mennonite Church. The Mennonites may no longer be the experts in pacifism, but merely experts in passivity. Confusing pacifism with passivity is a big mistake.