UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
It’s my honor to share with you today an important essay by Ruth Krall responding to a recent report published by National Catholic Reporter regarding the discussion of the legacy of John Howard Yoder in the Mennonite Church. As I’ve noted repeatedly on this blog,* the work of Ruth Krall, a Mennonite peace-and-justice scholar, and of other Mennonite women has been critically important in making the Yoder story known to the public, and in forcing Mennonite institutions to come to terms with Yoder’s legacy of serial sexual violence towards female students and women he counseled pastorally, even as he represented the church in the public square as its most well-known advocate of non-violence.
And so, as Ruth herself is, I was dumbfounded to read the recent NCR article by two (male) scholars reporting on the discussion of Yoder’s legacy and not in any way referring to the ground-breaking work Ruth has done in this field. Here’s Ruth’s response to this article:
A Considered Response to Lambelet and Hamilton:
Vis-à-vis the topic of being made invisible…one more time
Lambelet, K. and Hamilton, B. (February 29, 2016). Viewpoint: Engage Survivors More, and Yoder Less (p. 1). National Catholic Reporter Online.
Ruth E. Krall, MSN, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus and Program Director Emeritus
Goshen College
Goshen, IN
Thesis: When male Yoderian scholars seek to bury me and my academic scholarly work about John’s life and his patterns of victimization in silence, they simultaneously also bury the story of Yoder’s victims in the very same breath. These are the voices the Yoderians now claim they want to hear. They cannot have it both ways. Either the narrative, including my contributions to this narrative, is allowed to stand on its own and be recognized for what it is, or the narrative is skewed and we can learn nothing from it of value. When the narrative is manipulated and skewed, the victims’ voices are once more buried inside a dominant male prerogative to define reality.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.