by Hilary Jerome Scarsella, Director of Theological IntegrityUPDATED the evening of 10/21/19 The Mennonite put out an article today on details emerging around the AMBS search committee’s decision to appoint David Boshart the next president of the seminary. We’ll have more to say on the subject shortly, but today I’m keeping it quick and dirty. … Continue reading Boshart’s appointment: Takeaways from today’s article on emerging details
Category: Anabaptism/Mennonites
Narrative Erasure is Violence: Dave Boshart Appointed President of AMBS
We want to know what happened in the course of AMBS’s work with FaithTrust Institute. We want to know why the press release says nothing about this work.
We ask for your discretion: the old white church college predator
Yours is not the first community he has groomed to tolerate him; your church did not produce his first pack of ardent defenders.
Brought Into the Sun: Speaking Truth to Mennonite Colleges
Dear readers who care about Mennonite colleges, what happens next is largely up to you.
On Whose Backs?: Why We Oppose the Selection of David Boshart as President of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Hilary's successful process with AMBS must not be co-opted into an institutional narrative that erases the trauma of other survivors, that asserts a false peace while silent suffering continues, and that elevates Hilary as a chosen survivor on the backs of people who do not fall within Dave's narrow-minded understanding of the body of Christ.
Victim or Survivor: Respecting Our Choices
Labeling a victim as "powerless" and a survivor as someone who has more “power from within” is a way to pit victims and survivors against each other so that the church can control the narrative about sexual violence.
God is not an abuser: Responding to Daughters of Promise
Rosemarie and Stephanie discuss a devotional essay written by the wife of a sexual predator.
Sexual abuse in Plain Anabaptist Churches: An Interview with Rosemarie Miller
Rosemarie Miller talks to Stephanie Krehbiel about the prevalence child sexual abuse in Plain Mennonite, Amish, and other conservative Anabaptist communities.
You are where you need to be
If we truly wish to help someone who has experienced sexual violence, then we need to come into their circle, not expect them to come into ours.
Action Alert: Tell Goshen to Listen to Survivors
The goal is simple: Empower victims to speak, and encourage the kind of transparency that makes abuse harder to hide or ignore.