In the past week two major Mennonite news items were released into the web-sphere: the long-awaited January edition of the Mennonite Quarterly Review devoted to sexual abuse in the Mennonite Church and particularly focused on John Howard Yoder’s sexual abuse of women in the church and, secondly, the Mennonite Church USA Clergy Sexuality Survey. Am I the only one who sees the curious irony that these two items were released together? Am I the only who feels impacted by both, as though my own life has been dissected and dismantled by MCUSA? This past year I took a break from writing to take intentional time for going inward and looking into scary personal territory. This territory involves both the past sexual abuse I’ve experienced and my current queer identity. And today, for better or worse, I’m going to delve into that deeply personal work with all its vulnerability and messiness in public space. And I’m not promising that it’ll be very eloquent. I am terrified. I am also convicted. It’s been a long time brewing, this pain inside that I haven’t been able to express even to myself. This pain revolves around sexualized violence and LGBTQ identification and how the two […]
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