Referral for Potential Excommunication

The Quest for the Pure, True Church

As Mennonite conferences and districts trip all over themselves to come up with ways to purge "deviant" congregations which welcome and accept full participation of homosexuals, we thought it would only be fair to open up the congregational review process to include Mennonot's perspective on questionable conduct. So we are providing a simple form whereby Mennonot's readership can tattle on offending congregations. As we see it, if congregations are going to be taken to task for perceived sins, it's only fair to widen the group who gets to define these sins. Here is our contribution.

If you know of a Mennonite congregation which isn't living up to the standards of purity defined below, please fill out the form below and then press the "Send this Referral Form to Mennonot" button at the bottom of the page. Your submission is entirely confidential.

If there are enough responses to merit it, we will tabulate these forms and send them on to the appropriate conference or district (seriously, we really will). Further, if there are enough responses to make it interesting, we will also publish the results of this survey in a future issue of Mennonot.

Note: Readers in conferences/districts which seem poised to sanction congregations on the homosexuality issue should especially take time to complete this form.

Name of Congregation:

City:

Conference:

Please check all boxes where the described sin is present in the congregation and has not been confessed, or has been confessed but is still present.

Sins of Lifestyle

  1. Member(s) has/have a net worth over $1,000,000 and tithe less than 50% of total net income and profits in excess of $100,000.
  2. Member(s) of congregation commute to work more than 30 miles round-trip daily in their own car(s) rather than car-pooling or using public transportation. (Exemptions based on intense psychological need to drive own car are not acknowledged here.)
  3. Congregation owns a building in excess of 1,000 sq. ft. which is used less than 20 hrs. per week.
  4. Congregation spends more money on itself than on others.
  5. Member(s) of congregation do/does not recycle personal garbage which is recyclable.
  6. Member(s) has/have manicured, fertilized, chemically-treated lawn in excess of ½ acre.
  7. Member(s) regularly play(s) with a small, white ball on a manicured, fertilized lawn in excess of 10 acres.

Sins of Theology/Doctrine

  1. Member(s) of congregation believe(s) that the primary motivation for being a Christian is so you get to go to heaven when you die. (Or the corollary: "so you don't go to hell.")
  2. Within the congregation, James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Bill Gothard are significantly more popular than David Augsburger, Jim Wallis and Rosemary Radford Ruether.

Sins of Morality/Ethics

  1. Member(s) of congregation voted proudly for Ronald Reagan in 1980 or 1984.
  2. Within the congregation, Rush Limbaugh is significantly more popular than Jesse Jackson.
  3. Member(s) of congregation cheered on the U.S. during the Gulf War.
  4. Member(s) of congregation believe that the primary obligation of North American Christians to the people of the Third World is "winning souls for Christ."

Sins of Sexuality/Gender

  1. Member(s) of the congregation has/have committed rape.
  2. Member(s) of the congregation has/have abused children sexually.
  3. Men in the congregation has/have physically/sexually/emotionally abused wives, girlfriends or other women.
  4. Member(s) of congregation believe that women should not preach or become pastors.
  5. Member(s) of congregation has/have physically or verbally assaulted homosexuals, directly or indirectly.
  6. Member(s) of congregation believe(s) that homosexuals who do not deny their sexuality are bound for hell.

Other Miscellaneous Sins

Anything else that we haven't covered above?

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MENNONOT

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