According to the authors, Helma Schmidt and John Rempel, this sexual abuse policy was “designed to address the issue of sexual misconduct in the Ontario Mennonite Brethren Conference.”
The authors acknowledge the obvious fact that:
- contrary to the directives “throughout the scriptures, (where) God calls on people to expose, confront, and abolish evil,”
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“if anything, the (Mennonite Brethren) church has (instead) contributed to a conspiracy of silence.“
The Mennonite Brethren community has “preferred to avoid the topic and act as though, ‘It isn’t happening here’.“
But, “for any Christian, to betray trust by the grave ethical transgression of sexually abusing another, whether child or adult, is to betray Christian identity. Such a betrayal cannot be other than a gross injury to the one abused, and a violation of the faithfulness to Christ. Sexual misconduct takes advantage of the vulnerability of children and adults in less powerful positions. It is antithetical to the gospel call to work as God’s servant in the struggle to bring wholeness to a broken world and it violates the mandate to protect the vulnerable from harm.”
“By avoiding the topic of sexual misconduct”, the Mennonite Brethren community is “sending the (unmistakable) message to those who have suffered sexual abuse that they too should remain silent.”
Members of the Mennonite Brethren community know that their “conspiracy of silence” and “secret keeping not only compounds the inner pain of those who have been victimized, but it also exposes others to potential abuse”
“To address the issue, it will be necessary to change the climate in our (Mennonite Brethren) churches from one of discomfort and silence, to one of openness.”
“The goal of the Mennonite Brethren community must be to root out, confront, and overcome evil, beginning with the sin in its own midst.”
Members of the Mennonite Brethren community “are exhorted to expose the violence that caused these hurts. Although the incident(s) may have occurred in the past, the painful consequences often continue to be an ongoing part of people’s present experiences.”
“Forgiveness by either victim or church must not be demanded or expected without the repentance and change of the abuser.”
It is this culture and conspiracy of silence inside the Mennonite Brethren community – that covered up the evidence of the crimes of incest, sexual assault and rape that were committed against me, as a child, inside the Mennonite community – that is the core of the problem inside the Mennonite community. It is this culture and conspiracy of silence – that perpetrates and perpetuates the endless cycle of sexual violation and cover-up inside the Mennonite community – that I am exposing.
It was the collusion of my Klassen family members and Mennonite Brethren pastors and church leaders, including Henry Wiebe and George Wichert, in this Mennonite “conspiracy of silence” that devastated my already shattered life as a victim of incest, sexual assault and multiple rapes – in order to ensure that the Mennonite perpetrators and those who were complicit in covering up the crimes would never be held accountable, in any forum, so that the myth that members of the Mennonite Brethren community do not commit such heinous crimes would never be exposed as a lie.
In a signed letter, faxed to the members of the executive board of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, on July 11, 2008, I requested an authentically victim-centered Restorative Justice process of justice in response to my claim/complaint as the victim of sexual assault, incest, rape and institutional cover-up: to ensure that action be taken in a manner that is consistent with, and in accordance with, both the letter and the spirit of: the human rights that are enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the criminal and civil laws of Canada, the provisions of a genuine and authentically victim-centered Restorative Justice process, the commandments of Almighty God and His Son Jesus as outlined in the Bible, and the provisions contained within this sexual abuse policy of the Ontario Conference of Mennonite Brethren churches.
For five full months, not a single Mennonite Brethren church representative complied with either the letter or the spirit of a single provision of this sexual abuse policy.
Instead, my request for justice was treated with utter contempt.
As a result, on Dec. 16, 2008, I was left with no option but to call a press conference to expose this ongoing Mennonite Brethren “conspiracy of silence” – in compliance with both the letter and the spirit of the mandated goal of this sexual abuse policy:
“The goal of the Mennonite Brethren community must be to root out, confront, and overcome evil, beginning with the sin in its own midst.”
