When your Mennonite job hurts you
Who will hold MCC accountable?
Now that we know the Boards will not question MCC’s treatment of workers or investigate the stories of mismanaged funds, we ask “Who will hold MCC accountable?”
MAST was approached by the European Mennonite Regional Conference (CMERK) to partner in offering a workshop at their recent annual conference held in the Netherlands, titled “When your Mennonite job hurts you.” MCC was a case study in this context, as MAST alleges a long-standing pattern of unethical firing practices, neglect of worker health and safety, and cover-up of financial misconduct.
The workshop voiced the important truth “Everyone is affected by abuse, those who are harmed, the community, those who caused the harm. Each party carries distinct needs that a community of faith is called to hold.”
To have such a major player in the peace-making world afraid to face its own harmful practices also sets off alarm bells in the European Mennonite community. The group wondered if this was indicative of MCC absorbing a “North American style” as an institution, which sadly, holds some truth. The US laws that regulate faith-based non-profits are very lax, compared to other parts of the world, part of the reason why law-suits against MCC are more likely to happen in places like Canada, where they are quickly and quietly settled out of court with large settlements.
The central question of the workshop, “How do we practice peace genuinely - not just keep the peace quietly” is applicable to churches as well as our Mennonite institutions. The fact that when abuse happens in our faith spaces hurts worse than it would in a secular setting was recognized. We all should ask ourselves AND our church leaders, “Why do we think Mennonite organizations would be above doing harm?”