#MennonitesToo: Sexual Violence and Mennonite Peace Theology

This year’s 2020 Benjamin Eby Lecture is presented by Professor Carol Penner. It is also the C. Henry Smith Lecture and was delivered virtually at Bluffton University and Goshen College. The C. Henry Smith Peace Lecturer is selected each year by a committee from Bluffton University and Goshen College. The lectureship financially supports research into peace traditions, and is awarded each year to a faculty member from a Mennonite College.

“The #MeToo movement has placed sexual violence in the spotlight and Mennonites are asking; “What does it mean to be people of peace when sexual abuse and assault is woven into the fabric of our own communities?” Through a survey of church periodicals, I will show that some Mennonites have been working on this topic for almost fifty years. My lecture will outline the themes and methods of this grassroots practitioner-based theology, and it will argue that periodicals not only inform the church, they shape it too, offering good news in the face of violence.”