香蕉影视

Read about co-editor Cameron Altaras’ visit to 香蕉影视

If it鈥檚 not safe in the church, where is it safe? Are churches complicit in supporting racism, colonialism, and heterosexism? How do churches excuse sexual violence? How are abuses of power justified to protect church institutions?

In Resistance, storytellers, academics, poets, administrators, students, activists, and pastors bring these questions to life through stories of personal and systemic violence and betrayals when theology is weaponized. Each story is connected to the Anabaptist religious context, but the harms suffered and responses to those harms are universally applicable. This collection directly confronts violence within historic peace churches, providing strategies for using power to resist violence and promote transformation.

鈥淭his anthology asks us to join in the work of reconciliation鈥�not simply the 鈥榬estoration of friendly relations鈥� but rather the wrenching, cruciform work of holding together our lives and experience with the largely dehumanizing systems that churn all around us while we summon God to end the oppression of avoidance and fear. It also reintroduces us to the meaning of regeneration鈥�not merely a 鈥榬adically renewed creation鈥� but rather our God-given ability to self-heal, grow, and recover after violence.鈥� 鈥擬alinda Elizabeth Berry, PhD, associate professor of theology and ethics, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

鈥�Resistance is a magnificently woven book with stories of courage, love, pain and suffering that lifted me up and took me down. If you care about Church and healing the broken places especially caused by clericalism, patriarchy, power, sexual abuse, and exclusion, read Resistance. It won鈥檛 disappoint; it will take your breath away.鈥� 鈥擬ary Dispenza, international speaker, national representative of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and author of SPLIT: A Child, A Priest, and the Catholic Church

鈥淭his collection of varied voices is an important resource for understanding the nature of power and how to apply Anabaptist peace theology to more effectively confront abusive power and resist evil. Those interested in learning how to stand in solidarity and mutuality with people who experience violence, injustice, abuse, and oppression will be grateful for this significant work.鈥� 鈥擟arolyn Holderread Heggen, PhD, author of Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches and co-leader of Sister Care International

鈥淪exual abuse casts a long shadow. Victims struggle with the lasting effects of trauma, often only coming forward to confront their abusers after many years have passed. Where do they find the courage? It may be the wrong question. When the burden of suffering in silence outweighs the risk of confrontation, there is often no other choice. In this groundbreaking book, Cameron Altaras and Carol Penner have assembled a plurality of voices to speak truth about one of the most pernicious and intractable forms of sexual violence鈥攁buse by clergy within sacred settings, where victims don鈥檛 just find themselves in conflict with their abusers but may also have to confront institutions that have no interest in justice but wish only to protect their own.鈥� 鈥擟lark Strand, co-author of The Way of the Rose and author of Waking Up to the Dark

About the editors

Cameron Altaras, PhD (University of Toronto), is retired, remarried, and living in Washington State. Cameron was born into a Canadian Amish Mennonite community and raised in the Mennonite church. Her doctoral work focused on the Frankfurt School鈥檚 critical theory of the ideological manipulation of power, in particular as manifested in the manipulation of art by religious institutions. She spent her career in the corporate world in business ethics, leadership development, and coaching. With the unraveling of the marriage to the father of her children, she began to come to terms with how the course of her life had been shaped by her religious upbringing, gender oppression, abuse of power, clergy sexual misconduct, and moral injury. Part of her healing journey included choosing to legally change her name (previously, Cheryl Nafziger-Leis). In her retirement, she and her husband create audio recordings of her poetry, available on her website, . 

Carol Penner, PhD (University of St. Michael鈥檚 College, Toronto), teaches practical theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. She has been a pastor for thirteen years in three different congregations. She was raised in the Mennonite church and has been active in it her whole life. She authors a worship resource blog (). Her doctoral work was in the area of Mennonite peace theology and violence against women, and she has written extensively about abuse issues. She has two adult children, and she lives with her partner in Vineland, Ontario, in a house surrounded by apricot trees on the traditional territory of Anishinaabeg, Ojibway/Chippewa, and Haudenosaunee peoples.  

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