When I was growing up as a Mennonite in central Kansas, John Howard Yoder was a household name, known as the theologian who brought legitimacy to our Christian pacifism. His books, most notably the 1972 The Politics of Jesus, put our people on the religious map as something besides quaint separatists. He drew people to religious nonviolence, and inspired legions of Christian intellectuals. Mennonites were proud to claim him.
Small wonder, then, that Mennonite church leaders wanted nothing less than to deal with the evidence, mounting throughout the 1980s and 90s, that Yoder was a serial sex abuser. Many of his victims were women students at what is now the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), and at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also employed. Dozens of women lodged complaints with seminary officials and church leaders, who seemed by and large helpless or unwilling to control his predatory behavior. Yoder died in 1997 without any formal charges ever having been filed against him. The secrecy with which church leaders and administrators dealt with his behavior meant that many people who were influenced by his theology had no idea that women had accused him, repeatedly, of sexual violence.
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