On Calvinists, Mennonites and diversity in Christian belief

Not being a Calvinist, I usually refrain from commenting on Calvinism. I follow several blogs published by fellow believers which have a Reformed focus and appreciate their faith and insights. This being the occasion of Calvin's 500th birthday, there has been introspection on the part of some as to whether present-day Calvinism is guilty of being too Calvin-centred at the expense of a focus on Christ.

I will admit that I have issues with the Reform movement as it has manifested itself historically, because it persecuted Mennonites for many years, especially in Switzerland, putting some to death (including a possible ancestor), selling others into slavery and dispossessing and exiling many more (almost all my ancestors).

I don't take this history as a reflection on Calvinist theology, except to say that some aspects of it lend themselves to abuse by the flesh. Specifically, if someone doesn't believe that God loves everyone, then he won't feel much obligated to love everyone else either, especially those he identifies as reprobate. Ideas have consequences, and the fruit of that way of thinking has shown itself in the mistreatment by Calvinists of Anabaptists in Switzerland, Catholics in Ireland and natives in Pennsylvania.

But one might say the same thing about the Christian division of mankind into the saved and the unsaved. The abuse of a doctrine does not invalidate it; it is more a testimony to the ability of fallen human nature to twist divine truth to its own ends. In the hands of the unregenerate even the gospel can become a terrible thing.

As far as Calvinism being a basis of fellowship, and sometimes being more about Calvin than Christ, I can't hold that against Calvinists because it is a mirror image of the attitudes I grew up with. Among all Christian groups, we were the ones who had it right. Menno Simons or Sattler or Grebel were our touchstones. We allowed that there were saved individuals in other denominations, but they were hampered in their Christian life by defective theology. Sound familiar?

Even today, when the mainstream Mennonite movement is influenced more than ever before by the liberal or postmodern ideas of the culture around it, it has not escaped its Mennocentrism. How Menno would spin in his grave if he were to hear how some today refer to the "Mennonite faith"!

While I still self-identify as Mennonite and largely agree with classic Mennonite theology, that is not the focus of my faith. It is Christ alone who counts, Christ the living Lord, and the fellowship between those who know Him transcends the variations in theology which exist within Christian orthodoxy.

All Christian theology arises from the application of human reason to divine revelation, none of it is a substitute for the living water itself; it is at best a signpost to show where that water is. Any tendency to base fellowship upon a man-devised theological system rather than on our common life is really a form of religious humanism, no matter how much that system professes to exalt God.

May God save save us all from that and draw us together in His Spirit, especially as the time grows short!