UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Soli Salgado | Jun. 25, 2015 NCR Today
Sexual abuse allegations against theologian John Howard Yoder are decades old. The officials who chose to either ignore his past or bury it are mostly dead. The institutions where the misconduct happened have since enacted policies to prevent such harassment. And Yoder is no longer a threat, having died in 1997. So why is his story worth revisiting?
Rachel Goossen, the historian who recently researched Yoder’s past for the Mennonite church, said that Yoder’s works and writings did not die with him. They continue to be reprinted and have a formative place in the theological realm. Such studies require context.
“It’s important to know that while he was incredibly influential in his lifetime and also after his death in his writings on nonviolence, Yoder was also perpetrating violence in his private life and using his religious status to make things happen for himself,” Goossen said. “If they’re going to interpret his writings, they should have information about this extraordinary theologizing that he did that was very harmful to women.”
While many of the key players in the story have died, she added, most of his victims — who were typically decades younger than Yoder — are still alive.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.