Oratorical contest attracts vocal young men

Cory Anderson

Third place speaker Victor Borchard (L) and second place speaker David Schrock (R) hold up Jeremy Yoder, who placed first in the oratorical contest. Yoder’s speech argued that war is a direct cause of environmental damage. Each of the contestants was awarded a monetary prize for their accomplishment.

On Friday morning, April 2, while most EMU students were in class, five students took part in the annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest.

In front of an audience gathered for the contest, Peter Sensenig, David Schrock, Jeremy Yoder, Kevin Ressler, and Victor Borchard took turns presenting their speeches about applying Christian principles of peacemaking to contemporary social issues. Sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee, the contest awarded cash prizes to the first, second, and third place winners.

Jeremy Yoder, an Environmental Science major, won first place for his speech entitled "Flooding Isengard: Why a Peace Church Should be a Green Church." His speech opened with the description of the destruction of Isengard, a fictitious city setting from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

He went on to argue that as Isengard's natural beauty is destroyed by warfare, so war is destructive to our environment. Therefore, if the church is a peaceful church, it must value the protection of God's creation. "People who seek a nonviolent worldview are also concerned for the health of nature, and the church that offers them nonviolence must also offer a vision for the salvation of creation," he said.

Yoder used Biblical text to display the link between salvation and the restoration of creation. He also incorporated examples from the Gulf War and the Vietnam War of the extensive destruction brought to the environments of the feuding countries. An environmental outreach in Israel-Palestine would be a unique way of bringing peace to the area, Yoder suggested.

Yoder concluded his speech by calling it the Church's duty to care for all of God's creation; he quoted Psalm 24:1, which reads, "The Earth is the LORD's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

Commenting on the topic of his speech, Yoder explained, "concern for Creation is an integral part of my faith."

As the first place winner, Yoder will go on to compete in an intercollegiate competition with the winners from other Mennonite-affiliated colleges and universities.

David Schrock's speech, "Pacifism: Nonviolent Resistance to the Historic Anabaptist Peace Position," won second prize. It was an examination of how the Mennonite peace position has changed in the past century and what the implication of that change has been. He focused on Christian involvement in the government as one specific area where Mennonite thought has changed.

Schrock's speech also questioned whether or not the Mennonite Church's current position is faithful to its Anabaptist heritage and to the example of Christ. According to Schrock, he felt inspired to participate because, "I wanted to provide information about the historic Mennonite peace position that I feel rarely gets talked about at EMU."

Victor Borchard won third place for his speech entitled "The Gospel of Peace." Borchard spoke on the issue of homosexuality and dealt with the church's dilemma of whether to condemn or show grace to homosexuals. He described the cross as the meeting point for the Church's conversation about homosexuality. "It is at the cross that the righteousness of God and the love of God are most clearly seen in their infinite worth," he stated.

His speech also encouraged the peace church to earnestly listen to those from a different perspective, suggesting that God might want the church to break out of its conceptual boxes through that conversation. "We conceive of God as being either righteous or loving, yet scripture reveals him to be both," he said.

Peter Sensenig delivered a speech entitled "A Just-Peace Approach to Immigration." He recognized the issue of immigration as one that affects Harrisonburg and many other communities in the U.S. directly. Sensenig's speech dealt specifically with the attitude the church holds toward people who are seeking a better life in this area.

Sensenig also claimed the government should be held to standards regarding immigration, such as the reception of those who are fleeing human rights abuse in their own countries. "On individual, communal, and national levels we must move beyond the ethos of 'possession' and 'protection,'" he said.

"God's Love: Beyond the Boundaries of Human Definition" is the title of Kevin Ressler's speech. He discussed the Anabaptist emphasis on peace and claimed that peace relates to building others up in our personal relationships, focusing specifically on relationships with homosexuals.

Ressler stated that if the Mennonite church claims to be a peace church, it must support and love its homosexual members. He emphasized the humanity of homosexuals and defended them against being turned into a philosophical question, stating in his speech, "If we truly love our homosexual brothers and sisters we will accept them as they are, just as God accepts us the way we are."

The oratorical competition is administered each year by the Mennonite Central Committee and was established in honor of C. Henry Smith, a member of the Bluffton College faculty from 1914-46. Smith is well-known for his numerous books on Mennonite history and his particular attention to the peace commitments of the Mennonite tradition.