donate

Pure: A Response to the CBC's Mennonite Crime Drama

06 February 2017
Theme:

The following article was provided by Mennonite Church Canada, a denomination affiliated with the EFC. Read more on this issue in a recent Faith Today article.

Winnipeg, Man. —Many members of our broader Mennonite community have expressed dismay over Pure, a new CBC television show depicting us as drug runners from Mexico.

For Christians beyond Mennonite circles, Pure undoubtedly raises questions about the people broadly labeled as “Mennonites” in this miniseries.

Mennonites are Protestant Christians who deeply desire to follow Jesus, and they do so with some distinctive beliefs, such as adult baptism and a conviction to be non-violent, for example.

As a large group, our faith expressions represent a flavourful range of people. Some are traditional farmers, blacksmiths, wood-, leather- and fabric artisans who reject modern day technology. At the other end of the scale, others are freely adaptive farmers, bankers, artists, start-up tech entrepreneurs and NHL hockey players.

So far, the loudest voices from our own communities are appalled at the conflation of two distinct groups (Old Colony Mennonites from Mexico and Old Order Mennonites in Ontario), poor research, a lack of accuracy, and perhaps most of all, strong objection to the stereotyping of Mennonites as drug running murderers, who in fact represent a very small criminal element among folks self-identifying as Mennonite. Viewers should make no mistake: the illegal drug trade is far from anything the faithful in our diverse circles would enact.

Old Order Mennonites of Southern Ontario have made their home in Canada for over two centuries, and to our knowledge they are not even remotely engaged in the illegal drug trade. Old Colony Mennonites from Mexico are mostly expatriates from the Prairies who still have connections in Canada. It is a documented fact that some of the latter are guilty of drug crimes – but they represent a tiny minority of an already small percentage of the population.

A greater conflation confronts the uninformed viewer. It suggests that all Mennonites dress and behave like the inaccurately depicted people in the miniseries. Pure portends that audiences be wary of Mennonites and the criminal tendencies of an unfaithful few indentified among them. We don’t appreciate stereotyping any more than the next religious or cultural group, but neither do we deny that wrongdoers are among us.

What does bother many a Mennonite a great deal is that with Pure, our taxpayer-funded public broadcaster has apparently chosen to focus strictly on the “entertainment” aspect of its mandate. Where in Pure we ask, is adequate attention paid to “contribute to the development of a shared national consciousness and identity?”

Pure focuses on an already misunderstood minority group in Canada.

Moreover, the treatment of religion in general and Christianity in particular by the CBC is mostly absent for Canadians of faith. Religiously uninformed CBC audiences would be hard pressed to recognize that faith plays any role whatsoever in the lives of many Canadians. Where matters of faith do enter the media lexicon in any significant way, people of faith are often depicted as unintelligent and naïve. Faith tends to be so oversimplified that an uninformed audience would believe expressions of Christianity are limited to a crucifix hanging on a wall. Our challenge to the CBC – and all media – is to pay closer, informed attention to the 67% of Canadians who identified as Christians in the 2011 census.

When the Mormon church was put under the microscope with the controversial play The Book of Mormon, they responded by meeting the audience at theatre entrances, explainer pamphlets in hand. They invited theatre goers to ask questions. They worked to put a different face on the controversy.

Now Mennonites must respond to the media spotlight. Our challenge is to be more empathetic and sensitive to other groups subjected to stereotyping by the media and popular culture, such as First Nations or Muslim peoples. While we may not like how our broader Mennonite community is portrayed in Pure, being in the public spotlight does give us the opportunity and perhaps a responsibility to engage our faith in unexpected ways.

May we walk through the open door this presents with the honesty, integrity, sensitivity and grace of the One we claim to follow.

Mennonite Church Canada is made up of over 33,000 baptized members, 225 congregations and 5 area conferences. For more information, contact Dan Dyck, Director of Church Engagement - Communications, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 0M4, (204) 888-6781, ddyck@mennonitechurch.ca.


Author: Dan Dyck