Report reveals full history of theologian’s abuse, institutions’ response
A 73-page report in the most recent issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review provides the first-ever comprehensive and detailed examination of theologian John Howard Yoder’s sexual abuse and the church’s response to it.
News of his transgressions first broke in 1992, but Rachel Waltner Goossen, a history professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, found that Yoder, who died in 1997, had been “methodically perpetrating sexual violence” against women since at least 1973. His offenses included suggestive comments and “physical coercion.” While the precise number of those abused is not known, it could exceed 100.
The Mennonite Church USA and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, invited Goossen to do the research as an independent historian, though they did not provide funding.
