The struggles over the place of LGBTQ Christians in Mennonite Church USA churches will be Stephanie Krehbiel’s topic in a Bluffton University forum on Tuesday, April 7.

Krehbiel, a Ph.D. candidate in American studies at the University of Kansas, will address “Pacifist Battlegrounds: Sexual Diversity and the Politics of Belonging in the Mennonite Church USA” beginning at 11 a.m. in Yoder Recital Hall. Her talk is free and open to the public.

“Mennonites have long been in conflict over whether openly LGBTQ Christians should be fully welcomed into their churches,” notes Krehbiel, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (or queer) individuals. “For those invested in the future of the Mennonite Church USA, these conflicts have felt especially acute over the past few years, due to the number of conservative congregations and conferences that have considered leaving the denomination over what they perceive as too much tolerance for pastors who perform same-sex marriages and openly queer pastors serving Mennonite congregations.

“While Mennonite leaders often ask people to move beyond ‘divisive issues’ and ‘partisan politics’ to focus on a ‘core’ or ‘common’ purpose, such language effectively bars LGBTQ Mennonites from meaningful participation in the life of the church, as they are forced to be symbols of their denomination's potential to splinter,” Krehbiel continues. Her talk, she adds, “places Mennonites in a larger U.S. context, asking what it is that Americans mean when they express disdain for politics and how that disdain affects the potential for diversity in their faith communities.”