In 1962, Rudy Wiebe published a book that turned the Canadian Mennonite world upside down and led to his becoming one of Canada’s most revered writers.
The book, Peace Shall Destroy Many, was the first English novel about Mennonites in Canada. It offered an honest and pointed portrait of Mennonite life on the Prairies during the Second World War — and provoked a great deal of anger from some Canadian Mennonites.
“It was hard on them,” said Wiebe, 90, reflecting on how the book affected some members of his community. “It was a tough story.”
In the book, Wiebe explored how Mennonites in the fictitious community of Wapiti, Sask., were divided by conflict and broken relationships during the war.
“It was difficult for the older generation to handle,” he says. “They didn’t speak English, they weren’t accustomed to reading fiction and they didn’t share insider problems with the outside world,” he said.
The publication of the book was hard on Wiebe, too. At the time, he was the editor of the Mennonite Brethren Herald, the official English-language publication of that denomination.
As the criticism mounted, Wiebe knew he couldn’t stay at the Herald. “I wasn’t fired, but I resigned before they would have fired me. There was no question I couldn’t continue.”
That decision led to a distinguished 25-year career as a professor of English at the University of Alberta and as an award-winning author of 36 books, anthologies and essay collections.
Along the way, Wiebe became a two-time recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, received the Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and received the Charles Taylor Prize for his memoir about growing up in Saskatchewan in the 1930s. In 2000, he was named an officer of the Order of Canada.
He and his wife, Tena, also became owners and operators of Strawberry Creek Lodge, a writer’s retreat 80 kilometres from their home in Edmonton. “There were many authors who used it,” said Tena, listing off names like William Golding, Pierre Berton and Adrienne Clarkson.
‘Life is a mystery’
Today, Wiebe — who lives with Parkinson’s disease — is in a looking-back mode of life. This includes looking at how faith has remained a constant in his life.
One reason for staying faithful was his experience growing up as one of seven children in a caring and supportive religious home in Speedwell, in northern Saskatchewan.
Another is the “miracle” that helped make his life in Canada possible at all; his parents fled Russia in 1929, the only two people from both their families to escape from the Soviet repression in that country at that time.
“What would my life have been like if they hadn’t got out?” he asks, noting there would have been no university and no writing opportunities like the ones he experienced in this country. “Life is a mystery.”
His early experiences in church were also positive. There were “hardline” preachers who spoke about Hell and eternal punishment. But he also heard messages about the love and mercy of God, he says.
Another reason is the church where he and Tena worship in Edmonton — Lendrum Mennonite.
The church has “been very supportive of me and my writing and the work I’ve been doing all my life,” he said, adding members of the church have never been “judgmental” about what he has written.
As well, the church was also a huge support when their son died by suicide in 1985. “When Michael died, they stood with us,” he said.
And being an overt Christian never hurt him in the secular writing world, says Wiebe, who considers himself a Christian writer. “That means I’m a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ. I try to look at the world in the way Jesus tried to teach us,” he says.
Being open about his faith was never a problem. “People kept publishing my books,” he said. “There was never any question about what my approach to the story was, and they didn’t object to my philosophy in life. Nobody objected to me [about my faith] in terms of the publishing world.”
‘The God I understand’
Being a person of faith doesn’t mean Wiebe has everything figured out, he says.
“We live as Christians in a world that keeps changing. You just can’t go plodding along thinking I know what’s right and what we’ve been taught for the last 500 years or something like that is the only right thing … This is where the imagination and spiritual discernment are important.”
Writing about and getting to know Indigenous people also influenced his faith.
“I can’t believe that the God who created the world would just give one little vision [of himself] to one small group of people in the Middle East and keep everything else hidden from everyone or every human being all over the Earth,” he said. “That’s not from the kind of God I understand.”
Wiebe remains grateful despite health challenges; in addition to Parkinson’s, he spent three months in the hospital last year and says he almost died. “My mind is good but my balance is gone,” he says of Parkinson’s. “It’s debilitating, but you don’t lose your mind to it. That’s the main thing.”
One thing on both of his and Tena’s minds now is the future of the Strawberry Creek Lodge; the couple would love to see someone take over its mission and keep it going as a retreat centre for authors and others.
“We can’t run it anymore,” said Tena, 95, noting they had a good run with it for about 40 years. “We’re looking for someone who wants to keep it going.”
In the meantime, Wiebe is reflecting on the many blessings of his life. “I think about what gifts I have been given, the miracle of being born in Canada and not Russia … I’m grateful for that.”
Who is the “small group of people in the Middle East” that he is referring to?
I will assume your question is done in sincerity. Israelis or Adam and Eve and their followers and Christians who look at these people as their spiritual ancestors. To Rudy I say, Jesus wrote, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. He is a liar or telling the truth? Why do you have trouble accepting this is the question? Blessings to you all. Pastor John Kaptein
Thank you, Rudy, for your candid and wholistic “confession of faith, in a Mennonite perspective”.
If we cannot discern or embrace, in faith and goodwill, Jesus’ declaration, that his sheep, in other pens, about which his disciples knew nothing, we are at risk of becoming cloistered in our view of John 3:16.
Wishing you and Tena continued strength for daily tasks, and a successor to your good work.
Thanks, John, for sharing this interview, and Wiebes’ sojourn and current milestone with Canadians & others beyond our borders.