Jumpstarter 9 of 10

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Question 9

Dean highlights how the conflict escalated through name-calling (“the garbage wagon”), sweeping excommunications (“if you disagree… you’re out”), and the principle “there is no situation bad enough that you can’t make it worse”; when have you seen “protecting holiness” become fuel on the fire, and what specific early off-ramps (deep breath moments) could have prevented escalation?

Another way to ask: When have you seen “protecting holiness” make a conflict worse instead of better? What early steps could have slowed things down and stopped the fight from growing?

Direct Answer Dean portrays escalation as a predictable pattern: harsh labels, absolutist policies, and rapid punitive moves turn a dispute into a lasting rupture. “Protecting holiness” becomes fuel when it stops being gentle, careful, and limited—and instead becomes sweeping, reactive, and humiliating.

Support from Transcript:

Rule #5: “name-calling is not good,” and Bowens calls the dissenters “the garbage wagon.”
Rule #6: “stop… take a deep breath and don’t put fuel to the fire,” implying escalation is often preventable.
Rule #7: “There is no situation bad enough that you can’t make it worse.”
Menno receives letters from brothers who say their conscience can’t accept the rule; they would “rather be excommunicated… than go along with this extreme and un-Christlike way.”
Minnos’s reply title includes accusations of “slander and bitter name-calling,” showing mutual hardening.
Dirk Phillips and Leonard Bowens travel with a letter effectively saying, “If you disagree… you’re out,” expanding the damage to whole churches.

Discussion Follow-ups What would a “deep breath” look like in your conflicts—pausing policies, limiting language, delaying public statements, seeking gentleness? Who in your church has authority to pull that off-ramp early?

Jumpstarter 9 of 10

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Jumpstarter 9 of 10