Business and Religion

Early businesses provided purely local services in the village: stores, blacksmiths, millers and teamsters. After World War II and with the move to the cities Mennonites began to be active in the construction industry and in transportation. Today you will find Mennonite business in virtually every industry - businesses that have grown to become thriving concerns in building products, furniture manufacturing, printing, recreational vehicles, and trucking.

Success in businesses can be a natural outcome of the Mennonites' belief in the importance of work. David Friesen is the president of Friesens, a high-end publisher of books located in Altona. Friesens started out doing student yearbooks, and today prints yearbooks for more than 1,000 schools across Canada and the United States.

"My father, who started many companies in the community, believed the Horatio Alger story that they talked about so often. That you could build a business from anywhere. And do you know that he built, along with others: this business (Friesens), a vegetable oil plant, and started a group of radio stations all at the same time."

But how do Mennonites in the professions and business apply their religious beliefs to the competitive market system? Mennonites are aware of the extra level of scrutiny.

It can be a challenge to reconcile religious beliefs and "sharp" business practice. Not all succeed. Michelle Redekop is Mennonite Corporate Christian Lawyer with Mennonite clients:

"I find that there are some contradictions in how [some] Mennonites live and behave. It becomes evident in my practice sometimes. I have clients who are pleased to become a client because they have either a Mennonite of Christian background and are pleased to work with a Christian lawyer and then, at times, do what I consider very "unchristian" things: they want to avoid payment to the government...(or) they want to know how they can avoid some other obligation - what I would consider on a good faith level that I think they should pay off."