page_35 < previous page page_35 next page > Page 35 Lancaster Mennonite Conference, Pastor Sara Wenger Shenk answered this question: "I think it's because He knows the arch rival for our loyalty to God is money.... And not only does this work for individuals, but for churches and conferences.... If an area conference is flush with resources, it can do its own thing without regard to the rest of the church community." 7 "Of what avail is an open eye, if the heart is blind?"8 Church is a delicate moral business in Mennonite conferences that find some of their ministers, bishops, or even conference moderators (a key position) related to or the spiritual leaders of movers and shakers in Lancaster County's development industry. Though prevalent, such ties are actively downplayed. Then too, there is the matter of sermons. One Lancaster Conference minister who moved out of the county because of what he "saw happening in the Conference" put his dilemma this way: "Who's gonna preach against Dad's or Uncle Jake's?" Adult Sunday School in the mainstream conferences is a time before formal services for members to see one another, study Scripture, pray, and shoot the breeze afterward. A few also like to discuss a little business now and then. Doing business with members of one's church community would be considered a form of tithing. For example, since communal welfare is enhanced by a sound economy, it would be considered good community relations for one church member to go to another with a project, a potential contract, or the like. As members were prosperous and money flowed between them and so remained in the community, church coffers would thus also be filled. Hearing talk about tithing, contracts, family and church ties, and informal business all hooked together on Sunday, a phrase came to mind, a phrase I first heard used in Lancaster County long before events in Mill Creek Valleyan ugly phrase, a derogatory phrase some people used to describe an attitude rather than individuals per se, typically when bumping up against self-serving obstinance on the part of some Mennonite developersa phrase now being used in Mill Creek Valley. People talked of "the Mennonite Mafia." Susan Jackson is a thirty-five-year-old former employee of Victor Weaver. Today she gives piano lessons to elementary school children while working toward a bachelor's degree in music education from Millersville University, a small state college in Lancaster County. Susan Jackson, her husband (a senior programmer-analyst for a nearby hospital), and their daughter live in Mill Creek Valley. Ardent in her estimation of Victor Weaver, who died in 1989, Susan Jackson smiles, saying, "Victor always put people first. Always." Â < previous page page_35 next page >