Spanish Lookout is one of the wealthiest and most peaceful communities in our country, but like everyone else, they have their share of problems. There is food aplenty in Spanish Lookout indeed, and there is peace, but many of the folks who live there are finding that some of the rules that govern the community are stifling.
On 22 May, 2020, Mr. Lyndon Herrera, of lot # 350294, in Spanish Lookout, was accused of “illegally living in Spanish Lookout Community.” In a letter sent to him by the lawyer(s) of the leaders of the Spanish Lookout community, Herrera was advised that since his marriage to a Mennonite woman had been dissolved, he no longer satisfied the revised Membership Policies of November 2019, so he would have to leave. He was advised that legal proceedings would be brought against him if he did not move by June 23, 2020.
The case against Herrera, a Belizean pastor in the community, is being watched keenly by those who support his bid to remain in the community, and those who want him to leave. Herrera has lived in Spanish Lookout for about a quarter of a century, and although all wasn’t perfect during the years he has lived and run a business in the community, it was live and let live, until he and his Mennonite wife separated several years ago.
Ever since the dissolution of his marriage, the community’s leaders have been trying to get him to leave, and now they have gone the legal route to get him to pack up and go. Herrera met with one of the community’s leaders this week, and if what I gathered from parties who knew about the meeting is right, it might be that the community is softening its position; it might be that the community’s leaders are not absolute in their determination that Herrera must pack up and leave.
The Mennonites are productive citizens, and God-fearing, and they are a wonderful people, but they have their mountains to climb. In this world you can’t have everything that you want. There are rules in Spanish Lookout that don’t exactly sit well with the Constitution, and it is a wonder that the community’s leaders can find lawyers to carry out some of their missions.
There are many things I am aware of about this case that I won’t discuss at this time, but let’s just focus on areas where things can’t go on as usual in the community. It is proper for people to hold on to values that have served them for generations, centuries even, but some things you just can’t hold on to, unless you are going to live in a cave.
For example, women are not second-class citizens. They have every right to vote and to lead. The color of a person’s skin cannot be a determining factor in their membership anywhere.
Some people estimate that more than 30% of the children of the Mennonites who live in Spanish Lookout are not Mennonites —that is, they belong to other religious denominations. Mennonite leaders in the Spanish Lookout community are aware that in some areas they can’t be rigid, because none of them would qualify under the rules the original leaders set out for the community when they signed on to live in Belize with a colonial government here in 1957.
Some see the Herrera case as a watershed moment; really there can only be one conclusion. All the reports are that the gentleman has been exemplary, and there is no rule anywhere that can, should be, allowed to trump walking in the footsteps of Jesus.