Editorial Assistant

Greta Lapp Klassen (she/her) grew up in Goshen, Ind., and recently graduated from Goshen College with majors in English and art and a minor in writing. Between high school and college, Greta did a service year in Bolivia with Mennonite Central Committee, living and working in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. While in college, Greta served as the executive editor of her school’s newspaper, The Record; during her time on staff, she wrote for every section of the paper (except sports), worked on the layout team, and contributed illustrations and comics. She also served as the English department’s Horswell Fellow for two years, organizing and running Goshen College’s in-house publishing press, Pinchpenny Press. She is passionate about reading and writing fiction, and she published a collection of short stories, A Prayer (for any God who finds themselves available), with Pinchpenny Press her senior year.

Greta was also involved in music during college, playing violin in the orchestra and singing in the upper voices choir. She was a leader of Goshen Monologues, a group that organizes an annual storytelling project inspired by Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues and she won the 2022 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest for her speech “Humanizing Our World, One Walkway at a Time.” Last spring, she exhibited a series of six acrylic portraits for her senior art show, and enjoys painting, making collages, and perfecting her technique on the potter’s wheel when she has the time.

Greta also likes to bike, and in the summer of 2021, she rode across the country with the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative to spread awareness about climate change and learn how it is affecting different parts of the country. In her free time, she loves to swim, bake, and catch up on all the pop culture and pop music that she was woefully unaware of during her childhood (Recent discoveries include *NSYNC, One Direction, and Carly Rae Jepsen).

Posts By This Author

Rats Are Just Friends You Haven’t Met Yet

by Greta Lapp Klassen 04-25-2024
Introducing NIBBLE, a promising new nonprofit aimed to evangelize rats. 
The illustration shows six rats chilling on an orange couch in front of a the iconic fountain from the show "Friends" and there is also a lamp

Illustration by Melanie Lambrick 

WHEN I MOVED to Washington, D.C., the second thing I noticed was the rats. (The first was that D.C. drivers are more aggressive than those from Indiana. I’ve since learned to use my horn liberally.)

I’m not proud of my initial response to these furry children of God. I shrieked. I complained. I was frightened to go outside at night, because with every step I took, I heard them scurrying. I could practically feel their long, pink tails tickling my ankles. I filled their burrows with dirt and rocks, covering them with bricks. I was proud of my resourcefulness, until I found the bricks shoved aside and the burrows reestablished. These rats were strong and resilient. Touché, rats. Touché.

As winter approached, the rat population shrank. Small communities could still be found dwelling near dumpsters, and I realized that like me, the rats were just trying to survive. I began learning about the plight of the urban rat and became convicted that as Christians committed to social justice, we must open our hearts to Rattus norvegicus.

You might roll your eyes and ask, “Is a Christian response to rats really necessary?” I assure you, it is. We don’t bat an eye at squirrels (also rodents), yet we are universally disgusted by rats, which are, in case you’ve forgotten, also part of God’s creation. We are so possessive over our trash that we would rather kill the rats than let them enjoy our chicken bones. We must do better.

That’s why I’m launching NIBBLE (Nonviolent Interventions By Bible-Loving Evangelicals), a nonprofit focused on improving human-rat relations in accordance with the gospel. Here’s a preview of our five-step plan for building Beloved Community with neighborhood rats:

I Was Arrested While Singing Hymns for Cease-Fire in Gaza

by Greta Lapp Klassen 02-28-2024

Mennonite protesters organize in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 16, 2024. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Action.

Earlier this year, I was arrested alongside more than a hundred other Mennonites in Washington, D.C., as we raised our voices in song, demanding that our elected officials call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Being a part of this act of peaceful civil disobedience, organized by Mennonite Action, gave me a sense of clarity about my faith that I had sought for years. As Capitol Police officers zip-tied my wrists behind my back, I sang louder and thought to myself: “This is what it means to be a Christian. This is what pacifism meant to my Mennonite ancestors.”

In ‘Dawn of the Nugget,’ No Chicken Is Free Until All Chickens Are Free

by Greta Lapp Klassen 01-26-2024

'Dawn of the Nugget,' Netflix

More than 23 years after the box office hit Chicken Run came out, Aardman Animations has finally released a sequel: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a punny, thrilling, and slightly disturbing homage to the art of claymation, with abundant lessons about collective liberation, trauma, and parenting.