Steve Ratzlaff

Steve Ratzlaff is a native of Nebraska … born and raised in Henderson, a small town of about 1000 in the central part of the state. He graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1967 with a BA in history. He also earned a Masters of Divinity degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN.

He has served as pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church in Seattle, WA, First Mennonite Church in Lincoln, NE, and is currently the lead minister of Mennonite Community Church in Fresno, CA.

A life-long pacifist, Ratzlaff has been active in issues of social justice and in finding alternatives to war. As a conscientious objector to war, he worked as a youth worker on the streets of Kansas City during the Vietnam War—his alternative service assignment. In the 1980s he served as co-chair of the Seattle Pledge of Resistance, a nationwide effort to keep U.S. troops out of Nicaragua. He has been a war-tax resister for the past 35 years. When he’s not working for affordable housing, a livable planet, and an end to war, he chairs the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund board, working to pass legislation in Congress to give conscientious objectors the right not to have to pay for war.

In the mid-70s, he served as a teacher in rural Bolivia—an assignment that changed his view of the world. There he learned first-hand the impact that U.S. government and multi-national corporations’ actions have on people in South America. It was an experience that ignited his passion for justice. He has led workshops on peace and justice in Australia and Canada, participated in a fact-finding mission to Colombia and served with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Vieques, Puerto Rico.

He lives in Fresno with his wife, Lynette. They have two adult children.