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I think that ableism is an important problem because it is at the - sometimes overlooked -center of debates about gender, race, equality and "meritocracy". We have to accept that individuals are not at least equal w.r.t. their abilities. From which follows that, if we sort individuals into...

I'm just reading the new edition of Anabaptist World which concentrates on "ableism". And I beg to differ. I am not at least convinced that this fighting "ableism" is a Christian tradition, rather it serves "the spirit of our times". In those matters I make an exception...

If one views salvation as primarily involving personal absolution and the "finished work" (which by the way is not a biblical term) of Jesus by grace alone through faith...through the lever of penal substitutionary atonement, for an ultimate futuristic, eschatalogical salvation, then the ...

As for ostentatively working in order to pique your neighbours: Here in the Rhineland, for historical political reasons there often was a strictly Catholic village and a strictly Protestant village next to it. And it was often told that the Protestant farmers ostentatively worked in the fields at Co...

I don't think that I am "vengeful". I am irascible and on very rare occasions I have decided to let my rage flow. But that was more a rational decision. On the other hand, against Steve, I must confess that the opposite of vengefulness is in my case not something noble like "forgiving...

As for non-resistance I suppose that it is a matter of personal judgment. At least everyone ought to consider if his kind of resistance makes a violent escalation more probable or less probable. Nobody should retreat into an attitude of "well, I did not use violence myself, and if my opponent r...

Pacifism encourages a peaceful protest that I think is inconsistent with true Anabaptist traditions and theology. An opinion, but one I think is accurate and points at how Anabaptist thought has been corrupted by it’s more liberal members. Pacifism and political activism are two completely separate...

Accepted vaccination, because my bosses demanded that (had to give proof). Didn't get Covid. No opinion about the efforts of the vaccination. But I am rather miffed by our government which ignored the fact the vaccination is an intrusion into a basic right and as such can only be done with the conse...

I am somewhat surprised that in "Anabaptist World", Lent and Ash Wednesday are treated as common Christian traditions. I have been raised in a strictly Protestant region, in which only the Catholics came back at Ash Wednesday with an Ash cross on their forehead - it was a Catholic particul...

The interesting thing is in my eyes the upcoming of Phariseeism (the church as a community of the just or saint people) and, as its counterpart, the Jesus movement (the church as a community of sinners). That is a division which needs to be kept up, even if it is uncomfortable for Anabaptists.