Anabaptist Viewpoint

[RZehr]

I don’t know about three. I know that one WF church didn’t kick him out of his home congregation, but instead he decided to leave on his own, and without being asked to do so.
One other distant congregation that he had oversight of did show him the door.
And I don’t know the specifics on the third distant congregation that he had oversight of, whether he bailed, or was shown the door. But I think that he left on his own accord there as well.

[Soloist]

I don’t know about three. I know that one WF church didn’t kick him out of his home congregation, but instead he decided to leave on his own, and without being asked to do so.
One other distant congregation that he had oversight of did show him the door.
And I don’t know the specifics on the third distant congregation that he had oversight of, whether he bailed, or was shown the door. But I think that he left on his own accord there as well.

One was at our church, One was in Idaho, and the other I guess I was misinformed about was yours.
I spoke to both men so I’m not misinformed about that.

[RZehr]

I don’t know about three. I know that one WF church didn’t kick him out of his home congregation, but instead he decided to leave on his own, and without being asked to do so.
One other distant congregation that he had oversight of did show him the door.
And I don’t know the specifics on the third distant congregation that he had oversight of, whether he bailed, or was shown the door. But I think that he left on his own accord there as well.

One was at our church, One was in Idaho, and the other I guess I was misinformed about was yours.
I spoke to both men so I’m not misinformed about that.

I thought that we were only talking about one man, one who was over three churches. I guess don't know who else you are referring to.

[Josh]

It's hard to put into words how awful that document is. Of course, I'm not sure why anyone would really care what moderate-conservatives have to say about any kind of cultural change or shift like this... since moderates always eventually accept the change. One might as well ask a fox about strategies to avoid having one's henhouse continually raided. The fox would answer, "What is needed is each hen to pray and seek the Lord and to trust God to keep the henhouse safe from foxes. But we cannot imagine for a minute that putting up a fence or getting a guard dog is the right solution. And the farmer has no authority to fence in the hens, anyway. They have a right to go roam the lawn in the middle of the night if they want to."

This document does serve a useful purpose: it demonstrates how moderate conservatives approach these issues and think about them. Of course, the reality is that most moderate conservatives are busy getting on social media and sharing news clips about the election, conspiracy theories, videos of themselves hunting and pictures of their gun collection, or promoting the latest multi-level marketing fad they got into. Back when I had social media, I almost never saw a worthwhile use of social media from conservative Anabaptists. But I sure saw plenty of questionable or outright un-Christian uses. The moderate conservative cannot bear to stop and think that, perhaps, just perhaps, those who are more conservative than he is might actually be right about something.

Then he'll pack up the Honda Odyssey (or who am I kidding, more like a Yukon) and head to one of the children's place for Thanksgiving, bemoaning the fact that his children left for a less-conservative church and the fact the grandchildren are in completely worldly clothes and are glued to their iPads, watching videos. How did this happen?

[NedFlanders]

Some nunancing rather than mischaracterizing them as being on the most extreme end of the spectrum, would make it easier to consider your viewpoint.

The thing is though - Josh’s comments are all bang on about Anabaptist Viewpoint….

[Josh]

The term “Anabaptist” is starting to get a bad reputation in conservative Anabaptist circles because it tends to be associated with liberalism like this.

A better title would have been “moderate conservative Mennonite perspectives” or perhaps “barely conservative Mennonite rapidly becoming not conservative at all perspectives”. As a visitor I invited to the kfw church in Richmond once said, “These people are so confused. If they want to have a TV, just have a TV. If they think you shouldn’t have a TV the get rid of your TV and stop watching videos.”

Instead, the moderate-conservative will explain to you how the 30” screen in a hutch in his living room attached to a laptop that he uses to play entertainment movies and TV shows from DVDs from the library is totally not a TV, but is actually a computer screen.

[Soloist]

I would hazard a guess that the majority of people calling themselves conservative have defined the term by theology more then traditional values founded on theology. In other words, the majority of “conservatives” are or are becoming fundamentalist conservatives.

[Josh]

I would hazard a guess that the majority of people calling themselves conservative have defined the term by theology more then traditional values founded on theology. In other words, the majority of “conservatives” are or are becoming fundamentalist conservatives.

And, oddly enough, they seem to not conserve their traditional values, either.

For an example of the absurd spectacle of the moderate-conservative, imagine one of them saying it’s a really important that Mennonites and Amish get out and vote on Issue 1 in Ohio (which lost out by over a million votes).

[ken_sylvania]

For an example of the absurd spectacle of the moderate-conservative, imagine one of them saying it’s a really important that Mennonites and Amish get out and vote on Issue 1 in Ohio (which lost out by over a million votes).

Does that then become an example of God losing the vote?

[Josh]

For an example of the absurd spectacle of the moderate-conservative, imagine one of them saying it’s a really important that Mennonites and Amish get out and vote on Issue 1 in Ohio (which lost out by over a million votes).

Does that then become an example of God losing the vote?

Apparently. We’re also supposed to pray and intercede for Ukrainian freedom fighters and the Israeli government to prevail against “Islam”. It concerns me how readily moderate conservatives just believe whatever the “conservative” right wing media tells them to think.