Questions for Anabaptists: Plain or Old Order

[Ernie]

This one is interesting to me, because my (paternal) grandfather never allowed his children to call him 'vater' (father), citing this verse. (Just the Palutdietsch equivalent of "Pop", or "Dad" - something like 'Paup' in the dialect of Plautdietsch my Dad's family spoke.)

The same was true in my Swiss/German lineage.

[MaxPC]

Recently there have been incidents of the LGBT+ people trying to ... hold sexual entertainment on church property. How would your fellowship respond to these ... blatant perversions?

Our congregation lets out the facilities for weddings and funerals. So far, no immoral couple or group has asked to use it, as far as I know. I have urged our leadership to guard against possible lawsuits about this sort of thing by creating a sort of "cooperative" among similar congregations, and then only an event sponsored or conducted by one of the member congregations would be allowed to use the facilities. But no one seems to think there is any danger of this, or they think they can just refuse to rent it out to someone like this. I think that it will eventually start happening to congregations in our area, and we need to take precautions. When it does, it will be bad for the congregation concerned.

The idea of a cooperative is a good one. Thank you. Would you allow me to pass along this course of action to our Bishops? Catholics are the big target right now because of our teachings against transgenderism and homosexuality and because of our numbers.

[Neto]

Recently there have been incidents of the LGBT+ people trying to ... hold sexual entertainment on church property. How would your fellowship respond to these ... blatant perversions?

Our congregation lets out the facilities for weddings and funerals. So far, no immoral couple or group has asked to use it, as far as I know. I have urged our leadership to guard against possible lawsuits about this sort of thing by creating a sort of "cooperative" among similar congregations, and then only an event sponsored or conducted by one of the member congregations would be allowed to use the facilities. But no one seems to think there is any danger of this, or they think they can just refuse to rent it out to someone like this. I think that it will eventually start happening to congregations in our area, and we need to take precautions. When it does, it will be bad for the congregation concerned.

The idea of a cooperative is a good one. Thank you. Would you allow me to pass along this course of action to our Bishops? Catholics are the big target right now because of our teachings against transgenderism and homosexuality and because of our numbers.

Definitely. Happy to see it implemented anywhere.

[Soloist]

Describe the difference from a plain person perspective why an image of Dirk Willems is different from a Catholic or Orthodox image and acceptable to have in a church or home.

[Josh]

Describe the difference from a plain person perspective why an image of Dirk Willems is different from a Catholic or Orthodox image and acceptable to have in a church or home.

I don’t have such an image in my home and would discourage putting such a portrait on my wall.

I also would strongly teach against worshipping such an image, praying to Mr Willems, or kissing a picture of him.

I think having pictures of icons of saints inside a book on the shelf is fine. I would feel the same about a picture of Willems.

In addition, the main point of the famous picture of him is the action he was doing, as opposed to venerating him himself for some supposed sainthood.

[Ernie]

I think having pictures of icons of saints inside a book on the shelf is fine. I would feel the same about a picture of Willems.

And I am assuming that this excludes kissing or praying to the person being pictured in the book...

[Sudsy]

Do Holdemans resist all forms of photography or only ones that involve pictures of themselves ?

All forms of photography (things like a document scanner scanning documents is not in scope, nor things like taking photos of items on a shelf for a business). When required for eg government ID Holdemans will allow someone else to take a photo.

Some Amish groups hold a similar stance. The Beachys used to, but this stance has softened in recent years.

What is the scriptural support and interpretation for resisting all forms of photography ? Who originated that practise and when ?

[HondurasKeiser]

Do Holdemans resist all forms of photography or only ones that involve pictures of themselves ?

All forms of photography (things like a document scanner scanning documents is not in scope, nor things like taking photos of items on a shelf for a business). When required for eg government ID Holdemans will allow someone else to take a photo.

Some Amish groups hold a similar stance. The Beachys used to, but this stance has softened in recent years.

What is the scriptural support and interpretation for resisting all forms of photography ? Who originated that practise and when ?

Thou shall not…

[Sudsy]

All forms of photography (things like a document scanner scanning documents is not in scope, nor things like taking photos of items on a shelf for a business). When required for eg government ID Holdemans will allow someone else to take a photo.

Some Amish groups hold a similar stance. The Beachys used to, but this stance has softened in recent years.

What is the scriptural support and interpretation for resisting all forms of photography ? Who originated that practise and when ?

Thou shall not…

Book, chapter and verse please.

[HondurasKeiser]

What is the scriptural support and interpretation for resisting all forms of photography ? Who originated that practise and when ?

Thou shall not…

Book, chapter and verse please.

Exodus 20:4, The Bible.