Bruderhof

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
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TeleBodyofChrist
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Bruderhof

Post by TeleBodyofChrist »

Does anyone know about this particular group?

From I can tell it looks like they are trying to repair their image from some problems in the past, but it seems like it could also be a situation that would not be easy to leave later.

I ask because I know of someone who is interested. I see the appeal as everything is provided for, and I know that a lot of the transition problems people run into when coming from outside the anabaptist is financial. This particular community would solve that issue.

Besides the plain dress, is this group anabaptist or something else? Should I warn my friend the next time we talk?
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Josh
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Re: Bruderhof

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TeleBodyofChrist wrote:Does anyone know about this particular group?

From I can tell it looks like they are trying to repair their image from some problems in the past, but it seems like it could also be a situation that would not be easy to leave later.

I ask because I know of someone who is interested. I see the appeal as everything is provided for, and I know that a lot of the transition problems people run into when coming from outside the anabaptist is financial. This particular community would solve that issue.

Besides the plain dress, is this group anabaptist or something else? Should I warn my friend the next time we talk?
Wayne in Maine used to be part of this group and he could offer more insight.

Red flags of the Bruderhof for me are:

1. There is a supreme leader at the top where he and his family basically control everything. Challenge him, and you will be excommunicated.

2. They split up families when they expel someone. They tried to expel someone I knew who had a wife and a daughter a few months old. They wanted the wife to strictly shun/avoid her husband, because he had spoken out against the leader for flying around on a private jet.

3. The leadership at the top owns private aircraft they use for personal purposes. This is incompatible, in my opinion, with communal kingdom living as pilgrims and strangers.

4. Bruderhof are heavily involved in peace-and-justice type marches/protests.

5. Bruderhof really lack anything identifiably Anabaptist anymore. Their theology is a hodge-podge of stuff from all over the place.

6. Bruderhof have been unable to maintain communion with any other Anabaptist groups, including Hutterites and evangelical break-away Hutterites, conservative Mennonites, and liberal Mennonites. That's not a good sign.

7. They are very, very careful about the image presented to visitors - they want a lot of details and "prepare" and can't just handle someone dropping in. The rest of us Mennonites, Amish, etc. will drop whatever we are doing if a visitor stops by, regardless of how unreasonable the time and the nature of the visit.

With that said, I think someone could live a good life in the Bruderhof as long as he chooses to keep his mouth shut about abuses/problems going on with the senior leadership. At the local community level, they seem quite wholesome.
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TeleBodyofChrist
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Re: Bruderhof

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Thank you Josh. This helps.
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Re: Bruderhof

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My family has visited several times. They seem like fine loving people with a beautiful way of life in many ways. I've heard the same sorts of problems that Josh mentioned. I've known an ex-Bruderhof man who had similar negative experiences. Some close friends had a son join the Bruderhof and for years were greatly limited in visiting and in communicating. I've heard from some they think the problems mentioned are more things of the past and that the Bruderhof has changed. I don't know about that, and would also like to hear from someone with better knowledge of the last couple of years.
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Re: Bruderhof

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JimFoxvog wrote:My family has visited several times. They seem like fine loving people with a beautiful way of life in many ways. I've heard the same sorts of problems that Josh mentioned. I've known an ex-Bruderhof man who had similar negative experiences. Some close friends had a son join the Bruderhof and for years were greatly limited in visiting and in communicating. I've heard from some they think the problems mentioned are more things of the past and that the Bruderhof has changed. I don't know about that, and would also like to hear from someone with better knowledge of the last couple of years.
Bruderhof do a great job of putting in a good fade and fooling progressive Mennonites.
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Re: Bruderhof

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Josh wrote: Bruderhof do a great job of putting in a good fade and fooling progressive Mennonites.
I think it's more than that. I believe most common members are sincere in trying to follow Jesus and are not trying to fool people. But it is quite possible that most believe that mentioning any criticism of the brotherhood would be unfaithful and may be fearful of consequences if they said anything negative. I do not have the same opinion about the leadership.
The strict dress code and disapproval of birth control put off more progressive Mennonites, I'd think.
When was your last contact with them, Josh? It was over 20 years ago for me, except for a couple making a brief visit to our church.
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Re: Bruderhof

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Josh wrote:
JimFoxvog wrote:My family has visited several times. They seem like fine loving people with a beautiful way of life in many ways. I've heard the same sorts of problems that Josh mentioned. I've known an ex-Bruderhof man who had similar negative experiences. Some close friends had a son join the Bruderhof and for years were greatly limited in visiting and in communicating. I've heard from some they think the problems mentioned are more things of the past and that the Bruderhof has changed. I don't know about that, and would also like to hear from someone with better knowledge of the last couple of years.
Bruderhof do a great job of putting in a good facade and fooling progressive Mennonites.
Josh...while I won't argue that some of the things you mentioned are or have been issues over the year, nor will I deny that there are some folks (including a number of friends of ours) who have been hurt by apparently poor leadership decisions over the years, I think you are being too cynical and dismissive here.

The basis for the life these folks have radically committed to is a genuine desire to live out the teachings of Christ as modeled by the early church - particularly as described in Acts 2 & 4 - a thoroughly Anabaptist theological life choice as far as I'm concerned. Honestly, the Bruderhof is home to some of the most committed and sincere Christians I have ever gotten to know - and I don't think you are being as charitable as you could be in your assessment.
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Re: Bruderhof

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JimFoxvog wrote:
Josh wrote: Bruderhof do a great job of putting in a good fade and fooling progressive Mennonites.
I think it's more than that. I believe most common members are sincere in trying to follow Jesus and are not trying to fool people. But it is quite possible that most believe that mentioning any criticism of the brotherhood would be unfaithful and may be fearful of consequences if they said anything negative. I do not have the same opinion about the leadership.
The strict dress code and disapproval of birth control put off more progressive Mennonites, I'd think.
When was your last contact with them, Josh? It was over 20 years ago for me, except for a couple making a brief visit to our church.
My last contact was in Australia about a year and a half ago.
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Re: Bruderhof

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Dan Z wrote:The basis for the life these folks have radically committed to is a genuine desire to live out the teachings of Christ as modeled by the early church - particularly as described in Acts 2 & 4 - a thoroughly Anabaptist theological life choice as far as I'm concerned. Honestly, the Bruderhof is home to some of the most committed and sincere Christians I have ever gotten to know - and I don't think you are being as charitable as you could be in your assessment.
Like it or not, being part of Bruderhof means absolute allegiance to people who do stuff like this:

http://articles.courant.com/1995-11-12/ ... mennonites
The Bruderhof also owns a Gulfstream jet airplane that can carry 12 passengers and a crew of three and is leased out when it is not being used for the community's commercial or church business. Christoph Arnold's 20-year-old son, also named Christoph, is the pilot and captain of the plane, which is based at an airport at Teterboro, N.J.
Antagonism between those critics and the people in the Bruderhofs has become vehement. Last summer, former members banded together into a support group called Children of the Bruderhof and publicized a toll-free telephone number. It was flooded with 1,700 harassing calls. After an investigation traced many of the calls to pay phones in the vicinity of the various Bruderhofs, the calls tapered off.
These don't look like things that sincere Christians do, although I think these are things the leadership is instigating, not the rank and file. Regardless, anyone looking to join them needs to seriously consider what they will be joining and supporting.

And I have heard, first-hand, how speaking out against the leadership and the senior leader's son flying around in a Gulftstream will lead to banishment, shunning, and attempts to separate you from your wife. That doesn't reflect any Anabaptist, Mennonite, or Hutterite values that I know of - whether conservative, plain, or progressive.
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Re: Bruderhof

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I didn't mention it in my original post, but Bruderhof Communities, Inc. has a tendency to sue its critics, which I also think doesn't match Anabaptist values of any stripe.

http://articles.courant.com/1997-10-30/ ... s-decision
The Bruderhof has sued some of its critics. It sued CBS-TV, which in the spring broadcast a ``48 Hours'' program that aired critics' complaints. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Domer said the CBS program had no effect on business and had nothing to do with the decision to leave Norfolk.

The Bruderhof has also sued Professor Julius Rubin, a professor of sociology at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, for remarks he made about the Bruderhof in a Philadelphia radio broadcast. The lawsuit is pending in federal court in New York.

``My sense is this is not an economic decision,'' Rubin said Wednesday. ``It's as if there is this major sense of consolidation out of fears of external threat and inability to control their people.''
That is, however, something that highly controlling cult-like groups like Scientologists do.
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