Three Questions For You

[ohio jones]

Matthew 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

Sounds like she was just literally obeying. Drink ye all of it. It doesn’t say “drink ye a tiny sip of it”.

An alternative translation, which is how I've always understood it, is "Drink of it, all of you." That is, the emphasis is on everyone participating, not on emptying the cup. The wording is similar in NKJV, ESV, NASB, BTV, and others.

[Praxis+Theodicy]

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1) Did women ‘double-covering’ start before there was proper underwear available? So now modern day bras do the job? And so now the extra layer is unnecessary?

I think the reason for "double covering" is a literalist interpretation of a greek word, referring to a single garment that is doubled. I could be wrong, I don't know. I think when you dig that deep into finding meaning and then applying it, your idea has a lot of merit. You're best off talking with your local church community about how that application should be applied.

2) Shouldn’t we drink wine at communion/love feast, and not juice? Because juice is sweet, and the cup is supposed to be bitter, like wine?

I know of at least one fellowship that does this.

However, the "bitter" part of the Seder Meal is another side dish, not the wine. It's a little bowl of salty water with bitter herbs in it I think.

3) Think this one was in a Ziggy cartoon: Shouldn’t people try a plant God created (cannabis) before taking a whole bunch of man-made medicines for sleep or stress or whatever?

Cannabis is relatively less harmful than alcohol in my opinion, but it does have its cautions. Side effect of acute paranoia is NOT fun to deal with. Also, although impairment is not as severe as alcohol, it is harder to moderate and can last much longer.
But as far as medicinal.... medicines all come from God's creation somehow! The difference between "medicine" and "natural remedy" is really just how much it has been rigorously tested to where we know its effects and side effects.

[RZehr]

Matthew 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;

Sounds like she was just literally obeying. Drink ye all of it. It doesn’t say “drink ye a tiny sip of it”.

An alternative translation, which is how I've always understood it, is "Drink of it, all of you." That is, the emphasis is on everyone participating, not on emptying the cup. The wording is similar in NKJV, ESV, NASB, BTV, and others.

[GoodGirl]

Interesting. When I was a young Mom, nursing- I did not feel this way the least bit. It never occurred to me to feel anything but comfortable having that "alone" time feeding my baby, not at all like an outcast- never crossed my mind to feel that way

This has been a bit of a hot button issue for me, I guess. I’ve had some really negative experiences with people who though nursing was ‘gross’ in general & I got in caught in the cross hairs.

So I probably should leave this one to more neutral people.

I had plenty of times at home, that I loved the special peaceful moments with my babies.

But I also had plenty of times I was out of the house, and had to end my conversation, find my husband and ask him to watch some of our children, and then go off alone to feed my baby.

Maybe it’s because we had so many, so close together, but I had times thinking I might as well have stayed home, because I’d still be doing the same thing I was doing being out— sitting in a quiet place feeding my baby, alone except for some of my younger children.

I hope that makes sense.

Totally off topic, but I miss having babies now.

[GoodGirl]

[/quote
But as far as medicinal.... medicines all come from God's creation somehow! The difference between "medicine" and "natural remedy" is really just how much it has been rigorously tested to where we know its effects and side effects.
[/quote]

Good point!

[Josh]

This has been a bit of a hot button issue for me, I guess. I’ve had some really negative experiences with people who though nursing was ‘gross’ in general & I got in caught in the cross hairs.

I have not appreciated that attitude from such people, particularly since breastfeeding in public has been normal for most of our history. It went out of fashion when the formula industry started heavily promoting breastfeeding in Western countries. There was a great deal of controversy when they started doing the same thing in third-world countries - a large boycott against Nestlé was organised and actually led to them backing off and shutting the marketing campaigns down along with the attempts to create cultural changes.

But I also had plenty of times I was out of the house, and had to end my conversation, find my husband and ask him to watch some of our children, and then go off alone to feed my baby.

Yes. I don't think that's good. We don't expect anyone else to eat in private, or to eat in bathrooms, and so on. Part of supporting motherhood and healthy families means supporting nursing as well. This is an area where the overall tide has changed in overall society in a way that I think is good, and for conservative Anabaptists, this simply means rejecting the last 100 years or so of modernism and embracing older traditions.

Somewhat slightly related is the custom in some Mennonite circles that a woman shouldn't appear in public once she is beyond so much pregnant. I find that attitude particularly bizarre.

[GoodGirl]

Thanks, Josh. I agree.

[ohio jones]

Somewhat slightly related is the custom in some Mennonite circles that a woman shouldn't appear in public once she is beyond so much pregnant. I find that attitude particularly bizarre.

While the custom is increasingly rare, it gave birth to the Amish-Mennonite practice of having communion twice a year instead of just once. The window between recovering from one pregnancy and exhibiting visible evidence of the next was short enough, and the women productive enough, that a woman of childbearing age might go years between communion services if the timing wasn't just right.

[Josh]

Somewhat slightly related is the custom in some Mennonite circles that a woman shouldn't appear in public once she is beyond so much pregnant. I find that attitude particularly bizarre.

While the custom is increasingly rare, it gave birth to the Amish-Mennonite practice of having communion twice a year instead of just once. The window between recovering from one pregnancy and exhibiting visible evidence of the next was short enough, and the women productive enough, that a woman of childbearing age might go years between communion services if the timing wasn't just right.

Interesting. Before that happened, was it typically held on Easter or Christmas?

[GoodGirl]

I just wanted to say thank you for all the answers so far.

It definitely gives me more discussion points with our youth! They aren’t against anything we do, just full of questions some days about this or that.