A Kingdom Response to the Societal War

[Bootstrap]

No, I do not. I don't have any particular insight into what plain churches need to do. I say that Christians need to make this clear. Our witness is being tainted. When I post on this forum, I think of it as talking with other like-minded Christians. I do like to raise questions about how we, as Christians, live our lives. In my faith, asking that kind of question is important.

Our witness got tainted a long time before Charlottesville. I don't even try to represent "all Christians", but instead just try to represent and speak on behalf of "kingdom Christianity" or "following Jesus", and if pressured will say I'm Anabaptist & Mennonite. Then I will say that I believe you can't follow Jesus if you believe it's okay to kill people.

Me too. Though I actually think a lot of this is about pointing to what Jesus said and did, how the early church responded, etc. But I definitely wind up saying it's not mostly about theology or praying a prayer once, and I definitely say that I just don't get some of the gospels people are regularly exposed to.

A kingdom response to the societal war has to include a kingdom response to societal religion. That's why Jesus kept confronting Pharisees and Sadducees, and why Paul kept confronting legalism, Gnosticism, immorality, and various false religions and practices.

In the context of that, Charlottesville is rather small potatoes (along with a lot of other things), and the question of what following Jesus is comes down to something quite personal and a lot less abstract than some news event in some faraway place.

Some of this is happening where I live now, and I may have spent more time in Charlottesville than you have. It is a place I know and care about. But I have a hard time believing that the societal war is just some abstract far-away thing for most people.

[Josh]

Okay, then in the Schema of things Christians need to speak out against, Christians who accept abortion and war are a far bigger challenge to face than whatever Charlottesville was.

I'm not even aware of any Christian groups who endorse what happened in Charlottesville. It seems as important of a priority as making it known I am not part of the flat earth movement, or part of the Lord's Resistance Army.

[Chris]

This thread is dedicated to discussing how we Anabaptist might respond proactively to what is, I suspect, just the beginning of turbulent times:

Here are a few discussion starters;

• 1) How do we insulate ourselves and our faith community from the ideological propaganda designed ON BOTH SIDES to lure us into taking sides in the cultural/political war raging all around us?
  By not reading or listening to the news or watching television, we insulate ourselves from the propaganda
  
  2) How do we address those within our ranks who have already been sucked in, especially those who are actively recruiting other culture-warriors?
  Because of our teaching on voting and taking part in politics, this is not a problem in our communities.
  
  3) How can we best bear witness to the way of Christ, including taking a stand for his ethical teachings, without being pulled into a fight that isn't ours? Is passivity or silence in the face of wrong an option?
  Again, by avoiding politics we will not be pulled into the fight which isn't ours.
  
  4) How should we minister to the casualties of the vitriol that is going on around us?
  We need to help them see the way of peace as a preferred lifestyle.
  
  5) How do we prepare for the attacks on us that inevitably will come to us for not choosing sides?
  I have hopes that the climate in Canada is different from that in the US. We don't have the NRA and we can't accept the politics of the Republican party. Our American friends would vote Republican but when i do hear the positions of the two parties, so often the Democratic positions seems more comfortable.

Maybe we can learn some lessons from the witness of our Anabaptist forebears who faced turbulent times in the past.

By living a quiet and peaceful lifestyle, we don't need to tell people around us where we stand; they already know what they expect of us. They would be surprised if we took Sudsy's approach of the more "in your face" attitude. I am not saying we should remain unawares of what is going on but relative non-involvement will accomplish most for most of us here in Canada. IMO.

I agree 100%

Also to add, I believe if Anabaptists are more convicted in their standards (why we do what we do, such as avoid TV) and have examples to show why, it would be much more convincing towards others.

[Sudsy]

This thread is dedicated to discussing how we Anabaptist might respond proactively to what is, I suspect, just the beginning of turbulent times:

Here are a few discussion starters;

• 1) How do we insulate ourselves and our faith community from the ideological propaganda designed ON BOTH SIDES to lure us into taking sides in the cultural/political war raging all around us?
  By not reading or listening to the news or watching television, we insulate ourselves from the propaganda
  
  2) How do we address those within our ranks who have already been sucked in, especially those who are actively recruiting other culture-warriors?
  Because of our teaching on voting and taking part in politics, this is not a problem in our communities.
  
  3) How can we best bear witness to the way of Christ, including taking a stand for his ethical teachings, without being pulled into a fight that isn't ours? Is passivity or silence in the face of wrong an option?
  Again, by avoiding politics we will not be pulled into the fight which isn't ours.
  
  4) How should we minister to the casualties of the vitriol that is going on around us?
  We need to help them see the way of peace as a preferred lifestyle.
  
  5) How do we prepare for the attacks on us that inevitably will come to us for not choosing sides?
  I have hopes that the climate in Canada is different from that in the US. We don't have the NRA and we can't accept the politics of the Republican party. Our American friends would vote Republican but when i do hear the positions of the two parties, so often the Democratic positions seems more comfortable.

Maybe we can learn some lessons from the witness of our Anabaptist forebears who faced turbulent times in the past.

By living a quiet and peaceful lifestyle, we don't need to tell people around us where we stand; they already know what they expect of us. They would be surprised if we took Sudsy's approach of the more "in your face" attitude. I am not saying we should remain unawares of what is going on but relative non-involvement will accomplish most for most of us here in Canada. IMO.

I agree 100%

Also to add, I believe if Anabaptists are more convicted in their standards (why we do what we do, such as avoid TV) and have examples to show why, it would be much more convincing towards others.

I don't think solutions are real solutions if they don't show results. Are the unchurched being reached and if so how many each year in our local churches ? Do our churches reflect various races of people ? How many non-whites are being reached by our Anabaptist churches ? If few, why ? Shouldn't we be asking these kind of questions too ?

[Hats Off]

By living a quiet and peaceful lifestyle, we don't need to tell people around us where we stand; they already know what they expect of us. They would be surprised if we took Sudsy's approach of the more "in your face" attitude. I am not saying we should remain unawares of what is going on but relative non-involvement will accomplish most for most of us here in Canada. IMO.

I agree 100%

Also to add, I believe if Anabaptists are more convicted in their standards (why we do what we do, such as avoid TV) and have examples to show why, it would be much more convincing towards others.

I don't think solutions are real solutions if they don't show results. Are the unchurched being reached and if so how many each year in our local churches ? Do our churches reflect various races of people ? How many non-whites are being reached by our Anabaptist churches ? If few, why ? Shouldn't we be asking these kind of questions too ?

For starters, we do not have many non-whites in our geographical area and most of the non-whites already are convinced of their religion. Next, looking at the Mennonite churches with the most non-white members, what percentage of their own youth are staying with the church? How faithfully do those churches follow the plain truths of the Bible? Do those churches just offer them the freedom to be part of a church where they can have the assurance of salvation without taking up the cross of Christ? If we are going to start qualifying churches based on statistics, we will have to consider many different factors.