Change your mind?

[Soloist]

Has any discussion on Mennonet changed your mind in the last several years?

[Sliceitup]

It does happen occasionally. This was a thread about Linda Stoltzfus and Mike suggested maybe we need to make sure girls are never alone on the road. I responded with how I thought that was a bad idea and I was thankful that Mike understood and seemed to accept my response.

Think about what you’re saying: girls cannot walk on public roads alone anymore. So… you want to deny them the almost meditative activity of walking alone with their thoughts, the vast sky and stars above them. To me it’s almost a spiritual experience.

Thanks for your comments from a different angle. I think if this happened to a daughter of mine I would never forgive myself for not protecting her. Yet to remove all risk is to remove life itself. You are correct. We can’t deny living itself to ourselves and our loved ones. Yet surely there must be common sense things we can do to help avoid these situations. Among those should be teaching the vulnerable how to respond in these situations.

[Sudsy]

Has any discussion on Mennonet changed your mind in the last several years?

Yes, I early on thought the more conservative brand of Christians were more removed from the world than they are.

However, I see various discussions here have input by some who belong to conservative type churches that shows how much they keep very much up with the world and what I would call being 'of the world and not just in it'. To me, it shows how one can keep quite physically distant from the world in certain ways yet be very much involved with what the world is doing. One may not have a TV, for example, but have other allowed sources to keep up with current events and politics, one of these sources being MennoNet. I suspect the more conservative Christians don't participate here at all.

I guess I was expecting that the more conservative types would be quite 'out of touch' with what was going on in the world as was the case of the Pentecostals of my early years. And maybe this forum is not a fair representation of conservative type Christians. Occasionally I do get into conversations with Christians who ignore discussions involving politics and current events as they are taken up with their understanding of Kingdom living and sharing their faith or they just avoid areas of discussion that can get into conflict. But these types are few in my contacts.

I very much agree we were meant to be 'in the world but not of the world' and the means we have today to keep abreast of worldly events is greater than it has ever been. My guess is that we all might be better Christ followers if we were not on forums or the Internet. But just removal of certain things is not enough to be more spiritual. Actually, the more one takes on a spiritual growth focus, things that don't support that focus fall off. So, obviously I don't have the kind of focus I need to have as shown by some of my involvements here.

[Soloist]

Yes, I early on thought the more conservative brand of Christians were more removed from the world than they are.

However, I see various discussions here have input by some who belong to conservative type churches that shows how much they keep very much up with the world and what I would call being 'of the world and not just in it'. To me, it shows how one can keep quite physically distant from the world in certain ways yet be very much involved with what the world is doing. One may not have a TV, for example, but have other allowed sources to keep up with current events and politics, one of these sources being MennoNet. I suspect the more conservative Christians don't participate here at all.

I guess I was expecting that the more conservative types would be quite 'out of touch' with what was going on in the world as was the case of the Pentecostals of my early years. And maybe this forum is not a fair representation of conservative type Christians. Occasionally I do get into conversations with Christians who ignore discussions involving politics and current events as they are taken up with their understanding of Kingdom living and sharing their faith or they just avoid areas of discussion that can get into conflict. But these types are few in my contacts.

I have friends who didn’t know who the president was and never had heard of Rodney King.
Pilgrim and western fellowship are the most conservative represented here and the more conservative of those groups have left Mennonet. Eastern and Nationwide wouldn’t really be on here at all and past that would be singles or old order groups as far as I know.
I’ve heard plenty of political stuff from people not on Menno though…

[Josh]

MennoNet is basically a liberal forum.

[Swiss Bro]

I stopped participating in elections mostly due to reading some of the opinions on Mennonet.

[steve-in-kville]

MennoNet is basically a liberal forum.

Right here is an example.

My mind hasn't really been changed on any subject or another, but I have been able to see other people's angles and point of views on things, such as Josh's statement above, respectfully.