Mennonite Quaintness

[JohnL]

This thread has been educational for this old Free Willer. I never thought of y’all as quaint. I think of Amish as old school lifestyle. Mennonites I didn't know much about but I’m learning. Any group that can quote Star Wars or Star Trek really doesn’t qualify as “quaint” in my brain.

[Soloist]

This thread has been educational for this old Free Willer. I never thought of y’all as quaint. I think of Amish as old school lifestyle. Mennonites I didn't know much about but I’m learning. Any group that can quote Star Wars or Star Trek really doesn’t qualify as “quaint” in my brain.

Wife: To be fair, most of them can’t, and they prefer it that way. Then there’s people like us who were Star Trek junkies before going to the Mennonites. I remember switching to Star Trek and other sci-fi books/media when I decided to get away from magic stuff but I actually drew away from that and stargate when I saw a lot of stuff mocking religion. Hubby and I still quote things like that all the time out of habit, as well as breaking into the occasional VeggieTales song (even though I don’t overly like VeggieTales, they do have some funny songs). A lot of sci-fi was funny/interesting; it was just not something that actually edified, and the anti-religion themes bothered me a lot.


Just throwing this out there for anyone reading this. Mennonet is not a good sample survey of Mennonites, especially on the conservative end. Many do not engage in online forums/social media, and the argumentative nature of these kind of forums turns a lot of them off. Also, a vast majority have never even heard of it.

[Anthony]

I was re-reading a pamphlet from a conservative mennonite preacher with a NMB and he referred to the world’s perception of mennonites as “quaint, cute, rural, and happy in our misery”. Ive always had the same impression but have never seen mennonites talk about themselves like this.

Where can I read this pamphlet?

“The Anabaptist View of the Church” by Jeff Jarmon. I got it from an EPMC church member.

[Anthony]

I was re-reading a pamphlet from a conservative mennonite preacher with a NMB and he referred to the world’s perception of mennonites as “quaint, cute, rural, and happy in our misery”. Ive always had the same impression but have never seen mennonites talk about themselves like this.

What all do you and the world include in this word "misery"?

I think the “misery” he was talking about was low status/income jobs in the eyes of the world (Plumbing, Roofing, Small farm), lack of technology, living in underdeveloped rural areas. Strict rules to follow, etc. This is mainly talking about conservative/old order mennonites.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I was re-reading a pamphlet from a conservative mennonite preacher with a NMB and he referred to the world’s perception of mennonites as “quaint, cute, rural, and happy in our misery”. Ive always had the same impression but have never seen mennonites talk about themselves like this.

Where can I read this pamphlet?

I think I know the one he is talking about. It is no longer in our church library. I think it was "Come and Stay." That is from the deep recesses of my memory.

In my estimation, it presented barriers that were not actually there, and to see things as "slights" that were never intended as such.

[Judas Maccabeus]

This thread has been educational for this old Free Willer. I never thought of y’all as quaint. I think of Amish as old school lifestyle. Mennonites I didn't know much about but I’m learning. Any group that can quote Star Wars or Star Trek really doesn’t qualify as “quaint” in my brain.

We do not think of ourselves as such. We have simply rejected the eternal dammnation of what is now routine middle class America.

[Judas Maccabeus]

It's lost to history so I can't quote it exactly, but Wayne in Maine had a post years ago about wishing that Anabaptists could be appreciated for our theology. Instead, when outsiders look at us, all they think of is "pies cooling on the windowsill."

It could be that "faith without works is dead", and that the evidence of our doctrines is indeed the fruits people see. It does seem reasonable for people to be more impressed by the evidence of faith versus empty words.

So much of what passes for "christianity" in the evangelical world I left is words without any impact on a person's life.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I was re-reading a pamphlet from a conservative mennonite preacher with a NMB and he referred to the world’s perception of mennonites as “quaint, cute, rural, and happy in our misery”. Ive always had the same impression but have never seen mennonites talk about themselves like this.

What all do you and the world include in this word "misery"?

I think the “misery” he was talking about was low status/income jobs in the eyes of the world (Plumbing, Roofing, Small farm), lack of technology, living in underdeveloped rural areas. Strict rules to follow, etc. This is mainly talking about conservative/old order mennonites.

But jobs that will not be replaced by AI.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I was re-reading a pamphlet from a conservative mennonite preacher with a NMB and he referred to the world’s perception of mennonites as “quaint, cute, rural, and happy in our misery”. Ive always had the same impression but have never seen mennonites talk about themselves like this.

Where can I read this pamphlet?

“The Anabaptist View of the Church” by Jeff Jarmon. I got it from an EPMC church member.

I can't seem to find this at all. Maybe the Eastern Bookstore in Epthrta?

[Anthony]

Something interesting to me is evangelical sort of Christians who really "admire" the Amish & Mennonites, yet think it would somehow be an improvement if they adopted evangelical (or Catholic, or Orthodox, or whatever) doctrines, failing to see that Mennonite & Amish life flows out of their devotion to following the doctrines they find in the scriptures.

Honestly I think we can all learn from each other “something”. I’ve said before our orthodox priest friend said they all have a piece of the pie. (denominations)

It's lost to history so I can't quote it exactly, but Wayne in Maine had a post years ago about wishing that Anabaptists could be appreciated for our theology. Instead, when outsiders look at us, all they think of is "pies cooling on the windowsill."

I think the “pies cooling on the windowsill” flows from anabaptist theology naturally like JohnL mentioned earlier in the thread. Anabaptism doesnt offer much in the way of systematic theology, its a (in my eyes) more practical, lived out experience of being a christian.