The Best of MennoNet

[Ernie]

This is a thread for highlighting posts from MennoNet, that might otherwise get buried.

These can be well written posts or something light that is a "keeper".

[MaxPC]

Neto's very informative posts on Bible translations. They are scattered throughout the forum but there are some gems in this thread that provide a primer. Thread.

[Ernie]

I'm not too disturbed by people leaning one way or another as long as they keep their head about them. It's probably a sign of health when a church has different leanings. I'd be more concerned if everyone has exactly the same political thoughts, that gives North Korea cult vibes.

For me warning signs are things like attacking the character of people who lean opposite (you just say that because you are a Republican), values shifting over time to match political goals, anger/absence of peace, creeping denialism about the weaknesses or sins of "your side," fixation with the evil of the other guys.

[temporal1]

i’d forgotten about this topic.
i went back to the first “diamond” post i made on MN, after justme’s “diamond” topic was lost.
i think it resonates:
2016:

The challenge is ALL facts can be interpreted.
We have so much data, that we all have to filter it some how. Those filters do bias that data.

One of the side effects of being in the information age.
So much data and such little wisdom.

Diamond.

[Ernie]

I have been slowly taking time to fully read the article posted at the beginning of the thread. I found one paragraph that sums up some things I am sympathetic towards, and which better articulates what I was trying to say earlier.

The church is always and everywhere called to receive from the world the many blessings bestowed upon it by God. For God is the universal Creator; the world he created is good; and he alone is Lord of all peoples and thus of all cultures. As it is written, “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jam 1:17). Or as the popular proverb goes, “All truth is God’s truth.” Which means that all good is God’s good and all beauty is God’s beauty. This means not only that the church will find much gold among the Egyptians. It means further that some such gold will be genuinely new to the church. Put plainly, the world is full of vital knowledge and priceless artifacts that in no way have their source in Christian faith (though their ultimate source is in Christ, as St. Paul teaches). Believers ought never to be naïve or uncritical, but in such cases the only thing to do is stretch out one’s hands in humble reception, before giving thanks to God.

I think the topic got off on a trail about creating culture (we talked a lot about anabaptist composers and potters), but what I was getting at was closer to just appreciating culture. I think this paragraph articulates well what I was trying to say, in that I am sympathetic to the idea that much truth and beauty is discovered and created by those who bear the image of God, whether they have bowed the knee to Christ or not. The fundamentalist stance seems to wholly reject this very thought, and it's hard to even talk about finding a middle ground.

For example, I wouldn't wholly affirm everything said in the above paragraph. I like an added caveat of "chew the meat and spit out the bones" rather than a sentence like "in such cases the only thing to do is stretch out one’s hands in humble reception..." But the middle round of "chew the meat and spit out the bones" isn't one considered in the fundamentalist mindset; the default assumption there is that anything that is discovered or created by anyone other than Christians (and, at that, only certain Christians who meet certain criteria) is all bones, end of discussion. Humans have a lot to say and do and make; they have been doing so since God created them in His image, as mini "creators". Some of what they create is good, some bad, and a lot of it (most of it) is a complicated mix of good and bad.

[temporal1]

P.4:

I think that’s right. His empathy, though didn’t extend to dismissing or minimizing the sin of the marginalized, either. That’s the error of the welcoming and affirming churches. They begin the “process” sometimes genuinely, of trying to understand the other and to not make the other’s sin larger than any other’s. They quickly move along though to affirming and blessing the other’s sin. That I think is the mistake of allowing empathy to supersede and subsume all other values.

diamond


Forum history note:
i think justme had a thread for (her word) forum diamonds, i don’t recall which forum version, maybe MD?
i’m glad Ernie began this topic. There could be pages of examples!

[Ernie]

Making a choice (voting, having opinions) doesn’t need to become part of one’s identity.
One also needs to decide what clothes to wear, what brand of car to buy, what food to eat. But we don’t let those things become who we are. If I buy a bad product from my favorite store Wal-Mart, you don’t see me pretending it is a good product simply because I’m loyal to Walmart.
Why can’t politics and voting be more like that? One should be free to vote for Republicans, while also free to say where they are off track.

[temporal1]

2021:

Sometimes kindness costs quite a bit, but it is a mandate from the Lord.

The Cloud of Witnesses .. https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=30

[Soloist]

One time in Mennonite Winter Bible school the kids had an assignment to write out some of their genealogy.
One boy who felt he could trace his ancestory back to Switzerland asked on of my sons, “what were your ancestors doing?”
My son said, “we are from Syria. We let Paul down in a basket when your ancestors were painting themselves blue”.

I should not have laughed but I did.

Wife: This post shall live on.

[temporal1]

2016

i don’t recall the context. it doesn’t matter, does it?

All of YOU stop and grow up.