High School and College for Plain Anabaptists: Advantages and Disadvantages

[Anthony]

It is based on experience that younger people are more vulnerable to spiritual deception and to being talked into abandoning living a Christian life. A person at 30 is, generally speaking, more mature than age 20 or age 16.

Indeed. My wife and I have discussed similarly for possible college education for daughters the Lord may give us.

So it’s fine at thirty but not twenty?

Can you Biblicaly justify that?

Because it smells of forcing young ladies to wait until they are above marriageable age before they can pursue a career other than marriage. If that is the case, and it appears to be, that is simply wrong on so many levels. It is a simple abuse of church authority.

Well...in the context of the church supporting widows, Paul wrote, "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house..."

That is clearly out of context for the issue at hand. I could easily give you a number of verses that would discourage marriage for many. It is simply not within the authority of the church to mandate that decision, either directly or indirectly.

You must know that theres also no provision against banning women from college until 30. The church can make essentially whatever rules it wants. Theres a tone of patriarchal norms throughout the bible, i dont see how its a crazy conclusion to encourage marriage in this way.

[ohio jones]

OJ and HK, what percentage of the North American young people in your constituency go to college?

I can only speak for my own congregation, assuming an arbitrary cutoff for "young" people; we may or may not be representative.
45% non-college
20% Rosedale (and a few to EBI)
35% other colleges

[cmbl]

It is simply not within the authority of the church to mandate that decision, either directly or indirectly.

Well, the world certainly makes an effort to mandate that decision, both directly and indirectly. It would be a shame for the church to decide not to "mandate" that and just leave it up to the world.

That is clearly out of context for the issue at hand.

I agree that the context is different; however, are we truly to assume that Paul only wanted younger widows to marry, not young women in general?
Paul seemed to think that younger women in general should be taught to "be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands."

I could easily give you a number of verses that would discourage marriage for many.

Did you want a Biblical basis, or did you not? You seemed to ask for one, when you wrote the following:

Can you Biblicaly justify that?

Like JohnH said, it's not a law book. Like Anthony said, it's not crazy to draw the connection between more education, right away after high school, and less marriage and childbearing.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Indeed. My wife and I have discussed similarly for possible college education for daughters the Lord may give us.




Well...in the context of the church supporting widows, Paul wrote, "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house..."

That is clearly out of context for the issue at hand. I could easily give you a number of verses that would discourage marriage for many. It is simply not within the authority of the church to mandate that decision, either directly or indirectly.

You must know that theres also no provision against banning women from college until 30. The church can make essentially whatever rules it wants. Theres a tone of patriarchal norms throughout the bible, i dont see how its a crazy conclusion to encourage marriage in this way.

Well, the church can’t be making “any rule it wants “ you need a Biblical basis for any rule you make. If you believe that leadership can make rules in a capricious manner without scriptural basis, than you are drifting into authoritarianism, and that is a bad place to be.

[Judas Maccabeus]

It is simply not within the authority of the church to mandate that decision, either directly or indirectly.

Well, the world certainly makes an effort to mandate that decision, both directly and indirectly. It would be a shame for the church to decide not to "mandate" that and just leave it up to the world.

That is clearly out of context for the issue at hand.

I agree that the context is different; however, are we truly to assume that Paul only wanted younger widows to marry, not young women in general?
Paul seemed to think that younger women in general should be taught to "be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands."

I could easily give you a number of verses that would discourage marriage for many.

Did you want a Biblical basis, or did you not? You seemed to ask for one, when you wrote the following:

Can you Biblicaly justify that?

Like JohnH said, it's not a law book. Like Anthony said, it's not crazy to draw the connection between more education, right away after high school, and less marriage and childbearing.

But it is the written basis of our faith, and before we make “rules “ we had better know what God’s word says about the matter.

To fail do so risks leaving the absolute limits of Christianity and becoming a cult. Leadership MUST be constrained by and directed the word of God.

[Soloist]

This sort of expresses one difference between conservatives and liberals.

There are all sorts of ways one could justify not attending college as a rule, and even further not attending until older then 30. I'd see it misguided to apply it only to females but within Scriptural authority.

[Anthony]

This sort of expresses one difference between conservatives and liberals.

There are all sorts of ways one could justify not attending college as a rule, and even further not attending until older then 30. I'd see it misguided to apply it only to females but within Scriptural authority.

Id say its the difference between moderate conservatives and ultras/old order. I have no problem making a rule that is only somewhat related to scripture, like banning higher education. JM thinks we need a literal chapter and verse to justify each church discipline rule.

[JohnH]

This sort of expresses one difference between conservatives and liberals.

There are all sorts of ways one could justify not attending college as a rule, and even further not attending until older then 30. I'd see it misguided to apply it only to females but within Scriptural authority.

Id say its the difference between moderate conservatives and ultras/old order. I have no problem making a rule that is only somewhat related to scripture, like banning higher education. JM thinks we need a literal chapter and verse to justify each church discipline rule.

That is specifically the difference between fundamental-conservatives and everyone else that Stephen Scott describes in his book. (Ernie calls them progressive-conservatives.)

Some moderate conservatives start to absorb this thinking. It is usually apparent which families are going that direction because they will send their kids to EBI instead of Heritage, Maranatha etc. (I think SMBI has moved in this direction but I am not certain.)

[JohnH]

Just to clarify, the general Holdeman stance is against higher education. As people get older, it is more permissible but with extreme caution and with a spiritual goal in mind. Age 30 is often a time of enough maturity, but sometimes age 25 can work out.

Marital status is irrelevant. Some married women go to college. Some single women go.

Most young women seem to want to get married. Most who want to, do. The occasional young woman doesn’t. Some of these women decide they want to in their 30s. Others never end up getting married.

Men seem to have much less interest in college but it does occasionally happen. Part of this might be men are less interested in nursing careers available with a 2 year degree. Women are a bit more interested in that.

Many other OO or very conservative groups are quite similar. You will run into the occasional college student, often in their 30s and 40s, often single - but not always.