Stereotyping and Overgeneralizing People and Institutions

[Bootstrap]

A pattern I see: the people who do this to other groups are often EXTREMELY sensitive if people do it to the groups they belong to. And they don't even see themselves doing this. It feels really different to them.

Because of you know what They are like as much as I do, you would know it's just true. This is what They are like.

[Szdfan]

I disagree.

I think one of the reasons why there’s more discussion on this forum about the inroads into conservative Anabaptism rather than liberal Anabaptist is because the majority of Anabaptists on this forum are conservative. You can’t really have a conversation with liberals who aren’t here.

So I don’t think the imbalance itself is a sign of ideology. It may just reflect the makeup of the forum. I think that a topic like Christian Nationalism might have more urgency on this forum because it affects conservative Anabaptism more directly than whatever is going on in MCUSA affects them.

That point has been made before but it doesn't seem to resonate.

I suspect that lack of resonance is intentional.

[nett]

I thought Ernie had a post that defined "transitional", and had a pretty lengthy explanation of how he got there.

Perhaps you are stereotyping the Atlantic Coast Conference. Grandma wore cape dresses and covering strings; Grandpa wore suspenders and a straight cut suit coat.

Maybe I'm transitional after all.

If you're now in a Rosedale church, wouldn't that be the definition of transitional? I'm not trying to be being rhetorical.

[Ernie]

I thought Ernie had a post that defined "transitional", and had a pretty lengthy explanation of how he got there.

It's possible that I did. If so I would like to read it.

Might this be the thread you are referring to?
https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4798

[ohio jones]

If this doesn't apply to you or your congregation (which as I understand it, it doesn't), then I'm quite happy to hear that and none of my criticism applies to you.

Instead of overgeneralizing and then retracting statements where they don't apply, it would be better to limit generalizations in the first place.

[JohnH]

If this doesn't apply to you or your congregation (which as I understand it, it doesn't), then I'm quite happy to hear that and none of my criticism applies to you.

Instead of overgeneralizing and then retracting statements where they don't apply, it would be better to limit generalizations in the first place.

My statements were made about "transitional Anabaptist churches", of which many (but not all) moderate conservative churches are.

[barnhart]

I thought Ernie had a post that defined "transitional", and had a pretty lengthy explanation of how he got there.

It's possible that I did. If so I would like to read it.

Might this be the thread you are referring to?
https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4798

That thread has some good posts but I question the benefit of a focus on the taxonomy Mennonites. I put a certain amount of the blame on Steven Scott for his book with the rubric for comparing conservative mennonites. I had never heard of such categories before that and had not thought in those ways. I'm not sure it is good to encourage churches to think of their identity in relationship to other churches rather than thinking of their identity in relationship to God.

For the record, Taxonomy is often for things that are dead.

[ohio jones]

My statements were made about "transitional Anabaptist churches", of which many (but not all) moderate conservative churches are.

Saying that originally would have been an improvement over this:

I consider moderate-conservatives to be an utterly lost cause, as they are nearly all transitional.

If one is interested in how to win friends and influence people, stereotyping and overgeneralizing is not the way to go about it.

[JohnH]

My statements were made about "transitional Anabaptist churches", of which many (but not all) moderate conservative churches are.

Saying that originally would have been an improvement over this:

I consider moderate-conservatives to be an utterly lost cause, as they are nearly all transitional.

If one is interested in how to win friends and influence people, stereotyping and overgeneralizing is not the way to go about it.

I would stand by my statement that most (not all, but nearly all) moderate-conservative Mennonite churches in the present era are plagued with transitional Anabaptism.

Of course, one can find exceptions.

[Ernie]

That thread has some good posts but I question the benefit of a focus on the taxonomy Mennonites.

For the record, Taxonomy is often for things that are dead.

What is taxonomy Mennonites?