Article on Followers of the Way

[cooper]

https://religionunplugged.com/news/thir ... t-movement

MennoNet gets a shoutout.

Wider concerns raised by Anabaptists on MennoNet, a community forum run by and for Mennonites, were reflected in an open letter by Dean Taylor, former president of Sattler College, who resigned in 2022 along with the entire board of trustees.

In a formal caution to the Anabaptist community, Taylor said Sattler exists “primarily for the propagation of … Followers of the Way.” He claimed the church was designed to draw youth away from their home churches, causing significant stress for the close-knit Anabaptist community, detailed in an 84-page MennoNet thread entitled “Sattler College Turmoil.”

[cooper]

It is surprising to me that links to Google Drive folders are embedded and MennoNet gives me pause. It makes me consider how things I write online can have much more influence and weight than I might intend. AI's reliance on MennoNet for information about Mennonites adds to this sense.

[JohnH]

It is surprising to me that links to Google Drive folders are embedded and MennoNet gives me pause. It makes me consider how things I write online can have much more influence and weight than I might intend. AI's reliance on MennoNet for information about Mennonites adds to this sense.

There are a variety of topics now that if you ask an AI about, you just get past claims I've made regurgitated at you as if they're well-established facts.

(Particularly interesting to me is that the old MennoDiscuss data seems to be in some AI training sets.)

[barnhart]

That is a good article.

[Ernie]

In a formal caution to the Anabaptist community, Taylor said Sattler exists “primarily for the propagation of … Followers of the Way.”

I think there are reasons to believe that Taylor's claim above was at least somewhat true at the time, as students were being encouraged to leave unbiblical churches and join the biblical one. One of the FOTW founders told me that he tells young people, "You should go to the most biblical church you can find. If you find a church that is more biblical than ours, you should go to that one."

The latest report is that not many Sattler students are attending FOTW. And at Sattler there is currently a higher percentage of Anabaptist women students as compared with Anabaptist men.

Wider concerns... were reflected in an open letter by Dean Taylor, former president of Sattler College, who resigned in 2022 along with the entire board of trustees...

While Kuruvila would not comment to Religion Unplugged, Milioni insisted that “there is no official link between Sattler and FOTW” and that steps had been taken to manage the power dynamic.

“When the board left, we could have made it an FOTW board. It’s the opposite. The board has become more diversified and less in the hands of FOTW … the accusations being made are demonstrably false,” he said.

It should be noted that immediately following the former board's resignations, the board was stocked with FOTW members. But when some of them also resigned and left FOTW, efforts were then made to have a more diversified board including more Evangelical minded folks.

[Soloist]

Wife: I was talking to someone about how one of their relatives were told they should get rebaptized because their first one was as a young teenager, and they had said that even if they didn’t have a complete understanding back then of all it meantbeing a Christian, they also didn’t have a complete understanding of all it meant being a married person either when they first said “I do.” i’ve heard from other people that re-baptism for non-adult baptisms was strongly pushed.

[JohnH]

Wife: I was talking to someone about how one of their relatives were told they should get rebaptized because their first one was as a young teenager, and they had said that even if they didn’t have a complete understanding back then of all it meantbeing a Christian, they also didn’t have a complete understanding of all it meant being a married person either when they first said “I do.” i’ve heard from other people that re-baptism for non-adult baptisms was strongly pushed.

It was a good article.

I’ve heard first hand from Milioni and Kuravilla that they think salvation requires full immersion, and intended to promote that view. (It is possible their views have changed; this was at KFW almost a decade ago.)

Interestingly, Old German Baptist Brethren hold this view but seem to be able to do so in a much less divisive way. They are not secretive about it, but rather joyful. They also don’t operate a university and attempt to recruit Mennonites to go to it, but instead get their higher education needs met at secular universities. So I find it fascinating how Brethren are quite rare around FOTW/Sattler circles; you’d think FOTW/Sattler would have wanted to join forces with them.

[ohio jones]

Interestingly, Old German Baptist Brethren hold this view but seem to be able to do so in a much less divisive way. They are not secretive about it, but rather joyful. They also don’t operate a university and attempt to recruit Mennonites to go to it, but instead get their higher education needs met at secular universities. So I find it fascinating how Brethren are quite rare around FOTW/Sattler circles; you’d think FOTW/Sattler would have wanted to join forces with them.

Having a Sattler board member means they are quite rare?

It should be noted that immediately following the former board's resignations, the board was stocked with FOTW members. But when some of them also resigned and left FOTW, efforts were then made to have a more diversified board including more Evangelical minded folks.

Yes, the board at that time was around 12 members IIRC and was pretty diverse. It has since shrunk to 8 and much of the diversity has dissipated.

[Soloist]

Interestingly, Old German Baptist Brethren hold this view but seem to be able to do so in a much less divisive way. They are not secretive about it, but rather joyful. They also don’t operate a university and attempt to recruit Mennonites to go to it, but instead get their higher education needs met at secular universities. So I find it fascinating how Brethren are quite rare around FOTW/Sattler circles; you’d think FOTW/Sattler would have wanted to join forces with them.

Having a Sattler board member means they are quite rare?

It should be noted that immediately following the former board's resignations, the board was stocked with FOTW members. But when some of them also resigned and left FOTW, efforts were then made to have a more diversified board including more Evangelical minded folks.

Yes, the board at that time was around 12 members IIRC and was pretty diverse. It has since shrunk to 8 and much of the diversity has dissipated.

Where are the eight from?

[JohnH]

Where are the eight from?

Currently:

- A Sattle graduate, originally of Mennonite background.
- An occupational therapist from Kentucky.
- A real estate investors from Minneapolis.
- An accountant specialising in Quickbooks, of German Baptist (New Conference) background.
- An Air Force Academy graduate who more recently did graduate studies at EMU who has a vague career in "international" type of stuff.
- An investment fund manager and doctor.
- An elder/pastor of a Baptist type of church near Detroit.
- A travel agent from Kansas, part of a BMA church there.