Can we make MN less hostile?

[Neto]

If MN is to be a less hostile place, a good place is to not allow challenging someone else’s salvation in public.

Unless they're EO... then to hell with them. Or at least the last thread I found on the subject seems to think so. You guys want to be less hostile. Stop being so self righteous. I came through Anabaptism and picked up some pretty valuable things. However, it was in their nature to tear each other apart. My last straw came the day of my son's baptism and I had to stand in a man's yard for an hour and listen to how evil the "Old Conference" was. As a Mennonite it was seeing the church tear apart a young teacher because he disciplined the wrong kid (who picked at my kid relentlessly and even physically bullied him while we were setting up for their classmate's funeral). I keep trying to come back here, hoping to find the mythical Anabaptists of Nickel Mines, but it's never going to happen. Why? Because you are always justified in your own minds. You are always looking at your tassels, knots, and tithes of cumin.

Josh, you are the worst. You are joining a cult by everybody's measure of a cult. I hope they have changed as you claimed, but up until 5 years ago they were exactly that. You cannot keep demanding consideration when you give no one the same courtesy. Even when I was Anabaptist you stayed on me and tried to make me feel like I was 2 inches tall.

So, whatever. Keep creating threads where you ask these probing questions that turn up the same answer, "it's everybody but us that's the problem."

I've been reading some books on Mennonite Brethren history recently, books that I never had the opportunity to read years ago, and I'm learning about things I never dreamed of. (The book I'm reading now was written over the 25 year period starting in 1885, and was only translated into English in 1978.) What I have learned about hostility between the different Mennonite groups within my own background (Dutch Mennonite) have made me realize that the problems we face today within and between each of our different groups are surmountable. Specifically, if I had read this history book before I was involved in a (failed) attempt to start an outreach group from our congregation (failed due to internal squabbles), I would not have given up so quickly. The MB church faced a lot of issues, both external and internal, and yet they made it through. We should each look past the hostility of others, and watch our own selves, that we do not respond in the same way. Kindness returned for hostility (sometimes) turns away the wrath of the other.

[Wayne in Maine]

Brothers and Sisters and Friends:

Don’t take the bait.

Don’t feed the Trolls.

[Bootstrap]

We should each look past the hostility of others, and watch our own selves, that we do not respond in the same way. Kindness returned for hostility (sometimes) turns away the wrath of the other.

Exactly.

MN is hostile when people are hostile. We should be able to discuss even controversial subjects without hostility. The subjects we discuss aren't the problem. Having different opinions is not the problem. Each of us is responsible for our own responses.

But I think your "(sometimes)" is important. Sometimes people don't deserve the hostility they get.

[Hats Off]

Remind me who LC was - was it Lucy Cunningham? I remember times when she seemed to be hostile.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Remind me who LC was - was it Lucy Cunningham? I remember times when she seemed to be hostile.

Libertarian Christian. He was a legend.

J.M.

[Josh]

Remind me who LC was - was it Lucy Cunningham? I remember times when she seemed to be hostile.

Not her.

LC was (and is) a legend, and hard to find on Google these days.

Oddly enough Libertarian Christianity is a thing now.

[Robert]

The best way to reduce the hostility here is to shut down the Current Events section. While we would all get along better, it would be more boring.

Sure would be nice to see a lot more activity in the other sections, though. Can we do a better job of fleshing out what we mean by living in the Kingdom? Or how our Third Way relates to what is going on around us?

As I scan through the Current Events and Politics forum I see you have started close to half of those threads. Just making an observation, not saying it is wrong ... unless you are trying my trick in the Climate change thread.

[LJones]

Wayne... What Anabaptist Church are you a member of again?

It is easy to take a pot shot and call me a troll isn't it when you yourself have no commitments and are critical of everything not Wayne.

[LJones]

And Hats Off... Are you comparing me to Lucy? Really?

[Judas Maccabeus]

Brothers and Sisters and Friends:

Don’t take the bait.

Don’t feed the Trolls.

Noted sir.

J.M.