Is anyone from a Mennonite background

Are they old order - or do they drive themselves to Walmart?

 

What's your question?

 

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Yes, ethnically I'm from a Mennonite background and I also am a member at an MB (Mennonite Brethren) church.

Any specific questions?

 

Hey Mercury, you ever hear of the "Conservative Mennonite Conference?" That's the conference my church is a member of: http://www.cmcrosedale.org

 

I hadn't heard of them. From skimming their Statement of Theology, they look quite similar (though not identical) to my own denomination.

 

They used to be Amish. They dropped the name in 1954.

 

Mennonites have made great progress in the last generation or two.

In the sixites they wouldn't drive a car with chrome bumpers. Now they are ordaining homosexuals (some of them).

 

Who used to be Amish? Mennonites? If that's what you are referring to, that is the most unfounded misconception I have ever heard, and you would be the first that I have heard that from. Amish came from Mennonites, and it was much longer ago then that. Mennonites were started in the 16th century, and the Amish came later than that after a man by the name of Jacob Amman led a group of Mennonites into a split in 1693. This resulted in the Amish sect.

 

As you can tell by my name, I'd know better than that! But that isn't what I said, because I was responding to Mercury, who was commenting on your own denomination.

Please note the third paragraph on the web page linked below, which regards the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference, founded in 1910, which dropped the name "Amish" in 1954. Other sources say 1957, but that was just when the new constitution under that name was adopted.

Link

 

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What does Taufgesinnter mean?

From what little German I know, Tauf has to do with baptism, and gesinn means something like well-disposed? I have trouble getting the meaning putting the two words together. Hilfen Sie mir bitte! Danke! - Meercat

 

I just thought of another question. I have Mennonite relatives in Maryland. They did not believe in having a television in their home nor reading newspapers.(at least secular ones), so I'm surprised that the internet is ok? Perhaps my knowledge is outdated since I haven't seen these relatives of mine since the mid-eighties. -God bless! - Meercat

 

I'm a Mennonite and my occupation is designing web sites. I don't think your knowledge is necessarily outdated, but rather is a generalization. Some Mennonite groups stay away from many types of technology. Many have the same approach to technology as most Baptists do. Being technologically backward is to Mennonites as being KJVO is to Baptists: it's a stereotype that may be true in certain cases but is not a true distinctive of the group.

In my Mennonite Brethren church there are many people who formerly attended Baptist or Alliance churches (as well as other denominations). Some of them switched because they moved to a place where their previous denomination did not have a church, and they now feel about as comfortable in our church as they did in their previous church. Our distinctives are mainly our commitment to nonresistance and our strong belief that church and state should remain separate. Some Baptist groups have also taken on these distinctives due to their Anabaptist roots which we share (at least idealogically), while others do not.

 

Ja, it literally means "baptism-minded" or "baptism-disposed." In actual practice, it is the German name for "Anabaptist." "Wiedertaufer" is a literal translation of the word "Anabaptist," a re-baptizer, but the German Anabaptists preferred using the term "Taufgesinnter." The Dutch used the term "Doopsgezinde."

 

It's much like what the Baptists believe about television and the internet. The Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, that is. And the Free-Will Baptists. The Seventh-Day Baptists. The Southern Baptists. The National Baptists. The Progressive National Baptists. The American Baptists. The North American Baptists. The BGC Baptists. The Regular Baptists. And the Conservative Baptists.

IOW, there are a whole lot of different kinds of Mennonites, so there is no one Mennonite position on television or the internet. But there are positions on them among the Beachy Amish Mennonites, the Kauffman Mennonites, the Reformed Mennonites, the Church of God in Christ Mennonites, the Conservative Mennonite Conference Mennonites, the Mennonite Brethren, and so on.

You're the first person to tell me, that I can recall for sure, of Mennonites who don't believe in reading any secular newspapers--not counting Amish. That's interesting.

My former church did not believe in television.