The Anabaptists (Amish, Mennonite, Church of the Brethren)

[River]

'splain that one, please. Why no rubber tires? Do the bikes have steel wheels too?

I was not there when the Old Order Mennonites made ruled that equipment had to have steel wheels, so I do not know from firsthand experience. However, I have some observations.

There are several conferences of Old Order (horse and buggy) Mennonites. Some conferences permit pneumatic tires on tractors. In at least some of those groups, tractors have become road transportation. They have trailers in which to haul their families, and they go visiting, shopping, etc. with their tractors. Buggies are used, at least for some, on Sundays, only.
So the conferences that chose to limit farm machinery to steel wheels did so to keep buggies and bicycles as their main modes of transportation. I do not know why riding lawn mowers are included in that rule, but I suppose a lawn mower could be used for transportation, too. It would not be as fast as a farm tractor, but it could get the job done, after a fashion.
And no, bicycles do not have steel wheels. Bicycles are acceptable transportation, so there is no reason to limit members' use of them. Bicycles are ridden, even on Sundays, for church in northern Indiana.
I might add, Old Order Mennonite buggies have solid rubber tires. So the rubber is not the problem.

 

[brenndatomu]

In at least some of those groups, tractors have become road transportation. They have trailers in which to haul their families, and they go visiting, shopping, etc. with their tractors.

You see this a lot in Holmes county Ohio...they call them Amish taxi's (not to be confused with "Amish haulers"...people that haul Amish around in their vans for a living...often semi retired guys)

 

[LogCabinFever]

I see a lot of comparisons of the physical and aesthetic doctrines between these three anabaptists. What about Scriptural doctrines? I see some are NT, OT, or NT and OT. But what about actual things tied to the Testaments like the Law, baptism, communion, salvation, the Trinity, etc?

 

[Ashful]

Well, their classification as “Anabaptists” tells you about their view on infant baptism, no?

I already mentioned the NT/OT views, WRT the Mennonites, and River hit on the CoB’s and Amish.

The local Mennonite churches have become very diversified in rule and worship style, but they all put an extremely strong emphasis on serving others, even more so than other Protestant or Catholic churches. One thing I also noted was that giving/tithing was much stronger there than at any other church I’ve ever attended, it would be normal for them to collect $40k to $100k in a single Sunday morning service, a large fraction of which was put into sponsorship or scholarships, both locally and abroad. Their services did usually contain a sermon, but it was not treated as the pinnacle of the service, the way it would be in most Protestant churches. About 90% of members, maybe more, stay after the usual service for either Bible study or other small groups exercises, and then perhaps half that group stays even after those classes for either a group meal, working in the church garden, or other volunteer work. Very much in keeping with time involved with the church being a several-hours event each Sunday.

Their view on Genesis and creation, at least as expressed by the head pastor of the Mennonite church which I attended, is that it’s more a fable than a history. They focus on only one phrase, “and it was good,” that phrase being repeated numerous times in the first chapter(s).

My mention previously about outward shows of pride are exhibited partly by the family which occupied my house 1775-1922 burned all photographs, documents, and any other possessions of the deceased, which might contain documentation of possessions. So, while numerous old photographs exist of most of the houses in my area, it has been pretty well flushed-out that none exist of mine, despite it being one of the larger and older homes and owned by one of the families most involved in church leadership. The same is true for the house of the father of the man who had built mine. The only answer I could get on that from the local librarian was, ”well, they were a very pious family.” The local historian repeated almost the same phrase, as he had been on the hunt for these photos in publishing some of his own books on the area.

One of the hot topics, causing some disagreement between the local churches when I was attending, was their stance on LGB (now LGBTQ…. etc.). Their doctrine has always been acceptance of all, but some of the civil church leadership in some congregations wanted to go beyond that, and make an affirmation or addition to their bylaws specifically naming the church’s acceptance of LGB’s as members, civil leaders, and even pastors. It was quite a thing to see elderly Mennonites in their traditional conservative dress debate this issue with young Gen.X members. All are remarkably accepting, but they had different views on how far they should go in naming them and identifying them as a special group.

 

[LogCabinFever]

Well, their classification as “Anabaptists” tells you about their view on infant baptism, no?

I already mentioned the NT/OT views, WRT the Mennonites, and River hit on the CoB’s and Amish.

The local Mennonite churches have become very diversified in rule and worship style, but they all put an extremely strong emphasis on serving others, even more so than other Protestant or Catholic churches. One thing I also noted was that giving/tithing was much stronger there than at any other church I’ve ever attended, it would be normal for them to collect $40k to $100k in a single Sunday morning service, a large fraction of which was put into sponsorship or scholarships, both locally and abroad. Their services did usually contain a sermon, but it was not treated as the pinnacle of the service, the way it would be in most Protestant churches. About 90% of members, maybe more, stay after the usual service for either Bible study or other small groups exercises, and then perhaps half that group stays even after those classes for either a group meal, working in the church garden, or other volunteer work. Very much in keeping with time involved with the church being a several-hours event each Sunday.

Their view on Genesis and creation, at least as expressed by the head pastor of the Mennonite church which I attended, is that it’s more a fable than a history. They focus on only one phrase, “and it was good,” that phrase being repeated numerous times in the first chapter(s).

My mention previously about outward shows of pride are exhibited partly by the family which occupied my house 1775-1922 burned all photographs, documents, and any other possessions of the deceased, which might contain documentation of possessions. So, while numerous old photographs exist of most of the houses in my area, it has been pretty well flushed-out that none exist of mine, despite it being one of the larger and older homes and owned by one of the families most involved in church leadership. The same is true for the house of the father of the man who had built mine. The only answer I could get on that from the local librarian was, ”well, they were a very pious family.” The local historian repeated almost the same phrase, as he had been on the hunt for these photos in publishing some of his own books on the area.

One of the hot topics, causing some disagreement between the local churches when I was attending, was their stance on LGB (now LGBTQ…. etc.). Their doctrine has always been acceptance of all, but some of the civil church leadership in some congregations wanted to go beyond that, and make an affirmation or addition to their bylaws specifically naming the church’s acceptance of LGB’s as members, civil leaders, and even pastors. It was quite a thing to see elderly Mennonites in their traditional conservative dress debate this issue with young Gen.X members. All are remarkably accepting, but they had different views on how far they should go in naming them and identifying them as a special group.

I thought the term anabaptist meant “baptized again” indicating they believe in believers baptism, maybe in addition to pedobaptism?

Thanks for some of the clarification. Their theology is what I’m interested in.

It’s interesting about Genesis. We just went to the Ark Encounter which is from the ministry of Answers in Genesis, known for their literal hermeneutic of Genesis. When we were there, there were a ton of anabaptists. I wonder what they thought of the museum, since it is a very literal representation of the Genesis account of the flood.