#Mennonites

[sayhowdycountrycritters]

Saturday afternoon at the Rockville Livestock Auction. Think we’ll definitely be back for some baby goats!

[federer7]

Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. 1990. From 'The Mennonites'

Photo: Larry Towell

[mayanhandballcourt]

Photographer Jake Michaels

[mudwerks]

(via We're doing Mennonites having fun today. Bass Pro Shop, upstate NY. (OC) : pics)

[mapsontheweb]

Mennonites in Mexico by municipality, 2020.

[apenitentialprayer]

Left: The Good Samaritan: He Had Compassion, by J. Kirk Richards, 2014. Right: Icon of Dirk Willems, by Jivko Donkov

[In] the parable of the Good Samaritan […] the people who fail to do good, who proved callous, were the priest and the Levite, who were more concerned with respecting their religious traditions than with coming to the aid of a suffering person. The one who demonstrates what it means to be a "neighbor" is instead a heretic, a Samaritan. He draws near, he feels compassion, he bends down and gently tends the wounds of his brother. He is concerned for him, regardless of his past and his failings, and he puts himself wholly at his service. Jesus can thus conclude that the right question is not: "Who is my neighbor?" But: "Do I act like a neighbor?" Only a love that becomes gratuitous service, only a love that Jesus taught and embodied, will bring separated Christians closer to one another. Only that love, which does not appeal to the past in order to remain aloof or to point a finger, only a love which in God's Name puts our brothers and sisters before the ironclad defense of our own religious structures; only that love will unite us.

Pope Francis, Homily on the Solemnity of the Conversion of Saint Paul, given January 25th, 2024.

(Today, May 16th, marks the 455th anniversary of the death of Dirk Willems, Anabaptist martyr who nearly escaped execution at the hands of officials of the Catholic Church, but who stopped to save the life of one of his pursuers even though it meant he would certainly be recaptured)

[sweaterkittensahoy]

I can't find the post where I said Mennonites were a cult like the Amish, but I remember someone replied with, "Hey, that's not correct" but with a bit more explanation.

Anyway, I can't find the original post to reblog and correct myself, so I just wanna say somewhere that I was wrong about Mennonites shunning and threatening shunning to anyone who is going to leave. It does happen, but it's not absolutely universal the way it is with the Amish, the Mormons, or with the Fundamentalist Christians.

When speaking of cults vs. religions, I think it's very important to double check these things because understanding if someone is going through a cult experience vs. a shitty church experience can be very, very different.

Like, the Catholic church on paper (and on twitter) is just a pile of shitbags. But there's also a lot of Catholics who loudly speak out about fucked up church doctrine and other fucked up church practices. That's not a cult. That's a bad church experience. You get me?

Looking at the wiki article, which is wonderfully detailed, I see the reason I thought all Mennonites practiced excommunication is because I grew up near Old Order Mennonites, who DO practice excommunication. But they are just one of many variations on the practices. Lots of schisms went down over time.

So, I was wrong. Old Order Mennonites? They use excommunication and shunning. Those are cult behaviors. But many Mennonites do NOT do that. It's an important distinction.

[divinum-pacis]

Mennonite participants in the “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire" march cross the Potomac River, Sunday, July 28, 2024, entering Washington, D.C., from Virginia. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

[doctornerdington]

It's my parents' wedding anniversary today, and this cracks me up every year. Hard-hitting news for the small-town newspaper!

[ardor-mohr]

Larry Towell

[protestantdenominationpoll]

Submission Form

I think most of y'all kinda know the drill here. Submit as many denominations as you want (INDIVIDUALLY), but don't spam the form.

This poll is for PROTESTANT denominations and sub-denominations. Do not submit catholicism, JWs, or Mormons. This poll can also include "non-denominational" organizations so long as they have multiple churches and a distinct interpretation of faith. For example, the IBLP and the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptists can be submitted.

You can also submit denominations just because they suck and you want to see them beaten into the ground.

Here's the link. I'll be taking Top 32 make it into the bracket. The submission form will remain open until I feel that response is sufficient (so probably like 2000 responses).

[a-pint-of-j-and-b]

Silent Light (Stellet Licht) | Carlos Reygadas | 2007 | Mexico

Johan and his family are mennonites from the north of Mexico. Johan, husband and father, is tormented with guilt over his extramarital affair with Marianne. His father, best friend, and wife know the truth, but Johan can’t reconcile his deeds with his faith…

[materialleisure]

[amerasdreams]

a giant pure cheese from the Mennonite store!!!!!

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Will Avert Threat of Mennonite Migration,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 13, 1933. Page 1. ---- Paraguay to Grant Concessions to Former Canadian Subjects in Order to Retain Them in the Chaco— Hoe and Plough More Important Than Armaments ---- ASUNCION, Paraguay, Feb. 13 — Threatened migration of 5,000 Canadian Mennonite from farms in the Chaco to new and warless fields in Uruguay or Brazil will be averted if any concessions which Paraguay can make will induce the sturdy colonists to remain.

Official sources deny that a commission sent to treat for land concessions in Northern Uruguay and the Brazilian State of Santa Catalina represents the majority of the Chaco Mennonites, but serious attention is being given to the matter because the Paraguayan program for development of the Chaco counts heavily upon the Mennonites.    In its war with Bolivia for possession of the Chaco, Paraguay has relied more upon hoe and plow than upon armaments for eventual victory. Colonlzsilon has been a Paraguayan weapon which Botivia could not match. 

Secession of the Mennonites would not only remove a sixth of the white population of the Chaco and leave  idle a fourth of its cultivated area, but would halt a colonization project which bad been counted upon to bring 60,000 members of the sect eventually onto farm wrested from the wilderness. When the first Mennonites   came from Canada in 1927, they acquired 120 square miles of land in the Central Chaco and made plans for an eventual 400 villages of twenty families each. The colony has grown steadily.

[immaculatasknight]

Sanctified Nazis