#fucking hate Texas and religion extremists and conservatives

[muggle-born-princess]

Reblog if you're LGBT and are against MAPS/Child Groomers

[doberbutts]

fydbac replied to your post “Now that I’ve (re)outed myself as growing up really fucking Mennonite,...”

Very very interesting! I do remember you mentioning what kinda school you went to, but I swear, everytime I see "mennonite", it's like the first time I'm seeing it. So there is new world and old world of mennonite and amish? so 4different cultures? (i could google, but more fun to ask :) )

There are some Amish and Mennonites in Texas, but there’s also a few even more conservative sects down there that are basically extremist Amish-Morman blends in which they don’t use technology, they practice communism, they’re polygamous, and they believe it’s okay to have grown ass men marry 14yo girls. Might be who you saw, it’s hard to say for sure.

There is a New World (New Order) and Old World (Old Order) for both Mennonite and Amish. It’s sort of hard to describe to someone who didn’t grow up there but basically, they’re all fundamentally the same with a few key differences. Both Amish and Mennonites are from followers of Menno Simons, who took Martin Luther’s ideals from his “here’s 95 Reasons Why the Catholic Church sucks” and radicalized them among early Protestants (ie- non-Catholics).

The followers of Menno Simons, ie the Mennonites, were “Anabaptists”- meaning they believed that baptism and becoming a fully fledged member of the Christian church should be a decision made in adulthood, not shortly after birth like in the Catholic church, based on Jesus’ teachings that becoming a follower of God should be a decision made of one’s own free will, and children are inherently pure, and a parent may pressure a child into religion and thus take away that child’s ability to choose. This was a pretty radical idea way back when, and garnered the label of heresy from the Catholic church, which in turn lead to the Mennonites being hunted and tortured and forced to recant.

This brought to light the second key teaching of Menno Simons: Jesus scorned violence and said that violence and bloodshed was unGodly and equivalent to murder, even going as far as saying that to hate someone in your heart and treat them as though they were dead to you is murder in all but deed and carries the same weight as the sin of actually killing a person. Mennonites were hideously pacifistic- it is an actual teaching of the Mennonite church to this day that even if someone came into your house and started killing everyone in your family, you must not bear violence or hatred against that person, and if that means that everyone dies, then God will welcome you into heaven all the more gladly without the sin of blood on your hands. So oldschool Mennonites became martyrs as the Catholic church tried to eradicate them, and many had to flee to other countries where the way of life was very different from the simple farming life many of them knew.

This brings the third important part of his teachings: in order to live a Godly life, Jesus professed a love of honest work (a “man’s work”, such as work you do with your hands, such as idk carpentry like the guy was before he was known as Messiah) and a simple lifestyle (refusing gifts of riches and saying that rich people are all inherently sinners who have shunned God and are probably going to hell). He also says that you should share everything you have, even with those who would be considered less than you, because all men are equal under God and humility is key. So when they moved to these other countries, they began to form little pocket communities that had their own governments and their own laws rejecting things that would promote laziness and things that would feel like they’re flaunting status quo. This translates in the modern era to a rejection of technology (because it makes work too easy, and because some tech is a marker of status) and other “fancy” things such as non-homemade clothing, lace, tattoos, colored hair, etc. You are expected to conform to those around you and be indistinguishable from your fellow man, because we are all equals.

Mennonites (and Amish) also do not pay taxes or perform any patriotic displays (they believe that the only kingdom Christians belong to is the Kingdom of Heaven, so if they fly a flag it’s the Christian flag and if they sing an anthem it’s the Christian Anthem followed by the Lord’s Prayer), they don’t dance (dancing is apparently an old euphemism for sex and you can’t have premarital sex and so you can’t dance with anyone that’s not your spouse and you can’t have sex in public so no dancing!!!!), they dress very modestly (varying vs Old and New but basically at least your typical wrists, ankles, collarbones must be covered, headcoverings for men and women both are a requirement, and men must grow a beard and women aren’t allowed to cut their hair short), and they all speak or recognize Pennsylvania Dutch as it’s a dialect of German, which is the country they were chased out of by the Catholic church.

Jakob Ammann disagreed on rejoining the world as industry brought about many changes very quickly and split from the larger Mennonite church, bringing about the Amish (his followers) who still dress and use tech only from that time and prior. Basically he pressed pause on time for them and they won’t move forward. Those are Old Order or Old World Amish, and they are the stereotypical Amish you’ll see today.

New World or New Order Amish are basically discount Old Order Mennonites, who will vary on what technology they will use and what clothes/hair they allow depending on how convenient it is for them to live without such things. As the world becomes more and more reliant on technology, New World Amish are becoming more common. These are the people who, while they don’t own a car, they might be okay carpooling with someone who isn’t Amish. Or, they may buy some processed foods at Walmart because it’s too difficult to get ahold of certain basic goods any other way, but they’ll still ride their horse-and-buggy there. Or, they may have a landline phone to take certain emergency calls, but it’s located in the barn or workshop or shed and not in the house.

Old Order Mennonites will still do the whole shun and excommunicate thing, but they have more or less joined the world at large unless it’s still convenient for them to not partake in certain things. So they may or may not have horse-and-buggy, but they probably don’t have a cell phone and whether they have an electric washer/dryer really depends on the individual family.

New Order Mennonites have a wide range and are the most common that you’ll see, but they are almost indistinguishable from other conservative Protestants out there unless you talk to them about philosophy or unless you catch the German influence in the accent. Other Christians, for instance, can usually pick up on someone being Mennonite, but non-Christians would have a pretty hard time pointing it out unless they grew up around the culture. They are, for the most part, still farmers and wood workers and masons etc and most do still rely on farming and hunting as a staple, but you’ll get that from any rural sect of Christianity.

...I never thought I’d use my required Christian History classes in my adult life, but look at that. I’m doing all sorts of things I never thought I’d do today.