We have one family that dresses in traditional garb. And the wife convinced my wife to cover her head. My wife uses a bandana……..a red one……I hope the crips don’t kill her.

The mennonites tried, I believe, to wittle their beliefs down to core Christian beliefs. And they take that message, the core tenets of Christ, and don’t require anything else. But this has dampened the core message of Christ, I think, because we’ve come to accept things that aren’t irreligious but don’t serve the message of Christ at all.

We accept T-Shirts. Admittedly, not anti-Christian, but nor do they further the message. (No, stupid WWJD Tees don’t help evangelize people)

Radio TV. Some of it expresses core Christian messages, most of it doesn’t. None of it really helps bring Christ to people.

I like the message. I wish the rural old-skool Mennonites could have integrated into urban areas without foresaking their heritage. Unforntunatly it doesn’t appear to be the case.

First of all, we should have a different ethic of economics. We should recognize that the collecting of stuff is opposed to the ethic of Jesus– Matt 6:19-24. Secondly, we should emphasize the giving to those who are in need and not to those who already have what they need (Which is extremely non-conformist just between Thanksgiving and New Years).

Socially, to be like Jesus is to associate and welcome the outcast and rejected of society. Our churches should look like God-Haters’ Anonymous, welcoming even athiests, agnostics and all sorts of sinners and unbelievers. We should be shaped by outreach, not just have is on a list of things to do.

The Mennonite church doesn’t look like this. And according to the sociological report by Paul Kenagy, we are becoming less economically and socially non-conformist.

Even the focus on those of differing sexual orientation is conformist. I’m not saying it’s bad, but its just what our culture is doing now. When are we going to set the trends, as Jesus did, instead of follow them?

Steve K

Indeed we have been called to help others understand our non-conformist attitudes on peace and justice. Other denominations seek our experience to help them understand better how to live with Christ’s call.

The question is, how do you get everyone to conform to non-conformity and reject their now forged political identifications. My goal would be to get more people to not identify with any political party rather than get more republicans or democrats. But arguably we are dealing with a huge monster that has been at working slowly changing our churches for the past 50 years or so. Do we have the means to combat it and the endurance to stick to it?

Ron, you’re right to point out the excessive confinement that paved the way for Mennonite rejection of a certain kind of nonconformity. I have to admit, though–I wonder sometimes if the clamor for ‘individual freedom’ is not precisely the kind of conformity the church ought to resist.

Alternatively, nonconformity can look more like a cult, where people are not able to think freely. Where you are required to conform to a certain idea of nonconformity. Maybe that’s why Mennos have gotten away from the nonconformity thing in recent decades- it felt too confining.

So, the challenge is to find a kind of nonconformity that works, and frees, rather than imprisons the individual, and radically follows Jesus’ life and teachings.

We may have thrown away the baby with the bathwater in becoming more like the world, when we were just trying to liberate ourselves from what felt like a confining, rather than a liberating environment. There may have been aspects of our predecessors’ faith that we need to retain as we head into the future, rather than reinventing the wheel. Maybe our predecessors possessed some wisdom that we could use in this. Anyone for a slice of shoefly pie?

Most important, though, is theological nonconformity: that we give praise to God, to Christ the Lord and Son of God together with the Holy Spirit, that we gather as beggars to share in his Supper and are given to God’s grace in baptism. It’s only the goodness of God that truly passes judgment on the world’s evil, so the only true nonconformity finds its rest in God. I mean these as quite concrete political acts: coming together to sing the doxology, practice communion, preaching the gospel. For a deeper exploration of the political dimensions of Christian worship itself, I’d recommend William Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist (which is particularly situated in the church in Pinochet’s Chile), or its smaller and more manageable cousin, Theopolitical Imagination.

To keep my humility intact, here are some conformist confessions:
-I recently gave $5 to a political candidate, which was $5 more than what I put in the offering plate that week.
-I own a new computer and a digital camera
-I have a cell phone
-I get easily sucked into Internet and TV
-I only have relationships with the white neighbors.

Some Mennonites conform to the world more than others. In my mind, we could use a little more admonishment from the church for our conformity. I don’t want bishops in plain coats telling me how to dress. I want articles in the church press and sermons on the importance of simple living and staying separate from worldly politics.

May God help us all as we choose a different path from the world.

But what does that nonconformity look like? bonnets, plaid, and pie? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I look great in plaid and I love apple pie. But nonconformity doesn’t seem to take a shape in a lot of Mennonite churches that seems relevant.

Would you mind elaborating what nonconformity is?