Comments on: In with the New; out with the Old http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/10/23/in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old/ let's activate something Sun, 20 May 2012 22:41:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: IsaacV http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/10/23/in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old/#comment-20936 IsaacV Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:50:09 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/?p=572#comment-20936 Vera, I think you are right. Vera, I think you are right.

]]> By: vera http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/10/23/in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old/#comment-20935 vera Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:32:34 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/?p=572#comment-20935 "Not too many plain Mennonites came to the convention. They are already being stripped away." They are not being stripped away. They are prospering without you and your bureaucracies. :-) You modern Mennonites will be shown by history to be the odd duck, I predict. Your congregations are already aging, losing the young people. After all, why bother if being a Mennonite (or Anabaptist) is just like any other group of mainstreamers? Boring! Particularism, which translated means people who have a real culture (not the urban pseudoculture offered by modernity) worth bothering about, is the way of the future. Keep an eye on your numbers. You'll see. “Not too many plain Mennonites came to the convention. They are already being stripped away.”

They are not being stripped away. They are prospering without you and your bureaucracies. :-) You modern Mennonites will be shown by history to be the odd duck, I predict. Your congregations are already aging, losing the young people. After all, why bother if being a Mennonite (or Anabaptist) is just like any other group of mainstreamers? Boring!

Particularism, which translated means people who have a real culture (not the urban pseudoculture offered by modernity) worth bothering about, is the way of the future. Keep an eye on your numbers. You’ll see.

]]> By: Lora http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/10/23/in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old/#comment-18987 Lora Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:28:24 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/?p=572#comment-18987 I've been thinking about this whole Anabaptist vs. Mennonite, old vs. new conversation for awhile--and I wish more of our YAR conversations could happen in person. (Anyone planning something for Columbus 2009?) I have several friends who feel "Mennonite" is too tied to cultural identity, and a number of friends who didn't grow up in any Anabaptist denomination but consider that their primary theology. I'd argue that while we Mennonites need to reexamine the way in which we tell our story (particularly where economics and whiteness is concerned), I also don't think we understand what we lose by stripping away the old that we perceive as peripheral to what it means to be a Christian (even an Anabaptist one). I’ve been thinking about this whole Anabaptist vs. Mennonite, old vs. new conversation for awhile–and I wish more of our YAR conversations could happen in person. (Anyone planning something for Columbus 2009?)

I have several friends who feel “Mennonite” is too tied to cultural identity, and a number of friends who didn’t grow up in any Anabaptist denomination but consider that their primary theology. I’d argue that while we Mennonites need to reexamine the way in which we tell our story (particularly where economics and whiteness is concerned), I also don’t think we understand what we lose by stripping away the old that we perceive as peripheral to what it means to be a Christian (even an Anabaptist one).

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