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Schriewa
The
world of Mennonite and Anabaptist bloggers is a wild and exotic one indeed –
which always intrigues me – when and where did we learn to talk like this?
Generally speaking, it seems that Mennonite
(and Amish) blogs can be relegated to six general categories: Recipes, sermons, non-Mennonite church historians, the culturally irate Mennonite,
non-Mennonite tourists taking pics of the cows, horses and barns, and
everything else (my aim is to end up on the latter). I am also a bit bemused that so many of the
largest, best written blogs about Mennonites, really have very little to do
with Mennonites – I mean, I guess I am glad to see others feeling comfortable
and welcome to associate with us – but also feel a bit overwhelmed – couldn’t
they just invent their own label – like Boyd Anabaptists or the Mars Hill Amish? I mean it’s one more group to add to the
differentiation list of definitions – and threatens to overwhelm with their high-impact
websites and polished prose, the already ginger balance between religion and
historic ethnic identity that ethnic Mennonite bloggers face on-line.
The truth of the matter is that the
Mennonite or even the Mennonite-Amish dialogue is relatively benign – mostly comprising
honest and deeply pertinent questions of the weather, crop estimates, helpful
hints on machinery or husbandry and general inquiries after the other person’s
health. Even I transgress against this
basic point – though the main goal would be to return to and preserve such simple,
rarified dialogue. One of the best
achievements of the Mennonite Weekly
Review – a most excellent and probably under-appreciated Mennonite
publication not unlike the CBC, is that it has maintained the cultural, ethnic,
family and weather dialogue without getting dragged down into overly weighty matters.
The issue is the new Facebook™ page I created
for Mennonite bloggers – I mean – what a great idea, right? - an extension of the great Mennonite
dialogue?
Perhaps not so much.
The problem is identifying blogs to get to
post to the page (or which ones should not really be encouraged). Most of the eligible blogs are sermons –
which is fine… but just based on Google™ searches – the calm, staid Mennonite
and Brethren pastors of rural Indiana, the North Dakota prairie or the
far-flung foreign mission station are almost completely overwhelmed by the
Emergent juggernaut of Urban Mennonites
– isn’t an urban Mennonite a Mennonite who lives in the city? Are we about to face adding an overly
complicated letter code of CAPs and non-caps to
our already overwhelming mix of alphabet soups?
I am becoming much more tolerant of the raving Mennonites – and no, I don’t
mean the general dissenters earnestly and valiantly trying to expose the need
for greater awareness of women’s issues, LGBT awareness or compassion for
immigrants and refugees – rather the alarming number of bloggers who are
genuinely hurt and angry about a personal injustice in the past. The pain I feel for them is that their
passion often seems grounded in some sort of reality – but there is, and most
of us will admit this, no real way for Anabaptists to deal with such conflicts
or community tolerated injustice. As a
community, we too often seem to feel like these problems, and those
experiencing them, will just disappear if we ignore them and don’t speak of
them. In the pre-blog world, this seemed
to work. Again, a simple Google search
indicates that this is no longer the case – nor are they screaming into a
sound-proof box. Recent discussions regarding
sexual abuse and assault at Prairie Bible in Alberta kind of sums up this
category. Not only is it important to
understand what did or did not happen at Prairie, but it is conversation that
we should be more engaged in generally as a preventative – even our Hutterite
and more conservative Koloni’er cousins are finding this out.
In the old days, we would have possibly tried to address their issues within the gemeinde -- much like the Amish of Ohio and Pennsylvania attempted at first, to deal with Sam Mullet and the recent ponzi scheme scandal. But, as we assimilated, we gave up our cultural tools and authority -- gave them over to the national host cultures -- these problems are now beyond our ability to deal, they are no longer our responsibility -- all they can promise to us is potential liability. Sometimes, this is a relief, and at others, makes one feel a bit helpless. None of us are as strong or perfect as we would like to be -- nor was the gemeinde always effective or benevolent either. Perhaps it is for the best -- but is the new system any better?
In the old days, we would have possibly tried to address their issues within the gemeinde -- much like the Amish of Ohio and Pennsylvania attempted at first, to deal with Sam Mullet and the recent ponzi scheme scandal. But, as we assimilated, we gave up our cultural tools and authority -- gave them over to the national host cultures -- these problems are now beyond our ability to deal, they are no longer our responsibility -- all they can promise to us is potential liability. Sometimes, this is a relief, and at others, makes one feel a bit helpless. None of us are as strong or perfect as we would like to be -- nor was the gemeinde always effective or benevolent either. Perhaps it is for the best -- but is the new system any better?
Finally, we have the true haters – political
extremist persons of Mennonite culture and descent who use the Internet to
commit hate crimes against other groups.
Troubling as this is… one can really only quietly ignore them and hope
for the best. Engaging them only seems
to encourage them and tarnishes all of our reputations. Being from Montana, I should have more
answers as to how to handle these extremists – but apart from encouraging them
all into underground bunkers or moving them over to Idaho, I have no real
solutions.
Most problematically, it seems that in
dealing with such diverse elements, the on-line dialogue is already rocky,
choppy and confused. Where is the room
to quietly share and discuss the mundane but very real everyday issues of our
everyday experiences if we have to sneak it past the sermons and be heard over
the diatribe? I want a quiet on-line fastpa, not a soapbox.
There
have been some great Mennonite columnists and bloggers – Dale Suderman writing of Kansas, the “Amish
Cook” or Coblentz and Eicher family from Indiana, BMC’s Outspoken
series on women’s issues and the LGBT, the numerous travelogues… but these should be the norm, not the
noticeable exceptions. (I’m dealing with
esoteric, mildly academic ephemera so am unable to assist myself.)
Reading through the old copies of the
Herald of Truth, one is immediately struck by the esoteric nature of the paper –
social issues, political concerns, immigration concerns and sermons were all
stuck together cheek-by-jowl into a pleasing mix that more or less exemplified
the diversity of topic and interest that makes up the lives of the
Mennonites. The Evangelisches-Bote, which while a worthy endeavor, was definitely an
advocacy tabloid, still retained numerous tidbits about the everyday lives of
the Evangelical Russian Mennonites, but was definitely less a dialogue tool
than a resource for spiritual instruction.
I for one greatly enjoy hearing the
personal stories, reflections, thoughts and testimonies of my fellow Mennonites
and Anabaptists. I have taken more joy
from a well-written column by the Amish Cook or the everyday life experiences
of a Mennonite youth newly arrived in Toronto or in-service to Peru than I
really have from most of the sermons. I
have learned more about faith from Dale Suderman’s old columns than I really
glean from the Mars Hills' debates… How
do we retain and encourage this?
At the end of the day, I have no answers,
only preferences. My filtering software
is set to high – but sometimes I truly wonder if we might just be better off
sticking to recipes.
* I know this wrong -- but until it can be fixed....
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