The Mennonites visit Campus - The Evergreen State College - Olympia, WA - Febuary 2nd 2011

      After reading the letter and the vibe of greed and exploitation that Reverend Peter Popoff is doing it was nice to meet the polar opposite of that mindset today. While on campus outside the main building where students meet there were three Mennonite men from the Rochester Mennonite Church with literature explaining their interpretation of the Bible and what Jesus meant for them.

    The men were dressed very classy in old style suits (suit and long coat) and one of them was dressed in Amish garb, even having a long gray beard and hat, and black suit. They were very cordial, genuine in humble, not just in their garb but in how they talked and greeted me. There wasn't the "In your face, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior deal." Which honestly turns me off from Christianity. We talked about history, of which will be discussed in the next few paragraphs.  

     Who are the Mennonites? The Mennonites came out of the Reformation movement through the Anabaptist Menno Simmons. They differed against the Lutherans in that they thought the Catholic Church wasn't practicing real Christianity, unlike Luther who just wanted to reform it. They believe Jesus honored separation of Church and State and wanted his community to be separate and not involved with politics as seen by his turning himself in when the soldiers came and his call for non-violence of loving of one's enemies.They also reject infant baptism and that only believers should be baptized. This was a huge point they made when they were saying that the first Mennonites rejected Catholicism claim to being Christian and Luther's reforming of a Non-Christian sect as the wrong approach.

     I do think that the Orthodox and Catholic Church are Christian Churches, which is a big issue I have with any Christian Church that rejects the fact that they all share the core belief of the trinity and Jesus dying for sins.

 I agree with their idea of living simply, baptism coming from belief, the call for non-violence and separation of church and state. Any Theocracy is just as dangerous as any secular dictatorship or oligarchy.

     In practice many Mennonites are Amish and reject technology in living the simple life to the extreme, this I think can be a problem as well, especially if abuse happens in a community and there are no ways to get out to get help. They are also usually very conservative in regards to family where only the Mother and Father with children are the only recognized type of family. I disagree strongly with this as well as their conservative interpretation about homosexuality and women.

     Meeting humble men, living simply while honoring God was a good experience after Reverend Peter Popoff's letter. I hope to visit their church at some point, to see how they honor God and worship. I think if the Mennonites met some of the Orthodox and Catholic orders of monks and nuns who also live simply, their perspective would change..and I hope I could someday facilitate that meeting to help heal the wounds that divide the Body of Christ.