Returning to the
conservative Mennonites, the legalism of the Amish seems to be diluted (though
still present) and largely replaced with a spirit of capitulation. This is what
I think of when I see conservative Mennonites inviting John Stonestreet to
speak. Have things gone that badly in their community, with their youth that
they're willing to hear a culture-sanctifying, worldly, compromised Evangelical
leader who regularly promotes feminism to come and teach them about how to
navigate the world of technology and the computer age?
Have they no leaders
with any discernment? Are they just so floundering and desperate that they
would turn to the likes of Stonestreet? The Sword and Trumpet website has
articles critical of capital punishment and topics that deal with traditional
Anabaptist thought. By all accounts it's a conservative group and so what might
Stonestreet have to say to them?
I decided to write
them:
22 Dec 2019
I have enjoyed reading
the articles on your website but I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw that
you are promoting a conference with John Stonestreet as your keynote speaker.
Stonestreet represents the Dominionist Theology of Francis Schaeffer and
Abraham Kuyper. This essentially Calvinist theology is rooted in a doctrine
that defines the Kingdom as encompassing the culture in its entirety and thus
they labour to transform and 'Christianize' the arts, politics and all of
society. This is but a post-Revolutionary Protestant variety of the old
Constantinianism that dominated the Middle Ages. It is a manifest rejection of
the Two Kingdoms doctrine and as such these teachings are antithetical to what
the Anabaptist movement has always been about.
I am genuinely shocked
that you would invite the protégé of Charles Colson, the Evangelical leader who
promoted war and Wall Street along with worldly and theological compromise. I
understand the colloquy is about media issues but as one who has listened to
Stonestreet's radio commentaries for years I can safely say he teaches a
message of compromise and worldliness. I simply cannot grasp why your group
would invite him to speak. Can someone please explain this to me? I am
genuinely curious.
I was excited to
discover the announcement of the colloquy and for a moment considered attending
as I live in Pennsylvania but upon discovering that Stonestreet is to be the
main speaker my vision blurred and my heart raced. You are literally inviting a
wolf in sheep's clothing into your midst. What am I missing here?
Please, I sincerely
hope for some response and interaction on this point.
Thank you,
----
After receiving no
response I tried again:
13 Jan 2020
Hello, I am writing as
a follow up to the message I sent on 22 December 2019 regarding the 2020
Colloquy in which you have invited the Dominionist Two-Kingdom rejecting and
warmonger John Stonestreet to speak at your event.
I have asked for
clarification as his invite is tantamount to a U-Turn on the part of your
organisation, a complete rejection of your values and historic doctrinal
positions.
I have not received a
response.
Have I understood you
correctly? Are you indeed rejecting historic Anabaptism, the doctrine of Two
Kingdoms and the principles of the Kingdom and non-resistance as outlined in
the New Testament?
Is the wider
Anabaptist community aware of your new position?
Are you going to
repudiate or take down articles on your website that you seem to now reject (in
principle) by allowing this man John Stonestreet to come and teach you?
I really would like
some kind of response or interaction on this question. I am confused, concerned
and I intend to pursue this.
Thank you,
----
I eventually received
a response but it was less than friendly. I was told to change my tone and
informed that they invite a variety of speakers to address them. The Sword and
Trumpet representative either didn't take me seriously or considered it beneath
him to even construct a paragraph in explanation. I was summarily dismissed. I
will admit I was a bit aggressive but I don't think I was one bit out of line
given the gravity of the situation and its meaning. One would think he would
have wanted to explain to me that I had misunderstood or perhaps pointed me
toward something to read that might help explain how they've come to this
position. But I guess that was asking too much.
The meetings were
scheduled for early March 2020 and I believe they took place, occurring just
before the full-fledged pandemic lockdown began. Since then the website has
removed any reference to it.
I responded to his
rather terse note with the following:
Thank you for getting back to me. I find your policy to
be shocking and I think any Anabaptist-Kingdom minded person would be offended.
Just this last week Stonestreet praised the assassination of Qassem Soleimani,
with a political aim grossly misrepresented the situation in China, and argued
for the legitimacy of 'cultural Christianity'.
The truth is and I would make the case for this in the
strongest terms.... Stonestreet doesn't know what New Testament Christianity
even is. He thinks godliness is gain, the Kingdom is power and that piety is
the flowering of culture. He is a classic false teacher and the epitome of the
type of theology that Kingdom Christians have opposed for centuries. Were he
and his ilk to acquire power they would persecute us. They've done it before
and woe unto us if our leaders have forgotten this reality.
He needs to be called to repentance and yet your
organisation is calling him to come and teach you... as if he has something to
say. I've listened to Stonestreet talk about media, smartphones and the like. I
cannot fathom why you would think he has anything to offer. His world-friendly
compromised Evangelicalism is bankrupt. This is so disturbing to me as I've
seen a trend in recent years among Anabaptists.... a trend toward the embrace
of Dominionist Theology and its assumptions. From Amish going to the ballot box
to the sacralisation of work and finding Francis Schaeffer on the shelf in
bookstores.... the Anabaptist testimony is in danger.
I will not bother you again as I know you don't want to hear
from me. But I will not be silent. People need to know what's happening and I
intend to publish this information online.
I urge your organisation to reconsider and cancel the
Stonestreet colloquy.
In God's grace,
----
Separatism when wed to
Dominionist theology is no longer separatism or it won't be for long. When the Magisterial
Reformation doctrine of Vocation is embraced and work is sanctified, when
building a business and seeking profit is confused with ministry and Kingdom
building – the spirit of accommodation will soon come to dominate. The separatist
Two-Kingdom embracing bodies of the Anabaptist world are in grave danger. Some
have already fallen into apostasy.
Others are rapidly
becoming indistinguishable from the world, fooling themselves that they are
somehow maintaining a straight and narrow path even while they are compromising
the full spectrum of ethics. Others are on a path to becoming a mild and
less-militant form of Evangelicalism and yet that position won't hold and
within a generation or so they will have abandoned any pretense of Two Kingdom
theology, non-resistance or any of the other distinctives that used to mark
them out from the wider Christian community and the world.
Money is a powerful
corrupter and across the board it seems to be playing a role. The lessons
regarding Sodom in Ezekiel 16 come to mind. Decadence and abomination are born
of affluence and the self-deception and restless gluttony that come with it.
The Evangelical world in selling itself out to mammon – to American middle
class values – it sowed the seeds in abundance and now it is reaping the
harvest. It's hard to watch others – people who ought to know better – naively
embark on that same path. They too will reap the harvest in a generation or two
if not sooner.
Others have allowed worldly
theologians to delineate them – they too reacted to the catastrophic world wars
but let themselves be defined by events, categories and assumptions to which
they should have never given any standing. As a consequence there's a kind of
worldliness-creep at work.
Others such as the
Amish are simply floundering, making fools of themselves and in some cases
destroying their testimony in the process. For the Amish, the gospel is their
community Ordnung or order, the rules
they follow to remain in good standing. This is the path to salvation and yet
when they spend half their time circumventing it, one has to wonder.††
Money
is always corrupting but when you embrace a theology that sanctifies it and
when you pursue a doctrine that confuses faithfulness with worldly success then
you're on a dangerous path. When profit (which is legitimate in and of itself
to a point) is confused with ministry and blessing, then you've crossed an
ethical line.
I
am fully convinced of Two Kingdom theology, Kingdom ethics and that these
realities put the Church into a place of antithesis. I don't believe Amish
pseudo-separatism is the answer as it is but an empty form and is not
Scripturally faithful.
I
envy the community aspect of Amish and Mennonite life and yet at the same time
their insularity has apparently blinded them and while some groups have
embraced education they have instead (seemingly) embraced the world's paradigms
without deeply reflecting on the fact that to remain faithful especially in
light of modern industrialisation is to be counter-cultural and to face a
necessary reduction in income and lifestyle. The Mennonites have not done this
as growing numbers embrace feminism, career women and even women in authority.
Therefore
it's no real surprise that as they embrace these generalised concepts they
begin to feel the pressures of modern life, technology and the stresses these
things place on one's time and the family. And so who do they turn to? Their
leaders don't have the answers and they're akin to fish out of water. And yet
the Evangelical community has been answering these questions for decades – not
with Biblical answers or solutions but with an endless series of compromises
that allow them to retain their standing in the world even as they pursue
(largely by means of economics and politics) the transformation of culture. And
so these erroneous voices are granted some degree of standing.
Is
it possible that in another generation we may see the Anabaptist witness
reduced to compromised and worldly Amish and Mennonites on the one hand and a
mere remnant of those whose religion is little more than an agrarian life? I
hope not but that's where things seemed to be headed. Maybe things are further
along than I realise. I hope someone is paying attention and that leaders will
rise up and shepherd their communities to a better place.
----
††
I know of Amish who own forbidden tools and other implements and hide them in
their English neighbour's basements. I went into one man's basement and he
showed me where different Amish had their respective 'stashes'.
Another
Amish man grew weary of his beard which (as a married man) is required by his
group's Ordnung. He would on a daily basis thin it out by plucking hairs. When
an English-man (my friend) asked him if that wasn't a violation of the rule, he
responded that the rule says they can't cut or shave it, but it doesn't say
anything about plucking.
Others
secretly own vehicles and pay drivers but hide their vehicle ownership from the
elders. Additionally among their communities some have become rather wealthy
and yet hide their wealth as it generates controversy.
While
I don't smoke, I have no real (in principle) opposition to it – other than the
fact that it's stupid and unhealthy and leads to reduced capacity for physical
activity. It's foolish but I won't say it's sinful unless someone is addicted
to it which of course is the case when it comes to most cigarette smokers.
Anyway, if you want to know how silly the Amish appear to outsiders, I've
talked to several people who have ventured into the aforementioned Chautauqua
Institute in Western New York. The Amish have several nearby communities and
are often hired by the cottage owners to do housecleaning. Numerous parties
have reported driving through and seeing clusters of Amish women standing
outside (in full garb of course) having a group smoke-break. This just makes
people howl with laughter but of course when the Amish van pulls up and one of
the men pulls out the ashtray and unceremoniously dumps the smoldering mass of
butts and ashes in the parking lot as they drive away – those same folks aren't
laughing. While I am not a prude, the Amish are pretty offensive to a lot of
folks. The heart of manners is the consideration of others and of what is
right. The Amish continually come across as self-obsessed, self-serving, crude
and sometimes downright rude.