Plain acculturation
Head coverings, beards and limited clothing options aren’t always enough to set a people apart. In North America, these seem to do the trick. But conservative Anabaptists encounter deeper questions when they...
[read more]Far-flung outposts translate Plain life
After Cory Anderson published his overview of every Amish Mennonite congregation in the United States and Canada — The Amish-Mennonites of North America — there was only one place to go: everywhere...
[read more]Nonconformity’s perils
Born from schism as a mark of truest obedience to the Lord, Anabaptists are better at breaking than binding. When the Reformation didn’t reform enough 500 years ago, Anabaptists went further, many paying the...
[read more]New York City skateboarders receive a blessing
NEW YORK — Blessings abounded at the inaugural “Blessing of the Skateboards” outdoor worship service of Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship on June 17. Those blessed included about a dozen youth who skated...
[read more]How outward appearance matters
Mennonites can easily categorize the type of church another Mennonite comes from simply by their appearance. Do their wear a veil, a bonnet or a doily? Solid colors? Cape dresses? Ankle-length skirts? Pants?...
[read more]Book review: ‘EMU: A Century of Countercultural Education’
Like all religious groups, Mennonites have always wrestled with how to maintain basic group beliefs and practices while still inhabiting a particular cultural context. In Christian parlance, they’ve...
[read more]A name worth keeping
What’s in a name? For Tim Unruh of Hillsboro, Kan., it’s more than a hill of beans. His decision to name his Menno Beans coffee roasting venture after Menno Simons is an ode to his faith heritage and an...
[read more]Miller: Good to be different
There are blonde jokes, lawyer jokes and Polish jokes. And then there are Mennonite jokes. As a Mennonite, and a plain Mennonite at that, I like the Mennonite jokes best. It is the perverse nature of humanity...
[read more]More nonconformed or more transformed?
“Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God.” — Rom. 12:2 Are there any verses better...
[read more]Inspiring editorials
“True Evangelical Faith” by Paul Schrag and “Convictional Inaction” by Rachel Stella were inspiring, challenging and based on sound Anabaptist theology. As evangelical Christians, our first allegiance...
[read more]The problem — and pressure — with wanting a king
It doesn’t matter how old we are; we feel the pressure of peers. It happened to the Israelites, and it happens to us. It’s our natural bent to look about us and see what others are doing. We watch not only...
[read more]Traditions drive Amish survival
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Why have the Amish survived? Cory Anderson says it boils down to one word: babies. Anderson, a member of a Beachy Amish Mennonite church and a doctoral candidate in rural sociology at...
[read more]About Me
