Being Plain
As a plain amish mennonite, I am plainly interested in plain talk about plainness.
Merle Burkholder, at a conference at FB a year ago, said something like this: “We are losing a compelling reason to be plain.”
Tonight we had a members meeting at church and we had a very standard discussion on standard issues (church standard issues). I am realizing more and more that I care way less about plainness and conservatism than that which has been normal in my faith tradition. I know many other people in my generation with similiar skepticisms.
I think Burkholder is right. However, I would like to know what the compelling reason to be plain was in the first place.
arby wrote:
I think it was because it was cheaper. Or maybe clothes only came in one color. No, no, there was something else…hmm, can’t quite remember.
Humor doesn’t address the real issues, and you’re entirely right. That rising skepticism in the rising generation may translate to a “beauty revolution” some day.
Then again, it’s hard to be passionate about skepticism.
Posted on 24-Mar-06 at 6:14 am | Permalink
Javan Lapp wrote:
It’s a question many of us are facing. We haven’t been given answers…and those of us who can see what lies behind our cultural tradition very often lack the will to defend it. Could it be that the approach has been all wrong? Could it be that we really have lost touch with the reasons? And therefore we have not been able to convince young people of “our way” (pattern)and rather have had to compel (as in force) them?
Posted on 25-Mar-06 at 12:53 pm | Permalink
Sprkplg wrote:
My perspective:
Being plain originated as a way (or was it THE way?) to live without pride. (That’s the really bad kind of pride it talks about in places like Proverbs. And, by the way, I’m of the opinion that pride is at the root of all evil.)
Plainness wasn’t and isn’t a bad way to live without pride, but it also wasn’t and isn’t THE way. Issue One: Plainness isn’t a magic anti-pride pill. Human nature finds lots of ways to be proud in every circumstance. (As I type this, for example, it’s hard not to feel smug about all my great insights. Sigh. There, I just indulged myself again by trying to impress you all by how honest I am. Never mind.) Issue Two: This anti-pride plainness thing is all good and well, but it can clash with other important values, like wanting people who would rather not change ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about their lifestyles to join our churches. Issue Three: Plainness is mighty inconvenient sometimes.
So, there are fantastic values at the bottom of plainness, but plainness itself can have issues. What we desperately need to do is to preserve these values while applying them in potentially diverse ways. Not easy, but not impossible.
Posted on 04-Apr-06 at 9:45 pm | Permalink
Hccsq wrote:
The information is successfully classified. Reasonable structure of a site.
Posted on 23-Oct-06 at 10:52 pm | Permalink