Yeah, but that “truck” he was asking about was in fact a cart. So, it was quite an easy guess.
I’m guessing you don’t know much about Hutterites. They do live in colonies, but they aren’t as opposed to machinery as the Amish. I’ll often see a group of Hutterites in a local mall, having driven there in their truck that they also use on the farm lands that the colony owns and farms.
I was raised by a Mennonite mother, and went to a Mennonite church when I was younger, and proselytizing wasn’t on the table. Mennonites are involved in missionary work, though; this story is about some relatives of mine who do missionary work in Kenya. The anabaptist position (from what I understand) is more about keeping the evils of the world out rather than bringing everyone from the outside world in.
I also knew some Mennonites in college, and they attended my church’s programs, as they thought we were the best Christian organization on campus. Not once did they try to change us. They defended their dress the same way the Pentecostals defended theirs: that it appealed to their sense of modesty, was something they felt was right, and didn’t want to push it on anyone else.
Still, I’ve actually been sorta proselyted by some Mennonites, but it was in the form of them letting me take a pamphlet and CD. There are a lot (for the population) of Mennonite run stores around here: bakeries, sandwich shops, that sort of thing. The owner had a daughter who was selling a keyboard, and I needed one that had a certain feature. on the way out, I saw this CD in a place with a bunch of other pamphlets, and I picked it up to look at it. They told me I could take it.
Anyways, the CD was a Creationist CD, and the pamphlet was about how, if all women dressed like Mennonites did, there’d be no more rape. Neither was actually about converting to their faith. But I still think it qualifies as proselytizing as the term is used on this board, albeit a very low key and unoffensive variety.
I’m curious… where I grew up, Hutterites were a common sight, and were widely viewed as being notorious shoplifters from the local stores.
Is that a common believe attributed to Hutterites in other locales, or to Amish in their communities as well?
Lots of Christian groups (or at least, groups which identify themselves as Christian, if you prefer) do not practice the Great Commission. Some of them believe it has already been fulfilled; others believe it was Jesus’s instruction to the disciples he was speaking to at the time, and not to Christians generally. I’m not sure if the Amish are such a group, but would be interested in learning.
Not around here, or not in general.
Of all the different named groups in this area*, only one has a general reputation for being morally questionable (and they have a doozy of a reputation). There are one or two that have a reputation for being hard to deal with, as in not wanting to spend any money or give you a break on a purchase, but you wouldn’t hear about them stealing. (Generally. In any population, there are individual outliers.)
*As I noted above, there are a lot of different kinds of Amish, and quite a few groups that an untrained eye would identify as Amish, but who do not self-identify that way. There are steel-wheel Mennonites, who use electricity and regular farm tractors and equipment, but replace all the pneumatic wheels with special steel wheels, and who drive a horse and buggy to church. There are Whistler Mennonites, who use electricity and pretty much every modern convenience you can think of except television, and who look not-quite-Amish and will only drive cars that are bumper-to-bumper black or very very dark blue. (The car dealers around here watch for Black Car Mennonite Specials.) There are beachy Amish, who are Amish in every way except that they drive cars, there are New New Order Amish, New Order Amish, Old Order Amish, Old Old Order Amish, and Amish groups identified by the name of the person who split off the original church. (Swartzentruber Amish around here, for instance.) And that’s just Ohio. Pennsylvania, I’m sure, has its own flavors, as does Indiana and any other Amish area.
This is a general impression from things overheard over a lifetime, so please weight it appropriately.
My impression is that for some Amish, they believe that the Great Commission is being fulfilled by other Christians, and their great calling is to maintain the separateness from the world that is ordered in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing];” (KJV).
For other Amish, focus on the Bible itself and Jesus Christ is not a very big part of their faith. It’s much more about the tradition and culture of the church. So they’re not particularly concerned about Matthew 28:16-20.
Well, I thought that GD was for religious debating and proselytizing (e.g. debating the merits of a religion). The OP is asking a factual question about religion.
So you believe that if the world was converted to Christianity there would be less violence?
Out of interest how many people do you think have died due to Non-Christian terrorism versus; The Thirty Years War, 1618-1648 or The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1598
My ex is from a place with a large Amish population (Western PA) - in visiting there & talking to her family I’ve never heard any mention of that. Indeed, the Amish there are generally known to be outstandingly honest in business, but distinctly hard-nosed and shrewd. Surprisingly however, they do have a reputation for being…well…rather unwashed and slovenly. A group of them ran a cheese-making business, made good cheese (I’ve eaten a lot of it), but the health depertment or USDA finally closed it down over sanitation issues. Could be that a lot of us have grown overly used to excessive modern fastidiousness.
Regarding the OP, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Amish have at least a partial prohibition against outright proselytizing. I’ve had some experience with the Quakers, which along with the Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Brethern, and a few others make up the “peace testimony” grouping. Quakers, of course are thoroughly modern in their living practices but they do share some beliefs with the others. One of these is that they do not engage in direct proselytizing, preferring to give their testimony by example…through living a godly life and doing kind things to others. This stems from the formative days of their faith, when people were forced by government or economic pressure to join an “official” church. Quakers will welcome you if you wish to join their faith, but it must be of your own free will…they cannot coerce or pressure you to do so.
Interesting, if not pertinent is the fact that the Freemasons also make this a matter of doctrine. You must ask to join them, they cannot ask you to do so.
SS
Interesting thing about the Hutterites. They recognize that no one person can truly know more than about 150 people. Once a community exceeds that number, its character completely changes. If the population of a colony grows to over 150, it splits.
IIRC, the ancient Roman army has this philosophy as well, as does the company that makes Gore-Tex.
I don’t know the Hutterites here as notorious shoplifters, and I didn’t know the Mennonites in the Mennonite town I grew up in as shoplifters. The idea actually kind of shocked me - the Mennonites I’m familiar with are more moral than average, rather than less.
That is the number known as your monkeysphere (and they’re apparently right about that, and have been for a long time). 
Oh yeah, I forgot about that term. I read about this a couple of months ago and forgot some of the details. But I remember the Hutterites.
Yes, it is sad how many Christians have killed other Christians in the name of Christ. I read Foxx’s Book of Martyrs. It is disgusting how quickly he gets through the earlier ones and to the protestants killed by the Catholics. I never fully understood the hatred of the Catholics in Elizabethan times until after I read it. It was a widely read, influential book then.
A 911 was the work of Islamists
B The Shites, Sunnis, etc. are busy killing each other at the present time. No that they are that Christian, but government troops aren’t shooting the protesters in London and Paris.
C Modern Christians are doing a better job remembering Jesus never lifted up his hand against another man. Real Christians don’t condone shooting abortion doctors or protesting at military funerals.
Well, obviously at least one of the factions in each of those wars was the wrong kind of Christian. If everyone had been converted to the One True Brand of Christianity (which thelabdude’s church happens to practice) then everything would have been just hunky-dory. 
Partially raised by Mennonite grandparents, here, jumping in. If any of the clan had shoplifted, Granpop would have horsewhipped them. A very public humiliation and apology would be the least they could expect to have to endure. There was never any proselytizing, but sort of the unspoken feeling that they had enough on their plates focusing on their own walk with God, and unless they felt responsible for you (you were their family young’uns), you lived your own life. “English” who lived nearby and gained the family’s respect were accepted as is. As far as my family was concerned, their faith was more about what was in their life (God, family) than what was not allowed.
No excuse for a slam like that.