Huh, could be. There are a lot of the “real thing” around here though so that hadn’t occurred to me.
My mom’s grandma Jones always wore a bonnet - when outside, working in the vegetable garden.
I’ve always thought the “wearing a hat” thing had more to do with working outside than with what kind of car you drive.
Us humans are strange when it comes to matter of religion. I am Lutheran now (and have been most of my life) but I was raised Russian Orthodox/Original Ritualist (what some folks call the Old Believers). I know in my heart of hearts that my beard is meaningless to the Lord - but there is still this tiny seed that says if I shave I’m going to burn in Hell. It doesn’t make sense but its part of what makes up “me”.
In the same way I know “fallen away” Amish or Mennonites who have retained certain things (dress, traditions) from their past. In some ways I think its human nature to want to keep something you grew up with as a constant.
What is an incongruous combo?
My grandparents are Mennonites by the way. Grandma was raised Amish then the whole family became Mennonite when she turned 18. Grandpa was raised in the city and moved to the suburbs and some folks built a Mennonite church down the road and Grandpa and the family became Mennonite. My dad says he remembers his sister wearing a bonnet, but only in church. Grandma probably would have still been wearing one all the time. This was in the late 50s.
There are many colors of Mennonite. Wearing a bonnet has nothing to do with driving a car. And driving a Mini Cooper has nothing to do with one’s Mennonite-ness.
Wearing a hat is one thing; wearing this very specific kind of bonnet (which they must buy in bulk as they all look identical and never worn-looking) in the 21st century, at about age 30, while gassing up your Mini Cooper, is another. Not that she doesn’t have every right, but I have the right to find it an odd thing to see.
I just want to pause for a moment and refresh myself in contemplation of this beautiful sentence.
If a Baptist and an Anabaptist collide, do they annihilate and produce gamma rays?
LOL, I enjoyed it too.
people can sew clothes to identical pattern and style and look alike.
People cover their heads in reverence to God. Not sure what you think it has to do with modernity in other aspects of their lives.
It *was *pretty great!
As an atheist, I’m not sure where to begin to tackle that. (And yes, I think ultra-Orthodox Jews look ridiculous as well.)
For Orthodox Jews, the hat is male-only, and is meant to remind man that there is someone “above” him (read that to mean “greater than”).
I thought the Amish women wore bonnets to be modest and hide their glory, which is their long hair.
Given the tiny, sheer bonnets worn by Mennonite women, hiding anything is clearly not their purpose.
Reasons for Christian headcoverings
Once again, none of those reasons is “to look as though you were from an older time while driving a modern vehicle.”
“Because of the angels”, submission of women, gender policing. Lovely.
Ah, I had forgotten the lace doily my mother used to pin to my head for going to church when I was a child.
Interesting take on the head covering. I was told by an Orthodox Rabbi that men had to wear hats to remind them that something was over them but that women did not, as woman was made especially by God and was, therefore, closer to God and did not need to be reminded. That actually made more sense to my brain than most of the Christian reasons.
Mennonites can be surprisingly modern.
Hereabouts, it is not unusual for a late-model Ford or Chevy van to park, and disgorge a number of Mennonites–the ladies in bonnets and dresses, the men in hats and suits. They go shopping, or otherwise enjoy the downtown–I get coffee from the local coffee shop daily, but on occasion, have had to wait while a Mennonite woman pays for her lunch with a very modern debit card. No harm, no foul–I often have to wait while other non-Mennonites do the same. In the end, I get my coffee, so I don’t care.
At any rate, in my interactions with them, they have always been polite and pleasant. They don’t seem to judge those of us who are not Mennonite, and they seem to recognize that we all live in this world, and we all have to get along. I wish some of my more religious neighbours were so tolerant!
A van wouldn’t have thrown me at all, or a shiny new truck. A Mini seems like a whole different kettle of fish, at least to me.