ANTH316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Old German Baptist Brethren, Church Of The Brethren, Beachy Amish
19 Jun 2018
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Department
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Professor
RECENT BRETHREN ISSUES
Civil war: growing rapidly concerning interaction w/ modern world
As strict if not more so than Amish
32% loss of membership between 1960-2000
100% traditional in 1850 to 96% transformational in 2000?
Education key to change
1831 annual conference banned education beyond 5th grade
By 1850s numerous people sending kids to school beyond anyway-rarely punished
Educated brethren became the authors and publishers of the Brethren pamphlets
Educated gaining control of brethren doctrine and ideology
Conservatives got mad- resulted in splits within brethren churches
By 1900 40 Brethren academies and normal schools had been formed
Change of church idea toward Brethren run education
Gender issues at colleges very important
Women watched super closely
No drinking, smoking or card-playing allowed
Changes due to education
Assimilation of younger people into world
Necktie ways of early 20th century
End of church services held in German
Educated youth questioned authority and accuracy of “lay preachers”
Appearance of full-time, paid, trained preachers
Appearance of sunday schools
Education led to interest in evangelism and missionary work
Education led people to want to use modern technology like cars, electricity & phones
Educated wrote new “histories” of Brethren that deemphasized traditional values like self-denial,
unity, mysticism- used these to justify their progressive claims
Greatest time of change was 1850-1880
Led to split away from Church of the Brethren by Old German Baptist Brethren (1881)
Brethren Church split in 1883
PG 375 OF BRETHREN BOOK=TABOOS
True end of “unity doctrine”
Freedom of individual conscience
Important implications for military service
Started serving
But they’d already been serving since revolution
WW1: ban on service still in effect, can’t buy out of draft
Many got out of service via “agricultural deferments”- granted bc many served on local draft
boards
10% served as non combatants, 10% served in conflict, the rest got out of it
WW2: not as aggressive with draft and war funding
US had been attacked- lots of volunteers
Draft board shenanigans kept many out of draft
80% of drafted Brethren served in combat
No stigma for returning veterans
Korean War
Technically not war-not declared
Not as much propaganda
Document Summary
Civil war: growing rapidly concerning interaction w/ modern world. 1831 annual conference banned education beyond 5th grade. By 1850s numerous people sending kids to school beyond anyway-rarely punished. Educated brethren became the authors and publishers of the brethren pamphlets. Educated gaining control of brethren doctrine and ideology. Conservatives got mad- resulted in splits within brethren churches. By 1900 40 brethren academies and normal schools had been formed. Change of church idea toward brethren run education. Educated youth questioned authority and accuracy of lay preachers . Education led to interest in evangelism and missionary work. Education led people to want to use modern technology like cars, electricity & phones. Educated wrote new histories of brethren that deemphasized traditional values like self-denial, unity, mysticism- used these to justify their progressive claims. Led to split away from church of the brethren by old german baptist brethren (1881) Ww1: ban on service still in effect, can"t buy out of draft.
