Posted on 07/16/2007 12:57:20 PM PDT by markomalley
I don’t think the ACLU should do anything, but that said, I don’t think this is a good idea. I went to a very strict Southern Baptist College, and half the kids were even more wild off-campus then any other kids I met when I went to a community college. On-campus they were totally “perfect Baptists”. The other half were so innocent, they had a really hard time dealing with any kind of secular issues.
That said, if they are willing to try this, more power to them, I just don’t think it will work in practice, but it’s a good theory.
Ping to read later
All other towns are wounded.
I think this is a bad idea.
I don’t, and I’m a nonbeliever. Self segregation (as opposed to the odious legal segregation of the Old South) builds community.
Why I think it's a bad idea:
(1) How successful are the Amish in evangelizing their faith? Very few people actually volunteer to be Amish largely because their communities are so deeply insular.
(2) As our Baptist friend pointed out, deeply sheltered kids who have never been exposed to moral hazard have an alarming tendency to either succumb or freeze like a deer in the headlights, not provide an inspiring witness.
(3) Communities like this (for example, St. Mary's in KS) have a tendency to begin considering their own internal community customs as doctrinal rather than discretionary.
What happens if you order a pizza from a place that’s not Domino’s?
Based on observation, I would say few things like this last. But it can be wonderful while it lasts, although it usually ends with major disputes (I say this as a veteran of lay communities). Part of the problem is that there is no model for this and therefore nobody really knows how to go about it; they’re not a religious order, but what are they?
This is not the first community like this in Florida. Less than 100 miles north of Ave Maria is the town of San Antonio, founded in the 19th century as a Catholic community for families, with a monastery as its center and all the education handled by an order of sisters. The monastery, St. Leo’s (Benedictine), is still there; they are associated with St. Leo’s University, the on-line studies institution, although the monastery itself still continues to raise oranges and provide retreats. They have a lovely church that they are restoring.
THe lay community broke up before the middle of the 20th century and while the sisters stayed and continued to run a school, they got flaky after VatII and are now basically a retirement center for the few elderly sisters who managed to hang on. I believe there’s still a girl’s boarding school there, or perhaps a small college, but it’s no longer staffed by the nuns.
I’m expecting some “gay activists” to buy one of the homes and then start flinging lawsuits in the direction of every person and institution in the town that won’t recognize their perverted coupling as a “family.”
After dinner confessions?
Lol! Dang, that laugh caught me off guard, I think I scared our office assistant:)
It’s not that they’re not successful, the Amish don’t believe in evangelizing.
I wonder how long this ‘Catholic town’ can stay ‘pure’. Weren’t some current big cities and universities established with similar thoughts at the beginning?
What a dream place to live — other than the hurricanses. (But the would have had that in Tampa, too)
But they would have had that in Tampa, too.
Yes, but would they reject someone who wanted to become "plain"?
No.
It's not because of their plain style of living - thousands join non-Christian cults every day and live with far fewer amenities than the Christian community of the Amish do.
It's because of the insularity of the Amish - it would take generations for a newcomer family to become truly one of them.
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