[InterestedQuestioner]

My point here is simply to correct a historical error. The original statement by muawihah claimed that the Mennonites predated Protestantism. They did not. The Mennonite faith is a Protestant religion, founded around 1530, roughly one and a half millennia after Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church.

Not a knock against the Mennonites, just insisting on historical accuracy on this point. I respect my Protestant brothers and sisters, and am grateful to be challenged and encouraged by them. That not withstanding, Protestantism evolved out of Catholicism, and depends upon Catholicism for legitimacy. If the Catholic Church was in gross doctrinal error by the sixteenth century, as alleged by some non-Catholics, I see absolutely no reason to suppose that Protestantism could have corrected re-developed the religion of Jesus. Those in the Protestant Faith who insist that Catholicism is not a valid form of Christianity are simply in the position of a branch attempting to take an axe to its own tree trunk. If you were able to successfully refute Catholicism as a valid religion, you would destroy any claims to validity that you may make for your own religion. It would indeed become, a mere "tradition of men." Fortunately, this has not been the case.

Protestantism is a modern development, and is rooted more or less firmly in Catholic tradition. The various Protestant systems of belief are based on Catholic teaching, with a few additions and subtractions. This is not a knock against anyone, Lord knows there are plenty of Protestant Christians who are great examples for us all.

And Miawah, as for your comment to the effect that it would have taken a former Catholic priest to invent all the extra rules under which those people (the Mennonites) live, it was disrespectful to both Catholics and Mennonites. The men who invented the key traditions and rules under which your own religion operates, such as Martin Luther, and Jean Calvin, were themselves former Catholic priests, and to the extent that your religion differs in doc tine from Catholicism, you can most likely trace those differences to traditions invented by your own human religious authorities.

[wideawake]

The original statement by muawihah claimed that the Mennonites predated Protestantism. They did not.

Correct.

However, their beliefs are a melange of Zwinglian Protestantism and pre-Protestant radical Utraquism.

They have actually deradicalized - the Christology of the early Mennonites is practically Docetist.

[muawiyah]

You ever read the rules?

[muawiyah]

We are, of course, discussing the same Brethren aren't we? It's not like I don't know about these guys ~ the (Laestidian) Church of the Brethren drew people from both the various Scandinavian Lutheran movements as well as the various kinds of Mennonites found in Southern Indiana.

There are rules. It's one of the reasons a pacifist member can get an exemption from combat arms if drafted.

The trick on figuring out who is who is whether or not the family celebrates Christmas Eve (Day of the Dead), or December 15 or thereabouts.

They make the same claim of apostolic origin that you find more commonly in the Baptist movement. Undoubtedly it's not uniformly that way throughout the whole Mennonite movement.