Andrew Crystall wrote:
>
> On 23 Mar 2003 at 22:53, Julia Thompson wrote:
>
> > Andrew Crystall wrote:
> >
> > > This is why I have become attracted to a branch of my religion which
> > > puts a lot of weight what is essentially (and it's a bad translation
> > > of the phase, there is no really good translation for it) "A Light
> > > unto the Nations" (doing the right thing in your own life by
> > > example, essentially), is (unlike one of the aforementioned
> > > Ortherdox sections not technophobic) and stresses *individual*
> > > thought.
> >
> > So, on the technophobia front, do you have negative feelings about the
> > Amish?
>
> I don't *understand* the Amish.
> What I objected to was the technophobia being pushed in my face as
> "what I should believe to be a good Jew".
OK. Having never been told I had to engage in any particular sort of
technophobia to be a "good Christian", I find myself offended that someone
would say that sort of thing to someone else. Then again, I've been told
that I have to do or believe X to be a "good Christian" in various
situations where X ran at least partly counter to my understanding of
Christianity, so I guess my feeling of offense on your behalf has personal
history to it.
I haven't been around any Amish myself. The closest I think I've come is
to being in the same public places with Mennonites (most memorably at a
restaurant somewhere near Amish country in Pennsylvania one Saturday night
when I was in my teens) who seemed by their appearances to be stricter
than the "hip, urban Mennonites" I found myself in the company of when I
visited my sister in DC a couple of times. (She was sharing dinner
arrangements with several other people, a few of which were Mennonites,
and then there was the little birthday outing where a group of us,
including a couple of the Mennonites, went to a bar. They were the first
to leave.)
Julia
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