In the dusty outskirts of Seminole, Texas - just past the cotton fields and under the relentless spring sun - Peter Hildebrand stands outside a gas station, his eyes rimmed red and voice cracking.
Mennonites skewed anti vax before it was trendy, like a long time ago. Old religious vaccine exemptions were basically for them, IIRC.
Like, I remember hearing about these folks when I was in school in Texas.
What I’m getting at is that they’re not quite the same as MAGA-zone vaccine skepticism. There’s some overlap, but they’re more old school and broad than that, with a more general technology-hesitant slant, while MAGA skepticism seems more driven by social media and influencers.
By and large, Mennonites do skew pretty crazy and conservative in a lot of ways, but I think it’s worth pointing out that there can be a tremendous amount of variation from one church/community to another, there’s not much in the way of a larger overarching organization, a lot of policies, beliefs, interpretations and such are sorted out at the local level.
Some Mennonite churches are practically indistinguishable from the Amish, but there are some around that are very liberal. I live in an area with a pretty large Mennonite population, and the churches kind of run the entire gamut from horse and buggies to some of the most modern and liberal churches I’ve ever heard of.
They do, like I said, tend to skew more towards the conservative end of things, but there is a lot of variation there.
Like, I remember hearing about these folks when I was in school in Texas.
You realize that none of have any context for that, right? You could have been in school in Texas 3 years ago. Or it could have been in 1965. We don’t have any clue.
That being said, I fully agree with your overall post. I’m just nitpicking.
Mennonites skewed anti vax before it was trendy, like a long time ago. Old religious vaccine exemptions were basically for them, IIRC.
Like, I remember hearing about these folks when I was in school in Texas.
What I’m getting at is that they’re not quite the same as MAGA-zone vaccine skepticism. There’s some overlap, but they’re more old school and broad than that, with a more general technology-hesitant slant, while MAGA skepticism seems more driven by social media and influencers.
By and large, Mennonites do skew pretty crazy and conservative in a lot of ways, but I think it’s worth pointing out that there can be a tremendous amount of variation from one church/community to another, there’s not much in the way of a larger overarching organization, a lot of policies, beliefs, interpretations and such are sorted out at the local level.
Some Mennonite churches are practically indistinguishable from the Amish, but there are some around that are very liberal. I live in an area with a pretty large Mennonite population, and the churches kind of run the entire gamut from horse and buggies to some of the most modern and liberal churches I’ve ever heard of.
They do, like I said, tend to skew more towards the conservative end of things, but there is a lot of variation there.
You realize that none of have any context for that, right? You could have been in school in Texas 3 years ago. Or it could have been in 1965. We don’t have any clue.
That being said, I fully agree with your overall post. I’m just nitpicking.
Fair point. I’m a millennial, how about that :P
So did you graduate from college last year? PhD, or reskilling? Following a passion?
(Still not enough info to know when it was! Haha)