I suspect they have had to clamp down on insiders having access to the internet. It may be that someone with web access (maybe in the group that published their web site) read something (like this group) that they were not supposed to, so the leaders shut down all internet access.
It scares me that they put this in an apocalyptic context. They are insular enough and becoming more so that I worry about people I love and respect there.
Recently this headline caught my attention: "A LOW-COST LAPTOP FOR EVERY CHILD - Effort to link world's rural poor to Internet with $100 computers gets boost from U.N."
Shivers went through me. Have things really gone that far? Surely it's a sign that the end times are here. In fact, I've sometimes had the fleeting thought that computers are the mark of the beast Revelation warns us of-the mark without which no one will be able to buy or sell.
I myself use computers a lot, and see them as a necessary evil. My wife, Verena, on the other hand, openly hates them. She has teased me that things will get so bad that one day I'll say good night to her via email!
Verena has a good point, which is why I have always fought tooth and nail against exposing young children to computers. The way the technology is expanding, it will eventually destroy us. What shocks me the most is the way children as young as three and four are being lured into using computers. May God have mercy!
Have we forgotten that every child has a soul-something far more precious than the brightest budding intellect? An unspoiled child is bursting with creativity, imaginativeness, and the desire to explore, experiment, and invent. Yet with technology, these God-given gifts can be quickly stunted-and so can a child's ability to use its mind and to relate to others.
There are dozens of pros and cons to computers, but I am not going to enumerate them here. I am simply suggesting that we all take a step back to see where our society is headed, and to assess the damage we have already inflicted on ourselves and on the next generation. Have computers really made life easier? Have they made us happier-or tenser and more withdrawn? Has enhanced communication made our world any less violent? On a personal level, has it helped us get to know our spouse, our children, or our neighbors any better?
Conveniences like email have obviously made many tasks easier, but at what cost? Unlike our parents, we are now able to chat with people on the other side of the globe at a moment's notice, on any imaginable topic. But in the process, many of us have lost the ability to relate to the people we live and work with from day to day. We are so busy text-messaging people we cannot see, that we miss those right in front of us, with whom we could be talking face-to-face.
When did you last take time to go out to your mailbox and meet someone on the sidewalk and say "good morning"? Far from looking for such chances, most of us are more comfortable in front of a screen and will go to any extreme in order to avoid meeting others. We are letting technology isolate us and slowly choke us to death.
That is why I am so concerned about the computerization of childhood. It is the opposite of progress: it amounts to enslavement. One could even say it borders on spiritual genocide. I know some readers will feel I am overstating the danger, but it's hard to ignore the facts: from chat rooms and blogs to webcams and online porn, our love affair with computers is literally killing us. It is breaking up marriages and families, and wounding souls by addicting them to all sorts of unhealthy things. And it will all end in depression and despair. As Jesus says, "You shall reap what you sow."
It is money that drives this mania, as we saw on Thanksgiving weekend, when millions of "Black Friday" shoppers stormed malls across the country to snatch up the latest electronic gadgets. True, millions of families also gathered around the table to count their blessings. But the Gospels warn that "you cannot serve God and Mammon." How many of us still try to do both?
I've often wondered about the tremendous pressure we exert on the young to become competent computer users. Is it really out of love for them? Or does it stem from something else? After all, it makes robots out of them by destroying their natural inclination for play. And computers are hardly a necessity, as far as learning goes. For thousands of years the world existed without them and still produced great artists and poets, mathematicians and thinkers.
Over the years, my wife and I have traveled to more than two dozen Third World countries and have seen children struggling with unbelievable obstacles-hunger, disease, and countless other ills. Amazingly, these children were happy with the little they had. Certainly they needed help-but not low-cost laptops, as trumpeted by the headline I referred to above. That would be like giving stones to someone asking for bread. These children needed food, medicine, and-most of all-the love of God.
In Leviticus we are warned that we should not make idols. Yet this is exactly what our computers have become. They have slowly but surely taken God's place in our lives, and we have become dependent on them rather than on one another. They are destroying the living community that God wants every soul on the planet to share in-especially every child.
Jesus said many important things about children:
Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
If anyone causes one of the little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
I tell you the truth: unless you change and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Somewhere deep down, every person longs to be allowed into this kingdom. But if, in embracing technology and forcing it on our children, we prevent even one from finding Jesus, his serious words about a millstone may become a reality. Is that what we want?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to log off. I want to go pick up the mail and give my wife a kiss.
Mr. Underwood, let me try to make sense of this. Those of us who grew up on the Bruderhof have had many experiences of this kind.
-As a passionate soccer player I well remember that, upon renewed contact with the Hutterites, soccer was forbidden; yet later it was once again allowed. -VCR movies were permitted; then the priviledge was revoked. -When money applenty was around (Rifton Aviation Service) youth were sent to Ivy Legue Schools, only to be abruptly called back home. -My wife, children and I once were welcome guests, and we truly appreciated our visits "home"; now we are shunned. -Kopftuchs (head covers for women) could once be tied in the back of the neck(admittedly, a more appealing, slightly "fashionable" look!); now decons stand outside meeting room doors to make sure all women have their K-tuchs tied under the chin. Men must have shirts tucked into trousers.
The list goes on and on. One thing is certain: Christoph's wife, Verena, has her heart-surgery- recovering husband's attention! I hope shutdown of the Bhof internet site signals serious, inhouse, soul searching: Internet articles, even those that inspire the multitudes, are relatively easy to write. Living those words is infinitely harder.
Dear Mr. Underwood I can well understand that you and many others enjoy the Bruderhof's "Daily Digs". An inspiriing thought can add a spark to an otherwise mundane day.
However, I would ask you consider the organization and the leader behind the Lie that masquerades as "Daily Digs"; the tree whose fruit you admire from cyberspace distance . You ask those of us in this forum to join you in requesting a return of the Bruderhof webpage. I am asking you to consider the Jesus this organization models.
This Jesus... -disrupts the delicate fabric of family relations -comes down hard on adolescents who struggle with sexual issues -looks askance at those of its teens who demonstrate remarkable gifts of intellect or art -casts out its own prophets -participates in the "American Dream" when it feels inclined to do so -condones dishonesty -points at the wounds of others but will not acknowledge and deal with its own -condones cursing and verbal putdowns -condones cigar smoking in meeting rooms -condones shutting off heating furnaces in the midst of winter -has a pupet elder who submits to pastor Arnold -is perpetually struggling with leadership issues regarding the so-called "Arnold Dynasty"
The list goes on and on. I only want to point out to you that words, even Daily Digs, come a dime a dozen! I would encourage you to send a message to Daily Dig Devotees: Reverse the trend, and send your Daily Silent Thoughts /Prayers the Bruderhof's way! Hope that Pastor Arnold may have a true surgery of the heart; the kind that leads to humility and changed conduct. Then, and only then, can I join you in reading and appreciating Daily Digs.
Well, actually they didn't. The Community Playthings and Rifton Equipment sites are still up and running. So I guess the thinking is that the unrighteous Internet can be utilized by God's people if it's in pursuit of the "unrighteous mammon" (as Jesus referred to it). But it cannot be utilized for non income generating evangelism. That is at least a consistent position, in its own, ironic way.
Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to answer my question -- particularly to Mel.
I invite you add your comments on http://www.bringbackbruderhof.com, even if they're not positive. You'll find you're not the only ones with negative opinions.
I know very little about the Bruderhof -- I'm learning quite a bit, though. Clearly they have left quite a bit of hurt and anger in their wake, perhaps because they react rigidly and sweepingly instead of slowly and humbly. But even this conjecture is from someone very much on the outside.
I raised the BBB website because I think there were some very wonderful things to come out of Bruderhof.com -- things that are more important than Bruderhof itself. In that sense I feel the the decision to go dark is tragic, nomatter what mistakes the community itself has made in the past or continues to make. Many of the 'voices' in the Daily Dig -- Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Henri Nouwen, Oscar Romero, etc., -- were not in any way members of Bruderhof, yet through the Dig their ideas (ideas backed by lives of action) were offering inspiration. And as anyone who tries to 'walk the talk' knows, a word of encouragement from a hero now and again can be a real boost on an otherwise lonely trail.
G'day,Gentry You may post the 2nd of my Dec 10th "Daily Digs" (11:15 AM) on your site. It speaks the language of my heart.
GU: I know very little about the Bruderhof -- I'm learning quite a bit,
though. Clearly they have left quite a bit of hurt and anger in their wake....
MF: Add hypocracy to the list! Thank you for acknowledging your lack of information! Please continue to ask, seek, and knock. You will find that apples are not as healthy as they appear from distant Pastor Arnold's Online Orchard. It is not only recent events that this forum seek to bring to your attention; the Bruderhof has a dark side - "warts and all"- that it would like to keep under wraps. If you visit and ask about such matters you will be told, "We are weak humans; yet we are part of something much Greater".
GU: I raised the BBB website because I think there were some very wonderful things to come out of Bruderhof.com -- things that are more important than Bruderhof itself. ...And as anyone who tries to 'walk the talk' knows, a word of encouragement from a hero now and again can be a real boost on an otherwise lonely trail.
MF: I understand. I have reason to believe the Bhof web site will pop up again. Hope (against all hope ?) that Pastor Arnold yet has a true change of heart: while time is on his side he tends the apple orchard on his Wooded Crest.
> MF: I understand. I have reason to believe the Bhof web site will pop > up again.
Of course it will. Such things are wholly cyclical.
Eberhard Arnold believed that automobiles were "anti-God", and that God's true people would never come to rely on them. His attitude is now regarded by Bruderhofers as romantically quaint. Almost comical. JCA's current attitude regarding computers and the Internet will eventually be seen in exactly the same way.
The Bruderhof is not the Amish. Never was. And in my opinion, never will be.
Along with Gentry and many others, I have stood by, mourning the loss of the Daily Dig, but also tenatively, grimly, begun the process of discovering what is going on over there behind the bruderhof site. I have so much difficulty accepting what it is that you are saying about your family and former home, however, I must defer to your experience. All I know of them came from a daily e-mail and article that drew on the wisdom of many of Christianity's greatest thinkers; sound insight, probing questions, and more.
You say that it is easy to write such articles and maintain such a site, but I don't believe it's true, or we would have a glut of quality Christian books and articles, when all we really have is a glut of Christian self-help books under the guise of wisdom (that's another rant altogether!). I heard underneath the nice pictures and thought provoking words, the spirit of God living in them.
I believe what you say about the warty interior under the humble, shiny exterior that the bruderhof present. Your words made me think tonight - I realize that although many christians are called to community life, all it does is serve to remind us how completely broken and fallen we are. it's one of the hardest parts of christian life there is, and when it is done in such an extreme manner as communities like the bruderhof, hutterites, amish and others, there are bound to be conflicts, power struggles, 'charismatic' personalities and other difficult encounters.
I learned awhile ago that living a Christian is all about the balance. Balance between the world and the Kingdom, your self and your God, your discipline and the grace given to you. Time and time again I learn through my own life and the lives of others that the Christian life lived far outside that balance gets stuck in a pale facsimile of the walk that Jesus walked. We see this in the pharisees who camped out in the extreme of legalism. You know where the rest of this sermon is going.
MF: I would encourage you to send a message to Daily Dig Devotees: Reverse the trend, and send your Daily Silent Thoughts /Prayers the Bruderhof's way!
JT: In any case, thank you for educating me about your experiences. I can assure you that the minute I realized something was up - I prayed... and sent a letter to the bruderhof address letting them know that I was praying for whatever God was doing with them.
I believ ethat ultimately we are all composites of light and dark, whole and broken, like the broken jars of clay. Unquestionably, the bruderhof have had some ministry in God's eyes. I hope that one day, as you say, Arnold's heart would be obedient and sensitive.
This post is tied to the "Dig It" thread on this Newsgroup. The BBB site clearly has a pro-Bruderhof agenda - as its' name implies. Readers should know that some comments are removed, so realize that the site is sanitized of postings opposing the BH if the moderator feels those postings are not gentle enough toward the BH.
I wrote to Gentry that I would post the letter below if he removed my post to his site. He did, so I am:
On Jan 16, 2006, at 10:11 AM, Tim Domer wrote:
Gentry,
You are obviously free to do anything you wish - it's your web site. As I wrote earlier, since you felt strongly enough about the BH to set up a web site in an attempt to bring them back to the Internet, it is appropriate to direct some specific comments to you - in reply to comments you made. The comments I made apply to all those who are being fooled by the BH. The opioid haze I spoke about is the haze of religious idiology and the "Christian" smoke screen the BH hides behind. You wrote comments on ASB - to which I replied. I cross posted them to your site because I felt it was the honest thing to do.
If you want to moderate your site and determine what people should say about the BH, and the manner in which it should be said, go ahead. As I said, it is your site. Just realize, though, that that is the exact same tactic the BH uses to screen out those voices it does not care to hear. If that is the route you wish to take then you have your wish - the BH is indeed back, alive and well on your web site.
I will probably post this on ASB if you do remove what I wrote. Enough people have been fooled by the outward show of the BH. They need to know that the site dedicated to brining back the BH has taken a page from its' play book.
