Religion destroys everything!

I'm glad to hear that after what happened you feel happier and more productive today

Great testimony!

That’s incredible to read.

the JW's did you a favor. they are false profit$ anyways since they claimed the world would end with Jesus returning by 1975/76 and well we are still here. Now the liars claim they never said that. I remember differently.

Exactly. They add their own rules and claim it’s Gods rules.

on the outside they wanna appear good but in their hearts deceitfully wicked

Facts. Remember the fourth commandment KJV

@@patriciacole8773 fully agree.

Amen

Jesus was reputedly a pharisee himself.

@@brianfitzpatrick7372 No. Jesus was NOT a Pharisee.

Cults rarely have room for human errors. Obey or be cast out. One rule breaker might evoke some forbidden ideas among other members. Fear is the tool of cult leaders, not love and compassion.

Why would he do it now?

No good deed goes unpunished.😉

This is actually a great comment. It is the same burden Jesus had dying on the cross to save us. Hopefully he can look at it this way as well.

God knows the truth? I have no idea what that means

My grandparents were Brethren, I was baptized Mennonite (General Conference). My wife and I were married in the Mennonite church. After about 2 years, she began to notice a few things (she was not raised in the church- actually no church of any sort). She said that the faith seemed to be around works - more of a social gospel. The cup of water is given, they just don’t tell you in Whose name it comes. It caused me to think. We began attending a nondenominational church and have not looked back.

Bad people! Jesus never taught that!

They're all about forgiveness until you do that!

@@MGreen-vz6yb Christianity is whatever you want it to be

@@bipslone8880 Assuming you are a Westerner and individualism in interpretation and assumptions is all you know culturally anyway. Historically that certainly isn't the case.

Oh wow that's so interesting that you are related to John! I encountered a lot of Mennonites in Belize that had Canadian connections

That’s fantastic to read !

I know John aswell. I am belizean know leaving in Canada. My inlaw is related to John. My father in law is John wall

The word liberated is so true, but his former community would use the word "LIBERAL" now that he drives a pick-up. It's a cult and that's a sad fact.

He can question it because he doesn’t know Christianity. A real Christian who knows Christ knows it’s the ONLY way. The Bible is very clear

JESUS is the way the TRUTH and the life no man cometh unto the FATHER but by HIM! A child can understand!

Yes!

Not all churches discourage learning about other religions. In fact, it can help when trying to get familiar with someone, so as to share the gospel. Also, if you think Christianity and other religions are just the same, then you don't have a good understanding of Christianity. (Not to be mean or anything) :)

@@dittohead7044 "A real Christian"..... LMAO.... over 15,000 different denominations.... and you think that you are a real Christian....LMAO, get real

Yes I agree. Please remember the fourth commandment KJV

There are Mennonite contractors there too. We always called them the electric Amish since they drove equipment. Didn’t have internet, but they had fax.

By the long-term outcomes. Few are known for the love and forgiveness that Amish / Mennonite people have been known for over centuries of time, so that suggests that there is either more to the story that is not understood, or that this is an aberration. They do expect their brothers and sisters to keep their lifestyle agreements with one another. Note that they told him that they wouldn’t have made a big deal out of it if he had been open about what he believed was necessary in that circumstance, but they obviously believed his choices went beyond that. The character of their faith and community can still be seen in John himself.

Does he believe he has the correct way, do you think?

@@ReflectedMiles I've been where John is... I left voluntarily. The love and forgiveness you talk about is not a reality. If you do not talk the talk and think exactly like the group you are marginalized and it causes serious emotional pain. That is NOT love, but you'd have to experience it to really understand. This is NOT a Beverly Lewis or Hallmark movie. It's real life and has NOTHING to do with what the Bible actually teaches. I feel John's pain.

@@jeffpearson6413 It actually has much to do with the disciplined Faith that the Scriptures and early witnesses to those describe, though it sometimes strays outside of those boundaries. Martin Luther invented the idea that Scriptures stood alone, separate from the Church, in 1518. I guess Christians in the previous 1,500 years were just clueless, then…. I have been around these communities for three decades, and love and forgiveness (and I would add humility in many cases) is an extraordinary characteristic among them, actually, inside and out. Compromise, however, is typically not well tolerated, nor should it be if they intend to remain who they are into the future as they have for centuries past. The news networks were trying to cover the events and their community’s response continuously for the week or so after the Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, PA. The love and forgiveness shown towards the family of the perpetrator was the subject of books and articles for a long time after that. Some people were very upset by it, actually. Since that time, the commitment to that family has continued, and I see that sort of attitude and action from them all the time in smaller, less public ways. The fact that they are so different, and so separate, though, ticks a lot of people off, including those disciplined from within (or voluntarily leaving to avoid it). The idea that they stand against the freedoms of the individual is a serious mischaracterization. They believe strongly in voluntarism, being one of only two churches that James Madison identified as supporting the Founders’ efforts to craft a separation of church and state, and 100 years earlier had persuaded the Quakers in Germantown to make the first petition against slavery in the colonial US. If other churches have those kinds of outcomes, I am unfamiliar with them. If you disagreed with the fundamentals of their faith, then that is up to you, but it’s important for them to preserve those even if it seems unloving of them to do so. They are certainly far from perfect, but their track record in outcomes over long periods of time is also hard to dismiss.

I work with these people as a missions pastor. They are missing the essential part of the gospel= Saved by grace through faith alone and not by works. Ephesians 2:8. They have a works( men's rules, not bible) based religion. Therefore a tainted religion. True religion and peace is found in Jesus Christ Alone. We can't let tainted and man based religion keep us from being reconciled with God our creator through His Son Jesus.Haleluja!

Thanks Shaun, I don't post with regularity, but I appreciate the support!

😀😀 interesting

Cursing?!?!

@@seabass3104 foul language

@@seabass3104 Smoking and Drinking too. I know it's hard to believe, but soooo true.

That's what religion makes you do.

@@bipslone8880 🙄

But Papa ix you didn't join their church did you... Trust me. If you had to follow their culture and practices you would not think so highly of them. As individuals Mennonites can be very nice and friendly, but the truth is you are LOST and Going to Hell in their eyes, but they won't tell you how to get saved.

There's a guy in this thread that is just so certain these people are the most loving and forgiving, but when you are on the inside and get set free you know the truth that an outsider will never comprehend. So glad you are set free. My wife and I came from the outside and the Mennonites nearly destroyed my mind. We left, but not without serious effects to our life and family. We do understand Biblical Grace now better than ever before!

I'm Apostolic,that's heartbreaking

How do you not worship "right"?

Did oyou have an opportunity to meet your great grandpa?

@@G-Frog no. His name was Daniel Brenneman though. Have you heard of him?

@@HezKiefer1976 I have not, though I know someone with a very similar name

He worked with machines in his teenage years before he helped found the community. So he had worked with machines decades before

It makes perfect sense. He's smart and mechanically inclined. He's seen these things operated most of his life unlike MOST modern people today that can only play with electronic technology.

My family was excommunicated when I was 5. Many years later I went back as an educated person and tried to educate them but there was no need to confuse them with facts as their minds were made up. If John had not done that and some one had been killed, they would say it was God`s will.

I live amongst Mennonite people and they would most likely say that if it fell on someone and killed them then that was the will of god... when children die in farm accidents they don't spend time trying to do things safer next time, or regretting what led to it, they simply mourn that God has chosen to take the child away. It's odd to others but seems like part of their belief system (predestination)

@@abigail9791 interesting approach to life.

@@abigail9791 I've lived in "The church" and nearly lost my mind. The lack of emotional support or empathy is the worst.

Pharisees.

You’ve never read the Bible; have you?

@@lanceroark6386 I read the part that said God is love.

@@sydneyevans2637 and because god loves his people, he instructed them to kick the bad ones out of the city, so they don’t mislead the rest of the people.

@@lanceroark6386 BUT what he did was not against God's moral law, nor is it a sin. The Amish and Mennonites who have no forgiveness over a non Biblical concept that has nothing to do with what the Bible says, they are doing wrong

@@lanceroark6386 Driving and moving a bulldozer to save persons from harm is not being bad .... and you used little god .... that's not our one true God ... have you read the Bible ...

yes it's all about power

"Man has dominated man to their injury" - a quote from the Bible. An opinion on this scripture - that is putting it lightly, wouldn't you agree?

I think it's more about pride and control

From what I saw in the local community they were not dependent on the outside world at all, but occasionally (to my knowledge) would hire outsiders to get some work done faster. Also for economic trade. The first time I was in the community was with a fruit seller who drove in to pick up produce from the Mennonites to take to market. On the highways there, there was occasionally a horse and buggy driving on the side.

@@G-Frog Belize favors Mennonite settlers. (The Kleine Gemeinde have treaty with the government.) In time perhaps Belize will be majority old way Mennonite. Maybe?

@@myeflatley1150 Maybe! You seem to be a lot more knowledgeable than I am! I enjoyed my time interacting with all Mennonites

@@G-Frog I am extremely knowledgeable about Mennonite and Quaker beliefs. However, it has been 35 years since I lived in Belize. Back then, Spanish Lookout was a hardware store, a meeting house, a one room school, and the most beautiful pastures I have ever seen. I remember the little red birds that flew from fence post to fence post along with me as I walked down the gravel road. Things have changed very greatly. Originally both groups were free and extremely honest. However, corruption is very powerful and now dominates. If ye visit a meeting and it consists of Bible teaching, the community has become corrupt. Originally meetings were meetings and not a place for praising the Roman Bible. What community did you visit? I worry your video is one more worldly video leading people away from the free and plain life.

@@myeflatley1150 I was in Spanish lookout and also Springfield briefly. Because I was doing a lot of hitchhiking around the country I probably passed by and through many Mennonite communities without knowing it. There were times I was picked up by Mennonites, or rode with them in the bed or cab of a truck as others drove

Sounds like a foolish proposal.

springfield

I would listen. Tell the church to get in contact with me.

I do but I wouldn't want to dox him

@@G-Frog he looks like my grandfather and I believe I have distant relatives over there. Was just curious if he could be one of them. I really need to get out and travel more. I believe most of them would still be German speaking

@@mervsroofing8840 You are correct, most of them speak German, Spanish and English