 Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. Often we have a guest other than just Anabaptist Production staff here to talk with us about a specific issue. But for this episode, it's just Marlon Summers, myself, Jared Miller, and Regan Schrock who will be on this episode. And the three of us are involved in daily operation of Anabaptist Perspectives. And what we are going to do for this episode is to respond to questions that we have received from our audience. And actually, we do pretty regular question-and-answer podcasts. However, typically those episodes are published on our Patreon feed where we do, is it monthly? Right now we're on a four-week cycle. Every month we do episodes like this. But instead of posting this one to Patreon like we normally do, we're going to post it on the main channel. So you have access to it. There are three questions that we are going to respond to today. So we'll go through them just one by one. On several occasions, we have published episodes where we encourage Christians to not vote. And this question, this first question, comes in response to the one that we did with Nathan Zook where he told a story about switching from voting regularly to not voting. Tobias says, Here in Brazil, voting is mandatory for every citizen between 18 and 60 years old. If I don't vote, I'm not following the rules of the country that I live. What is your perspective for nations like voting is mandatory? Before this episode actually, when I looked up the list of countries where voting is mandatory. And according to Wikipedia, which isn't the final authority on anything, Wikipedia, there was 16 countries listed where not voting is actually a violation of the law. And Brazil was, of course, on that list, like Tobias points out. So how would you respond to somebody in a country like Brazil? I think Marlon has more on this than I do. It's a great question. A very good question. And one thing I want to think about is why are we kind of advising people not to vote? So we've had several guests on Anabaptist perspectives kind of pushing back against other people in Anabaptist circles that were really pushing voting. So we have obviously been discouraging it. Some of our guests have also been discouraging it on other platforms, but people that we've had on here. So I guess the Anabaptist perspective stands if there is one based on our guests is pretty clear. But I don't want you to think that we're saying that voting is strictly speaking a sin. Our point is not to make a case that says, oh yeah, the Bible absolutely forbids voting. As much as it is to raise concerns about the kinds of things that normally drive people to vote. And especially people are driven to vote because they think, oh, we have to get this candidate in or else it will be a disaster. Or sometimes it's like, this candidate is God's anointed. Then we're really concerned when you start voting that way and thinking you're bringing in God's anointed kingdom through voting. We do realize, even for our American brothers and sisters, that some of you who vote do so very conscientiously. You're careful to keep yourself from idolatry, idolatry of government. And then especially to go to Tobias here in Brazil where it is mandatory. I want to say that's a question for you and your brothers and sisters and think about what other churches that you respect in your country are doing. Because what does it mean to vote? Does it pull you into something that you don't like? It probably does pull you into something you don't like because it is commenting on politics. But maybe you can do it in a way that is not a problem. You could view it as part of, you know, we're supposed to honor the governments where we live and it's just part of honoring them. Obviously, I don't know your situation. I don't know any of the context of politics in Brazil. Push it back to your brothers and sisters and think about what the appropriate thing to do is in the country you're in. Voting is a very different issue than compulsory military service. You have to be a conscientious objector to compulsory military service. I don't think it's our place as American Christians to tell you whether or not you should be a conscientious objector to voting. Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. I'm not entirely sure. I almost feel like I need to know a little more about the situation probably. On the practical side, I would look into if you feel Jesus does not want you to vote in order to keep your focus on his kingdom and versus the current country that you live in or however you want to work that out. See if there's exceptions available. And I'm guessing there possibly are at least in some of these countries on the list we were looking at. It seems likely that there's probably some way. And also really kind of what you're getting at, what are the motives here? Are we getting wrapped up in thinking our country is awesome and we need to get all fired up about earthly things and earthly politics? And I think we all know that that's not where we want to go. But I think you made a point earlier, Marlon. I mean, there are definitely people out there in our American situation here that do vote, but are very kingdom focused, are focused on Jesus. They're not getting all wound up about politics. It just feels like maybe this is something they should do and they're taking it seriously. They're not just all wrapped up into thinking some earthly power is going to save the world or save us. No, Jesus saves us, not earthly kings. And that's the correct emphasis. Another just an interesting story in this last election had a friend who's not Anabaptist at all, but was so disillusioned with the chaos of American politics and just kind of how it is just kind of almost pointless anymore. He just didn't feel like it was making any sense and he normally votes. And this is like something he always does, you know, it's being a good citizen. This time he said, you know, he was so disillusioned. He went in there just like, I don't know, Jesus, what do you want me to do? And he wrote his own name on the ballot and put it in because he's like, I don't know. He's like, I don't know. And I'll leave this one up to Jesus. And I was like, you know, what a great attitude to have. And it's just some old Southern boy who, you know, he felt really like, you know, I need to be a good citizen. You know, I should, you know, use my voice. He's like, no, not this time, you know, I want Jesus to decide this, not me because I don't know anymore. And it was kind of like, it's beyond me, you know. So he's like, yep, there was one vote in this county for yours truly. And I'm not saying this person needs to do this in the context of Brazil. But I thought, you know, that's actually a really neat attitude to have. I think there's some lessons there to be learned. And, you know, hey, maybe, you know, Tobias, if you're watching this, maybe you could reach out and we could discuss more, maybe learn a little more of your specific situation. And see, you know, see what your options are. So anyway, yeah, I think that's all I have on. Yeah, and I don't have anything to add, but thank you, Marlon, and Reagan, for the feedback that you have given to Tobias. There's one more question that we're going to address. It's simple, short. It goes, why isn't Anabaptism simply called New Testament Church? I think you're more equipped to take this one, Marlon. Well, we are a New Testament church in the sense that we are under the New Covenant. However, if you're talking about the period when the New Testament was written, we are 2,000 years removed from that. And we obviously try to be faithful to the New Testament. That is our goal. But, you know, there's lots of other people trying to be faithful to the New Testament as well. And there are other traditions who can point to parts of the New Testament and say, we seem to line up with this better than you do. So that's one part of it. One thing that has really helped me with this is, somebody I appreciate a lot, Stephen Brubaker at Faith Builders, talks about it as a way of, it's actually humility. It's kind of acknowledging where we came from. When we say, Anabaptist or Mennonite. Like, it's not this, oh, well, I got out my Bible and figured this out all by myself, and now I'm just New Testament. Well, no. There were people that came before us that taught us things. We see the things the way we do partly because of being in the Anabaptist tradition or the Mennonite tradition. I don't want to emphasize that too much. Like, oh, this is great because it's Anabaptist to make Anabaptist an idol. But it's fair to acknowledge that that has shaped how we think about things and still does. So this is actually a question for me as well. I didn't raise the question, but I wondered about this. I think I'm on board with what you're saying mostly. Like, we have a tradition, we have influences. There's a background that's led up to why we are, how we are today and why we look at things the way we do. And it's more honest and humble just to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge our influences than to pretend that we just picked up the Bible or we copy the New Testament and here we are, just like we are. There's a tradition and a history, and by using the Anabaptist name, I think we acknowledge that, which is right and good, but cannot labels be divisive. And I think of 1 Corinthians where Paul talks about, some people say they're vipallas, some people say they're from Paul, and we say we're from Meno, we call ourselves Meno Knight, we're named after a particular guy. I think in that context, Paul was warning against division and divisiveness and can't the labels that we pick for ourselves today be divisive in a way? Paul very specifically warned us against. That's why I want to be careful not to emphasize them. This channel, this podcast is named Anabaptist Perspectives, so it is right in our name. But at the same time, we want to focus more on giving perspective. They're coming from Anabaptist people, and maybe it's kind of a code name in some ways for a certain set of beliefs. We believe in non-resistance and other things like that. You can think of Anabaptist as short form for that. But we do try to avoid just having Anabaptist this, Anabaptist that, and Anabaptist answers for everything, or at least, that's my goal. Come from an Anabaptist tradition, but really be focused on the truth in the New Testament. Back to your whole labels thing, though. How do you get away from it? I mean, there was also people in that same list who were saying, I am of Christ. Now, was Paul commending them, or were they also, you know, being divisive by saying, oh, well, we're the ones of Christ, and we don't want anything to do with these Paulites or Apolloites, or whatever. I'm not quite sure how to read that passage. But it does strike me that anything you use to refer to a group starts to become a label. So, the Church of Christ. Technically, the Church of Christ, you know, are independent churches, and that's a very big point for them. We don't want to be called by a man's name. We don't want to be called campbellites after an early leader like Campbell. But if you say that your church is Church of Christ, well, we do know something about your church from that. I mean, if our home congregation here, where the three of us are from, was to put out on our sign Church of Christ, that would be true in a biblical sense. We are part of Christ's church, but it would be highly misleading because the tradition and background that shaped us is not Church of Christ. Or, I mean, even similarly, even when churches call themselves non-denominational, well, we kind of know what to expect from a non-denominational church. It's almost like non-denominational as a denomination. So, I'm not sure that you get away from it just by avoiding it. Maybe it's better to use Anabaptist than Mennonite because it's broader and it doesn't have a man's name in it. Maybe that's right. On the other hand, it's not like we call ourselves Mennonites because we care that much about what Meno said. I mean, we don't get up on Sunday mornings and read quotes from Meno. I mean, in fact, we probably should read Meno more than we do for most of us. Yeah, because that was one of the things I was wondering if we could go that direction with it because we had done that episode with Dean Taylor where he outlines the difference between not really difference, but what is Anabaptist and how we shouldn't think of it as a denomination but more of as a worldview. I think that's helpful. Thinking of these things more as a worldview and approach to how we look at scripture, how we do life, how we live, and less, like what Paul was saying in Romans there, less as a thing of division. We think like the Anabaptists, therefore these people are wrong or we're not going to work with them. I think attitude and mindset has a lot to do with this, which is really hard to quantify. I don't even know if this isn't even an answer. Maybe it's making things even more complicated. I don't know, Jaren, are we making this more difficult or does it make sense? I think we're responding to the question. I'm not sure it's going to be convincing. Like I said, I myself am only mostly convinced, not entirely. But no, I do appreciate what you said about it being a worldview or an approach to things. It's also, I don't think we can get away from the fact that it's also a tradition. That may not be the most helpful way to look at it, but I think it's also a factual way to look at it. Like you were talking about the Church of Christ being a non-denomination, but it's still kind of a denomination. Our church is, the Gospel Mennonite Church is not affiliated. So I would say that we're very much in a Baptist tradition. But are we more of a denomination than any other non-denominational church or group of churches that chooses not to actually call themselves a denomination? We accept the label, but is it actually a denomination or an organization of structure? So in other words, would anything be different if the name of our, if we refer to our congregation as Wellspring Christian Fellowship rather than Wellspring Mennonite Church? That's a good way to put it. It doesn't even make a difference. Although there are reasons why people choose, you know, it's interesting to look at cultural patterns. When do they label it Mennonite Church? When do they say Christian Fellowship? And you can kind of trace that through movements and so on. It's interesting. And then because then, calling it Christian Fellowship could become a thing, you know, where people started doing that to identify a certain way. We as humans automatically start categorizing and putting things in, you know, and that's not necessarily wrong. It's actually very helpful in certain areas of life. Of course, you do have to be careful with that when it comes to religion and things. And back to this person's original question, why isn't Anabaptism simply called New Testament Church? Well, I think we would all idealize to be like the church, like what's outlined in the New Testament. What Jesus commanded us to do? Of course we all want to be that way. You know, we want to follow what Jesus commands. So I almost look at that as a given, but maybe we should be communicating that more and be more intentional about that. And then it still doesn't help us with all the labels though. So again, not much of an answer. I almost feel bad for there's not a name attached to you ever asked this, but we're not coming up with anything too definite for him. But it's good things to think about, you know. There's two ways I could hear the question. I don't know if either one of those is the way that the person had in mind. But the one way I could hear that question is, look you folks, why are you saying this is just an Anabaptist thing when the things you're teaching are really New Testament things? And in that sense, okay, yeah, most of what we're saying, we would stand behind and say, yeah, that's New Testament teaching. We're not saying we have everything right and everybody else has everything wrong. But we would stand behind a lot of the things that we promote on this channel. The other way I could hear the question kind of the opposite way is somebody could say, well, why are you using the excuse that this is how the Anabaptist did something to hang on to something rather than just going straight for the New Testament? And I actually think that can be and sometimes is a problem in our circles of using as an excuse to not really change some things we should to follow the New Testament because we're like, well, the Anabaptist tradition does it this way, we're part of this tradition so we'll just stick with it. Yeah, there's something about being humble toward the past but there's also something in that attitude that can become pretty quickly dangerous where we're okay with doing stuff because it's Anabaptist and maybe the Bible would call us to change it. Yeah, that's always a danger when you start developing mindsets and worldviews that last for a long period of time and then someone comes along and says, well, what about this thing in Scripture? And over time you've developed a tradition that maybe doesn't perfectly align with that but it can be very, very hard to change. I almost wonder if that's something this person's getting at. It's like almost a warning, be careful with that. I think we all kind of know that intuitively but it also takes a lot of effort to stay on top of some of this stuff. Another thing we could maybe put on record here is that we have people in our audience who are pretty uncomfortable using the Anabaptist label and don't want to use that label and I think we respect your reasons for that. Well, I have nothing else to respond to this question. We've kicked it around in several different ways so I have nothing else to add. Do either of you two have more to add before we end answering the questions? All right, well like we said at the beginning of this episode, question and answer episodes are something that we do pretty regularly every month but on our Patreon feed. So Marlon manages that so I want to give you an opportunity to say a bit more about what's happening there. Yeah, so Patreon is two things. One, it is a way that you can financially support what we're doing and then secondly, it is another stream of content and it is definitely our goal to provide some valuable content there. Again, by way of kind of perspective here, there's definitely people who simply donate to Anabaptist perspectives. It's a simple online donation through our website. That was the majority of our income. Online donations, a few checks mailed in. A majority of our support during 2020. But also a really significant chunk came through Patreon where you can drive through Patreon, you can pick your own support level anywhere from a dollar a month to whatever amount a month you want to put on and you get access to another stream of content. So we do audio only Q&A podcasts like that, sometimes the three of us on this episode, a few other people we pull in. We also will often live stream when we're filming a regular episode and so those are available both while we're filming and afterward of course and then we'll do a few other pieces every now and then. We like to ask our guests several bonus questions when we're doing an episode and then publish something about them talking about their favorite book or whatever or just other bonus materials we can capture. So if that's something you're interested, Patreon.com slash Anabaptist perspectives.