Comments on: Song Garden Music Group, the Old Time Gospel Hour Quartet, and Mennonites in Southern Gospel

By: GospelMusicFan

GospelMusicFan — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 10:39:05 +0000

Tom i correct.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:05:37 +0000

Just to clarify, the longer hair thing (which I’ve never heard before) is definitely Amish only. Conservative Mennonites take an rather dim view of long hair on a man.

By: Daniel J. Mount

Daniel J. Mount — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:53:58 +0000

Very interesting. That has to be about the only American subculture where longer hair on a man means you are more traditional!

By: GospelMusicFan

GospelMusicFan — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:13:08 +0000

Since we are doing a good job on this thread, i offer the following link that sums up the Amish and Mennonite lifestyle running the more conservative/tradidtional to the less conservative/tradidtional. It just like us in SG regarding the versions of the Bible from King James to “we won’t go there, right now. More women with more head covering means more traditional and men with longer hair are more traditional.
http://www.amish-heartland.com/?pathToFile=%2F%2Farticles%2F-Amish+Culture%2F&file=hats.txt&article=1

By: Michael Davis

Michael Davis — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:10:48 +0000

I am certainly no expert on the Mennonite faith but I do have some information. While attending a concert at Pastor Keffer’s church in VA, I noticed some of the ladies had head coverings with straps while some wore head coverings without straps. I asked Pastor Keffer about this and he told me they are from different branches of the Mennonite faith. I also have some Mennonite friends in Indiana and they do not wear any head coverings.

By: Michael Davis

Michael Davis — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:08:53 +0000

I am certainly no expert on the Mennonite faith but I do have some information. While attending a concert at Pastor Keffer’s church in VA, I noticed some of the ladies had head coverings with straps while some did not. I asked Pastor Keffer about this and he told me they are from different branches of the Mennonite faith. I also have some Mennonite friends in Indiana and they do not wear any head coverings.

By: Daniel J Mount

Daniel J Mount — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:52:21 +0000

All right. That’s interesting.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:33:11 +0000

Yes, I would say, to both counts.

By: Daniel J Mount

Daniel J Mount — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:04:39 +0000

I suppose this question is for both Tom and Michael Davis: Do the sort of Mennonites that like Southern Gospel generally wear head coverings?

All the Mennonites in my area (or, at any rate, all the people I know who I know are Mennonite) wear head coverings. I suppose it’s quite possible that Mennonites without head coverings show up to area concerts, and I didn’t know it.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:01:38 +0000

What I meant in my first comment, was that conservative Mennonites who wear plain suits do so to try to be as “un-stylish” as possible, basically. And Christian’s suit was way too stylish for a conservative Mennonite!

I would say that in general, the more traditional/conservative Mennonites are the ones into Southern Gospel. The liberal/mainstream ones are usually into CCM/P&W and the like. The exception to this would be the most conservative Mennonites, SG would be a little too “worldly” for them, they generally stick to just traditional a cappella music.

And yes, I am a Mennonite! Towards the conservative end. Even I find all the varieties of Mennonites confusing!