Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
Eberhard now confronted his first hurdle. He had to win over David Hofer,
the gray-haired elder of the Lehrerleut and minister of the Rockport community.
This man commanded much resect for his faithfulness to principle and his
forthrightness, but he was also feared for his obstinacy and the sharp, gruff manner
in which he represented his views. When Eberhard arrived at Rockport on June
21, 1930, the old man did not so much as glance at him. The rest of the brothers
and sisters at the community were just as loving and as full of curiosity as those
at the other communities had been. But it was days before David Hofer finally
deigned to exchange a few words with his guest. To put it more accurately, he gave
Eberhard his opinion in no uncertain terms. Eberhard recorded the conversation
in his diary. Superficially it seems no more than an interesting anecdote. Looked
at more closely, however, it reveals an important turning point.
Mention has already been made of the soaring expectations on the Rhön
Bruderhof before Eberhard’s departure. He wrote in a letter of May 19, 1930,
“We believe that this is once more an historic hour when the complete truth of
the gosel…is to be revealed far and wide.” 16 A day later he wrote again: “Now
is the hour when the great and mighty event, the experience that came from
God to the brothers at the beginning, is taking place anew.” 17 In other words he
ascribed historically redemptive significance to the rediscovery of Hutterianism.
Eberhard in the course of his lifetime had been frequently and unjustly accused
of fanaticism. Now he was really in danger of being swept off his feet. A letter he
wrote to the Hutterian communities on June 14, during his stay with John Horsch
in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, stated that “because of adherence to the Hutterian
way of faith, the brotherhood on the Rhön Bruderhof has been completely
deserted by all those in Germany who call themselves Christian.” That was, to
say the least, an exaggeration, and perhaps it bore a shade of self-righteousness.
Now Eberhard stood in front of the stern patriarch David Hofer and brought
forward his request for complete unity with the Hutterian Gemeinden on the basis
of the directives given by Jakob Hutter and Peter Riedemann: “It would be a sin
on our part and have no blessing from God if we tried to continue on our own
initiative.”
The venerable and wrathful old man’s reply was hard to take: “You are quite
mistaken there. The Lord has his people all over this vast earth, even where we
do not know it – wherever people recognize the truth and act on it.” In a nutshell,
David Hofer told Eberhard that it was not necessary to become a Hutterite in
order to be a Christian. Giving him a further piece of his mind, he said, “Instead
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