Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Shocked silence.
Against the Wind
Eberhard had voiced nothing less than the meaning and seriousness of
a vow. All or nothing. Then, as now, this asect of Eberhard’s thinking may
have presented the greatest stumbling block for others. From the persective
of our day and age Eberhard’s attitude is undoubtedly anachronistic – out
of sync with our times. It is rare enough in today’s world for someone to vow
lifelong faithfulness to another person without a prenuptial agreement in the
back pocket. But Eberhard was talking about a lifelong pledge to a cause – an
unquestionably noble cause, but a cause all the same.
More than a few would trip over this stumbling block. Only two months later
the wife and children of the novice who had left also departed, together with
another novice member. For Eberhard this was further cause to seak of the holy
seriousness of the decision for life in community:
When a person gives his or her word to God and to God’s Gemeinde, it is binding. It must
determine the whole course of that person’s future life. Such a promise can never be
taken back or annulled, for it is not a question of giving one’s word to people…No one
should take up God’s cause out of human goodwill or without first counting the cost,
without being clear what this cause is about and what loyalty, what perseverance to
the very end, is demanded by this discipleship. Once again, it is not demanded by
people, but by the One who called us to follow this way.
Eberhard was not demanding something humanly impossible. He knew how far to
depend on human decisions, or rather how fragile they are. According to him the
secret of a spiritual pledge consists of trusting in God. He is the one who makes
it possible. He is the one who esablishes it. God must give the strength to keep
it. God gives the calling for a life in community; no human being can call himself
to it. God gives the strength to live in community. Only through trust in God can
anyone dare to take this step, to enter this life.
Over the years many people found their way to the community –first in Sannerz,
then in the Rhön. Eberhard shared months and years of his life with many of them.
During his lifetime eighty men and women promised lifelong faithfulness and
became brotherhood members. Later on nine of them would become unfaithful.
But only one of these members turned back while Eberhard was alive: Suse
Hungar left the Bruderhof in 1930 while he was in America. 5 Others, in effect,
used the novitiate as a time of testing, then left after recognizing that they could
not promise single-minded loyalty.
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