Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
the family never wore conventional styles again. But even this change of wardrobe
could not disguise the fact that the Arnolds still had not arrived at a pracical life
of faith. They had not yet found the new way they were seeking.
Can a ChriStian bE a poliCE offiCEr?
Marburg served as the prelude to a series of conferences during the summer
and fall of 1919. That year the usual SCM general conference was divided into
two regional conferences, one of which was held in Bad Oeynhausen (about
thirty miles west of Hannover) from August 4–7, 1919. It was the first “annual”
conference since the war’s end and the revolution, and it took place under the
slogan “Constructive Powers of our Faith in a Time of Collapse.” Eberhard, as the
second seaker on this theme, sparked a discussion that five months later had not
yet reached a satisfactory conclusion: “Our new position in the world is that of
ambassadors who must proclaim the will of their King in its entirety.” 18 By calling
them ambassadors Eberhard meant that Christians are no longer subject to the
laws of the world.
In the next day’s discussion he put it even more plainly: whenever the gosel was
to be preached, the moral values of Jesus were to be taught with it. True, Jesus had
acknowledged the authority of the state, but he had described the kingdom of God
as something completely different. A Christian represented a constant corrective
to the state – a spur to conscience, a reinforcement of the will for justice, a leaven,
an alien element. Whenever the state employed violence, a Christian must refuse
to cooperate. Therefore a Christian could not be a soldier, an executioner, or a
police officer. 19
Hermann Schafft, one of Eberhard’s fellow students from his first semeser in
Halle, took up the gauntlet: no, Christians are not completely separate and perfect;
they are bound and limited by the sins of all humankind. To this Eberhard replied,
“We continue sharing in the collective sins of humanity only because on earth, due
to our weakness, we never become completely spiritual people.” He refused to agree
that a Christian was compelled to participate consciously in the sins of humanity.
Schafft, on the contrary, maintained that a life in full harmony with the purity
of Christ’s spirit is impossible. Even though economic life is dominated by egoism,
he reasoned, everyone must take part in it in order to survive.
The central question of the conference (though no one ever stated it so
transparently) became whether it was possible to live in accordance with the
demands of the Sermon on the Mount. Is it true that Christians are redeemed
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