Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the WindEberhard 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 respect for his faithfulness to principle and hisforthrightness, but he was also feared for his obstinacy and the sharp, gruff mannerin which he represented his views. When Eberhard arrived at Rockport on June21, 1930, the old man did not so much as glance at him. The rest of the brothersand sisters at the community were just as loving and as full of curiosity as thoseat the other communities had been. But it was days before David Hofer finallydeigned to exchange a few words with his guest. To put it more accurately, he gaveEberhard his opinion in no uncertain terms. Eberhard recorded the conversationin his diary. Superficially it seems no more than an interesting anecdote. Lookedat more closely, however, it reveals an important turning point.Mention has already been made of the soaring expectations on the RhönBruderhof 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 ofthe gospel…is to be revealed far and wide.” 16 A day later he wrote again: “Nowis the hour when the great and mighty event, the experience that came fromGod to the brothers at the beginning, is taking place anew.” 17 In other words heascribed historically redemptive significance to the rediscovery of Hutterianism.Eberhard in the course of his lifetime had been frequently and unjustly accusedof fanaticism. Now he was really in danger of being swept off his feet. A letter hewrote to the Hutterian communities on June 14, during his stay with John Horschin Scottdale, Pennsylvania, stated that “because of adherence to the Hutterianway of faith, the brotherhood on the Rhön Bruderhof has been completelydeserted by all those in Germany who call themselves Christian.” That was, tosay 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 broughtforward his request for complete unity with the Hutterian Gemeinden on the basisof the directives given by Jakob Hutter and Peter Riedemann: “It would be a sinon our part and have no blessing from God if we tried to continue on our owninitiative.”The venerable and wrathful old man’s reply was hard to take: “You are quitemistaken there. The Lord has his people all over this vast earth, even where wedo 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 inorder to be a Christian. Giving him a further piece of his mind, he said, “Instead156