Mormons and Mennonites

I work with a little 7 year old boy that is a Mennonite.  Mennonite are sort of like the Amish.  The women wear simple dresses all the time, even while skiing, they also wear a black cap over their hair in a bun.   The men often look just like the rest of the population. 

I looked on Google for images, but none were true to the likeness of those here  in Idaho.
This is what I've learned about the Mennonites from my time with them:

• They only educate in their own schools till 8th grade

• They don't vote, serve on jury's and the military.  Heaven is their kingdom, war is bad.

• They use no instruments in church or ever.  They think music is bad, yet instruments are in the Bible which puzzles me. 

• They attend church for 5 hours on Sunday,  2 in the morning, 3 in the evening. 

• Most of them are farmers or do jobs that go along with farming like driving trucks. 

• They believe that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate, but spirits. 

• They drive cars and shop in grocerie stores, and Costco and DI.

• Many of them adopt it seems through the foster care system. I think it is to keep the religion going. 

• There are 30 different groups of Mennonites.  

• I've seen Mennonites in the library using the internet. 

• They don't believe in dancing which is in the Bible.
• They use cell phones.

My realizations are this.  It doesn't 'matter how good of a person you are, if you don't have the truth, things in you're worship and life style will be missing.  Unlike the rest of the world they swing on the other side of the pendulum.  While many American's  don't seem to care what they do with their body, who they do it with what they put in or on their bodies, the Mennonites do care about those things, but they also leave out good things.  In my opinion they take away many opportunities to choose between good and evil.

For instance;  Mormon's believe that all knowledge comes from God, hence TV, Internet and the like is for preaching the gospel.  While it is used for bad things too, one can choose what to make and what to watch.

Mormon's love music.  We have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir accompanied with a piano and organ.  We use those in our Sunday meetings and often a violin or flute as well. We believe in the beauty of music from any mouth and instrument.  Like I said all good things come from God.

So in essence they keep good things out of their life to avoid the bad.  What is sad is some of the things they think are bad are really good. 

From the LDS Newsroom and the article Mormon and Modern is this quote that sums it what we believe.

For Mormons, there need not be a conflict between devotion to one’s faith and meaningful participation in modern society. Faithful Latter-day Saints are currently engaged in education, science, business, the arts and political life. In a pluralistic world, modern sensibilities tend to compartmentalize spheres of human activity. But Mormon thought encourages integration.

Mormons welcome truth from whatever source and take the pragmatic view that where religion and science seem to clash, it is simply because there are insufficient data to reconcile the two. Latter-day Saints approach such tensions as challenges to learn, not contradictions to avoid.