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Letters

"Christian Communities" Issue: Praise, Disappointment

Dear Communities,
Thank you for the thoughtful issue on Christian communities. You showed a rich diversity of attempts to re-invent church, from the industrious Shiloh experiment to the simple Texan Benedictines. Likewise, you showed quite a range of different ways many of these experiments came to an inglorious end. You handled them with a balanced hand, acknowledging the inspiration and devotion of believers who followed the call to community, while showing compassion for those who fell from grace, especially those unable to handle authority responsibly.Some of the latter stories were painful, reminding me of the wincing discomfort I felt at the news of Jonestown, just months after joining an intentional Christian community in California. Although we recognized our leaders as gifted, their authority was not unquestioned or absolute and the women were not prescribed to a subordinate role. However, when internal tensions and the diffusion of our common focus brought us to the breaking point, we keenly felt our lack of roots in a long-standing Christian tradition such as the Catholics, Hutterites, etc. In that regard, Julia Duin's suggestions (see below) were right on target. Despite our community's eventual demise, there is no denying that our lives were changed for the better and that the darkness was pushed back a bit.

Those contemplating joining or continuing commitment in a Christian community would do well to remember that true community is, literally, an act of God's grace, and not dependent on our native abilities or best intentions. Adopting this attitude can help us to hold lightly to our often fumbling attempts at community.
George Rodkey
Tacoma, Washington

In "Authority and Submission in Christian Community," (Fall '96 issue, p. 51), Christian journalist Julia Duin suggested that Christian communities: 1) include theologians as advisors, 2) refer troubled members to professional counselors, 3) learn from the traditions and mistakes of previous Christian communities, 4) watch out for extremism, and 5) make repentance and taking responsibility central to community life.

Dear Communities,
I think you missed a great opportunity. Your editorial stated the desire to redress the relative lack of Christian representation in Communities magazine, etc., however my reaction was one of sadness and disappointment. It was as if every effort to report on Christian communities had to be "balanced" by the negative and what was or has gone wrong in the past. Sure, I know--you must be on the "cutting edge" and "tell it like it is" and not be a source of propaganda for Christian communities--but personally, I tire of such agendas! Why couldn't you have just presented a positive profile on some Christian communities minus the effort at "insightful journalism"--at least for your first real effort at covering (or reaching out to) Christian communities?!? Anyway, you may win some praise from social activists, but I doubt you will entice the host of other Christian communities to trust you with a story on them. I wouldn't. I'm weary of the present fad that seems to have to ferret out the negative (though calling it something else to make it sound relevant). I suppose this might get me branded as "fundamentalist," or "out of touch." If I have missed something, forgive me, but my gut level response was "thumbs down" on trying to win the trust of many Christian groups. I would not recommend the issue to my relatives, friends, or those interested in our life at Shepherdsfield. I will still need to turn elsewhere for a good story on Christian communities that I can recommend to my friends.
Jon R. Welker
Pastor, Shepherdsfield Community
Fulton, Missouri

We're sorry you're disappointed in the issue. We weren't trying to balance positive with negative, as you suggest. Rather, Guest Editor Joe Peterson asked Christian communitarians, past and present, to address the questions he's most frequently asked--including "How do Christian communitarians live?" and "Why are there fewer Christian communities now than in the '70s?" The articles were not written by professional writers, except for Julia Duin's, but by current and former Christian communitarians who responded to Joe's request for articles. They weren't attempting insightful journalism or to be social activists or to be on the cutting edge, as you suggest. They just told their own stories. At least seven of the articles seemed quite positive to us, and two seemed neutral. "A Shiloh Sister's Story," and "The Rise and Fall of Shiloh," could be construed as negative. However, we honestly didn't see them as critical of Christian communities, but rather as describing what often happened in most '70s-era communities. Julia Duin's "Authority and Submission in Christian Community" was definitely a critique, however a critique of authoritarian Christian communities only. We believe that anyone who read the articles about Koinonia, the Church of the Sojourners, Wesleyan Christian Community, or St. Benedict's farm would not--could not--conclude that all Christian communities were authoritarian. Joe Peterson did not approach Julia Duin for an article to create something negative or to balance articles which were positive, as you suggest. He believed she had excellent insights and information, and that Christian communities--and all communities--can learn from and thereby grow stronger by learning the difficult lessons of communities in the recent past.

Dear Communities,
I want to commend your recent focus on Christian communities. The articles gave an excellent view of the diverse expressions of intentional Christian community in North America. When we are called to be part of the church, we are called into community. One of the important marks of renewal in the church today is a deeper sense of community shared amongst its members. Since the earliest history of the church, in the book of Acts, this comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit and defines the church as a distinct community, living by the values of the Kingdom of God, in contrast to the surrounding society. The examples in your issue remind us again of the church's call to express its life as a living community with one another, and a visible witness to the love we have known in Jesus Christ.
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
General Secretary,
Reformed Church in America
New York, New York

Shiloh Article: Underplaying Authoritarian Hierarchy?

Dear Communities,
Reading Joe Peterson's article in your Fall  '96 issue on Christian Communities ("The Rise and Fall of Shiloh," p. 60), I get the feeling that we who bore Shiloh on our shoulders are becoming invisible again and voiceless, just as we were in Shiloh. The community he describes is not the one I lived in. I am grateful to Joe Peterson for his part in organizing the 1987 reunion. He was never in the original Shiloh community, however, and it shows. I was there, from 1971 to 1976, ages 16 to 21, always at or near the bottom of a well-defined pecking order. Joe lists many interesting facts, but the heart of the story is missing. Dino Wenino, another five-year veteran of Shiloh, told me that the picture Joe painted of the community is "so contrived as to be almost sickening." I'll limit my criticism to two points: the freedom Joe claims we had, and his statement regarding the current religious beliefs of ex-Shiloh members. Shiloh was a place of privilege and lack thereof, an army of quasi-slaves supporting a small elite who had special, nice jobs. Joe's writing, "You could be as creative and entrepreneurial as you liked in Shiloh" is like saying that anybody in Stalinist Russia could be a party leader. Those of us on the bottom learned to obey orders instantly and without question. Any topic of discussion that might distract from the current task was considered, "unedifying," hence off limits. We were closely watched, and we in turn watched others. The Fundamentalist faith we obeyed was degrading to our intelligence, and I was surprised to read that we ex-members had "kept" that faith. Most ex-Shiloh members I know have abandoned it. This includes elders, second only to John Higgins, Jr. in power and spiritual prestige; pastors; and deacons like me. For many, "knowing the Lord" is a distant, weird memory. Others believe in God, but in a manner inconsistent with Fundamentalism. I know some Fundamentalists among us ex-Shilohites, or evangelicals, but they are a minority. Joe's conclusion that we are still Fundamentalists is based on pseudo-science. Joe has an M.A. in Sociology; I have an M.S. in Statistics. I am trained to point out what conclusions one can draw from a set of data. Joe bases his claim about the current beliefs of ex-Shiloh members on a survey that was concluded over ten years ago. Thus he assumes we haven't changed in ten years. But even as an attempt to find out what we believed in the early '80s, the survey fails because it's based on a biased sample. It's the kind of mistake that no political pollster would dare to make if he wanted to keep his job. Sometime before 1987, the University of Oregon Department of Sociology mailed questionnaires to the approximately 500 people whom they were able to identify as former Shilohites, and for whom they had mailing addresses. Of these 500, 200 responded. Of these 200, Joe writes that "a vast majority" claimed to be evangelicals. He tacitly assumes that the 200 who responded are a representative sample of the entire former Shiloh population. He ignores the fact that the last thing many ex-Shilohites wanted in the early '80s was to be contacted by the remnants of the failed, screwed-up organization by which many felt betrayed, where many felt they had wasted a large and valuable part of their lives. The 500 names on the list constituted less than half, perhaps a quarter of former Shiloh personnel, and were a self-selected group. They were obtained (Joe told me) from ads and notices in magazines, lists at reunions, and "the grapevine," as well as old Shiloh records. Names obtained in this way would contain a disproportionate number who were kindly disposed toward the organization and what it stood for. The proportions were distorted further by the fact that only the minority who responded were counted. Jerry Frink, for instance, Higgins' former second-in-command and no longer a practicing Fundamentalist, found the questionnaire offensive and didn't respond. He skipped the reunion and went to Dylan and the Dead instead. In the calculations that led to Joe's article, Jerry didn't count, and neither did the rest of us.
Jacob A. Wegelin
Seattle, Washington

Dear Communities:
I was excited to read your articles about the Shiloh communities. I stayed in the Shiloh house in Eugene the summer of '69, when I was 22, and have wondered what became of them. For me, the Shiloh experience mostly served as a recovery station. It gave me several drug-free months and helped transform me from a wandering hippie to a more functioning adult. For this I am extremely grateful. However, I also feel that I was serious manipulated that summer: brainwashed is not too strong a word. I was told that not only was there only one true path to God and the Bible its only record, but that Shiloh elders alone understood the Bible's one true interpretation. It took me several years to stop being obnoxious to my relatives and friends, and to again appreciate the spiritual beauty of my own Jewish heritage. Likewise, it took several years for me to embark on the true spiritual path of my heart without fear of "hell and damnation." The problem, I believe, was more than Shiloh's hierarchy or its overbearing elders. It's a sad comment when an organization's members feel they have more of a handle on the truth than others. Spiritual integrity demands the acknowledgement of diversity of opinion, and the right of each soul to make his or her own spiritual decisions without threats, intimidation, or harassment. I sincerely hope that current Christian communities and theology are more tolerant. Again, thanks for putting me in touch with this important part of my past.
Susan Chernilo
Brookline, Massachusetts