A late Adventist scholar, Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,Retired Professor of Church History and Theology, Andrews University, mentions an observation from history:
John C. Wenger, a respected Mennonite historian, observed that not all the groups of Mennonites have been able to maintain a nonconformist attitude toward worldly fashions and practices. Both in Europe and in America,
there are groups of Mennonites called "Progressive," who have gradually lost the sense of nonconformity to the world.
According to Wenger
within such groups "much of the internal vigor" has disappeared as a result of the process of cultural conformity, especially in the areas of dress and jewelry. "They have allowed the process of cultural accommodation to go on with little or no resistance,
sincerely believing that Christianity does not consist in outward forms, but they have often tended to underestimate the power of the forces in contemporary society to mold the members of the brotherhood into the same types of character, belief, and practice, as are current in America in general.
This has resulted in a loss of sense of unique mission as well as the partial surrender of basic Mennonite doctrines. . . . They tend to become more like American Protestants than the Mennonites have historically been."27
(ENDTIME ISSUES No. 60:
Dress And Ornaments In Christian History) -
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