Page 14 - C.A.L.L. #33 - Winter 2010/2011

KALEIDOSCOPE

An Embassy Besieged
The Story if a Christian Community in Nazi Germany
A new book by Emmy Barth

Here, for the first time in print, is the story of a group of Christian dissidents who dared to confront
Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich with the love of Jesus Christ. Avoiding covert resistance on the one
hand and complicity and compromise on the other, the little communal congregation known as the
Rhoen Bruderhof boldly witnessed to the politics of the kingdom of God at the risk of their lives.
Although conscious that they were, on the words of their courageous leader Eberhard Arnold, "less
than a gnat to an elephant," this small cell of men and women were confident that as God's
ambassadors, their best weapon against the evils of National Socialism was love. The dramatic account
of a community that stayed true to the nonviolent way of the Cross despite the relentless opposition
of a dictatorship that threatened to snuff it out, this story is also a remarkable example of God's
protection and leading in a dark time.

Now to "The Leaves of Twin Oaks" that provides us as usual a little vignette that holds a lot
of significance, served with a smile and a rather promising caption: Politics at Twin Oaks by
Valerie

Here at Twin Oaks, we generally consider ourselves beyond conventional conversation restraints; this
becomes immediately obvious by listening to a mealtime discussion of the lurid details of gruesome
symptoms related to the latest sickness going around.

When it comes to talking about politics, it becomes a little more complicated. There are certain topics
that we can all discuss with ease and generally agree upon. However, somehow there are others that
are more like opening a can of worms while walking through a field of landmines...

Acceptable: global warming and polar icecap melt

More delicate: what temperature to set the communal hot-water heater, and the ecological
implications of using ice-cubes

Acceptable: Obama versus Hillary

A bit trickier: Organic versus Local

Acceptable: increasing water shortages and the evils of the bottled-water industry

Tread carefully: the fact that a certain communard-who-shall-remain-nameless replaced the low-flow
shower head with one that delivers the approximate force and volume-per-minute of Niagara Falls,
without any process.

Acceptable: the discriminatory aspects of impending US immigration policy

Walking on eggshells: our membership process about whether to accept athat controversial visitor
from the last visitor period.

Acceptable: gay marriage

Call in the Process Team: your lover announces their desire to form a polyamorous triad with that
statuesque blonde who arrived as a new member last week.....

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