Re: A Disappointing Confirmation

Bruderhof wrote:

> Bruderhof Communities wrote:
> 
>> Eberhard and his sister Clara had high hopes when they first joined
>> church confirmation classes, so their disappointment was all the
>> greater when the instruction proved to be just as boring and
>> laboriously pious as the religion classes in high school. The
>> confirmation itself brought no kind of revelation either. Carl
>> Franklin Arnold had arranged a relatively simple celebration for the
>> occasion.12 A godmother from Berlin came to visit them, and as a
>> special treat they rode the short way home from the church in a 
>> carriage. In the afternoon a few friends of Clara and Eberhard joined
>> them. There were harmless games in the drawing room and folk songs
>> sung in harmony. 
>> 
> 
> When it was all over, Eberhard must have sought out his father again.
> He had a question to ask: could confirmation – the affirmation of
> faith – become a personal experience, and if so, how? But Carl
> Franklin Arnold was unable to provide a satisfactory answer. As a
> child in the Gildemeister household in Bremen, Eberhard’s father had
> undoubtedly encountered a heartfelt, cheerful piety. His foster
> parents and their relatives had followed the traditions of the bible
> scholar Samuel Collenbusch and the Bremen minister Gottfried Menken.
> Carl Franklin Arnold had adopted his foster parents’ respect for these
> role models – he subjected his wife and children to endless readings
> from old sermons by Menken. But the Gildemeister’s natural and
> carefree faith remained foreign to Eberhard’s father. He always had a
> deep reverence for God and his commandments, and felt obliged to
> strive in all earnestness for personal holiness and moral improvement.
> Carl Franklin Arnold could spend hours meditating over a text from the
> Psalms or wrestling with God in prayer over the most profound concerns
> of humanity. At such times he would shut himself into his study. When
> he left it hours later, the children often saw that their father was
> crushed and depressed. Carl Franklin Arnold obviously found neither
> strength nor joy in prayer. He could tell his son nothing different:
> he won certainty of forgiveness, even of eternal salvation, only in
> this hard and painful manner – through continuous wrestling in prayer.
> 

Through his confirmation Eberhard became more keenly aware than ever 
before of the social abyss between the educated, prosperous elite and the 
simple working-class people. The manner in which his family dressed 
sparked this awareness. Only the upper crust could attend church as they 
did – for confirmation, Eberhard wore a new black suit and Clara a white 
dress. Poorer children did not have special clothes for special 
occasions. Eberhard found this unjust and decided that he would not 
recognize class distinctions. At first the only practical consequence of 
his decision was his attitude toward the family’s maids. He now treated 
them more considerately and occasionally lent them a helping hand.