Talk:General Conference Mennonite Church

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[edit] Mennonite Voting patterns

If what is written about the Amish by Steven M. Nolt is any indication of how the Mennonite may have behaved it seems it is incorrect to say that the Mennonites supported the Republicans with near universal support from the 1870s until the 1960s and 1970s. According to Nolt, in 1896 the Ohio Republican McKinley was against the Nebraska Democrat Bryan and I will quote from [Nolt, S.M. (1992) A History of the Amish, Intercourse, PA : Good Books, p. 211]:

McKinley stood for fiscal conservatism and gold-backed currency. Bryan countered with demands for lower interest rates, government regulation or purchase of utilities and railroads, and other seemingly radical economic measures...

In studying the Amish response to the 1896 election, Old Order Amish historian David Luthy has concluded that many Amish probably sympathized with Bryan...It is unclear how many Amish voted, but in communities in which some most likely did, Bryan was the runaway winner. In Holmes County, Ohio, for example, the Nebraskan received a 2,300-vote majority.

Opinion pieces from the Budget a newspaper that serves the Amish and Mennonite communities are quoted but I won't go into that but the reason for Byran's popularity seems to be that McKinley seemed to be only a friend of big business and the urban rich; farmers felt abandoned (Nolt, 1992 : p. 211). Hope this can be of some help though I'm not an expert on this issue. Stettlerj 22:55, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment. I'm expecting that first paragraph to fall when someone with better information can correct it. It's a generalization based on the few solid sources I have and typical voting patterns of counties dominated by GC Mennonites. It seems logical that the PA, OH, IL and IN GCs would be similar to what you report above. I have one good source that I haven't even opened yet and leads on a couple of other sources. I'm not sure where to find info on Canadians. As you can see, there is good reason for the section to be marked as needing attention. JonHarder 00:21, 20 April 2006 (UTC)