The Hutterites | To Care And Not To Care | Full Movie | John A. Hostetler | Arnold Hofer

[Music] [Music] 1265 Hutterites emigrated from Russia to Dakota Territory in the 1870s there three and a half centuries old society had always forbidden holding private property on the basis of Christian teaching a century after this migration this group had grown to some thirty thousand souls farming well over a million acres of land and with colonies in a dozen states or Canadian provinces scattered from South Dakota to British Columbia the Hutterites prefers sparsely settled countryside where it's too far for the children to walk to town we're in the world but not of the world we are isolated from all worldly pleasures and lusts and so far on community life is a hard life if you don't do it for Christ's sake the namer hives from hottest Jacob Potter he was a head maker [Music] Hutterite community is first and foremost a Christian Fellowship it was born in the Protestant Reformation of the 1520's out of the swiss german Anabaptist movement spiritual cousins of the more numerous Mennonites and Amish the Hutterites came to America with thousands of Mennonites when the Russian Tsar withdrew a promise by Catherine the Great that Mennonites could be exempted for reasons of conscience from military service the handwritten Hutterite Chronicle begins with a bloody saga of persecution by Catholic authorities in Europe nicknamed the big history book it is still kept up in South Dakota it recalls the first baptism in Switzerland in 1525 and the decision a few years later to establish community of goods according to the biblical pattern as recorded in the second chapter of Acts this occurred in Moravia a period of toleration before 1620 allowed the Hutterites to prosper and to refine the art of ceramics but their colonies were depicted by critics as strange and dangerous nests of birds when Jesuits confiscated their property and children they fled to what are today Hungary and Romania the family Garry Walter a Mennonite native of South Dakota is a hunter right ancestry well these are families that we know the exact farms where they came from in Austria because that's all on record they were Lutheran's and they came as Lutheran's to Transylvania where they came up to about the riots there became convinced that the riots had the right teaching and join them in eventuated in the 18th century they fled again to the Ukraine here their Minister Michael Waldner led them in 1864 to recover the communal organization they had lost in their pilgrimage in 1874 Waldner led a group of his people to purchase a fur trading post on the dakota banks of the Missouri River only about a third of his 1265 immigrants chose to keep the communal life but from those 400 have come today's thirty thousand souls in three hundred colonies about a third lived south of the Canadian border two graves in South Dakota record the death of a pair of hundred conscientious objectors in World War one after abuse by soldiers at Fort Leavenworth such treatment frightened all but one of the seventeen colonies into resettling in Canada but during the 1930s South Dakota invited them back to the farming land D populated by the Great Depression the schmid light the Schmidtke mind as we also call them come from Michael Wagner who was a blacksmith ish Mead and then of course that other ones I called arias Lloyd the dirtiest right were organized in Russia already and came over as a group and settled in Wolf Creek and then of course layer alloy it comes from the teacher Lehrer we had studied among the Mennonites in Russia the Conservatives are the lira line the moderate river would be the Darius line the most ever just mean life although they will never fight nor take an oath that rights are far from being anarchists I respect that very much that the government is ordained from God we feel that God as a God of order they consider themselves loyal subjects of the tolerant english-speaking governments under which after three and a half centuries they found refuge but they would be ready to move again if North American society should forbid them an alternative to military service or the privilege of having their own schools [Music] each colony has its own school to teach by rote eternal values in the German language of the Hutterite origins the so called German school convenes mornings and afternoons for an hour before and an hour after the English or public school [Music] [Music] while the sacred truth is being taught the symbol of worldly authority is covered it appends a great lot on a German teacher in the colony I mean that for you starts teaching the children standards new Morris the German teacher supervises the children's manners and spiritual understanding he also has a Sunday afternoon school which she tests the children's memory of the morning sermon in their own way Hutterites successfully educate their children for community and eternity few of these children would ever be able to feel comfortable living as non Hutterite individuals or even as members of a Christian nuclear family they are deeply taught that they are not here to enjoy themselves but to serve the community in preparation for eternity this collective outlook is the only understanding of life that makes sense to them the child wakes up in a community of generations and is weaned at the age of two and a half from the immediate family Hutterites invented the kindergarten in their thriving colonies in Moravia over 400 years ago [Music] even with large families mothers are not overburdened with childcare the most liberal of the three main branches of the Hutterites provides playgrounds with its kindergartens a grandmotherly woman or uncle a-- assisted by teenage girls is in charge the kindergarten child has few social rights and is considered unruly or foolish but not evil a small child receives love and kisses from all sides in addition to a specific parents everybody else looks out for him the bond is especially strong with grandparents we feel that the wisdom of God is the best education a person can and we want our children to be educated but not educated in a consolidated school in the English or public school the state brings its secular Authority onto the colony compound the relation is congenial the English teacher is usually a non Hutterite employed by the state or province teaching the state oriented curriculum the colony willingly pays proportionate school taxes while insisting that the children study on the compound itself the unique fusion of the Hutterite colony school in both the United States and Canada is the fruit of a successful dialogue with the state we couldn't don't think this will SDK now they pick it up so fast with the English teacher do you think that threatens the hotter right way of life to do that I don't think sure this is an English country and change different nurse every year dear acquainted with them in a couple hours the child may be exposed to some national or secular influence as long as the spiritual community has the last word I feel we feel can't go over can't go under let's go [Music] [Music] okay happy bedtime each individual family has its own apartment with only a limited kitchen or none at all [Music] [Music] all right ideas had been put into classical form by the 17th century well our sermons are always ready we can't thank God enough that they're all ready and prepared we call it ready cut bread spiritual bread is next a second you usually have your sermons in order like I mean for this certain holidays a year around you you thought sermons for every holiday and I've written some sermons six times now I think services a thick book of what is it three hundred and seventy pages I've covered this book seven times it is all over the colonies from Manitoba to Montana the minister chosen by the casting of lots is the head of each colony it's a high calling very important car very big responsibility because everything I've seen it's not quite in line and bother you right away it doesn't matter the average minute so much but it does you because you have a duty to do when did you tell him it it's not right but I tried him not in a commanding way always in an appealing way of softly it works better the head minister and a younger assistant lead the colony to focus in worship every day of the week for this observance no bell rings that one Hutterite remarked would be too much like the catholics everyone in the colony seems immediately aware when the minister has left his house for the worship service and all follow dressed in dark clothes within a few minutes the building in which the service is held is not sacra doable it is the place for the meeting located in the center of the colony near the dining room sometimes the schoolhouse may be used with school equipment placed in closets and flags removed or covered [Music] the sermon is read from one of the minister's large collection of handwritten or photocopied manuscripts [Music] my dear brothers and sisters of our gatherings may it be acknowledged known and recognized is all that is done here is only for the glory of God every day every month we are to consider whether are offering is pleasing to God or whether it is not fair to him Christ says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you thereby everyone shall know that you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves when you are willing to totally surrender your life you forsake it all then it's no more yours you have to do God's will whatever it is you can serve God and Mammon you can't serve them both you definitely have to have a total surrender although raised within a severely strict system Hutterite children enjoy the companionship of a large extended family of playmates their sense of personal worth comes less from the freedom to play which they do have then from becoming involved in colony work [Music] as they learn to work the children are learning the fundamental lesson of giving themselves to the community their efforts are supposed to be seen not as expressions of personal achievement but as participation in the common welfare over and over they are taught gallatin hide mutual resignation as the Cardinal Christian virtue if they ever leave the colony one of their most shocking experiences will be to accept a paycheck for what they do the boy more than the girl feels honored to be given special responsibilities as this signaled his approach toward manhood in a patriarchal society young Eli of Saskatchewan is allowed to come to school late so that he may take the Dairy Herd out to graze the beekeeper is often one of the two ministry just growing up in the colony several of the boys are likely to learn a great deal about beekeeping informally welcome to our so that when a new beekeeper is needed someone already has a deal for the job see all the spots in here Danny that's where the Queen laid eggs over here you can see how big they grew already see how big that grew over and here they seal them up already they're just little worms let me open up one here to show you see you're big that is already at this colony in Saskatchewan which belongs to the conservative Larry lloyd when you cut rights the boys get hats instead of caps at the age of 15 showing their approach to adulthood what's the word for mother would how about father brother but when you talk to an old man you what used to call him food food Georgie Porgie pudding and pie I kiss the girls and make us cry when the boys came I'll play Georgie Porgie ran away the boys visor caps made by their mothers are a mark of their ancestors sojourn in Russia for the century prior to the migration to America the school girl spends much of her time as a babysitter at 15 she too will be allowed a more adult type of work Hutterite girl isn't used to answering questions about her personal opinion what is the thing you don't like to do the most baby soon but you're willing to do it aren't you do the children behave for you no you expect so what would happen to you if you didn't behave well against Jeb did you ever get one sure is it hard well all the kind of teacher you have a strict one or bootstraps harder the German teacher at the English teacher the gym teacher do you behave better for the German teacher yes and for the English teacher to have to expect to stay older than you what if it doesn't do any good even if they strap them then what happens you step did you ever get a hard strapping the girls last week we're not right in the future they didn't say anything to me you mean there's no carriages here [Applause] are you anxious to be 50 [Music] old-fashioned songs like the wreck of the old 97 aren't forgotten by huh deride young people no one girl has to work overly hard and one can socialize in the midst of work with a crew like this one in South Dakota a large vegetable garden can be made free of weeds in half an hour the girl too absorbs skills simply by participating in group work she can bake a cherry pie without anyone teaching which is more likely to bake 15 with her sisters and cousins preparing for a weekend meal [Music] work is sharply bounded by sexually defined roles girls can look forward to a life of physical work shared by the community and early retirement from strenuous labor the only administrative roles open to women in the colony are those our chief cook and head seamstress whereas there may be six or seven departments from end to be boss over [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the man in charge of meat cutting can always count on a labor pool to whom no wages are due feeding a hundred or more people daily calls for expert management much of the food is raised and processed on the colony farm and the rest is bought in bulk after skillful buying a favorable prices chicken barn and take first responsibility there and that's all it takes nobody is forced nobody is driven to work harder than his capability allows them [Music] it's because Hey I've come on to you [Music] freida of North Dakota is preparing for church membership how she works she keeps her catechism close by but each young person gets when he's about ready to get baptized there was 45 questions and answers and we have to learn those by heart and also two poems and we can choose either one which one we want to learn which we have to recite before the community when do you recite that you on the Saturday before we get back to us to day before how would you say he would have to change be more devoted to the community and to the Lord and also to with my fellow man I have to accept when somebody admonishes me in some areas and I have to also admonish others who have see wrong doing wrong you think you can do that maybe with the Lord says is it a struggle for you to come to that place to give yourself up Bettye of North Dakota met her future husband at a young people's concert among the liberal fetal ecology of Manitoba Hutterites are serious people modest and restrained no projection of the individual personality is favored the ecstasy in Hutterite singing is in the inter flow of personalities mutually yielded to God in contemplation of timeless reality [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you a birthday party which would be considered too worldly by most other ice suggests the changing attitude among the more liberal colonies traditionally playing harmonicas has been tolerated but not publicly [Music] a hot rod is one of the most candid persons you will ever meet the man on the left from a colony half a continent away is here in South Dakota looking for a wife and everybody knows it why do you know Manitoba got his wife from a colony 120 miles away the couple first home together is an apartment in the kindergarten building chosen for them by colony elders they have no economic anxiety no rent or mortgage to pay Tom tried life alone in Winnipeg before returning to the colony and marrying now he says he wouldn't want his son to leave the colony because as he puts it there's nothing out there the machine shop is central to the business of the college how to write service and even invent and build much of their own equipment well you have one of my OC limiting Rus you know there's so much as in the maneuver from dog bar they rush now we're going to make it out of Tennessee and we hope it's going to last forever and you just have to be blacksmith and enjoy it don't you ever wish you were doing something else one colony in South Dakota has a mill that has grown into a commercial business with its own brand of feeds successfully competing with larger firms [Music] the builders and we're modern we are thinking about kinda putting in a computer but we do not try to modernize our religion or the book has given us for a narrow path that we do not fight a modern house the family apartment particularly with the strictest other IDEs is a spare as an architect's drawing the point of life is not to be lost amidst the decor but the feeling of austerity is softened by continuous socializing among Hutterite friends and relatives from near and far even an evening snack is always preceded by a memorized prayer with folded hands the husband in this case the colony boss is clearly the authority in the time next to the minister the steward or colony boss called Viet in German has the most authority elected on the basis of what is considered his superior ability he oversees the buying and selling and is really the head of a good-sized legally structured farm cooperative dealing in hundreds of thousands of dollars he is the head of the various department bosses in the county in charge of cows hogs chickens shop or field that guy is the boss he's the boss out in the field tells everybody what to do what he wants done now how do you like taking orders doesn't butter me you got to obey anyhow get or not conceding time they work right after 11:00 and 11:30 if if the field is ready to get done or close by they're going to work to 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning every once in a while they come in at 2:00 sometimes I put in 18 hours a day when we're out seeding and we want to get done just letter wrote called it's mine Peter Lane just like it's anybody else's so I feel I got to work well everybody field with their piece of whatever it's round a year and they own it as much of anybody else does we are already in the church everybody that lives in the colony is in church automatically but you're not baptized no maybe next year or the order or the order you gonna be a Hutterite all your life if nothing happens bad yeah I can leave if I want to but I don't want I feel I got it better in here than anyplace else in here I don't have to worry about not just look when I would be up there in Mitchell trying to make a living if things go wrong they don't work ain't got no money you know how it goes we used the most modern equipment that's on the market today we feel it's only equipment and has nothing to do with religion of any kind building their own barns and installing the latest equipment by themselves Hutterites make vigorous competitors in the agricultural marketplace this herd of Holsteins at the colony west of winnipeg was ranked as the highest in milk production per cow in the province of manitoba a hundred miles south another colony had a herd of brown swiss that was ranked second in production of all breeds in the state of North Dakota [Music] I have to keep up with the Joneses here I feel he has the edge over us right now our neighbor here I farmed 70 acres per capita why does he farm 600 unlike the better known Amish Hutterites don't hesitate to reap the benefit of technological advance and they use big equipment if it isn't big enough they make it themselves most of our voice if you might say been working big money on the oil rigs but they all come back most of them I would say 80% to 85% different come back so it must be security and this is what what man lives for it seems like I mean the human nature wants security you have clubs shrine clubs and all those russell clubs what are they for I think people want to live together they don't want to live as an individual so what do you do for recreation recreation work hard sometimes Sunday afternoon would go out and play baseball and stuff like that we don't encourage y'all all kinds of recreation the colony doesn't object to it so much as when to start yelling around or being too loud we don't like it at all it reminds us of the outside world imagine if they can do it in a more reserved way and enjoy playing it's more acceptable because Christ was was quiet and all the time you want to be a true follower of Christ you are following in his footsteps he was quiet reserved and we this is what we like to have [Music] [Music] we don't like the city kid calling the closest cities we can keep my right out in the countries like like we do we don't encourage town to visit too much it's more than it used to be because all your products try to be has to be hard to town with him cities but it's always better if they stay with her when the countryside is annexed to fulfill your wish not too tempting you know I know in my days and I never seen so many shows but when when the Minister Monday found out that you had a standard Church miss fleshly I am tempted but I don't yield well we have no objection to taking a drink we approve it if you take it in moderation because I think we have a biblical basis for this too because Paul said if they come and intimidated take a drink for thy stomachs sake you never encouraged to over drinker because the Bible speaks against drunkards and and there's we wouldn't approve of this at all what do you do when a fella or somebody over does how can you deal with it well they usually have to stand up in church and be corrected or radar there they're brought up in what we call this table or just a court session like the elders will talk over in it they correct him up there you'd have to either stand up and apologize for earlier we don't approve of it or we are clannish to just like the Indian the Indian is very clannish he could never do without he's got to be amongst his own and the Hutterite is much the same you don't find no place better than right here when you have to live with your fellow man you know what that's like he live with me and I live with him the ordinary individual can go around the block and circumvent his neighbor but not here you can't do it you have to live with them and I'll tell you it's a supreme test it is only possible through the Bible but true Christian bringing up I put that in there under myself blessed are those who create peace around them and I'll tell you there is more than one way you can create peace around you when the Red River overflowed and endangered the City of Grand Forks North Dakota Hutterites from a small colony 40 miles away joined the volunteers working night and day to contain the river as far as basic physical non-political needs are concerned the separatist Hutterites feel complete solidarity with their uncover mented neighbors in such an emergency they don't mind working with the Red Cross or even the military though they themselves are conscientious objectors to military service he's not insane base yet he's hauling yesterday all day and all night he's hauling today again [Music] how many came from the colony can I get through all the way up as far as the spork lift is up there as far as you can get okay and there's nobody up there okay the Hutterite colony brought their heavy equipment and kept it going until the emergency was over [Music] you [Music] Oh [Music] down at my to fish fish [Music] [Music] the medieval European village was a largely self-sufficient unit performing its own crafts Hutterites retains some aspects of that village self-sufficiency for 16 years now a pair every year takes about five dollars to make a pair of shoes now you multiply that by 150 besides feeling ducks English and repair work it's a lot easier repairing than it is to fix a bug issue because most of them but she was really glued together cemented together you know and that's hard to hard to fix sometimes you get a shoe I got a good example hanging over there in the wall well the one fell apart whereas the other one was just a good shoe but you're not gonna walk one leg the shoemaker in this colony in Saskatchewan is also responsible for the ducks and geese while most of the other men are 60 miles away building a new comm the shoemaker oversees the annual duck killing helping him are the girls and women several of the older men and some of the older children excused from school for the day since this seasonal activity is exactly the same from year to year it has a predictable ritual flavor every person seems to know his or her own role with the children considering it a privilege to be included in the adult project [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] dipping the duck in hot wax and then in cold water leaves a coating of wax it takes the little pin feathers with it when it's peeled off like a crushed there isn't great physical stress on older people in the colony after the age of 45 or 50 they'd find the hard labor carried by the younger people who greatly outnumber them the older folks can do as much work as they feel able to do and they never have to worry about writing a will or be tweeting their property to the next generation all they have except for a few personal mementos already belongs to their children room making is another of the village crafts that has survived here and there in Hutterite colonies it allows an old man some meaningful activity as this particular man in South Dakota just a few months before his death in his 80s skills learned in his youth remain in his hands even after his physical responses have slowed down a hand-made Hutterite broom will last until its very fiber deteriorate at all ages patent rights know why they are alive and how they should live by old age they are surrounded by a large family of offspring who treat them with respect in winter months especially I wrote quite a few of those old books that they had printed or photo typed in in Austria or Slovakia there how old were you when you did that 75 77 I would do it today if I had something interest I first read it and did you see after writing she and it's easier to write why did Peter ends bound the manuscript he had written himself fit me anymore he finds the work enjoyable in a retirement that comes after 33 years of being colony boss a small size of many Hutterite cemetery's emphasizes the fact that the majority of the colonies are relatively young paradoxically though they always stress community the Hutterites remember each individual vividly when the population of a colony increases beyond a certain level there grows a consciousness of a need to swarm to found a daughter colony it's called branching out no one worries about this the pattern is fixed in communal memory Hutterites have had to move and rebuild for four and a half centuries this they are professionals half the goods are transferred to the new colony everybody packs to move and the group is divided between the two ministers lots are then drawn to see which of the two sets will move but the new village is laid out on the Prairie consciously to the directions of the compass it isn't left or right but east or west south or north [Applause] [Applause] when this problem it's organized to say that we want them to be complete want to make it appealing so there won't be any hardships moving you want to drain water away from the neighbors this way with you no no it's so we got the right there with you talk with government officials they gave it the okay on it and we're doing everything within our rights and the see on how it works good the hot Aryan Brotherhood has been called the fastest-growing society known in North America their strong motivation hard work and cohesiveness give them economic advantages that are sometimes resented this was especially true in Alberta in the 1960s and 70s we have been criticized we're not patronizing the local merchants in our lives but like you just drive into big cities and you see word where the neighbors are doing all the shopping but the Hutterites have to be the scapegoats and lot of this thing and they just criticize important it Christ promises in the Bible if you want to be a follower of Christ here you can expect this and I think if you get a right now studied deeply you can you can see it's just motivated by and - and jealousy and Prejudice they think they can compete with us they look at this big place a colony being built dominating the herd rice you got all kinds of money and they don't realize that you borrow money like anybody else but with our system I think is a head of the individual system because we don't have to pay labor costs are in a community life where you're sharing and you have to pay salaries are labor discontent you can't afford it the build-up of plays ideas I think it's a high calling to be her to write and I don't think the good Lord meant it for everybody in the world to be a how to write I don't think so so you think maybe some other people will get to heaven that weren't well that Bible verse when Jesus talks there they come from all corners of the earth I believe that's very important it's very significant a small group of people in Japan have not only adopted hot Aryan beliefs and translated the old writings but accepted communal living and even Hutterite costume they're part of a greater heart Aryan society which in recent decades has been joined by several Christian communities originating in Europe and now thriving in the eastern United States and England don't care where we'll end up teach us to care and not to care wrote TS Eliot to be a Hutterite is not to care about yourself but to care about the Lydians community God's approval it is to trust God to reward you manifold Lee in eternity for what you gave up in time for the sake of the kingdom [Music] no one who trusts in God will be put to shame for I to be the first one no that's impossible dr. Shephard sooner than I were disappoint me the very heavens would fall [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh [Music] major funding for this program has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting additional funding has been provided by Mennonite mutual aid Foundation and the South Dakota Committee on the humanities [Music]

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 191,624

Rating: 4.8142233 out of 5

Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, Mennonites, Amish, Communal Living, John A. Hostetler, Arnold Hofer, Marvin Riley, Arthur Huseboe, The Hutterites | To Care And Not To Care, The Hutteries, To Care and Not To Care, full movie, full film

Id: NE3cY1Z2Kdc

Length: 58min 36sec (3516 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020