Questions from an outsider

[ValarMorghulis]

Hi, this is milo452 from reddit. I would like to ask some questions about Mikraite. I may add some more in the future, but will keep it to this thread.


1. How would you comprehensively define what Mikraite is? Is it actually a religion? For most people, a religion involves believing in some supernatural entity or meaning to life, but I don't think that's a part of Mikraite. Is it: A tribe that dislikes modern culture and follows the 5 commandments? I'm sure there's more to it than that, because technically that would mean you'd accept a serial killer who hated society, as long as he followed the 5 commandments.

2. What was the thinking behind making these your 5 tenets? Is this like your 10 commandments?

1. Keep the Sabbath
2. Dress Modestly
3. No Tattoos
4. Keep Passover
5. Make the Declaration

These are the most important rules of the religion?

Why would you not have one which had a rule similar to this (obviously could be phrased better):

"Thou shalt not fuck over or screw over someone else*, especially morally acting people of any tribe. *Exception: it's okay to fuck over a person who fucks over innocent people who are minding their own business"

So that rule is basically like "do not kill/steal/etc" but it allows you to kill a violent robber.

Anyway, clearly you didn't make that one of your 'commandments', so what was the thinking behind leaving something like that out?

Personally, I'm okay with killing a violent robber, but not okay with fucking over innocent people... and the fact your religion doesn't have this in your top 5 list is troubling (although I admit I definitely could be misunderstanding what that list is, or what you guys believe). Is this just a gang of dudes who is happy to screw over anyone who isn't part of Mikraite or the Mennonites?

Thanks for reading/answering.

[fschmidt]

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[Will]

Being tribal is key. I have a friend who is a Christian minister. He was quite surprised when I told him that the ideas in bible are tribal. In his words, for many years in his study of the bible, he was pained by the commandment to love your neighbor vs the slaughter and pillage of neighboring countries (tribes). Being tribal resolves the conflict making the old testament highly consistent ...

[ValarMorghulis]

>As a group, we are neutral on the topic of how to treat outsiders.  Each Mikraite can decide this issue for himself.  The purpose of Mikraite, and the Old Testament, is to establish strong moral rules on interactions between members of the group/tribe.

Thanks, that sounds pretty logical and reasonable.

Is joining the weekly Skype voice sessions a requirement?

[fschmidt]

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[ValarMorghulis]

Sorry I forget to check back here. I don't like making phone calls because I don't have enough privacy in my current situation, but I'm fine with text chatting.

Have you guys considered running a discord chat room? It is like skype but less bloated and fucked up, also works as an app or in a browser. downside is by default it logs all the chats, which can be bad or good (you have to right click and delete each message one by one).

[fschmidt]

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[ValarMorghulis]

My problem is in my living situation I can be overheard, and it bothers me.

Skype as software does happen to bother me, but mostly because it's garbage and right up there with itunes, but that's not the issue.