Your not the only one. I don't understand any of it. And my feeling are that if you have a belief then you need to stick with it. If you think tractors are bad, then tractors are bad. You don't stick stupid wheels on them and then allow them. You don't use battery tools because electricity is a bad thing. None of it makes sense, and the "slipping down the slippery slope" and changing you "beliefs" because they are more expedient seems hypocritical to me.
Ok, you can have a gasoline engine powered baler, but it has to be pulled by horses and have a stationary engine. NO. If engines are bad ALL engines are bad. And if power tools are bad ALL power tools are bad. If telephones are bad, then ALL telephones are bad. You can't have one outside in the rain.
Jeez...Hold to your beliefs or change your beliefs. Don't do things half axed, and make concessions to reality. Oh sure a nice JD tractor and now you have to wreck the tires.. yeah, that will keep you on the "straight and narrow". Uh huh.
But what do I know. People do stupid things. I have done a few myself.
As I understand it, you are supposed to be "plain and simple" without "frivolities"
Air filled rubber tires are seen as frivolous as the air is to "give you a better ride". Hence steel wheels (or steel wheels with rubber tread), horses and buggies, etc.
As for phones and electricity, they are not supposed to be dependent on the world, hence a cordless tool battery powered light, or a diesel motor/generator to run your milk cooler, power your workshop, etc because you aren't tied to the world like you would be with a monthly electric bill.
In some cases, the rules are different for a business (ie: a business can have a prepaid cell phone, a computer and a internet connection, etc but it need to be "in the business" not in the home).
What is and isn't allowed depends on the board of Elders for that congregation, hence some allowing rubber tires tractors to run a baler, others allowing steel tired tractors whole others require a horse drawn power cart and yet others require a stationary baler.
We have had some who were honest, some who weren't, but overall have had good luck with the people we have worked with.
Aaron Z
