Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: report on one Christian "cohousing" community?

[Marci Malinowycz (SoDance]

A couple of questions:

What was their leadership structure? Who was in charge?
What was their decision-making method (vote, consensus, other)?

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From:  cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of ruddick [at] 
mv3195.edison.cc.oh.us
Sent:  Tuesday, September 09, 1997 3:04 PM
Subject:  report on one Christian "cohousing" community?

My first post to this list--

About 9 years ago, I played in a band that was hired to perform at
"Lakeside", a Methodist community on the Lake Erie shore in N. Ohio.

This community seems to fit the definition of cohousing as posted to
the list.  Residents occupied closely-spaced single-family homes,
but they share a community recreation center, auditorium, lakefront
facilities, and some services.  I believe there is a representative-
type resident management.  I think this community existed prior to
the invention of "cohousing" as a term for the concept--but it fits
the description.

This concludes the news portion of our broadcast.  Now the editorial.

I was appalled by the restrictive nature of this community.  I tend
to like most Methodists that I meet, but this community seemed to
have more in common with narrow-minded fundamentalists.  Community
rules included dress codes, prohibitions against private consumption
of alcoholic beverages, curfews, and other invasions into personal
privacy.  The community was walled and gated.

I don't think it's an absolute, but I would expect more often than
not that any community founded on belief systems that include
mandatory agreement with a certain creed, restrictions of free
thought, and regimentation of personal action would then tend to
become more and more authoritarian in nature.

In essence, I fear that any state-sponsored religion turns into
a totalitarian structure.  The best defense of your own religion
just might be a high degree of tolerance and accomodation for
others.

TR