Mark Tooley: Mennonite Takeover?
[Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Taking Back the United Methodist Church.]
This Summer, the Lutherans, or at least the Swiss-based Lutheran World Federation, apologized for persecuting pacifist Anabaptists 400 years ago. But given the ascendancy of Anabaptists among many U.S. evangelicals, their days as a small, persecuted minority are clearly long over.
"We remember how Anabaptist Christians knew suffering and persecution, and we remember how some of our most honored Reformation leaders defended this persecution in the name of faithfulness," solemnly intoned Bishop Mark Hanson during a joint service of repentance in Germany with Mennonites from around the world. Hanson is both president of the global Lutheran group and chief prelate of the liberal-leaning Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Anabaptists are best known as Mennonites, Brethren, Moravians, and, in their more dedicated forms, Amish. Quakers are sometimes associated with the tradition in outlook though they have separate historical origins. Traditionally Anabaptists are pacifist and separatist from society to varying degrees, foreswearing national loyalties. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestant and Catholic governments persecuted them for their perceived theological and political subversion. Many Anabaptists immigrated to colonial America, where they prospered.
But the Anabaptist tradition has often emphasized its history as victim and outsider. Mennonite World Conference chief Larry Miller confessed to the Lutheran reconciliation service: "At times, we have claimed the martyr tradition as a badge of Christian superiority. We sometimes nurtured an identity rooted in victimization that could foster a sense of self-righteousness and arrogance, blinding us to the frailties and failures that are also deeply woven into our tradition."...
Read entire article at American Spectator
This Summer, the Lutherans, or at least the Swiss-based Lutheran World Federation, apologized for persecuting pacifist Anabaptists 400 years ago. But given the ascendancy of Anabaptists among many U.S. evangelicals, their days as a small, persecuted minority are clearly long over.
"We remember how Anabaptist Christians knew suffering and persecution, and we remember how some of our most honored Reformation leaders defended this persecution in the name of faithfulness," solemnly intoned Bishop Mark Hanson during a joint service of repentance in Germany with Mennonites from around the world. Hanson is both president of the global Lutheran group and chief prelate of the liberal-leaning Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Anabaptists are best known as Mennonites, Brethren, Moravians, and, in their more dedicated forms, Amish. Quakers are sometimes associated with the tradition in outlook though they have separate historical origins. Traditionally Anabaptists are pacifist and separatist from society to varying degrees, foreswearing national loyalties. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestant and Catholic governments persecuted them for their perceived theological and political subversion. Many Anabaptists immigrated to colonial America, where they prospered.
But the Anabaptist tradition has often emphasized its history as victim and outsider. Mennonite World Conference chief Larry Miller confessed to the Lutheran reconciliation service: "At times, we have claimed the martyr tradition as a badge of Christian superiority. We sometimes nurtured an identity rooted in victimization that could foster a sense of self-righteousness and arrogance, blinding us to the frailties and failures that are also deeply woven into our tradition."...