Thoughts from a newly reformed believer in 1550--

I recently decided I could no longer take orders from a politically driven pope, so I began to listen to these so-called reformers here in Switzerland. People say they began as Anabaptists but now call themselves Mennonites after one of their leaders. (I will have to follow up with details about this when I get them from my neighbor.) For now, I am mainly interested in what these guys believe. I want to know what I'm getting myself into if I join this group reformers. To start, they say they are different from Protestants in that their motives for breaking from Rome were strictly spiritual. The separation of Church and State is high on their priorities. I learned some other main beliefs that make the Mennonites unique, too.

• Rather than baptizing infants, they believe in baptizing when one can pledge before the church his/her covenant to walk with God. Believers are baptized by the Spirit, water, and blood.


• This leads into their belief in freedom of consciousness.


• Salvation is attained when someone repents sin and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.


• Religion is for the individual experience.


• Each person is responsible to God and only God.


• The Bible is God's rule for how people should live their lives. The Mennonites accept God's will and follow is law without question, no matter what the authorities say.


• Peace is the will of God. They practice nonresistance, meaning they do not take part in war or any other type of violence. They trust in God's ability to overcome evil with good.


• Mennonites believe in always speaking the Truth, to let your "yes be yes and no be no." (James 5:12) This also leads to their avoidance of taking oaths.

Personally, I like the idea of staying out of war. There surely has been enough of that. I wouldn't mind having the "freedom of consciousness" they talk about as well as answering to God alone. These Mennonites also make sense with their belief in always speaking the truth. Separation of Church and State could lead to some interesting changes around here as well. I may just look into becoming one of them.

Anyway, I'm off to feed the chickens and cook for Hans.

--Gretel

(This person is fictional.) :)

Bibliography

Kauffman, Daniel. Mennonite History. http://www.anabaptists.org/history/mennohist.html.

Mennolink Books. Confessions of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. http://www.mennolink.org/doc/cof/ .

Photo: Courtesy of www.mennoweekly.org

An engraving from 1736, it portrays a baptismal service in the Singel Mennonite Church in Amsterdam.