AMERICAN MENNONITES & SOME HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS

1) AMERICAN MENNONITES INFO.
Mennonites, who number over 340,000 in several denominations—making up 43 percent of all American Anabaptists—may be the most diverse group of all. Some migrated from Germany and Switzerland starting in 1683, while others hail from 19th-century Holland and Russia... Many Mennonites have embraced modern technology and evangelical forms of Protestant Christianity, but fully 30 percent of them hold, in some form, to traditional ways.

Old Order Mennonites, who comprise about 7 percent of the Mennonite population, have many of the marks of Amish traditionalists—rejection of higher education and technology, rural and separatist living. But even Old Orders themselves disagree over whether they can drive cars, and they have thus suffered divisions. On the other end, those belonging to the largest denominational body, the Mennonite Church, construct churches in urban and cosmopolitan areas as well as rural countryside, and few retain any vestiges of plain dress... Other Mennonite bodies include the Mennonite Brethren Church, the Evangelical Mennonite Church, and the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite.

Unlike Amish and traditional Brethren, Mennonite men have not traditionally worn beards. They have argued that a beard is a mark of fallen man after Adam’s sin. Others do not wish to be associated with the modern hippy movement, and still others have argued that the beard would associate them with other plain people lacking any spiritual depth. One man simply objected, “Half the sincere Christians I know don’t have beards. They’re women!”

SOURCE: Gertz, Steven. Outsider’s Guide to America’s Anabaptists
Fall 2004. Christian History & Biography

2) DROWNED ANABAPTISTS
…[T]he first zealous Anabaptists (“re-baptizers”—the term of reproof used by their enemies) could not have foreseen the magnitude of the ensuing persecution. The purge would start almost immediately at the hands of their teacher, Zwingli, and the Zurich city council, and by the end of the 16th century would wipe out some 2,500 of their brethren in the Low Countries—by burning, drowning (fitting, felt their persecutors, for those who insisted on baptism by immersion), and cruel tortures.

SOURCE: Armstrong, Chris & Jeff Bach. A People of Conscience
Fall 2004. Christian History. Movements & Traditions

Comment: Thank God that we enjoy religious freedom in this country. We made get angry at other views, but we don't have to worry about anger escalating into violence of the magnitude seen in the past. Religious differences does not override the command, "Love your neighbor as yourself."