Since 1990 or so, many of us have been aware of Amish and Old Order Mennonites moving into the area. The general name for Amish and Mennonite groups, and others, such as Church of the Brethren, is Anabaptists. These include “modern” people with business dress, advanced degrees, and jobs in finance, commerce, the professions, or high technology.
*Then there are groups often referred to as “Old Order” — the Amish, and those Mennonite groups that, like the Amish, maintain plain dress and abstain from most modern technology.
*All Anabaptists trace back to the turmoil of the Reformation… traditional date 500 years in November. Believing that Biblical baptism was the declaration of a mature commitment, they rejected the infant baptism that they had all received at birth, and baptized each other anew, sometimes right in the town fountain — Anabaptist means rebaptizer. They walked away from the churches practicing infant baptism (which was just about all of them), and started their own.
*Taking the teaching of Jesus both literally and seriously, they refused to swear oaths. They insisted that government had no legitimate power of compulsion in religious matters. They also refused to take up the sword, and adopted a non-resistant lifestyle, saying it was better to suffer wrong than to give it. The classic example was Dirk Willems, fleeing for his life across the ice when his nearest pursuer fell through. Dirk Willems returned, pulled the man from the ice, was captured, and was burned at the stake for the crime of being an Anabaptist.
*However, this non-resistance is not simply a passive thing; it is equally an active approach to life. In 1948 Eastern Mennonite College became one of the first two southern colleges to integrate racially. An even more modern example would be the West Nickel Mines school shooting in Pennsylvania in 2006, when a gunman barged into an Amish school where he killed five girls and wounded five more before killing himself. Members of the Amish community immediately… that day… went to the gunman’s family to extend their love and concern for THAT family’s suffering. Thirty Amish attended the gunman’s funeral. The Amish set up a charitable fund to assist the family of the killer.
*This has limits, when it goes beyond an offense to Anabaptists. When Dr. Myron Augsburger was growing up on a farm, their “English” neighbor was fiercely angry that people were stealing crops from the Augsburgers, but Mr. Augsburger refused to take any action — non-resistance. One day when the Augsbugers were off the neighbor spotted the thieves out in the field, fired a shotgun blast over their heads, or ordered them all to sit down, holding them prisoner until the Augsburgers returned. Mr. Augsburger told the neighbor to put up his gun and let them come out.
*It turned out, though, that one of the thieves was the sheriff. Starting that moment Mr. Augusburger dedicated himself, successfully, to having that sheriff thrown out of office at the next election — not because he had stolen from the Augsburgers, but because he had betrayed the trust of the entire community, and was not fit to hold public office, especially as a law enforcer.
*At 4 PM Friday, September 8, I’ll be doing a non-intrusive presentation on the history of Amish and Mennonites for Steuben County Historical Society. The presentation at Bath fire hall is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there.