I was baptized in the Church of the Brethren and still have family in the Brethren. There has been a change in the pacifistic thinking that I think has been influenced by modern world politics. My mother was a school teacher who taught at a different church than me and my brother went to. In the first grade I was approached by a bully and didn't fight back. He didn't have the heart to hit me very hard, thankfully. But I told my pacifistic, schoolteacher mother about it and she gave me pointers on how to defend myself should it happen again. There was no, "go tell the teacher," or, "just turn the other cheek and he won't fight you." There was a realistic understanding of human nature there and a recognition that sometimes it's best to stick up for yourself.
Today, my mother is with the Lord. But I know my aunts, uncles, and cousins that are still around make those political pacifistic statements that are different from a generation ago. If Anabaptism is catching on, it's not because they have resisted American civil culture. It's because they have embraced it. I think that's why we have seen TV series that seem bent on exposing Anabaptist hypocrisy.
I was baptized in the Church of the Brethren and still have family in the Brethren. There has been a change in the pacifistic thinking that I think has been influenced by modern world politics. My mother was a school teacher who taught at a different church than me and my brother went to. In the first grade I was approached by a bully and didn't fight back. He didn't have the heart to hit me very hard, thankfully. But I told my pacifistic, schoolteacher mother about it and she gave me pointers on how to defend myself should it happen again. There was no, "go tell the teacher," or, "just turn the other cheek and he won't fight you." There was a realistic understanding of human nature there and a recognition that sometimes it's best to stick up for yourself.
ReplyDeleteToday, my mother is with the Lord. But I know my aunts, uncles, and cousins that are still around make those political pacifistic statements that are different from a generation ago. If Anabaptism is catching on, it's not because they have resisted American civil culture. It's because they have embraced it. I think that's why we have seen TV series that seem bent on exposing Anabaptist hypocrisy.
Years ago I read in some Anabaptist reference work that many Anabaptists chose to fight in WWII rather than seek a conscientious objector exemption.
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