#anabaptist — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #anabaptist, aggregated by home.social.
-
It’s in the Blood
In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:
“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”
So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.
More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.
At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.
While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.
My point is quite simple.
Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.
For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?
Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.
The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.
The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.
Then the killing begins.
The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.
And any one of a million other combinations.
STOP!
Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.
We are made in the image of God.
ALL of us.
And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.
It’s in the blood.
July 28, 2014
#anabaptist #AnabaptistTheology #Antiwar #Blood #Bloodism #ChristOurFortress #ChristianEthics #ChristianPacifism #ChristianReflection #Discipleship #DivineDNA #enemy #enemyLove #faithAndViolence #HereAreSomeWordPressTagsThatFitThePostMennoSimons #HumanBlood #humanDignity #imageOfGod #imagoDei #ItSInTheBlood #JesusAndNonviolence #killing #kingdomOfGod #LoveYourEnemy #MennoSimons #mennonite #MennonitePeaceWitness #Nonviolence #Patience #peace #peaceTheology #Peacebuilding #Peacemaking #reflection #religion #SacredLife #SermonReflection #TheFoundation #theologyOfPeace #thoughts #Violence #war #WarAndPeace #WordOfGod #Writing -
This 500th anniversary of the founding of the #Anabaptist movement (from which the Mennonites, Brethern, Amish, and realted traditions sprung forth --- and that were theological cousins of the early Baptists) is all the more important to me this year, because of what happened yesterday in this nation. I'm grateful that the Anabaptist tradition is very clear that we do not kiss the ring, we do not bow the knee to the empire, ever.
This is one of the reasons I treasure my connections to this tradition.
One detail of my religious journey that many do not know, is that I chose to become Jewish through the Humanistic movement primarily because it was (and as far as I know still is), the only Jewish movement that is open to biereligous converts (those who are seeking to become Jewish, while still maintaining connections to another tradition). I had fallen in love with #Judaism (thankfully a passion that still is with me 10 years later), but I also loved the Mennonites, particularly its strong belief in the moral imperative of peace (or rather the Hebrew concept of Shalom which is far more than the cessation of hostility but also has the connotations of harmony, equity, and wholeness), a belief that #nationalism is just another form of idolatry, and the power of simple living (even though I do a lousy job of living this out). In other words, at its best moments, the #Mennonite / Anabaptist tradition provides a critical witness against the values of the American Empire through its focus on the ethical earthly teachings of Jesus.
I am grateful that I was able to find a path to embracing Judaism that did not require me to leave my Mennonite values out.
And so I say, Happy 500th birthday to the Anabaptist movement! And thank you to #HumanisticJudaism for giving me a way to be true to my #bireligoius values.
(graphic from Druhart on FB)