How A Persecuted Sixteenth Century Movement Championed Religious Freedom

Anna Jansz on the way to her execution. Etching by Jan Luiken from the Martyrs Mirror, 1685

The following was published as an op ed piece in today's Daily News-Record:

"If I want kinship with my Anabaptist ancestors, I know where to look: in prison."

- title of an article by Melissa Florer-Bixler in the January 2025 issue of The Christian Century

This January marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Swiss Anabaptist movement to which Mennonites and related groups trace their origin. Along with preaching non-violence and a refusal to engage in warfare, Anabaptists (rebaptizers) were influential in promoting the kind of freedom of religion we take for granted today. They simply acted on the conviction that following Jesus meant never using force or coercion, especially in matters of faith.

All of us who believe governments should never determine whether or what kind of faith we are to live by, or rule on what scripture texts or prayers are to be mandated in state funded schools or institutions, owe our gratitude to this once reviled and persecuted group.

For background, on a fateful night of January 21, 1525, a dozen or more like minded believers, mostly young adults, met in the home of Felix Manz, age 26, in Zurich for Bible study and prayer in defiance of a state enforced law forbidding religious gatherings held without official church approval.

The meeting proved to be a watershed event. In defying a law they believed to be wrong, members of the group baptized each other, a revolutionary act igniting the spread of  a free church movement that spread rapidly everywhere in both Catholic and Protestant jurisdictions in western Europe. Their courage also influenced groups like the Moravians, Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, Brethren and countless other later communities of faith. 

Today all major U.S. denominations, Catholic and Protestant alike, affirm and celebrate the freedom later enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

To sixteenth century Christian nation states, this would have been considered heresy, an existential threat to Christendom itself.

Thus two church movements emerged in Zurich, the state supported Swiss Reformed (Protestant) church that met in spacious sanctuaries like Zurich's Grossmünster Cathedral, and an underground movement that met in homes, barns, caves, and other places to avoid detection and arrest. And since the baptism of infants was a part of every person being registered as a citizen of the state, not being officially christened affected many other rights, including land ownership and having ones marriage being recognized as valid.

In Melissa Florer-Bixler's recent article in the Christian Century she quotes from the Martyr's Mirror, a volume with over 1000 pages of accounts of Anabaptists martyrs, the words of Anna Jansz, who in the face of her execution for her faith wrote the following in a letter she left for her young son:

But where you hear of a poor, simple, cast-off little flock, which is despised and rejected by the world, join them; for where you hear of the cross, there is Christ. . . . Honor the Lord in the works of your hands, and let the light of the Gospel shine through you. Love your neighbor. Deal with an open, warm heart your bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and do not tolerate having two of anything, because there are always those who are in need.

Menno Simons, a Catholic priest in Friesland who a decade later became an influential leader in the free church movement, lived with a price on his head and knew first hand the sacrifices made by those who risked their lives for their radical beliefs. In 1554 he wrote the following defense in a booklet called “The Cross of the Saints”:

… that we are disobedient to the magistracy in things to which they are ordained of God, this will never be found to be true—I mean in matters pertaining to dikes, roads, waterways, tax, tolls, tribute, etc.. But if they wish to rule and lord it above Christ Jesus… according to their whim, this we do not grant them. We would rather sacrifice possessions and life than knowingly to sin against Jesus Christ and his holy Word for the sake of any man, be he emperor or king.

Few of us may be prepared to be so bold in defending the right and the responsibility each of us has in matters of faith. But we are forever indebted to members of a movement in which adherents gave up everything to claim that right for generations to come.

First "Justice Matters" Column Published Today

For those of you who are not subscribers, the following was published as a Viewpoint piece in the January 24 edition of our local paper, the first of a series of monthly "Justice Matters" columns by the Valley Justice Coalition:

We should expand college access to incarcerated people 

- by Debra E. Turner

Did you know Pell Grants are available to incarcerated individuals in Virginia?

Pell Grants, which cover full tuition at public two-year schools and a portion of the cost at four-year schools, can help incarcerated students pay for tuition, fees, books, and supplies. The money goes directly to the academic institution and must not be repaid.

The reason this matters is education programs in prisons can help reduce recidivism and increase employment rates for ex-offenders. In fact, education in prison can reduce recidivism by about 15% and increase employment rates for ex-offenders by about 7%.

Although incarcerated people have been eligible for Pell Grants since July 2023, after a federal ban that lasted nearly 30 years, only about 600 Virginia inmates are currently using the grants.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP) is working to expand access to higher education in Virginia prisons. The VICPP is involving stakeholders across education, corrections, justice-impacted, employers, and legislators in a consensus-building process

“College programs in prisons and in jails were relatively normal. It was understood. It wasn’t a boutique,” says Terri Erwin, liaison to higher education for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, a statewide public policy advocacy organization. The passage of the 1994 Crime Bill “wrecked the business model for schools. It speaks to how important Pell is as a driver in making it possible for colleges to do what I think plenty of them want to do and will want to do, and that incarcerated people would benefit from.”

In 2015, with the 1990s “tough on crime” era in the rearview mirror, the U.S. Education Department requested colleges to begin rebuilding the pre-1994 model through the Second Chance Pell Grant Experiment. Last year, under the Free Application for Federal Student Aid  Simplification Act of 2020, the doors opened again for incarcerated people to apply for Pell grants (23 community colleges in Virginia).

The Virginia Legislature has also taken action to expand the use of Pell Grants in Virginia prisons with Pell Initiative for Virginia. The PIV is a program funded by the Virginia Legislature to increase the number of Pell Grant-eligible students enrolled in state-supported colleges and universities. The PIV requires annual reports that include data on the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Pell-eligible students.

The Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prison is another group working to expand higher education opportunities in prison. The group is calling for the University of Virginia to create a pathway to a bachelor’s degree for Piedmont Virginia Community College students.

Pell Grants are also available to incarcerated students. As of fall 2024, incarcerated students across the country have access to federal Pell Grant funds for the first time in a generation. This change was made possible by the FAFSA Simplification Act, which reauthorized the Pell Grant program through 2034.

Only 11 of Virginia’s 45 prisons offer college classes, but about 14,000 incarcerated people in Virginia prisons have access to Pell Grants.

You must submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form to apply for a Pell Grant, and fill out the FAFSA form every year to remain eligible.

Debra Turner is a legislative advisor for the Valley Justice Coalition. Monthly Justice Matters columns are provided by members of the VJC, a local citizen voice for criminal justice reform in our community and in the Commonwealth since 2104.  https://www.vjcharrisonburg.org/

Celebrating A Movement Few Of Us Would Join

 

"If I want kinship with my Anabaptist ancestors, I know where to look: in prison."

- title of an article by Melissa Florer-Bixler in the January 2025 issue of The Christian Century

This month marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Swiss Anabaptist movement to which Mennonites and related groups who practice voluntary believers baptism trace their origin. Along with promoting non-violence and a refusal to engage in warfare, it led to the the spread of the freedom of religion we take for granted today.

Ironically, few of us celebrating the January 21, 1525, gathering in which radical young revolutionaries received adult baptism would be willing to put their own lives at risk in the way some 4000 or more Anabaptist ("rebaptizers") did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of these were disciples of the Zurich reformer Ulrich Zwingli, who himself had considered some of the very views he found himself too cautious to implement without gaining the consent of the Zurich city council.

Thus two church movements emerged in Zurich, the state supported Swiss Reformed (Protestant) church that met in beautiful sanctuaries like Zurich's Grossmünster Cathedral, and an underground movement that met in homes, barns, caves, and other places to avoid detection and arrest. The former were able to enjoy a relatively safe and prosperous life, the latter were subject to arrest, torture, imprisonment, deportation, disenfranchisement and execution for their faith. Since the baptism of infants was also a form of registration as citizens of the state, undocumented residents were often unable to hold title to property and frequently had their children taken from them to be baptized and raised as members of the state church in their jurisdiction, whether Reformed, Lutheran or Catholic.

Most of us would be inclined to quietly go along with the majority of our fellow citizens in order to keep ourselves and our families safe.  And for the most part, North American Mennonite and other religious groups have been able to do just that for the past several centuries, by becoming "the quiet in the land."

In Melissa Florer-Bixler's recent article in the Christian Century she quotes from the Martyr's Mirror the words of Anna Jansz, who in the face of her execution for her faith wrote the following words in a letter she left for her young son. Her spiritual descendants need to hear and heed them as well:

But where you hear of a poor, simple, cast-off little flock, which is despised and rejected by the world, join them; for where you hear of the cross, there is Christ. . . . Honor the Lord in the works of your hands, and let the light of the Gospel shine through you. Love your neighbor. Deal with an open, warm heart your bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and do not tolerate having two of anything, because there are always those who are in need.

We should all pray for the courage to be a part of the kind of "poor, simple, cast off little flock" of Jesus followers who, like their Master, gave their all for their faith. Or we can remain comfortable mainstream members of congregations that are more like the established and respected churches that opposed them.

2025: Overcoming Phobias And Irrational Fears

Barlis authors one of many good books
on how to overcome irrational fears.

Phobia is the ancient Greek word for fear, but today we mainly use the term to describe an extreme or irrational fear of something most people would not see as at all dangerous or life threatening. 

For example, claustrophobia is a fear of being in a closed in space like a closet or an elevator. Agoraphobia is an irrational fear of being in crowds, buses, planes, tunnels or bridges, especially places where one may fear being trapped or unable to escape. Glossophobia is an irrational fear of speaking in public, something some 40% of people deal with.

Rational fears are God-given gifts that can serve as a kind of alarm system to alert us to actual danger, but phobias can cause undue distress and anxiety and can be debilitating. Most of us have some irrational ones that we would clearly be better off without. 

Among mine is the fear of diving headfirst off a diving board, something many can do without the slightest hesitation. Another is an aversion to touching snakes or certain kinds of rodents, like rats for example, or even mice. Fortunately, these are things I can normally avoid without their causing me any problems.

But if the only job I could find to provide for myself and my family was to serve as a lifeguard, or to work in a pet shop where I would need to handle pet snakes and rodents, I do know what I would need to do to overcome my phobia. 

First, it's helpful to remember that all of us have already overcome multiple irrational fears since we were young. Some examples may be the fear of being alone in a house, to venture out alone in the dark, to get on a school bus and go to school for the first time, to drive on a public road or an interstate, or to travel by plane. We know, rationally, that all of these things can be considered safe, since the likelihood of being in an airline crash, as a case in point, is statistically far less than having a fatal accident on your way to and from the airport.

The steps in overcoming any or all irrational fears are actually quite simple, but can be far from easy. We need to first name and acknowledge the phobia, picture the desired fear-free outcome, then take deliberate steps toward them and refuse to move away from them or avoid them. 

In the case of the fear of handling a snake in a pet shop, we might take the following steps:

1) Spend considerable time observing a harmless snake in its cage and gain an ability to maintain calm while imagining no longer being afraid of handling it.

2. Take time to observe someone else holding a snake, again imagining yourself having the same ability to do so without fear.

3. Repeatedly touch the snake while someone else is holding it, then have someone else hold the head end of the reptile while you hold the other end.

4. Have the other person remain present while you hold the snake by yourself, then release it and retrieve it yourself.

5. Repeat as often as needed, and with ever larger reptiles!

I can assure you this kind of step by step "desensitization" works. Remember, each of us has already overcome multiple fears through gradually moving ever closer to them rather than away from them, although we may not have always have been conscious of the steps we were taking. 

Unless you have examophobia (yes, that's a thing) you might enjoy taking this quiz: https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/fears-quiz

Let's Stop Killing People For Killing People (Or For Any Other Reason)

If we were truly a Christian nation, we would be asking questions like "For whom would the crucified Jesus seek the death penalty?"
(Wikipedia map)

President-elect Donald Trump recently addressed one of his Christmas post to the "Radical Left Lunatics who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the  United States but in particular, their Political Opponent, ME." 

In the post he falsely claims that "Sleepy Joe Biden" pardoned death row prisoners (Biden did commute the sentences of 37 convicted murderers to "life without the possibility of parole" but did not in fact pardon them).

Trump goes on to say, "I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky 'souls' but instead will say, GO TO H___!"

I'm not sure Trump, while continuing to promote his $59.99 Bibles, actually claims to be a Christian, but I can't help comparing his words to those of 16th century reformer Menno Simons, who wrote the following to the professed Christian rulers of his day: 

"It would hardly become a true Christian ruler to shed blood, for this reason: If the transgressor should truly repent before God and be reborn of him, he would then also be a chosen saint and child of God, a fellow partaker of God's grace, a spiritual member of Christ's body... (F)or such an one to be hanged from the gallows, put on the wheel, placed on the stake, or in any manner be hurt in body or goods by another Christian...would look somewhat strange and unbecoming in light of the compassionate, merciful, kind nurture, disposition, spirit and example of Christ... which example he has commanded all his chosen children to follow. Again, if he remain impenitent, and his life be taken, one would unmercifully rob him of the time of repentance of which, if his life were spared, he might yet avail himself."    

                                - The Complete Writings of Menno Simons, pp. 920-21

Thousands of 16th and 17th century "free church" believers (nicknamed Anabaptists, meaning re-baptizers), of whom Simons was a respected leader, were victims of capital punishment. Many of their stories, of being drowned, burned at the stake, beheaded and otherwise tortured and condemned to death by both Catholic and Protestant state church authorities, are recorded in the over 1150-page "Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians." Their primary crimes were to insist on the right and responsibility of everyone to make a personal choice to align themselves with a community of faith of their choice and to avoid the use of violence to impose their will on others by force or by military means.

Since that time, both the Roman Catholic church and most mainline Christian denominations have officially opposed the death penalty. Many of today's evangelical and fundamentalist churches, however, strongly defend the practice.

The Blessing We All Long For

Isaac Blessing Jacob, a 1635 painting by Matthias Stom.
(Wikipedia)

One of the saddest stories in the Hebrew Bible is that of Isaac's son Esau, who returns from a hunting trip eager to prepare his father’s favorite meal in celebration of the blessing he is about to receive as his oldest son. 

Tragically, he finds that Isaac, his aging and almost blind father, has been tricked into giving the coveted blessing to his younger brother Jacob. 

When Isaac realizes he was conned, he "trembles violently," knowing that the birthright blessing, once given, can never be revoked. 

Esau, beyond devastated, let’s out a loud, agonizing cry, weeps bitterly, and begs, “Oh bless me too, my father!”

Isaac laments, “ Your brother has deceived me, and has taken your blessing.”

Esau responds, “Isn’t that why he’s called Jacob (supplanter)? He’s taken me twice now, he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing. Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

The patriarchal blessing is a big deal, like a lifetime of Christmses and birthdays rolled into one. It involves inheriting property as well as authority and power. and is validation and celebration of the eldest son’s special place in the family line.

While that kind of blessing may not be what we long for today, the primal need for the blessing of our fathers and our mothers and from other significant people in our lives, remains a powerful one, the need for unconditional love and embrace. Bestselling authors Gary Smalley and John Trent, write about this in their book The Blessinge:

Children desperately need to know - and to hear in ways they understand and remember - that they're loved and valued by mom and dad.

Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child's life and it's like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.

I was fortunate having a father who was a genuinely good man, generous to a fault, and never intentionally hurtful in any way. In many ways I'm in awe of him, but he grew up in a home in which his father became a widower for the third time when his third wife, my father’s mother, died in childbirth when my dad was only 3 years old. His grief-stricken father, my grandfather Dan, was unable to say "I love you" or to hug or praise my father or the rest of his six older siblings.

My father did impart to me his heart for those who are hurting and his good example as a person of integrity and generosity, and I got from him much more than he had ever received from his grief stricken father, whom he described as “a man of sorrows.” 

What he wasn’t able to give me, given his family upbringing and the the Swiss-German culture he grew up in, was the ability to  embrace me and tell me he loved me, and spend much one-on-one father and son time with me when I was a child, even though I believe he did the best he knew. And we did form a closer bond later in life, and learned to hug and express appreciation for each other.

I wrote a journal letter to him some years ago that was something in the mode of Esau’s “Bless me too my father,” addressed "Dear Dad," in which I told him how much I loved him and how much I had always longed for his spoken words of love and affirmation. I followed this with a journal letter of response and blessing from him, addressed "Dear Harvey," with words I truly believed in my heart he would have responded with, if he could have, from the other side of the grave. This was a truly powerful part of the journaling exercise, the wished for letter that expressed what I was sure would have come from deep inside of this genuinely good man. 

I suspect most of us, at some level, understand the heart cry of Esau, “Bless me, too, my father, and my mother,” as a wish for filling whatever hole in the soul we may still find within us.

I’ll never forget an experience I had attending a week at the Wellspring Retreat Center (after my parents had both passed) sponsored by the Church of the Savior, a Washington, DC, based ministry founded by Gordon Cosby, an elder churchman, writer and fatherly figure I had always admired. I’ve long forgotten what he spoke about in the one session in which he was present, but I’ll never forget what happened to me after he spoke and was leaving the room. While turning around to make a few more comments he, for whatever reason, laid his hands on my shoulders as he stood next to my chair by the aisle, unintentionally imparting what felt like a blessing on me. I can still feel the warmth, the affirmation, the confirmation associated with that simple gesture.

In light of my own longing for this kind of grace I’ve collected words of blessings over the years from many sources, many of which I’ve shared with members of our family and others over the years:

One of these is the blessing an aged Jacob gives his son Joseph, along with those he gives his older brothers. Has Jacob's night long wrestling with God, his later act of repentance and reparation with his brother Esau, made him a changed man? 

Here's the blessing he imparts his next to youngest son:

"You are a fruitful vine,

a fruitful vine near a spring,

whose branches climb over a wall.

With bitterness archers attacked you;

But your bow remained steady

your arms remained limber,

because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob,

because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

because of your fathers’ God, who helps you,

because of the Almighty, who blesses you,

with the blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep that lies below,

blessings of the breast and womb.

Your father's blessings are greater

than the blessings of the ancient mountains,

than the bounty of the age-old hills.

Let all these rest on your head,

may continual blessing rest on your brow."

(Genesis 49:22-26)

Has The Christmas Story Overshadowed The Rest Of The Jesus Narrative?

Adoration of the Shepherds by 17th century Dutch painter 
Matthias Stomer (Wikipedia)

Christmas has become one of the most widely celebrated holidays of all time. From the pagan and crassly commercial manifestations of the December event to the many profoundly sacred and sublime celebrations of it, its impact on the world has become huge.

Meanwhile, some have questioned whether we should observe the holiday at all, given the extent to which it has been highjacked by commercial interests whose mission is totally counter to that of the one whose birth is supposedly being celebrating. 

Others make the case that the Nativity story has gotten a disproportionate amount of attention compared to what we typically give to the rest of Jesus' earthly life and ministry. They remind us that only two of the four New Testament gospels even have brief accounts of Jesus' birth, while all give extensive space to his healing and teaching work, and each devotes whole chapters to Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection.

By comparison, our church's newest Voices Together hymnal, not unlike those of other denominations, has all of 52 hymns under the heading of Advent and Christmas, 50 under Journey to the Cross (Lent), and Jesus' Death, and Resurrection, and only 23 hymns on the theme of Life, Teaching and Ministry of Jesus. Many other hymns contain elements of all of these themes, of course.

As another example, the Apostles' Creed, after affirming the heavenly origin of Jesus, makes no reference at all to his earthly ministry, going directly from "born of the Virgin Mary" to "suffered under Pontius Pilate." (See https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2014/10/guest-post-anabaptist-comma.html)

Having said that, there is something compelling and powerful about Jesus coming as a powerless infant rather than an omnipotent monarch.

Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary professor Ted Koontz, in a piece entitled, “Why did God come to us as a baby?” makes the point that while we see newborns as helpless and weak, a baby in fact has significant power. For example, a baby can wake parents in the middle of the night from a deep sleep, get them out of bed and respond to their needs when they would be willing to get up for few other reasons.

Yet, he notes, this cry of a baby represents a power to which we can respond or choose not to. It can profoundly move us, but at the same time it in no way forces us to do anything or robs us of our freedom. Some people might in fact be able to sleep on, oblivious to a baby’s cry. But there is something in our very natures that makes us want to respond. To refuse to do so would be to refuse to be who we know ourselves to be down deep.

This is an important part of the incarnation story, that the kind of divine call that comes to us in the form of “baby power” is the way God chooses to move us. It makes clear that God prefers the soft power of persuasion and invitation over than the hard power of violence and dominance.

In response, millions have acknowledged the Holy Child as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” as one who rules from a lowly manger and a martyr's cross rather than from a monarch's throne.

Oh, the magnitude of meekness!

Worth from worth immortal sprung!

Oh, the strength of infant weakness,

If eternal is so young.

- Christopher Smart, 1765 (from Voices Together #266, Who Is This Stupendous Stranger?)

Merry Christmas! (Note: The Anglo-Saxon origin of the word merry denotes "valiant," "illustrious," "great," or "gallant", as in Shakespeare's "a merry gale" referring to "a strong wind")