Anabaptists and the Christian Left

Yoder777 · Dec 18, 2010

There are Christians on the left today like Jim Wallis who claim to base their politics on John Howard Yoder and other Anabaptists. Are Yoder and other Anabaptists more left than right or are they beyond left and right? Can an Anabaptist vote Republican?

WayneinMaine · Dec 18, 2010

Yoder777 said:
There are Christians on the left today like Jim Wallis who claim to base their politics on John Howard Yoder and other Anabaptists. Are Yoder and other Anabaptists more left than right or are they beyond left and right? Can an Anabaptist vote Republican?

Can an Anabaptist vote?

Yoder777 · Dec 18, 2010

WayneinMaine said:
Can an Anabaptist vote?

I've read in several articles that many Amish vote Republican. I personally stopped voting after I had read The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy and The Politics of Jesus by John Yoder.

WayneinMaine · Dec 18, 2010

Yoder777 said:
I've read in several articles that many Amish vote Republican. I personally stopped voting after I had read The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy and The Politics of Jesus by John Yoder.

Voting is not very common among Amish, or so I have been told.

MrJim · Dec 19, 2010

The Mennonite Church I was member (late 80s) had a strong right-wing politically conservative element, a weaker but vocal left-wing politically liberal element, and the older traditional parents that couldn't figure out what happened to their children lol...

The right-wing folks would have been very much at home in a Southern Baptist church; I think they feel they are doing their part to make their menno church relevant to society.

The left-wing folks would have been very much at home in most any liberal church; I think they feel they are doing their part to make their menno church relevant to society.

The older folks are dying off and mostly all gone now....

My limited experience with anabaptism is that it is up to each individual to find out what works out best for them and then sit and judge others for not measuring up

<<...yeah Wayne I still lurk through MD on a daily basis...>>

Yoder777 · Dec 19, 2010

For the record, I haven't voted since 2004, when I voted a straight ticket for the Democratic Party. I haven't voted ever since I read the Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy and The Politics of Jesus by John Yoder.

Though I am technically not an Anabaptist, my theology is more Anabaptist than it is liberal Protestant or conservative evangelical, and the Anabaptist movement doesn't easily fit into either of these categories.

MrJim · Dec 19, 2010

Yoder777 said:
For the record, I haven't voted since 2004, when I voted a straight ticket for the Democratic Party. I haven't voted ever since I read the Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy and The Politics of Jesus by John Yoder.

Though I am technically not an Anabaptist, my theology is more Anabaptist than it is liberal Protestant or conservative evangelical, and the Anabaptist movement doesn't easily fit into either of these categories.

What sort of congregation/denom are you attending now?

Yoder777 · Dec 19, 2010

MrJim said:
What sort of congregation/denom are you attending now?

The Salvation Army.

MrJim · Dec 19, 2010

Yoder777 said:
The Salvation Army.

Yoder777 · Dec 19, 2010

Of the churches in my area, the Salvation Army is closest to Anabaptist teaching, especially that saving faith is faith that works.

WayneinMaine · Dec 19, 2010

Yoder777 said:
Of the churches in my area, the Salvation Army is closest to Anabaptist teaching, especially that saving faith is faith that works.

That's quite interesting. Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof Communities, was influenced as a young boy by the Salvation Army - bothe in its social work and evangelical / revivalist type theology.

childofdust · Dec 20, 2010

Yoder777 said:
There are Christians on the left today like Jim Wallis who claim to base their politics on John Howard Yoder and other Anabaptists. Are Yoder and other Anabaptists more left than right or are they beyond left and right? Can an Anabaptist vote Republican?

An Anabaptist would vote Republican or Democrat if they have been assimilated into Protestantism or if they are only seeking their own self-interests. Both left and right are not merely concepts one holds to, but involve political will and purpose. Anabaptists are classically and traditionally against political will and purpose because we learned something from what we see as the failure of Protestantism: if one seeks to unite the will of the church and the will of the state, it ends up corrupting both. If it were otherwise (so we believe) then the Protestants who left the Catholic church to Reform the mess that the union of church and state previously created would either have achieved the proper church-influenced state or an uncorrupted state-influenced church. When we saw Reformer Christians using the power of the state to further their faith or using their faith to further the state, and both for the fixing of the errors of the past, was that the reality we experienced? We watched our own people being oppressed and slaughtered. We saw those who held a different faith from that which was officially sanctioned become oppressed or slaughtered. We saw the believers faith and devotion to Christ compromised for the sake of the state and its justice, power, or authority.

General Mung Beans · Jan 11, 2011

Speaking of Mr. Yoder why does he call the concept of the State imposing the Church on all "Constantinism"? Constantine simply tolerated Christianity and did not make it the state religion forcing everyone to believe it-that was Theodorious I think.

Anabaptists and the Christian Left

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