Peace churches
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Peace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism or Biblical nonresistance. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches:
- Dunkard Brethren;
- Religious Society of Friends(Quakers); and
- Mennonites, including the Amish, Beachy Amish, Old Order Mennonites, and Conservative Mennonites
In addition to the Schwarzenau Brethren and Mennonites, other Anabaptist Christian fellowships, such as the
This phrase has been used since the first conference of the peace churches in Kansas in 1935.[3][4][5][6][7]
The definition of "peace churches" is sometimes expanded to include Christadelphians (from 1863) and others who did not participate in the conference of the "historic peace churches" in Kansas in 1935.[8]
The peace churches agree that
History
Among all Christian denominations, there have always been groups of members who advocate nonviolence, but certain churches have consistently supported it since their foundation. Besides the three historic peace churches, they include the
In America the first conference of historic peace churches was held in 1935 in Kansas.[3] Five years later in Canada, the Conference of Historic Peace Churches was formed in Ontario in 1940, headed by Harold Sherk to represent Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker churches as they sought exemption from military service.[27]
At one time, active membership in and acceptance of the beliefs of one of the peace churches was required for obtaining
Peace churches, especially those with sufficient financial and organizational resources, have attempted to heal the ravages of war without favoritism. This has often aroused controversy, as when the Quakers sent large shipments of food and medicine to
are two charitable denominational agencies set up to provide such healing.In the 1980s, the Quakers, Brethren, and Mennonites came together to create
Other Christian pacifist groups
Christadelphians, 1863
The
Doukhobors
The
Holiness Pacifists
The
We feel bound explicitly to avow our unshaken persuasion that War is utterly incompatible with the plain precepts of our divine Lord and Law-giver, and with the whole spirit of the Gospel; and that no plea of necessity or policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release either individuals or nations for the paramount allegiance which they owe to Him who hath said, "Love your enemies." Therefore, we cannot participate in war (Rom. 12:19), war activities, or compulsory training.[45]
Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1867
Adventists had sought and obtained exemption as conscientious objectors in 1864, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1914 has a long history of noncombatancy service within and outside the military.[46] In practice today, as a pastor from the Seventh-day Adventist church comments in an online magazine run by members of the Seventh-Day Adventist church: "Today in a volunteer army a lot of Adventist young men and women join the military in combat positions, and there are many Adventist pastors electing for military chaplaincy positions, supporting combatants and non-combatants alike. On Veteran’s Day, American churches across the country take time to give honor and respect to those who “served their country,” without any attempt to differentiate how they served, whether as bomber pilots, Navy Seals, or Operation Whitecoat guinea pigs. I have yet to see a service honoring those who ran away to Canada to avoid participation in the senseless carnage of Vietnam in their Biblical pacifism."[47]
Churches of God (7th day)
The different groups evolving under the name
Molokans
The
Partially pacifist groups
Community of Christ
Although non-credal and not explicitly pacifist, the
Churches of Christ
Once containing a relatively large nonviolence faction, Churches of Christ are now more conflicted. Contemporary Churches of Christ, especially those that hold with the teachings of David Lipscomb, tend toward pacifist views.[55] This means that they believe that the use of coercion and/or force may be acceptable for purposes of personal self-defense but that resorting to warfare is not an option open to Christians.
Fellowship of Reconciliation
As noted above, there are peace groups within most mainstream Christian denominations. The Fellowship of Reconciliation was set up as an organization to bring together people in these groups and members of the historic peace churches. In some countries, e.g. the United States, it has broadened its scope to include members of other religions or none, and people whose position is not strictly for nonviolence. However, in other countries (e.g., the United Kingdom) it remains essentially an organization of Christian nonviolence.[56]
See also
- American Friends Service Committee
- Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
- Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America
- Brethren Volunteer Service
- Catholic Worker Movement
- Center on Conscience & War
- Christian pacifism
- Christianity and violence
- Lutherans in Silesia after granted permission from Austrian Habsburgs
- Civilian-based defense
- Civilian Public Service
- Conscription
- Diane Drufenbrock
- Doukhobors
- Jewish Peace Fellowship
- List of pacifist faiths
- List of peace activists
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Mennonite
- Nonconformism
- Nonresistance
- Nonviolence
- Pacifism
- Pax Christi
- Plain people
- Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Act
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Testimony of peace
- Leo Tolstoy
- John Howard Yoder
- Seagoing cowboys
References
- ^ Jones, Charles Edwin (1974). A Guide to the Study of The Holiness Movement. p. 213-314.
- Bruderhof. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
- ^ a b Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites p6 Donald B. Kraybill – 2010 "In 1935, BRETHREN, Mennonites, and Quakers met in North Newton, Kansas, for a conference on peace. The term HISTORIC PEACE CHURCHES was developed at this conference in order to distinguish between the groups' biblically based peaceful ..."
- ^ The Brethren encyclopedia 1983 p608 "The American Civil War brought the peace churches together in combined appeals to government, both in the North and in the South ... This conference used the term historic peace churches as more acceptable to Mennonites than the term pacifist churches because the latter connoted theological liberalism. Called without prior agenda, the three-day meeting concluded with "
- ^ Mark Matthews Smoke jumping on the Western fire line: conscientious objectors p36 – 2006 "CHAPTER TWO The Historic Peace Churches – The three historic peace churches that united to lobby for reforming the treatment of conscientious objectors during World War II shared many religious beliefs, but they also differed in many "
- ^ Speicher, Sara and Durnbaugh, Donald F. (2003), Ecumenical Dictionary: Historic Peace Churches
- ^ G. Kurt Piehler, Sidney Pash The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on 2010 p265 "The Selective Service, in collaboration with the historic peace churches, created Civilian Public Service to provide ... In October 1940, to coordinate administration of the CPS camps, the historic peace churches established the NSBRO. "
- ^ Law review digest 1957 "Among the peace churches may be listed the Mennonite, Brethren, Friends, Christadelphians and Molakans. Other sects having a degree of pacifism in their doctrines include the Seventh Day Adventists, Assemblies of God and Churches of Christ. A more complex situation arises in connection with those registrants who do not base their nonresistant claims on church membership. "
- ^ "The Amish: Massacre at the Amish school in Nickel Mines, PA". Religioustolerance.org. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Religion". Hutterites.org. Archived from the original on 2010-05-11. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Anabaptists Today". Anabaptistchurch.org. 2007-06-20. Archived from the original on 2010-05-13. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Old Order River Brethren". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- Brethren in Christ. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ISBN 0-916035-05-0.
- ^ "Christians & War" (PDF). The Brethren in Christ. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
- ^ "Pacifism and Anastasia's Doukhobor Village". Doukhobor.org. Archived from the original on 2009-12-14. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ISBN 9780761840794.
- ^ "Dunkard Brethren Church". Dunkard Brethren Church. Archived from the original on 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ISBN 0-87178-003-8.
- ^ "Taxonomy of 3 Spiritual Christian groups: Molokane, Pryguny and Dukh-i-zhizniki — books, fellowship, holidays, prophets and songs". Conovaloff, Andrei. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
- ^ "Brethern, Schwenkfelders and Other Plain People". Horseshoe.cc. Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Moravian Peacebuilders". Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- ^ "Essay on Shaker History – Shaker Historic Trail – National Register of Historic Places". Nps.gov. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "PCPJ – Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice". Pcpf.org. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ISBN 978-1-931038-58-4.
- ^ "issue-12-alexander-1". Quaker.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-06. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ISBN 0-313-22565-6.
- ^ "Selective Service System: Fast Facts". Sss.gov. Archived from the original on 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ About CPT | Christian Peacemaker Teams (Speech). Cpt.org. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "History | Christian Peacemaker Teams". Cpt.org. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ Sider, Ron (1984). God's People Reconciling. Mennonite World Conference. Christian Peacemaker Teams. Strasbourg, France. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
What would happen if the Christian church stationed as many praying Christians as the U.S. government has sent armed guerrillas across that troubled border? ... Do we not have as much courage and faith as soldiers?
- ^ Bryan R. Wilson Sects and Society 1961
- ^ Lippey. C. The Christadelphians in North America
- ^ James Irvin Lichti Houses on the sand?: pacifist denominations in Nazi Germany p65 – 2008 -"Albert Merz was executed in Brandenburg military detention prison on April 3, 1941 "
- ^ Norris, Alfred. The Gospel and Strife. Birmingham, UK: Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association.
- ^ Watkins, Peter. War and Politics: The Christian's Duty. Birmingham, UK: Christadelphian Auxiliary Lecturing Society.
- ISBN 9780241279526.
The Doukhobors were a sect who fled southern Russian in 1899 after being persecuted for their religious and political views. Fiercely pacifist, they rejected secular government and ignored the liturgy and procedures of the organized church, believing God resided in each individual rather than in a building or institution.
- ^ Tarasoff, Koozma J.; Conovaloff, Andrei (June 24, 2009). "Historic 1895 Burning of Guns : descriptions, selections and translations". Spirit-Wrestlers.com. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
- ISBN 9780774810319.
- ISBN 9781615927388.
- ^ Manual: First Bible Holiness Church. Muncie: First Bible Holiness Church. 1956. p. 4.
- ^ Discipline of the Reformed Free Methodist Church. The Sound of Trumpet Ministries. 17 March 1960. p. 14.
- Emmanuel Association. 2002. p. 15-17.
- ISBN 978-0-8308-2586-8.
- ^ ISBN 9781610979085.
- ^ Historical Dictionary of Seventh-day Adventists Gary Land
- ^ "Adventist Tomorrow: Militant Pacifism". 25 May 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
- ^ Doctrinal Points of the Church of God (7th Day)
- ^ "Church of God 7th Day".
- ISBN 9781608990535.
Molokan means "Milk Drinker." This name was given the Molokans in Russia by the Orthodox, because they were dissidents from the regular church, led communal lives, and were pacifists.
- ISBN 9781452263373.
The Molokan Russians were an ascetic religious sect of the Russian Orthodox Church that settled in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1904-1906. Their religious ideals included pacifism; indeed, the demands of the Russian draft for the Russian-Japanese War were cited as the cause of their flight from Russia in the first place.
- ^ Communication Services of Community of Christ, Independence Mo. "Community of Christ International Peace Award Honor Roll". Cofchrist.org. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ Communication Services of Community of Christ, Independence Mo. "Community of Christ International Peace Award Nominations". Cofchrist.org. Archived from the original on 2012-07-23. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ "Peace and justice events, issues, action". Archived from the original on 2014-07-22. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
- ^ "Civil Government". Mun.ca. Archived from the original on April 10, 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ Stan Morris; Naomi Bolderhey; Laura Visser. "International Fellowship of Reconciliation". Ifor.org. Archived from the original on 2009-11-29. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
Further reading
- Driver, Juan (1970) How Christians Made Peace With War: Early Christian Understandings of War. Scottdale PA: Herald Press. ISBN 0-8361-3461-3
- (1999) Radical Faith. Scottdale PA: Herald Press. ISBN 0-9683462-8-6
- Friesen, Duane K. (1986) Christian Peacemaking and International Conflict: A Realist Pacifist Perspective. Scottdale: Herald Press. ISBN 0-8361-1273-3
- Lederach, John Paul (1999) The Journey Toward Reconciliation. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press. ISBN 0-8361-9082-3
- Ruth-Heffelbower, Duane (1991) The Anabaptists Are Back: Making Peace in a Dangerous World. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press. ISBN 0-8361-3552-0
- Sider, Ronald (1979) Christ and Violence. Scottdale PA: Herald Press. ISBN 1-57910-656-0
- Sampson, Cynthia (1999) "Religion and Peacebuilding." In Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques; edited by I. William Zartman, and J. Lewis Rasmussen. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press.
- Stievermann, Jan. "A 'Plain, Rejected Little Flock': The Politics of Martyrological Self-Fashioning among Pennsylvania's German Peace Churches, 1739-65." William and Mary Quarterly 66.2 (2009): 287-324. online
- Trocmé, André (1961) Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003. ISBN 1-57075-538-8
- Wink, Walter, ed. (2000) Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 1-57075-315-6
- Van Dyck, Harry R. (1990) Exercise of Conscience: A World War II Objector Remembers. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-584-9
- McGrath, Willam (1980) Why We Are Conscientious Objectors to War. Millersburg, OH: Amish Mennonite Publications.
- Horsch, Joh (1999) The Principle of Nonresistance as Held by the Mennonite Church. Ephrata, PA: Eastern Mennonite Publications.
- Brown, Dale (1985) Biblical Pacifism: A Peace Church Perspective. Elgin, IL: Brethren Press. ISBN 0-87178-108-5
External links
- Historic Peace Churches in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia
- Who are the Historic Peace Churches (HPC)?
- Every Church a Peace Church – organization working to create more peace churches
- Writings on Christian Nonresistance and Pacifism from Anabaptist-Mennonite Sources
- Pacifism And Biblical Nonresistance
- NonResistance.Org
- Cascadia Publishing House – Anabaptist-related publisher of Historic Peace Church materials