The contemporary, creative work of the Gospel

When Kevin and I set out on a learning tour about Anabaptists in Switzerland and Germany, we were prepared to hear stories of persecution and cruel executions. What has surprised me are the stories of ecumenical reconciliation and active love that continue to spring forth from the Anabaptist movement 500 years later.

Alongside the stories of Anabaptists who suffered under the brutality of the church-state are stories of the kindness and love of these followers of Jesus – a movement of active love for God and neighbor that continues into the present and future, transcending the boundaries of religions and nations.

While walking through Basel, we learned about French Reformed pastor and theologian Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563). One of the first proponents of religious tolerance, he argued that the practice of killing “heretics” such as Anabaptists – as well as Muslims and Jews – was wrong. To those in power who believed that there was virtue in killing religious “others,” he famously said:

“To kill a man is not to protect a doctrine, but to kill a man.”

The witness of reconciliation. In Schleitheim, we met Reformed pastor and historian Doris Brodbeck and her husband, who pastors the local parish. When they moved to Schleitheim 17 years ago, Doris learned about the Anabaptist leaders who came together in that small town near the Swiss-German border to create the Schleitheim Confession, which was the first effort of Anabaptists to disseminate how to live out their faith. (At the local museum, we saw one of the two extant copies of an early edition of that confession. The other copy is at Goshen College, in the Mennonite Historical Library.)

Doris was inspired to organize an ecumenical group of civic leaders to create the Anabaptist Path (Täuferweg) that ascends from Schleitheim, tracing the forested routes that Anabaptists used as they fled arrest. At the top of a hill, surrounded by a meadow of wildflowers, is the Täuferstein (Anabaptist Stone), a granite sculpture that honors the legacy of Anabaptists in Schleitheim, including Michael Sattler. Doris is not an Anabaptist, but she is working to ensure that the Anabaptist story and witness are known and honored today.