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Contrasts American religious liberty as both relief from Catholic oppression and from coercion by other Protestants, then considers Methodist contexts in 18th-century England and legal ambiguities around dissent and toleration.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/","Religion & 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Atonement\n\nReligious Liberty,Past and Present:A Conversationwith Mennonite and United Methodist Histories  \n                                    By Yvonne C.Zimmerman  \nto baptize infants or to serve in the militia,or in any positionof social,civil,or political governance,was quite literallyanti-social.It was something like refusing to get a socialsecurity number,to pay any taxes,or to immunize one'schildren,all wrapped into one.Chief among the problemswith calling for the separation of church and state in the 16thcentury was that the church and state were not particularlyseparate at the time,and therefore refusals such as theseconstituted a serious and threatening,social,political,andreligious critique.In these and other ways,Christians of theAnabaptist tradition were advocates of the separation ofchurch and state long before such a separation was in vogue.Nevertheless,Anabaptists accepted the political fallout oftheir religious practices,including charges of political treasonand religious heresy.Many individuals,and almost everyAnabaptist community,paid a high price as many memberswent willingly,some even joyfully to torturous deaths.  \ny reflections combine two perspectives on religiousliberty.For more than ten generations the denom-inational tradition of my family has been Mennonite,while the denomination of my graduate education and myemployment is United Methodist.Today,Mennonite andUnited Methodist perspectives on religious liberty are notterribly different,but each has a unique history that informsthe respective routes taken to arrive at this relatively commonground.This essay explores how these histories shape andinform my perspective on religious freedom and what itmeans to put this value into practice in a way that bears wit-ness to the lessons the past can teach.  \nMennonites  \nThe Anabaptists were part of the 16th century Reformationmovements-movements in which religious liberty,freedomof conscience,and the separation of church and state werecentral issues.In addition to practicing adult baptism,by1540 there was wide consensus among most Anabaptists thatChristians should refuse to participate in violence.Churchleader Menno Simons explained,\"They who are baptizedinwardly with Spirit and fire,and externally with water,according to the Word of the Lord,have no weapons exceptpatience,hope,silence,and God’s Word”(Third Way Café,“Who Are the Mennonites?:Pacifism”).Anabaptists cameto be guided by Jesus'injunction to,\"Resist not evil,\"un-derstanding these words to command separation from theworld,and refusal to be involved in its governance.  \nMost Anabaptist groups renounced recourse to violenceand self-defense,but they were not averse to re-location.Itwas the possibility of relief from persecution that initiallylured many Mennonites to the American continent.Fleeingreligious persecution in the old country,my ancestors on mymother's side of the family,the Brubakers,were amongthose colonial settlers who were deeded land by WilliamPenn in what is now the state of Pennsylvania.And lest weassume that it was primarily the Catholic Church that sought  \ncontinued on page 2  \nYvonne C.Zimmerman is Associate Professor of ChristianEthics at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio,Delaware,OH.  \nThese traditions of adult baptism and non-violence thatare still central to Mennonite faith and practice today haddistinct political ramifications in the 16th century.To refuse  \nIN THIS ISSUE  一  \nReligious Libertv.Past and Procen+·ACnnvavcstion with Remembering Brother Jeffrey Gros,FSCJOHN BORELL…………    …………      …Page 5Marygrove College ibrary..Page 18425 W.McNichols Rd,Acknowledging Our Sins:A Protestant ConfessionalRUSSELL L.HUIZING…………………………………………Page 8Detroit,MI 482212599  \nto stamp out the Anabaptist threat,it ought to be noted thatby the end of the 16th century,Protestants regularly participatedin the horrific tr","cbCaisayEAWIXW6a","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisayEAWIXW6a","pdf",1392989,16,"English","# Religious Liberty, Past and Present\n## Mennonites\n## Anabaptists, non-violence, and church-state separation\n## Religious liberty in the American colonies\n## Methodists, Anglican establishment, and toleration","[{\"question\":\"What historical themes shape the author’s view of religious freedom?\",\"answer\":\"The author emphasizes two strands of experience—Mennonite denominational tradition and United Methodist education/employment—and shows how their respective histories influence what religious liberty means and how it should be practiced.\"},{\"question\":\"How did Anabaptists understand the separation of church and state?\",\"answer\":\"The essay connects adult baptism and non-violence with a broader refusal to participate in governance, framing such refusals as critiques of a system where church and state were not yet separate.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay characterize religious liberty in the American context?\",\"answer\":\"Religious freedom is portrayed as both respite from Catholic persecution and as relief from oppression by other Protestants, with the freedom sought described as the ability to worship differently rather than freedom from religion itself.\"}]","Religious Liberty, Past and Present - A Conversation with Mennonite and United Methodist Histories | PDF",1789960585]