Christian History Home > Issue 84 > From Mutual Aid to Global Action
From Mutual Aid to Global Action
How the Anabaptist emphasis on practical acts of love led a tightly knit enclave to reach out to the world.
Gari-Anne Patzwald and William Kostlevy | posted 10/01/2004 12:00AM
A woodcut in the 17th-century Anabaptist Martyrs Mirror shows Dirk Willems, an early Dutch Mennonite, saving the life of a "thief-catcher" who has fallen through the ice on a lake. The "thief-catcher" had been pursuing Willems at a burgomaster's behest, to bring him to trial and execution for his Anabaptist beliefs. After his act of mercy, Willems was nonetheless recaptured (over the protests, the Mirror notes, of his rescued pursuer) and burned at the stake.
This story is intimately familiar to most Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren (the Amish still give the Martyrs Mirror as a wedding present). It celebrates their sense that to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, one must serve others as he did and taught. This sense of compassionate human responsibility has borne fruit in a long history of Anabaptist mutual aid and service ministries.
Fire-forged bonds
During the intense persecutions of the 16th and early 17th centuries, adherents drew together for protection and sustenance in close-knit ...
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