The Anabaptist Prophetic Witness

• If the National Anthem is played at a sports game, do you sing along or sit it out?
• If you were in a classroom asked to pledge allegiance to the flag, would you do it?
• Would you put a flag in your church sanctuary?
• Would your conscience allow you to join the military? The police? To hold public office? To cast your vote in a corrupt political system?
• Can a police officer or soldier receive communion?
• If you answer yes to any of those, how does that match with being a citizen of heaven (Philippians) and not having two masters (Jesus)?

There is a Christian tradition that would answer no not only those questions, but others as well, including even (for some) a refusal to participate in elections.

Suggesting Christians shouldn't vote sounds utterly bonkers in our hyper-political climate. But there's something fascinating about how Anabaptists have approached political engagement that can at least help us interrogate our assumptions about faith and politics.

Some History

First, some historical context: The Anabaptists were the radical wing of the Protestant Reformation, and they pissed off pretty much everyone. While Luther and Calvin were cool with infant baptism and state churches, the Anabaptists insisted that being born into a "Christian nation" meant jack—you had to actually choose to follow Jesus as an adult and receive baptism by your own choice.

This didn't go over well. Like, really didn't go over well. The city council of Zürich (Calvin's crew) literally passed a law saying they would "drown without mercy" anyone caught rebaptizing adults. "Fine, you want to be baptized—we'll baptize you right into the afterlife." Nothing says "Christian love" quite like drowning people who disagree with your baptismal theology, am I right?

But here's where it gets interesting: Being persecuted by both Catholic and Protestant state churches led the Anabaptists to develop a deeply skeptical view of political power. While Augustine had his "two cities" theology that tried to balance divine and earthly authority, the Anabaptists looked at Christians wielding state power and basically said, "Yeah, that's gonna be a no from me, dawg."

Prophetic Witness

They developed what Miranda Zapor Cruz calls the "prophetic witness" model of political engagement. The idea was that Christians should be "in the world but not of it" in the most radical way possible. This meant:

• No voting
• No holding political office
• No swearing oaths of allegiance
• No participation in state violence
• No compromise with empire

This refusal to compromise can range from trivial (saying "I affirm" instead of "I swear" when being sworn into jury duty) to the radical (refusing to offer a solider or police officer communion or baptism).

I grew up in Goshen, Indiana, which had a significant Mennonite and Amish presence. It was also home of Goshen College, a Mennonite school. In the aftermath of 9/11, Goshen College got into some controversy for (if I remember correctly) hosting some high school sports tournaments but refusing to allow the National Anthem to be played before sports games. In the hyper-patriotic, conservative environment of the day, this was unthinkable. And from a supposedly-Christian college to boot! But from the Mennonite perspective, singing a hymn to the nation on their private soil was to betray their sole-allegiance and citizenship to the Kingdom of God.

The most extreme versions of this perspective live on in groups like the Amish and Hutterites. They take it to the point where anything requiring contracts with the establishment—electric bills, car loans, mortgages—is seen as compromising with worldly powers. It's like if you took the modern boycott/divest movement to its absolute logical conclusion: "Amazon is corrupt? Cool, we're also not participating in the entire modern economy."

But the Anabaptist lives on in less frozen-in-time forms as well, such as a broad spectrum of Mennonite and Brethren traditions. The Anabaptist vision of the church as an alternative community. They believe that by simply existing as a contrasting society—operating on different economic and social principles than the empire—the church could serve as a prophetic witness against state corruption and violence without ever actually reaching for the levers of power within the state.

I find this deeply compelling. The pre-Thodosian church existed this way for its first three centuries under Roman rule. Most early Christian bishops forbade military service and viewed participation in state violence as incompatible with following Jesus. The Anabaptist tradition also heavily influenced the modern developments of Christian pacifism and conscientious objection to war.

Some Concerns

That said, I do have some concerns about whether total withdrawal from political engagement is responsible or even possible in our context. While the first Anabaptists were isolationists for the sake of the survival, isolationism today is a conscientious choice. The American Anabaptist tradition is now informed primarily from white European Christians who have the privilege of being able to form separate communities. Many marginalized people don't have that option.

And while I respect those who feel they cannot in good conscience vote for any two-party candidate who supports militarism and state violence (which is... all of them), I'm not convinced that total non-participation is the answer. To be clear, there are Mennonites today who agree and are challenging their tradition to be more courageous on what engagement can mean, while listening to LBGTQI+, BIPOC, disabled, and other marginalized folx; while also still refusing to compromise by being in bed with political power.

As Mennonite Pastor Melissa Florer-Bixler wrote before the election,

The traditional Anabaptist application...is non-resistance towards governance. You don’t participate in elections because these are powers that have nothing to do with you and nothing to do with God. But I think there’s another possibility. We orient ourselves towards state power in the same we orient ourselves toward any other significant and provisional part of our lives. When I vote, I think about who offers me more leverage to shift the powers, however provisional, towards the world I want to see come into being.

At the heart of Christian belief is that the superpowers who rule over us are passing away like vapor. Until then, I’ll vote in the direction of having the most tools in my toolbox to live in these terrible times. I want politicians in place who I think can be moved. I want strikes, protests, organizing, lobbying, resistance. I want to pressure our government towards the politics I want.

I don’t have spare hope to put in our electoral politics. But I do have hope for people organizing, for people in the streets.

Crucial Reminders

I think the Anabaptist witness offers some crucial reminders for the church today:

1. Don't get in bed with political parties or systems
2. Maintain a prophetic distance from state power
3. Embody an alternative way of living in community
4. Reject violence in all its forms
5. Keep Jesus and his kingdom as our primary allegiance

The Anabaptist tradition challenges us to imagine what it might look like for the church to be the church—a contrast society showing the world a different way of being human together. In an age of Christian nationalism and partisan religion, we desperately need that witness.

Even if we don't go full Amish, maybe we need a bit more of that radical Reformation spirit that says "Actually, Jesus meant all that stuff about enemy love and non-violence." The kingdom of God demands nothing less.