World War I proved a watershed era for Mennonites for two reasons. One, Secretary of War Newton Baker’s requirement that all conscientious objectors report to military camps where they were ‘encouraged’ to enlist caused many Mennonites to put on the military uniform, mostly to serve as non-combatants but frequently as full military inductees. Doing so…
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WWI – The trails of militarizing a nation
The Civil War still stands as America’s darkest hour. One in five Confederate men of fighting age died, probably as many from disease and broken hearts as from bullets. If defeat wasn’t bad enough, Sherman’s scorched earth March to the Sea assured dreadful poverty and social disruption ensued for years to come. There could only…
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Civil War: A Test of Conscience and Will
The Civil War tested Mennonite’s peaceful orientation once again. Mennonites in Virginia refused to own slaves and most opposed the war. Yet they found it impossible to stay out of the contentious debate engulfing Virginia. One instance is instructive. On the rural frontier, Mennonites often helped their slave-holding neighbors with harvest. In return the neighbor…
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Colonial Tax Drama
In the early colonial period Mennonites voted. They voted as a block with the Quakers to keep the Quaker party in control of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Under the Friends political umbrella, things went rather swimmingly for Mennonites. When, as a result of political upheaval and uncertainty, Mennonites quit voting the ‘Presbyterians’ gained control of the…
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Tina Siemens
Calvin King
Bob Gerber