I am presently taking a course at the Lancaster Church of the Brethren based on the book "When Religion Becomes Evil" written by Charles Kimball. The first two warning signs that Kimball suggests are the espousing of absolute truth and counting on blind obedience. Kimball says that the danger generally arises when a charismatic leader considers himself to hold absolute truth and demands blind obedience from his or her followers.

Kimball cites the Amish as a sect that has not become evil in spite of their strong beliefs and practices.The Amish believe that they hold absolute truth and they demand obedience to the point of shunning, which includes refusing to have any social intercourse with the shunned party. That means they may not eat with, nor do business with the person who is banned.

I began to ponder why the Amish did not go down the road of violence that seems to be the destiny of so many such groups. I think there are two reasons. Jakob Ammann, for whom the Amish church is named, was a firebrand. In the Alsace, in 1639, he very quickly developed a following and was ordained to the ministry. He precipitated a split in the Anabaptist movement over the question of the ban, or shunning.

Although the ban was intended to keep the church pure, it was also intended to bring the stray back into the fold. Because of that, it was considered an act of love. A number of ministers followed Ammann into this split from the other Swiss Brethren. The presence of these other ministers prevented Ammann from taking complete control of the church. The other ordained ministers provided a correction to his strong-handed tactics. I think that is the first reason the church did not become evil. Even today, although the Amish still practice the ban, the collective bishops prevent any one of them from straying very far from traditional biblical teaching.

There is an even more important force at work here. Early on in the Anabaptist movement, the 1527 Schleitheim Confession, entitled "Brotherly Agreement of Some Children of God on Seven Topics" was adopted in the Village of Schleitheim on the Swiss/German border. In it, they confessed that Christ's rule of self-giving love, as shown by his cross, is a revelation intended to find practical expression in human personality and community. It is the graciously disclosed norm of the kingdom that Christ had announced as "at hand."¹

Hence, the commandments of Jesus are not relegated to some future dispensation, but they provide a framework for living here and now. Jesus commanded his followers to take up their cross and follow him. Under the kingship of Chirst, it is important that the person live in Christ-like love with his or her neighbor, including the enemy. The Anabaptists called this "Living under the cross." This became the basis for the doctine of "defenselessness" or "nonresistance" as it is known today. For those Anabaptists, and later Mennonites and Amish, who live Under the Cross, it would be unimaginable to use violence in any form. For the Anabaptists and their derivative churches, the overriding concern is living out the example of Christ in a confessing community, rather than by yoking one's faith to a personality.