Mennonite Religion - An Introduction
Those practicing the Mennonite
religion are direct spiritual descendants of the Anabaptist
movement, which was founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1535. Mennonites
were considered the left wing of the Protestant
Reformation, and were persecuted by Catholics,
Lutherans, and Calvinists
for their extreme beliefs, such as that only adult believers could be
baptized. Mennonites got their name from a former Roman Catholic priest
named Menno Simons, who joined the movement. Many of these persecuted
Protestants fled to America and settled there around 1683. Later, other
Mennonite settlers came to America, but these people have tended to keep
to themselves.
Members of the Mennonites include the Amish, the Hutterian Brethren, and many smaller denominations. Mennonites tend to interpret every word of the Bible literally. They live very austere lives and are complete pacifists.
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