500 years of resistance

Jan. 21, 2025, was the day following the annual commemoration in the United States of the birthday (actually Jan. 15) of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration.

It was 500 years to the day after the adult baptisms in Zurich that marked the birth of the Anabaptist movement.

Jim Lichti, a member of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, notes in the Feb. 18, 2025, issue of Anabaptist World that he’s plenty old enough remember the 1975 celebration of the 450th anniversary of Anabaptism. He’s said in several settings that he has “been waiting for 2025 for a long time.” Given the circumstances surrounding Jan. 21, 2025, Jim and a small group of folks from First Mennonite (plus one passerby who joined in spontaneously) held an outdoor communion service on that day, in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza, in front of an obelisk that bears the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a handmade sign that read: “Christians Challenging Christian Nationalism Since 1525.”

Those words describe in part what the 2025 issue of Mennonite Life is about. Most of the essays have to do in some way with the history of Anabaptism, as it began 500 years ago, and as it spread to North America, in particular through the waves of migration that began in 1874 (certainly not the first, but some of the largest and most concentrated).

Bethel College Mennonite Church members Ardie Goering and John Thiesen reflect on Anabaptism at 500. Hesston College marked the anniversary with a concert, an overview of 500 years of Anabaptist hymns, and an introduction to the Anabaptist Community Bible. Mary Schertz, retired faculty at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, reviews the ACB. And in the spirit of centuries of resistance, Melanie Howard reviews Drew Strait’s book on challenging Christian nationalism.

Peter Goerzen shares a sermon he preached at Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church for the 150th anniversary of large-scale Mennonite migration to the Great Plains, and John Thiesen describes what he found in his research into some of the beloved but not necessarily factual lore surrounding that migration. Justina Neufeld uses a pillow slip to tell the story of what some Mennonites in Ukraine experienced during and after World War II as they made their way to North America.

The two other book reviews and two additional essays could be said to fall into the category of “being Anabaptist-Mennonite centuries later.”

Melanie Springer Mock reviews a contemporary memoir from a Mennonite woman, Kirsten Eve Beachy, in Virginia, and Don Goertzen looks at the writings of the late Dale Suderman (edited by Daniel Born), a dedicated Anabaptist who followed his own road. Poet Jeff Gundy talks about decades of wrestling with concepts of poetry, truth and power, more recently seen through a lens of the doctoral work of Somali scholar Said Samatar (who married a Mennonite missionary and began his academic work at Goshen College). Finally, Susan Fish offers a critical history of the recently closed Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre.

As I write this, the Mennonite Church USA biennial convention is going on in Greensboro, N.C. For a couple of weeks, I’ve been seeing reminders from Pink Menno, an Anabaptist LGBTQ and allies activist group, about a T-shirt they produced a decade or so ago with a Pac-man-looking ghost and the words “Haunting the church since 1525.” Those words came from remarks by then MC USA executive Ervin Stutzman (who died from cancer earlier this year) made in not-favorable reference to LGBTQ Mennonites. Pink Menno has created a new version of the shirt to help raise funds and to mark the venerable LGBTQ support organization BMC (originally Brethren-Mennonite Council for Lesbian and Gay Concerns) turning 50 in 2026.

Seems like there’s no shortage of either anniversaries or Anabaptists choosing the path of most resistance. May there be another 500 years.

[And a postscript: This is my final issue as editor of Mennonite Life. Although I will continue to be involved, Peter Goerzen and Trent Voth, Bible and religion faculty at Bethel College, will be taking over as co-editors starting with the 2026 issue.]