It was a hard time to be a pacifist during World War I.

When the U.S. officially entered the war in 1917, American Mennonites and other Anabaptists largely held fast to the pacifistic stance of nonresistance. Young Mennonite men were conscripted into military training camps upon the government’s promise they wouldn’t be coerced into service against their conscience. Some accepted noncombatant roles and served in medical or supply and support services, while others were allowed to work on farm furloughs or went to Europe to serve with the Friends Reconstruction Unit, said Dr. Andrew Suderman, associate professor in theology, peace, and mission at EMU. 

“The War Department, however, in fact, intended to persuade as many pacifists as possible to join the war crusade,” he said.

A number of conscientious objectors (COs) were court-martialed and sent to prison, he said, with some COs used as test subjects during the war. These tests included “positional resiliency”—forcing COs to maintain uncomfortable or strenuous positions for extended periods, often under harsh conditions—as well as nutritional limits and needs. “In other words,” Suderman said, “how few calories does a human actually need to live?”

“Due to this conflict … some European Mennonites saw the need for Mennonites from different nations to come together and wrestle with what it means to be a community of faith that spans different nationalities, including the nationalities that were in conflict with each other,” he said. “This led in June of 1925 to the first gathering of the Mennonite World Conference, which also commemorated the 400-year anniversary of the Anabaptist movement.”

The professor, who serves as director of global partnerships at Mennonite Mission Network and as the secretary of Mennonite World Conference’s Peace Commission, delivered the fifth and final installment in the “Anabaptism 1525/2025: Five Centuries, Five Lectures” series on Thursday evening in Martin Chapel. He spoke about the history of Anabaptism in the 20th century and explored how the faith movement, which began in Europe and largely remained in the North Atlantic region during its first four centuries, has become a truly global phenomenon.

Today, there are over 2 million Christians in the world who identify as Anabaptists, he said, including 72% of whom live in the Global South or “Majority World.” Suderman shared his own experiences of witnessing the Mennonite presence and influence in Colombia and South Africa.

The lecture series was sponsored by the Shenandoah Mennonite Historians, planned by Caleb Schrock-Hurst ’18, MA ’22, and Elwood Yoder ’81, and partially funded by the Kennel-Charles Lecture Series at Eastern Mennonite School (EMS). It featured five speakers who traced the journey of the Anabaptist movement throughout the five centuries. Starting on Thursday, Jan. 30 (), Dr. John D. Roth, project director of MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 , highlighted the emergence of Anabaptism in the 1500s. On Feb. 6 (), Dr. Mary Sprunger, professor of history at EMU, spoke about how Anabaptists were already in places and positions of wealth and privilege by the 1600s. On Feb. 13 (), longtime EMS teacher Yoder shared how Anabaptists in the 1700s were pressured because of their faith and how it challenged some of the social norms. On Feb. 20 (), Schrock-Hurst, a member of the Virginia Mennonite Conference, highlighted the ways Mennonites were affected by and leaned into modernization during the 1800s. This lecture series was a grassroots collaboration by historians, theologians, and church leaders to mark the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism.

In his lecture, Suderman spoke about the dangers of continuing to only deconstruct the Anabaptist narrative without considering what is being constructed. In a message to EMU News, he clarified that “there are things that need to be deconstructed. But many around the world also find the Anabaptist story and identity as life-giving.”

“Because of our growing distance from life-and-death struggles, perhaps largely because of our general affluence when compared to the rest of the world, Anabaptism too easily becomes a concept that we can debate rather than an embodied way of life,” he said during the lecture. “Our global companions, however, experience Anabaptism as a life-giving, emancipatory way of being in the world.”

Watch his lecture on YouTube .

The Shenandoah Mennonite Historians have promoted the study, interest, and awareness of Mennonite history since 1993. They conduct tours, hold an annual meeting, and produce a quarterly journal called Shenandoah Mennonite Historian. The Historian officers who endorsed this lecture series are Jim Hershberger, Chair; EMU Professor Emeritus of History, Gerald Brunk; Jim Rush; Gary Smucker; Norman Wenger; and Elwood Yoder.

Learn more here:

Civil discourse is strained, the principles of democracy are challenged, and social movements have laid bare injustices in the world, he said. 

Speaking to a crowd gathered at Martin Chapel on Wednesday, Jan. 29, he said that EMU students, rooted in the guiding verse of Micah 6:8 — “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” — are uniquely equipped to heal a broken and fractured world. And, he added, they’re called to bridge the gap between “the world as it is and the world as it ought to be.”

“Those convictions [in Micah 6:8], which I’m certain shine through in your courses, recognize that the good life calls us into the world to participate in the healing work of reconciliation and peacemaking,” Roth said. “…Your calling, your vocation, regardless of your major, is really nothing more than to make God’s love and truth and healing visible in the world.”

Roth, project director of MennoMedia’s initiative, presented on “What is the Good Life? Insights from a 500-Year-Old Tradition.” Watch a video recording of his presentation .

Prior to his role at MennoMedia, Roth was a professor of history at Goshen College (1985-2022), where he also served as director of the Mennonite Historical Library and editor of the Mennonite Quarterly Review. He is the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College.

His talk was the second of two campus worship services commemorating the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. Click for a video recording of the first service, “Exploring Virginia Mennonites: History, Faith and Culture” from Phil Kniss, retired senior pastor of Park View Mennonite Church.

Starting on Thursday, Jan. 30, a series of weekly lectures will delve into the history of Anabaptism through the five centuries stretching back to 1525. Roth will speak about early Anabaptism in the 16th century at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Eastern Mennonite School auditorium. For more information about these lectures, visit the website .

Events like this one demonstrate EMU’s commitment to its core value of active faith. As a community, we seek to embody faith in action and serve and learn together to repair harm and restore hope. Shaped by Anabaptist-Mennonite beliefs and practices and the life and teachings of Jesus, we practice compassion, mutual love, and appreciation for the diversity of religious and cultural expressions represented in our community.

Concern over college affordability in the United States is nothing new. The inflation-adjusted average annual cost of tuition, room and board for the country’s colleges and universities has more than doubled over the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

While the cost of attendance has actually been increasing faster at public universities over the past decade, private institutions are in general still more expensive. The National Center for Education Statistics puts the average annual cost of tuition, room and board at private, not-for-profit American universities at $36,300 for the 2010-2011 academic year.

While the -affiliated colleges and universities aren’t quite that pricey, they’re not cheap either. According to online “sticker price” figures, the average full cost of attendance this year at the five colleges/universities is $33,714. (The full cost of a 90-credit hour M.Div. degree from the two Mennonite Church USA-affiliated seminaries is currently just over $41,000.)

Price or best fit?

“Higher education as a whole has had to defend its worth and value in today’s society,” says , director of retention at ��ݮ���� (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va. “We see more and more students making their choice based on price instead of what’s a best fit for them.”

When it comes to paying for an education, however, officials at Mennonite educational institutions note that scholarships and financial aid almost always mean that the actual cost of a student’s education will be less than the sticker price.

Dan Koop Liechty, director of admissions at , notes that cost and affordability decisions are best made after prospective students have applied, been admitted and received financial assistance packages. At this point, students can make decisions based on the bottom-line cost of their educations, which are often much more comparable to attending a public institution than it first appears.

Directly related to the price of higher education is the issue of student debt, which has also been increasing. According to the , 2011 graduates who borrowed to finance their educations finished with an average debt load of $26,600. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, some consider this an unreasonable burden to place on graduates entering an uncertain job market. Others characterize it as a reasonable investment—about the cost of a new Toyota Prius—that sets college graduates on the path to a much larger payoff.

College degree as an investment

“It’s not debt that you’re using to buy consumables and putting on a credit card with a 21-percent interest rate,” says Ron Headings, vice president for enrollment management and marketing at . “It’s buying you a college degree.”

Headings adds that with prior planning and hard work during college—to maintain academic scholarships as well as earn income—students and their families can find it “fairly easy to get out of Bluffton University debt-free.”

Cost and debt aside, getting a college degree clearly remains a smart financial investment for young adults. While estimates vary, many sources now place the average increase in earnings over a 40-year career at or near $1 million compared to workers without a college degree.

Furthermore, faculty, staff and alumni of the five colleges and universities say a degree from one isn’t just any garden-variety bachelor’s degree.

Engaged profs, small classes

“At a larger school, many of the foundational classes are taught by teaching assistants,” says Matthew Schmidt, a 1994 graduate of , North Newton, Kan. “At Bethel you have full professors teaching these same classes.”

Schmidt, who lives in Newton, Kan., and is interim director of a clinic providing health services to medically underserved populations, says the small class sizes at Bethel created an interactive environment ideal for collaborative learning.

Additionally, engaged faculty invested in students’ well-being and emphases on critical thinking and cross-cultural skills prepare them particularly well for the future.

Strong outcomes

Two of many indications are these:

• From 2006 to 2010, 91 percent of EMU graduates who applied to medical school were accepted, almost double the national acceptance rate of 46 percent.

• At Bethel, 95 percent of social work graduates pass their licensing exams on the first attempt, compared with a national pass rate of 78 percent.

“In a rapidly changing and highly specialized job market, a liberal arts college degree provides an essential foundation for the basic skills that are needed in a dynamic economic environment,” says John D. Roth, the author of Teaching that Transforms: Why Anabaptist-Mennonite Education Matters and a professor of history at Goshen College. “So education at Goshen College is ‘worth it’ for straightforward economic reasons alone.”

But the financial case for the value of a Mennonite college, university or seminary education only tells part of the story.

Education that transforms

Back on the financial aid page: “The key is to think of [education] in terms of value. While the cost of college may initially be a bit of a shock, step back, take a deep breath and think about the experiences and lifelong advantages a Hesston education provides.” This appeal to the value of a Mennonite education is an extremely important part of the argument.

“As Anabaptists, we are part of a tradition that measures worth in more than monetary terms,” says Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, vice president of admissions and financial aid at Hesston. “Mennonite colleges and universities not only offer course credits and degrees, we provide transformational opportunities for our students to fully discover themselves and their place in God’s mission in the world.”

Graduates of these schools frequently point to impossible-to-quantify personal growth as one of the most important parts of their educations there.

“Attending Goshen College was a seminal time in my development,” says Peter Eash-Scott, a 1999 graduate, now a stay-at-home dad in Newton “It probably is one of the most influential things that has informed who I am, what I value and who I strive to be.”

Shared, reinforced values

Spending four years in a learning environment surrounded by people who held similar values, Eash-Scott adds, provided “a safe place to explore my faith and challenge my understanding of God, myself and the faith community,” both in and out of the classroom.

Close, caring relationships between students and faculty often are another important aspect of an education at a Mennonite institution.

“The faculty and staff here are part of our community,” says Clark Oswald, associate director of admissions at Bethel. “We care for our neighbors. That’s something as Mennonites that we learn in church growing up, and at Bethel we do that. … There’s just kind of this underlying sense of ‘we’re in this together.’ ”

Michelle Roth-Cline, a 2000 graduate of EMU, called the mentoring role of faculty “absolutely invaluable.” Now a pediatric ethicist for the , Roth-Cline says her education at EMU prepared her for medical school as well as her classmates coming from Ivy League and other prestigious schools. At the same time, what she learned about building relationships has served her equally well.

Learning to care for people

“I learned more about how to care for other people at EMU than I did in medical school. Simply knowing how to care for other people in this way has opened all kinds of doors both personally and professionally that I never would have imagined possible when I was choosing a college,” Roth-Cline says.

Leah Roeschley, a 2011 graduate of Bluffton, says her education there set the stage for her own spiritual growth. The opportunity to explore Mennonite faith and spirituality, combined with “space to ask questions [and] space to access and receive counsel” allows students to “claim a faith that is truly their own,” she says.

“My Mennonite education was worth it because my college experience was bracketed with values that resonated with me,” says Roeschley, a registered dietitian in Bloomington, Ill. “Those values were in the background of everything I did at Bluffton. … I left not only fully equipped for the field of dietetics, but I also left with … a deeper understanding of who I was.”

A related role played by Mennonite higher education is the development of future church leaders and members.

Developing leaders

“There is strong and long-standing research that shows that students who graduate from a Mennonite college are far more likely to participate after college in a Mennonite congregation, our denominational service agencies and leadership positions in the denominational structures. Mennonite higher education is not only a great value for students, we are of great value to our denomination,” says Koop Liechty, the admissions director at Goshen.

, director of admissions at (EMS), says that study at a Mennonite seminary puts Anabaptist “theology, history, polity and biblical understandings” at the center of the curriculum. At a non-Mennonite school, she adds, these topics—key in the development of church leaders—would often be relegated to electives.

Ron Guengerich, a 1974 graduate of (AMBS), says his education gave him a lifelong love of scholarship and the church while bringing the Bible alive as “a challenging and transforming ‘word.’ ” Now the pastor of Silverwood Mennonite Church in Goshen, he says he left well prepared for work within the church and eager to continue advanced study of the Old Testament.

Given the relatively low pay offered to people entering church leadership and ministry positions, Amstutz says EMS is concerned with the growing cost of attendance and believes all levels of the denomination need to “find ways to help support students financially.”

There is also a converse question of worth to consider: What would be the price of not having strong educational institutions?

“It’s impossible to put a money value on effective and visionary leadership for the church,” says Sara Wenger Shenk, president of AMBS. “Most of us don’t get it that healthy communities thrive … because they have compassionate, competent and confident leaders.”

Building community

“Thank God for those who remember that the cost of ignorance and immaturity given full sway in local congregations is far greater than an investment in those who are ready to become masters of the craft,” she says.

According to those interviewed for this article, the sum of an educational experience at a Mennonite educational institution is greater than its individual parts, with academic growth and personal development building upon and informing each other.

“We feel very strongly about our value and the high quality of education that we provide to our students,” says Good. His statement is echoed by his counterparts at other institutions. “At EMU, students receive an education in which they are challenged to move beyond their comfort zone, to think critically about the world around them, to strengthen their core values and beliefs and to be leaders and forces for change and justice in their communities.”

Courtesy The Mennonite, Jan. 1, 2013

If 16th century Anabaptist leader Michael Sattler were alive today, would he vote in the upcoming presidential election?

Responding to this question from the audience, speaker Gerald Biesecker-Mast replied, “Likely no, but not out of apathy … Sattler probably would abstain, but would be alarmed at the notion that doing so was an act of indifference, supporting the status quo.”

Biesecker-Mast, professor of communication at Bluffton (OH) University, was giving a paper outlining the “righteousness and mercy” motif as practiced by early Anabaptist Christians, noting the group’s determination to combine “peace with justice in the social order” and that “scripture, not the hangman,” should be the final appeal in matters of civil authority versus freedom of worship and practice.

The question of whether Christian faith promotes involvement in politics or whether that same faith directs Christians to values beyond the political realm came to the fore repeatedly at the 15th Believers Church Conference, Sept. 23-25. Some 230 persons were registered.

The gathering was co-hosted by EMU and Bridgewater College, with sessions divided between the two campuses. Using a format that combined scholarly addresses, panel presentations, audience questions and worship, the conference focused on the meaning of citizenship in the United States from a Believers Church point of view, asking what it means to be citizens of the world’s lone superpower and members of the body of Christ.

The Question of Voting

John D. Roth, “Mennonite Quarterly Review” editor and Goshen (IN) College history professor, said that as a pacifist he will not vote for president because the office includes the designation of Commander-in-Chief. In political elections generally, Roth said, “The differences, from an Anabaptist perspective, are illusory … The ballot box is not supposed to hold our personal dreams.”

Like several conference attendees, Roth decried political polarization. However, he said, “Abstaining from voting doesn’t make you less culpable for rulers’ decisions, but more.”

Roth spoke as part of a panel that sparked lively discussion from the floor.

Was it better to support “the lesser of two evils?” Panelist Lloyd Harsch, a New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary professor who volunteers in Republican campaigns, said yes, noting “Jesus isn’t running.”

International perspectives were brought to bear on the Believers Church Conference by (l. to r.): Ontonas Balciunas, president, Lithuania Christian Fund; Mwizenge S. Tembo, native of Kenya and associate professor of sociology, Bridgewater College; Wu Wei, senior pastor, Chon Wenmen Church, Beijing, China; and David Radcliff, New Community Project, Elgin, Ill. At extreme left is Nancy Heisey, professor of biblical studies and church history at EMU and moderator of Mennonite World Conference.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Some participants said international friends made them feel responsible for voting when they said, “I don’t have a voice, but you have to have a voice” in influencing U.S. actions.

“What many people are calling for is a vote against what has been going on. It’s a cry of the soul. Maybe there’s nothing you can say yes to now, but you can say no,” said panelist Earl Martin. He and his wife, Pat Hostetter Martin – lifelong Mennonites and 25-year Mennonite Central Committee workers – said they grew up unfamiliar with politics, and, Pat said, “hardly aware of world problems.” That changed when they volunteered to help refugees in Vietnam, where their friends included a couple whose baby was killed when a U.S. Navy flare plunged through their roof.

Although Earl Martin said he votes, the couple focus more on peace vigils, a community voluntary gas-tax project and refusal to pay a military telephone-bill surcharge.

The Meaning of the term “Believers Church”

Opening conference speaker Carol Scheppard, associate professor of philosophy and religion at Bridgewater College, talks between sessions with Heidi Miller Yoder, who teaches worship and spiritual formation courses at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Miller helped plan and lead worship sessions at the gathering.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Conferees from varying traditions debated biblical pacifism. Church traditions usually associated with the Believers Church include Adventists, Baptists, Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Mennonites, Methodists, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren and Quakers, denominations that view membership in the church as a voluntary act of faith.

However, Robert Lee said attending the conference reminded him of “how we use the term ‘Believers Church’ differently.” Lee, a Mennonite and international director of the Tokyo Mission Research Institute, explained that Anabaptists usually think the designation indicates pacifism, but others, including Baptists, do not.

One of the more riveting presentations came from Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. He captivated his audience as he spoke forcefully, yet in a non-judgemental manner, without notes, quoting leadership people from memory, employing self-effacing humor and underscoring “the urgency of now” in responding to “a world that is teetering between community and chaos.”

“God is calling us to re-read the Old Testament,” Dr. Edgar said. “Note that the prophets always had the minority view but believed strongly that they were acting in the will of God.

“Questioning our government and its leaders’ actions doesn’t mean that we don’t love our country,” he said. “But the world has changed so much in the last century. We live in a global village. God transcends national boundaries, and God calls us to be shapers, shakers and remakers of this fragile planet Earth.”

War and God’s Will

Mwizenge Tembo, associate professor of sociology at Bridgewater College, described Kenneth Kaunda, former president of Tembo’s home country, Zambia, as “a man of peace who reluctantly supported using force to overcome South Africa’s apartheid regime. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln reluctantly led in the Civil War’s fiery trial, said J. Michael Robertson, pastor of Warsaw (Va.) Baptist Church, who quoted correspondence between Lincoln and a Quaker friend.

Can a President know it’s God’s will to have a war? a woman in the audience challenged Robertson. Their dialogue continued after the session, in which Robertson advised his audience to “always know what you don’t know.” Warning against claiming to know God’s will, he advised fellow-pastors, “When you go home, teach the separation of church and state.”

Mark Thiessen Nation, an associate professor at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, spoke on the subject of his upcoming biography, noted Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. Living among French Mennonites following the devastation of World War II, Yoder learned, and then taught, that true pacifism and Christianit
y are extremely difficult. Decades later, Nation said, “I was shocked to read Mennonites saying ‘How can we be pacifists after September 11?’ What rock had people been living under?”

“We have so much to appreciate in this country, religious freedom not least. However, many of our nation’s practices resemble all too closely the imperialism of the biblical empires,” said speaker Ted Grimsrud, professor of religion at EMU. “It is as if we have two Americas, America the pioneer democracy, and America the dominant empire.

“Jesus presented a challenge to empire, and the empire struck back,” Grimsrud noted. “Those who attempt to follow the way of Jesus today must expect opposition from the state.”

International Perspective

Those attending the conference were largely from the U.S. with a few attendees from Canada and one from Holland. A three-member panel gave an international perspective to the discussions.

Wu Wei, Pastor of Chong Wenmen Church in Beijing, said each Chinese church faces a difficult decision over whether to register with the government.

Otonas Balciunas, president of the Lithuania Christian Fund, said his home community of Anabaptists endured terrible persecution under Soviet rule. In dealing with government, he said, their motto was “Do not fear, do not ask, do not trust. Rising individualism has become a newer challenge.”

Tembo said Zambia’s new consumer culture has been accompanied by chaos. Chatting with neighbors on a recent visit there, Tembo heard a man praising Osama bin Laden for engineering the Sept. 11 attacks. Friends were surprised to hear Tembo reply, “I could have been on those planes. I live there. I saw the suffering.” Tembo saw the man’s remark as a mirror image of the attitudes of many Americans who are unaware of the effects the U.S. government and businesses have on people across the world.

“Contrary to popular opinion, and we don’t want to say it too loudly, we are only as good and as precious as everyone else in this world in God’s eyes,” said speaker David Radcliff of the New Community Project in Elgin, Ill. Asked by a member of the audience whether Christians should seek persecution or hardship, Radcliff responded, “Those things come naturally if you live out the heart of your faith.”

Carol Scheppard of Bridgewater College and Ted Grimsrud (r.) of EMU respond to audience questions following their presentations on “Believers and Political Authority in the Bible.” Brian Martin Burkholder (l.), EMU campus pastor, led opening worship and moderated the sessions.
Photo by Jim Bishop

In a closing worship service, J. Daryl Byler, director of the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office, spoke of Jeremiah’s prophesy to the Israelites of a long, hard exile in Babylon. Notwithstanding easier circumstances, he said Christian pacifists in America face an exile in which pacifism becomes less tolerated.

“We must find ways to both love and resist the empire,” Byler said, while noting that Jeremiah’s prophecy offered an eventual vision of hope.

Connecting Scholarship with Congregational Life

“I found the balance between the scholarly and the practical, the blend of ideas and experiences [at the conference] especially helpful,” said participant Edward B. Nyce, recently returned peace development worker with Mennonite Central Committee, Bethlehem, West Bank. “I appreciated the two-pronged call from speakers David Radcliff and J. Daryl Byler to examine our current lifestyles and to be prepared, by God’s grace, to follow Christ’s teachings over the long haul,” he added.

Char Smith, who recently traveled to Hebron with a Christian Peacemaker Team, said the conference was helpful, though more academic than expected. “I needed more theoretical grounding,” said her husband, Michael, who chairs the Peace and Justice Committee of the Illinois Mennonite Conference.

“It was gratifying to have Bridgewater College and Baptist, Brethren and Mennonite offices from Washington, D.C., involved in conversation at the planning stage of the conference,” said Nathan D. Yoder, associate professor of church history at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and chair of the program planning committee. “We were also intentional in wanting to connect the scholarship of the academy with the life of congregations. One way we did that was to weave worship into the conference proceedings.”

Conference planners are working with Pandora Press Canada for a forthcoming book in the “Studies in the Believers Church Tradition” series that will continue the conversation of the conference.

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Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg; Jim Bishop is public information officer at EMU.