JOIN US MAY 20-21 FOR RESTORE CONFERENCE

Mary
DeMuth

Scot
McKnight

Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 1.50.18 PM

Naghmeh
Panahi

Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church.

Prayers for Kidnappers Deeply Rooted in Haiti Missionaries’ Christian Faith

By Peter Smith
Haiti missionaries prayer
A man and woman hold children as they walk on the grounds of the Christian Aid Ministries headquarters in Titanyen, Haiti on Oct. 21, 2021. Seventeen missionaries affiliated with the group, including children. have been kidnapped. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

When Amish gather for worship each week, they regularly sing the solemn, German-dialect hymns that their spiritual forebears composed nearly five centuries ago in a condition akin to that of 17 missionaries recently kidnapped in Haiti — captivity.

Those hymns emerged from miserable prison conditions experienced by early Anabaptists — founders of the movement carried on today by Amish, Mennonites, Brethren and others — and their words extolled the virtues of loving one’s tormentors and persevering at risk of persecution, even martyrdom.

So when kidnappers in Haiti abducted 12 adult missionaries and five of their children, including an infant, it wasn’t surprising that those sharing that Christian tradition would draw on these values as they joined around-the-clock prayer vigils.

The words of the captors’ families and supporters, while holding out hope for the safety of the hostages, put a heavy emphasis on different themes: “Love your enemies.” “Forgive them.” “Pray for the kidnappers.”

One joint statement by the hostages’ families even spoke of the situation in welcoming terms. “God has given our loved ones the unique opportunity to live out our Lord’s command to, ‘love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,‘” said the statement, issued by Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). It is based in Ohio’s Amish heartland of Holmes County, and has operated in Haiti and other lands for nearly four decades.

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Even If He Doesn’t: What We Believe about God When Life Doesn’t Make Sense” by Kristen LaValley. To donate, click here.

Such statements may seem surprising, even callous, to those who might expect the prayers to focus on the well-being of loved ones.

But these statements are deeply rooted in the unique religious tradition of conservative Anabaptists — a group that shares some beliefs with mainstream evangelical Christians, such as salvation through Jesus, but also has stark differences.

Conservative Anabaptists largely seek to live separate from mainstream society and are distinctive for their plain dress, with women wearing head coverings. They emphasize a “non-resistance” to evil and violence, a stance that goes far beyond their refusal to serve in the military. They also have a deep tradition of martyrdom – well-earned, since their forebears suffered fierce persecutions from their 16th century Reformation origins, when they were deemed too radical to Catholics and fellow Protestants alike.

Anabaptists in particular draw on the biblical Sermon on the Mount, which contains some of Jesus’ most radical and counter-cultural sayings — to love enemies, live simply, bless persecutors, turn the other cheek, endure sufferings joyfully.

“Living out the Sermon on the Mount principles is one of the key tenets of our faith,” said Wayne Wengerd, a member of a steering committee that represents the Amish in church-state relations. “That is something that we take literally.”

Those principles mandate “we do good to those who hurt or persecute us, and we pray for not only those that are likeminded but those that are not yet within the faith,” he said.

Wengerd, who lives in Wayne County, adjacent to Holmes, said it would be a misunderstanding to view such a mindset as callous to the real suffering involved with the kidnappings.

“People are still concerned, they are aware, they talk about it, they pray and of course hope for a good outcome,” he said. At the same time, “We realize as Christians, as followers of Christ, there will be persecution.”

The missionary group was kidnapped Oct. 16 while returning from a visit to an orphanage in Haiti supported by CAM. The 400 Mawozo gang has threatened to kill the 16 Americans and one Canadian if ransom demands aren’t met.

Haiti gang missionaries
A man and a child walk by burning tires on a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Oct. 17, 2021. (AP Photo / Joseph Odelyn)

CAM says those kidnapped are from Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist communities in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ontario. Conservative Anabaptists make up the core of CAM’s missionary staff, donors and volunteers.

Wengerd said Anabaptists draw on resources such as the “Ausbund,” a hymnal that includes the 16th century prison hymns, and the book, “Martyrs Mirror,” for “reminding us of the cost of discipleship in Christ’s kingdom.”

“Martyrs Mirror” tells of hundreds of Anabaptists and other Christians who died for their faith. One entry tells of Dirk Willems, a 16th century Dutch Anabaptist who was fleeing authorities in winter — but turned around to saved the life of a pursuer who had fallen through the ice. Willems was arrested and executed anyway. His example of sacrificial love for an enemy is still widely taught.

An often-cited modern example of Anabaptist values is the response of the Amish community around Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, after a gunman killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five more in 2006 before taking his own life. Local Amish immediately expressed forgiveness for the killer and supported his widow. “If we do not forgive, how can we expect to be forgiven?” the Amish leaders said in a statement.

Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in Holmes County, said he often tells the story of Dirk Willems to groups touring the museum. One tour included a survivor of the Nickel Mines shooting.

“She cried and cried and cried,” Yoder recalled. “Her father had used the story to talk to his own family about forgiveness. These pieces of our history really do reside a long time in our worldview and theology.”

Yoder, a Mennonite minister, said these examples shouldn’t obscure the ordeal of those whose loved ones were kidnapped. “I cannot imagine the anguish that the families are going through,” he said.

Steven Nolt, professor of History and Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, recalled attending one of the Nickel Mines funerals in which the preacher said within a span of a few minutes, “We don’t understand but we just accept what happened as God’s will” and “It’s not God’s will that people shoot other people.”

That seems contradictory, said Nolt. But it reflects a profound belief in “divine providence” — that believers can’t always understand why things happen, but they “can know what God wants and how humans are to live.”

Peter Smith reports on religion for the Associated Press.

SHARE THIS:

GET EMAIL UPDATES!

Keep in touch with Julie and get updates in your inbox!

Don’t worry we won’t spam you.

More to explore
discussion

4 Responses

  1. Nicely written article, it clearly expressing the Amish faith stance. That faith is outwith my personal comfort zone, but its balance is inspiring. I wonder if the kidnappers are becoming aware of, and being touched by, the integrity of the Amish faith. Whatever happens, freeing the children without conditions or ransom, would be a desirable movement in the circumstance.

  2. It is true that Christian Aid Ministries is a relief organization supported by all the conservative Anabaptist groups mentioned.

    What is interesting to note is that these groups vary quite a bit as to essential theology. Amish, for example, largely do not speak of the necessity of being born again. The Christian Aid doctrinal statement, by contrast is very evangelical and holds to the importance of the Great Commission (a concept foreign to most Amish). See CAM’s statement of faith: https://christianaidministries.org/what-we-believe/

    Side note: It seems to me that many evangelicals today would benefit from this portion of their statement: 14. We believe that the church and state are ordained of God as separate entities in His divine plan, and that believers should honor rulers and be subject to their authority and pray for them. (Romans 13:1-7; I Peter 2:13-17)

  3. Ronald, you are correct about the variety. I’ve lived in Lanc Co. PA my whole life and I’ve actually lived most of the spectrum. My parents were Amish till their late teens and it’s been progression since then. I’m a committed member of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference, a far more liberal end of the spectrum, but still holding to some of the distinctives that the article mentions. Most of us in the LMC don’t dress plain anymore, and look and sound mostly American Protestant evangelical, but we won’t join the military, go to war, join a police force, probably emphasize the Sermon on the Mount and a Christocentric hermeneutic more than some? and are generally wary of too much church/state cuddling… (although we do have a few Trump devotees, who seem to imply at times they’d like a state church or Christendom in some form again…)
    CAM is somewhere in the middle between us and my Amish background. I have many extended family members who would be part the CAM constituency.
    To your last point; yes, I think the american evangelical church would benefit (especially its witness) if they adopted some of the values that CAM and conservative Anabaptists hold to and try to live out. To learn even more about these people’s perspectives on a variety of things, I’d recommend the Anabaptist Perspectives on youtube. The producers of these and many of the participants would generally fit the CAM type… plain, conservative, evangelical, but a little more progressive than most Amish.

  4. Julie Roys, I would suggest that you talk to Jasper Hoffman and Mary Byler about about the other side of the Anabaptist world. You can find them on Facebook. Jasper just talked with the Senate about the issues there.

Leave a Reply

The Roys Report seeks to foster thoughtful and respectful dialogue. Toward that end, the site requires that people register before they begin commenting. This means no anonymous comments will be allowed. Also, any comments with profanity, name-calling, and/or a nasty tone will be deleted.
 
MOST RECENT Articles
MOST popular articles
en_USEnglish

Donate

Hi. We see this is the third article this month you’ve found worth reading. Great! Would you consider making a tax-deductible donation to help our journalists continue to report the truth and restore the church?

Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “The Atlas Factor: Shifting Leadership Onto the Shoulders of Jesus” by Lance Ford.