Case Study: Amish and Mennonites

Site Visit:

The Mennonite Information Center features the history and cultures of Amish and Mennonite communities in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County. 

Early Anabaptist History

For a helpful synopsis of Mennonite history, click HERE. 

Anabaptists are known as the left-wing of the Protestant Reformation - also known as the Radical Reformation. 

Geographical origins of the movement: Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands

Distinctives:

  • Emphasis on adult baptism instead of infant baptism - viewed by political authorities as a seditious act, because infant baptism was an initiation into the nation

  • Pacifism - a refusal to take up arms in defense of the state.

  • Close-knit faith communities.

  • A view that one's true citizenship is in the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of the World - also seen as a rebellious act.

  • A reliance on lay preachers rather than clergy. 

Key Figures

  • Menno Simons (1496-1561) a former Catholic priest who became a leader of the Anabaptist movement and founder of the Mennonites. 

  • Joseph Ammann (1644 - unknown - ca. 1720s) he is known as the namesake for the Amish religious movement. 

Question: What are the distinctions between Mennonites and Amish? 

There are approximately 1.5 million Mennonites in the world, and half a million in the U.S. 

Resources/Readings: 

Bush, Perry. Two Kingdoms, Two Loyalties: Mennonite Pacifism in Modern America, 1998.

“Mennonites” in New World Encyclopedia. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mennonite  

A collection of articles from the Mennonite World Review about the Nickel Mines shooting in 2006: http://www.mennoworld.org/archived/subject/nickel-mines-tragedy/  

Lapp, Javaan. Beachey Amish-Weavertown Church History.  Self-published, 2000.

Kraybill, Donald B., Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.

Other Mennonite Sites of Interest

Germantown Mennonite Church - 21 West Washington Lane Philadelphia, PA 19144-2601. 

  • The oldest Mennonite Church in North America. 

  • Mennonites arrived in Germantown in 1683 - just one year after William Penn established the colony of Pennsylvania. 

  • In 1688, Mennonites and Quakers in Germantown wrote the first protest statement against slavery.

  • Worship distinctive: Mennonites place a strong emphasis on singing. Many Mennonites sing congregational hymns in four-part harmonies. 

Case Study: Sikhism

Sikhism

  • Founded by Guru Nanak about 500 years ago

  • Originated in the Punjab region now divided by India and Pakistan

  • 23 million adherents today

  • In the U.S. today, there are between 500,000 and 750,000 adherents

Hinduism and Islam

  • Some Hindus and Muslims sought to acknowledge commonalities between the religions.

  • Guru Nanak created a new monotheistic religion

  • They were critical of caste and religious imagery

  • The goal of religious life is liberation or merging with God

  • A sikh is a disciple or learner

Sikhism is a convergence of two movements:

  • Bhakti devotionalism (from Hinduism)

  • Sufism – (from Islam)

  • Both traditions emphasize union with God and utilize practices such as singing, chanting and dancing

Sikhism in the United States:

Site Visit to Nishkam Seva Gurdwara Sahib - 4950 W Tonopah Dr, Glendale, AZ 85308.

 

During the 19th century through immigration, Sikhism started to appear and slowly grow in the United States. Desperate to escape the effects of British mercantilism on the Indian subcontinent, Sikhs immigrated to areas like California from ports in Hong Kong and would be employed within farms and other types of manual labor employment.

  • During World Wars I and II, the British would recruit Sikhs in India to serve in battle, thus prompting an increase in immigration to escape the risk of having to fight and die under British rule.

  • Over the course of the 20th Century, Sikhism in the U.S. spread from the West Coast to all over the country, with Sikhs establishing homes and citizenships while expanding their religious institutions.

  • Gurdwara: place of worship for Sikhism (first American Gurdwara in Stockton, California, 1912)

Post-9/11 Sikhism in America:

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Sikhs were subject to horrible discrimination associated with mistaken identity and Muslim prejudice. Sikhism dictates certain styles of dress and appearance that at first glance to many resemble Muslim attire, such as substantial beards and turban head coverings. Due to these similarities, Sikhs have become targets of mistreatment and hate crimes in the years following the destruction of the World Trade Center. 

Sikhism in America Today:

Sikh Presence in Philadelphia

Reading/Resources

Mandair, Arvind. "The Politics of Nonduality: Reassessing the Work of Transcendence in Modern Sikh Theology." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74, no. 3 (2006): 646-73. www.jstor.org/stable/4094003.

Prema Kurien. "Shifting U.S. Racial and Ethnic Identities and Sikh American Activism." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4, no. 5 (2018): 81-9. doi:10.7758/rsf.2018.4.5.04.

Case Study: Native American Religions

Case Study: Native American Religions

Background/Basic Information: 

  • Creating a definition of one universal “Native American religion” is impossible; every native tribe throughout the country incorporates different values, traditions and teachings into their own unique religious beliefs.

  • Tribes vary in their theories of creation, how nature and human beings came to exist and where they originated from. Different traditions utilize different gods (The Great Creator, Great Spirit, Earth Mother).

  • Spirituality factored into all aspects of daily life; the natural and supernatural worlds were one in the same, thus incorporating religion into everything.

  • Traditions took on many similar forms between tribes: ceremonial dances, tribal gatherings and sacrifices of goods were most prominent. 

  • Sacred gatherings and insights were led by different members of the tribe (a medicine man or shaman) who possessed the power to engage the supernatural more strongly, through visions and dreams. 

  • Most, if not all Native American religions, functioned under some form of belief in animism. Tendency for tribes to hold polytheistic views led to many early settlers perceiving them as paganistic, therefore different and dangerous. 

  • Animism illustrates the belief that a living spirit resides in all things, living or not. Animals, materials, elements of nature such as the sun and the moon, all possessed an individual spirit. 

  • Nature is an integral role in spirituality, geography dictating traditions and cultures born out of a constant sense of gratitude; different natural entities played a crucial role in ceremony and worship (Mother Earth, sun and moon gods).

  • Specifics of any Native American religious or spiritual practices were rarely recorded; oral history passed down through generations was utilized to maintain the upkeep of traditions. 

  • How has the unjust treatment of Native Americans from the Colonial Era to present day denied us more in-depth knowledge concerning tribes and their religious practices?

  • The Native American Church (NAC), or the practice of Peyotism, is one of the most influential religious practices among tribes in the United States today. Officially chartered in the early 20th Century, it integrates Christian principles with ancient tribal traditions and rituals.

Readings/Resources 

Aldred, Lisa. "Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality." American Indian Quarterly 24, no. 3 (2000): 329-52. www.jstor.org/stable/1185908.

Doty, William G. "WE ARE ALL RELATIVES: The Significance of Native American Religions." Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 81, no. 3/4 (1998): 513-51. www.jstor.org/stable/41178851.

Echo-Hawk, Walter R. "Under Native American Skies." The George Wright Forum 26, no. 3 (2009): 58-79. www.jstor.org/stable/43598120.

Forbes, Jack D. "Indigenous Americans: Spirituality and Ecos." Daedalus 130, no. 4 (2001): 283-300. www.jstor.org/stable/20027728.

Irwin, Lee. "Freedom, Law, and Prophecy: A Brief History of Native American Religious Resistance." American Indian Quarterly 21, no. 1 (1997): 35-55. doi:10.2307/1185587.

Wiedman, Dennis. "Upholding Indigenous Freedoms of Religion and Medicine: Peyotists at the 1906–1908 Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and First Legislature." American Indian Quarterly 36, no. 2 (2012): 215-46. doi:10.5250/amerindiquar.36.2.0215.

The Pluralism Project: First Encounters: Native Americans and Christians, Harvard University.
The Pluralism Project: Native American Church, Harvard University.