Who are the Mennonites and who are the Amish?

QUOTE from Georgee Bernard Shaw: "There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it."

Today I'm going to talk about a couple of religious groups that we have in the state of Iowa.The two groups are the Mennonites and the Amish. We have these two groups living within 70-80 miles of Anamosa. After some research I finally LEARNED the difference between them.

The Mennonites are a Protestant religious group descended from the 16th-century ANABAPTISTS. Anabaptists, (or rebaptizers), rejected infant baptism, the swearing of oaths, military service, and worldliness. As a result of these beliefs they were persecuted and rejected by other Reformers who regarded them as being opposed to the ideas of the REFORMATION. Anabaptism spread to southwest Germany, Austria, Moravia,  Rhine River area, along the Danube River, and down the Rhine to the Netherlands. In 1534 some militant Anabaptists seized the city of Munster and set up a theocracy and drove out all Protestants and Roman Catholics. After a 16-month seige, the bishop of Munster recaptured the city and executed the Anabaptist rebels.  A guy named Menno Simons, a Dutchman, restored the reputation of the Anabaptists through his moderate and inspired leadership. His followers have survived and are known as the MENNONITES.

The MENNONITES practiced strong church discipline and lived simple, honest, loving lives in emulation of the earliest Christians. Their theological principles stress the direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the heart of the believer and the importance of the Bible, with its message of salvation through the mystical experience of Christ's presence in the heart.

Because the Mennonites were persecuted in Europe they started emigrating in the 1600s. Mennonite groups emigrated to the American colonies in 1683, settling in Pennsylvania, to Russia in 1788, and in the 1900s Mennonites from Russia and North America went to Latin America.

So where did the AMISH come from?  In the New World the Mennonites branched into several factions, of which the (Old) Mennonite Church - still the largest - is the parent group. Other groups include the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Brethren Church. The AMISH were another one of the splinter groups. The AMISH Church, named for Jacob Amman, a 17th-century Swiss Mennonite bishop, remains insular and conservative. Old Order Amish avoid modern technology in farming and manufacturing, wear clothing fastened by hooks and eyes instead of buttons, worship in private homes, and continue to speak a German-English mixture.

Now I won't have to wonder what the difference is between the Mennonites and the Amish. There is a Mennonite High School south of Iowa City (I think) that is usually in the state basketball tournament. I'm going to check them out and see for sure.

HUMOR for today: A Sunday school teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. Little Johnny had the answer, "They couldn't find a babysitter."