Posts

Showing posts with the label Michael Sattler

What is the connection between Mennonites, Anabaptists and Homosexual activists?

Image
The Mennonites, and the Anabaptists in general, were an oppressed group that endured some serious persecution in the past, but they ended up surviving and even flourishing partly because of an invention of unparalleled importance that came out shortly before they were on the scene: the  printing press .  With the printing press, the Catholic church   was no longer in control of the distribution of the scriptures and anyone with some money and effort could print a copy of the Bible and distribute it to the masses.  Not only did the Bible get copied, but other ideas got distributed as well…and many of the unwelcome ideas produced no small response (take a look at pages 5-7 here ). Among the ideas that were not so welcome, the teachings of the Anabaptists were highly unwelcome in reformation-era Europe.  The Anabaptists were persecuted by both the Reformers and the Catholic Church for many ideas, like their repudiation of infant baptism and novel teaching of believers baptism.