Can an Atheist be a Mennonite (or vice versa)?

It is probably true that most people, when they say “I’m a Mennonite” or “I’m Amish,” are talking mostly about their religion. They’re saying something about what church they belong to, about their particular approach to the Christian God, about what they think it means to follow Jesus. And, of course, the early Anabaptists became Anabaptists in opposition to both the old Roman Catholic church and the then-emerging churches of the Protestant Reformation. They certainly had theological and liturgical and ecclesiastical—that is, religious—differences with both those churches. So there is no doubt that there is a strong religious aspect to Mennoism.

But when a tourist at the St Jacobs Farmers’ Market in Waterloo County says, “Hey, look! There’s some Mennonites,” they are not thinking about religion. They are talking about the way the people dress, the horse-drawn buggy they are selling their produce from, perhaps the language they are speaking. These are cultural—not religious—things. And we could add to that list, not only the sorts of produce they might be selling (shoo-fly pies, summer sausage, farmer’s sausage, fresh vegetables, or maple syrup), but invisible things like the strong commitment to family and community, the dedication to a simple non-ostentatious life, the refusal to bear arms or make oaths or go to law to address conflicts, the practice of giving aid to those in need and those who are marginalized, and so on.

Saying you are Mennonite or Amish, then, is quite different than saying you are Baptist, say, or Presbyterian. It (usually) entails much more than just what church you belong to; it implies an orientation to all of life, to the culture around you, and to the natural world.

In his essay “Mennonite me: An atheist ‘comes home’ to the Old Order,” Robin A Fast suggests that, because of both persecution and the recurring need for more and better land, “Mennonites are a diasporic population, strewn across Europe and the Americas.” He goes on to say:

“Over the course of five centuries, a unique culture developed:

• A culture seen in its food influenced by Germany, Ukraine, Canada, Paraguay and many other regions, but also by necessity; food that is basic, evolved from meagre rations and long winters.
• A culture that values simplicity, community, family and the freedom of belief.
• A culture that rejects other attachments and is ready to move and adapt.
• A culture of pacifism and a willingness to help those trying to survive on the edges of our global community.”

Fast then argues that these cultural traditions and values “are founded in shared history, driven not by religious belief but by the responses these beliefs evoked from the societies Mennonites encountered along the way.” That is, it was because of the ways in which outside cultures responded to Mennonite religious beliefs that the Mennonite people, over a long history of persecution and migration, developed this unique set of values and traditions. 

In this way, I would say, Mennonite culture is a counter-culture, a culture opposed in many ways to the values and traditions of the dominant culture within which it exists. The religion of Mennonite people, on the other hand, holds many things in common with all Christian faiths and almost everything else in common with at least some other Christian denominations or belief systems. I would argue, then, that it is the cultural aspects of Mennoism, the social values and traditions, that are uniquely Mennonite.

These traditions and values can, then, be separated from the Mennonite religious faith. A person like Robin Fast, who was raised in the Mennonite culture and religion, can lose their Christian faith, but still be deeply shaped and influenced by the values and traditions of the Mennonite culture. And even someone like me, who was not raised in the Mennonite church and lived most of my formative years 500 miles away from a centre of Mennonite culture, can have those counter-cultural values and traditions passed on through grandparents and parents. 

The religious faith and practice that I was raised in was very similar to that of many more-progressive Mennonite groups (adult baptism, congregational independence, focus on the so-called new birth and religious piety), but the culture of my church was quite different in many ways than my (Mennonite-influenced) culture at home. When I stopped going to church and believing in God and the supernatural, my counter-cultural traditions and values were not affected. 

Indeed, when I relieved myself of the self-centred, revivalist, born-again beliefs, I became even more interested in and commited to such things as social justice, pacifism, a non-consumerist and ecologically aware lifestyle, and care for the needy and socially marginalized—all things that are aligned with Anabaptist cultural traditions and values. For me, one of the most admirable traits of the Mennonite culture is that every aspect of one’s daily life is meant to be influenced by and lived in light of one’s (religious) values and beliefs. While I do not share the belief in God, I still strive to live ethically, in accordance with my core values, many of which are Mennonite values.

So, yes, it is possible to be an atheist and a Mennonite (or vice versa). I would suspect, in fact, that you could find atheists—people who do not believe in God or the supernatural—in many Mennonite churches and church-related institutions, people who are there because of the community and its cultural values and traditions and not because of any religious beliefs.

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Note: This piece was pubished simultaneously on a new online discussion group called The Atheist Anabaptist. That controlled-membership group is intended as a forum to discuss what it means to be an atheist or agnostic and still identify as a Mennonite. If you’re interested in joining the discussion, go to the website and request admission by clicking on “Join.”