Home > Peace churches

There has always been at least a faction of pacifism in all large Christian groups, but certain ones have always held it in predomination since their founding. These include the Society of Friends ("Quakers"), the Amish, Mennonites and others in the Anabaptist tradition, Doukhobors, many groups of Brethren, and many groups within the Pentecostal movement. Several other smaller groups have been peace churches, including some now extinct or nearly so such as the Shakers. These groups often differ with each other, and among themselves, about the propriety of non-combatant military or other governmental service such as performing services as unarmed medical personnel. One faction states that Jesus would never have had any objection to helping those who were hurting and in fact did so himself, while the other states that those doing so, in a military context at least, free up a person who does not object to violence then to fill a direct combat role and hence indirectly are contributing to further violence. Some groups once containing a relatively large pacifist faction are now almost devoid of one, such as the Church of Christ.

Another group that deserves mention in the context of peace churches is the Jehovah's Witnesses. Even though this group does not consider itself to be a church and objects to the use of that term to describe it, it nonetheless shares the major viewpoint discussed here, as that Witnesses believe and teach that no one who follows God has any right to lay down his life on behalf of the state, and that to do so in fact constitutes idolatry.

At one point, active membership in and acceptance of the beliefs of one of the peace churches was a requisite for conscientious objectorA conscientious objector is an individual whose personal beliefs are incompatible with military service, or sometimes with any role in the armed forces. This constitutes a conflict in the case of conscription. The reasons for refusing to serve are varied. status in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in and hence exemption from military conscriptionConscription or mandatory military service is a general term for government policies that require citizens to serve in their armed forces. It is known by various names, for example, in the United States it is known colloquially as the Draft . However, the or, for those already in the military, honorable discharge as an objector. However, after a series of court rulings this requirement was later dropped in the United States and one can claim conscientious objection based on a personal belief system that was not necessarily Christian or even religiously-based.

Peace churches, especially larger ones with greater financial resources, have traditionally attempted to heal the ravages of war without favoritism. This has often proven controversial in and of itself, as when the "Quakers" sent large shipments of foods and medicines to North VietnamThe Democratic Republic of Vietnam ( Vietnamese Vit Nam Dan Ch Cng Hoa , also known as North Vietnam was founded by Ho Chi Minh and was recognized by China and the USSR in 1950. In 1954 after the defeat of France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France for during the Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos See Secret War) and in bombing runs ( Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. See also the timeline of the Vietnam War. Fighting on, and also to U.S.- embargoIn international commerce and politics, an embargo is the prohibition of commerce and trade with a certain country. It is usually declared by a group of nations against another one, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internaed CubaAlternate meanings: see Cuba (disambiguation The Republic of Cuba is an archipelago in the northern Caribbean, in between the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. To the north are found the United States and the Bahamas, to the west M. The American Friends Service CommitteeThe American Friends Service Committee or AFSC is a Quaker organization which works for social justice, peace and reconciliation, abolition of the death penalty, and human rights, and provides humanitarian relief. The group was founded in 1917 as a combin and Mennonite Central Committee are two of the denominational aid agencies set up by the Quakers and Mennonites respectively.

More recently, in the 90s, the Quakers, Brethren in Christ and Mennonites came together to create Christian Peacemaker Teams, an international organization that works to reduce violence and systematic injustice in areas of conflict. In many ways, CPT is an attempt to answer critics of peace churches who often claim that without others who did not share their views, they would have no right to exist.