Core tenet of Anabaptism
Do not resist evil with the sword.
Nonresistance taken literally: Anabaptists have died rather than kill in every century since.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Nonresistance — not merely pacifism but declining to resist evil by force at all — is the Anabaptist reading of the Sermon on the Mount taken without exception. The Martyrs Mirror, a 1660 collection of accounts of Anabaptists executed for their faith, remains a formative text in Amish and Mennonite homes, and its most famous story has Dirk Willems turn back to rescue his pursuer from the ice and be burned for it.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Ahimsa — do no harm.
Hinduism · precept
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Compassion extends to all sentient beings.
Buddhism
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Non-violence is the highest duty.
Jainism
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The suffering of living things.
Judaism · precept
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Turn the other cheek — and the argument about war.
Christianity · precept
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The sword is legitimate, and it is the last thing you reach for.
Sikhism
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