Bridgewater symposium explores perspectives on 21st century challenges for the Church of the Brethren

By Frank Ramirez

After comparing the decline in membership across what he called the “Ecumenical Church” (often referred to as the mainline Protestant churches) to the rise in membership and political influence of the evangelical church over the past century, David Hollinger asked what he thought was a more important question: Which has had a stronger influence in American society?

On the one hand, have the churches he described as “history-denying, science denying” won because of numbers and political influence? Or has “ecumenical Protestantism, based in love, service, and fellowship, built on the Sermon on the Mount, accomplished more in creating the best of modern society?”

Christian Nationalism and the Transformation of American Protestantism

The Preston Hotchkis Professor of History, emeritus, at the University of California, Berkeley, Hollinger spoke on “Christian Nationalism and the Transformation of American Protestantism,” on Sept. 12 at Bridgewater (Va.) College. His presentation kicked off the Anna B. Mow Symposium on Comparative Religious Ethics on the topic “Perspectives in the Twenty-first Century: Challenges for the Church of the Brethren.”

Hollinger graduated with a bachelor’s degree from La Verne (Calif.) College (now the University of La Verne) in 1963, after which he earned a master’s and a doctorate, in 1965 and 1970 respectively, from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books including most recently Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular (Princeton University Press, 2022).

*David Hollinger was the keynote speaker at the Anna B. Mow Symposium on Comparative Religious Ethics at Bridgewater (Va.) College. Photo by Frank Ramirez*

Hollinger stated from the start that he would be providing an overview of American Protestantism based on “how it looks from 30,000 feet.” The ecumenical community of denominations has been at the forefront in facing the challenges and changes that come with recognizing we live in an “ethno-racially diverse society,” he said. This society must also cope with confronting rapid changes in science and technology. These churches, including the Church of the Brethren, have helped effect change with regards to civil rights and quality of life decisions, among others.

Ironically, he noted, one catalyst for the churches’ role in society was the missionary generation. Far from pursuing an imperialist agenda, missionaries and their children brought progressive change to their home churches.

The result, for these churches, was a decline in membership. While evangelical Christian parents “had scads of children,” families among both Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant denominations shrank. In addition, ecumenical churches were unable to recruit disaffected members of the evangelical movement, as they had in the past, because these people were leaving the church altogether.

Finally, younger members of the ecumenical churches were encouraged to explore the wider religious world, but they did not return to the church as their parents and grandparents had done once they started their own families. Instead, millions became involved in secular movements, like the peace movement that protested the Vietnam War and engaged in civil disobedience.

This reflects a general trend seen throughout the “western” nations surrounding the North Atlantic, in Europe and North America, which have become more secularized while nations in the Global South have seen a rise of evangelicalism.

Evangelical churches that continued to emphasize conversion versus living the faith actually also gained members because they actively opposed desegregation, civil rights, and the rights of non-white populations.

Hollinger did not, in the end, answer the question he posed about which group–the ecumenical or the evangelical church–accomplished more in society, suggesting that perhaps the picture will become clearer after the upcoming presidential election.

Peace, Slow Violence, and the Challenge of Ukraine

In the next morning’s session of the symposium, Margaret Elwell of the faculty of Bethany Theological Seminary bluntly addressed the problem of applying nonviolence in the current situation in Ukraine. “Abstract pacifism is of no use,” she said. “If Ukraine lays down its arms there will be no Ukraine. If Russia lays down its arms, war will end.”

Elwell is assistant professor of Peace Studies at Bethany, and opened the Friday session with her paper “Peace, Slow Violence, and the Challenge of Ukraine.” She suggested that the peculiar challenges involved with the Ukrainian situation may not be quite so singular when seen in the larger context of a multitude of situations involving what she called “slow violence.” Most crises, like the Ukrainian situation, have been brewing for decades or even centuries. It takes a flashpoint to bring the situation into focus for outsiders, who after a period of passionate attention may lose interest in the crisis.

“We have to consider when violence began and ask why we pay attention now,” she said, adding, “The crisis didn’t begin with Putin’s ‘special military operation.’”

Tracing both the history of Russia’s and the former Soviet Union’s structural violence against Ukraine and the world’s neglect of the problem, Elwell–who disclosed that she is half-Ukrainian–emphasized that “slow violence” occurs mostly out of sight, and requires us to think about how to address such situations over the long term. “Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is a direction and not a line between what is war and what is not war…. Calling for peace while Ukraine is in an existential crisis is not a sustainable position.”

Elwell called to mind the story of Jesus and the paralytic at the pool (John 5:2-9) who because of his disability was never able to be the first into the healing waters when they were stirred. Jesus “recognized the agency of the man in front of him,” and instead of addressing the problem of why healing could not happen, addressed the importance of the man’s free will. Jesus told him to stand up, take up his mat, and walk. “Free will is a source of healing,” Elwell said.

The same is true with regard to violence in Gaza and Palestine, the current civil rights situation in the United States, and other difficult situations around the world. All have been decades or more in the making. Peacemaking requires a longterm commitment to peace, not just a lament that violence is occurring at the moment that it is taking place, as well as respect for the free will and agency of the victims of violent situations.

Accepting the Cost: German Baptist Brethren, Faith, and the American Civil War

Following on Elwell’s presentation, Sheila Elwardani spoke on “Accepting the Cost: German Baptist Brethren, Faith, and the American Civil War.” While many are familiar with the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape to the North during the Civil War, Elwardani, a historian of religion with a doctorate from Liberty University, shared stories about a lesser known underground railroad that involved many Brethren, Mennonites, and Friends. These people from the historic peace church traditions helped shepherd perhaps as many as 10,000 conscription eligible men north. “There’s a lot we can learn from the Brethren who risked everything and who in many occasions lost everything,” she said.

Elwardani described a network of safe houses, guides, and depots spaced along the length and breadth of the Shenandoah Valley. At the time, the regulations for religious exemption from conscription left out many young men in the peace churches simply because the practice of adult baptism meant they had not been official church members long enough to qualify.

And it was not only conscription that put individuals in danger. Voting was anything but secret at that time in the South. Some Brethren who voted against secession were forced to change their votes under duress. Those who intended to vote for Lincoln often found there was simply no way to cast a ballot for him anywhere in the South. Then there were those who had no intention of voting but who were rounded up and coerced to vote.

Brethren aided anyone who chose not to fight, regardless of their religious background, Elwardani said. Although in most instances they were more than willing to obey the laws in the newly seceded states, they freely disobeyed when they believed human laws were in conflict with God’s law.

DIScounting the Cost: Thoughts on early 21st Century Brethren

Another presenter, sociologist Carl Bowman, spoke on “DIScounting the Cost: Thoughts on early 21st Century Brethren.” Research director for the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, Bowman recounted instances in the 20th and 21st centuries in which efforts of more traditionalist Brethren to rein in what they considered non-biblical practices ended in failure. Queries to Annual Conference were sometimes received, sent to committees, blunted, or respectfully returned. In some cases, threatened schisms were defused, blunted, or minimized, as was the case in 1939 when only a small number of individuals broke away to form the Dunkard Brethren.

In the 1920s, many Brethren stated that the controversy over plain dress no longer made sense. Conservatives lamented that regardless of what decisions might be made by Annual Conference, congregations interpreted them as they chose. Bowman characterized the extreme poles in these controversies as “Radicals vs. Creedalists.”

Current controversies surrounding questions about human sexuality are rooted in decades of dissatisfaction on the part of creedalists, Bowman stated, and eventually proved insoluble. Beginning with the Greenmount Meeting in 1993, and continuing through a series of Annual Conference decisions, schism began to seem inevitable. Some congregations broke away to form the Covenant Brethren Church, with others simply breaking away to become independent. The split has become a fact.

Martin Grove Brumbaugh

A focus on Martin Grove Brumbaugh–educator, founder and president of Juniata College, historian, and governor of Pennsylvania–was presented by Denise Kettering-Lane, associate professor of Brethren Studies at Bethany Seminary.

Kettering-Lane was recently contacted by a denominational official asking her to find out if accusations made against Brumbaugh on a Wikipedia page were true, regarding heavy handed administrative and educational practices while he served in Puerto Rico during the McKinley administration. Brumbaugh eliminated Spanish speaking educators and replaced them with English speakers. History books were rewritten to emphasize the centrality of the United States. However, Kettering-Lane pointed out that on the positive side, education had previously been available exclusively to children of the wealthiest families, and under Brumbaugh’s administration education became available to all.

“There was no monolithic Brethren past,” Kettering-Lane insisted. “We have never had one viewpoint on any issue…. In the midst of division there is pain and discord,” she said, adding that in division “there is opportunity to be grasped.” Kettering-Lane explored how the divisions of the Brethren movement, including the three-way split of the 1880s, opened the door to the possibility that someone like Brumbaugh could pursue advanced education, establish a college, serve in political office, even to the point of calling up the militia in the State of Pennsylvania during the World War I.

Finally, in times of division, she said, “how we treat each other is vital.”

Closing panel

The symposium closed with a panel discussion titled “Exit Interviews: Conversations with Individuals Who Have Left the Church of the Brethren.” Panelists included Sam Funkhouser, director of the Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center and a member of the Old German Baptist Brethren (New Conference); Eric Brubaker, pastor of the independent Middle Creek Church near Ephrata, Pa., and a member of the Brethren Revival Fellowship; and Robbie Miller, recently retired from the position of chaplain at Bridgewater College. Each described the arc of their lives of belief, practice, and church membership.

— Frank Ramirez is a retired Church of the Brethren pastor.

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