Tag Archives: Anabaptist

Permalink to The Heretic Religion

The Heretic Religion

by Wahkeena Sitka|on May 3, 2011 |in Awareness & Consciousness, Earth Based Spirituality, Self Knowledge |tagged , , , , , |12 Comments

AXIS MUNDI painting by David Heskin & Aloria Weaver

In my recent viewing of the film, Vision, which is a film adaptation of the life story of the great female Christian Mystic, Hildegard Von Bingen, I am reminded yet again of the importance of heretics in Christianity. Indeed, Christianity was founded by one of history’s greatest heretics, and began as a spiritual revolution by a visionary. Throughout Christianity’s history, there have been special visionaries that have continued the original flame of Christianity’s founding; the mystics that sought direct communion with Spirit, with God rather than blind obedience to hierarchical religious structures of dogma – and Hildegard Von Bingen was but one of them. Indeed, the entire Anabaptist wing of Christianity began as a heretic religion, and growing up in Ohio in the Church of the Brethren, I was constantly reminded of this left-wing, conscientious-objector, progressive source of our founding. It’s funny how progressive, visionary heretic sects evolve and begin to embody the very same qualities of hierarchy and structured dogmatic control that they originally rebelled against. I guess it’s the metaphor of a young teenage boy rebelling against the controlling patriarchal father, only to mature into manhood and becoming the same authoritarian father that he rebelled against. But it is this essence of rebelliousness and spiritual inquiry, of seeking direct communion with the spiritual source – of God, that excited me and spurred me to be a heretic against my entire family and Church, to find out for myself what is spiritual truth from direct experience rather than from what is handed to me in religious propaganda. When I was 17, It was a friend at a Youth Conference at Manchester College that triggered me to begin asking questions – like ‘What is God?’, and ‘What’s wrong with drugs and sex and nudity?’ rather than just accepting what I was told. Thus I left my home and my Church as I entered college and began my spiritual quest of mysticism and seeking God in the many paths to enlightenment.

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Permalink to My Amish Blood

My Amish Blood

by Wahkeena Sitka|on May 26, 2010 |in Earth Based Spirituality, Self Knowledge |tagged , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

OGBBdress2So, the title is a bit of a misnomer, but it serves the purpose of an easily identifiable label that most people can attach meaning to. My ancestors weren’t technically Amish, or even Mennonite, but a different Christian sect that had quite a similar theological perspective and lifestyle as the Amish. Known to others as the German Baptists, referred to often as the Dunkards, my ancestors had a very similar lifestyle as the Amish. When the German Baptists went through the great schism of the 1800s, among the main triggers were whether or not women should be allowed to be preachers and how wide the width of the bonnet strap should be. Thus, my ancestors split off and went the more modern route, which became the Church of the Brethren. The Amish, the Mennonites, the German Baptists, and the Church of the Brethren are all labeled under the sect, “Anabaptists”. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptists) The Anabaptists bear no resemblance at all to the Baptist Church; the main identifying trademark of all the Anabaptist Denominations is that they did not baptize infants. In order to become a member of the church, one had to consciously choose to become baptized as a young adult. They lived very disciplined lives, predominately in rural settings, most of my ancestors on both sides of my family were farmers. They were very Christian, very conservative, did not dance, did not drink, seemingly did not have sex for pleasure, and lived very simple lives. There’s a lot that is admirable about their lifestyle perspectives, and yet it’s taken me probably all my life to un-program my subconscious of all these patterns that were deeply instilled from a young age.

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