Unit 3: Religious Organizations and Movements (Summary)

Mennonites:

- Branch of the Christian church.

- Place emphasis on peace, justice, simplicity, community, service and mutual aid.

- Known as the 'peace church'.

- Believe in the close textual readings of the Scriptures and a personal responsibility as the basis of their faith.

- They emphasize service to others as an important way of expressing one's faith.

- Many spend part of their life working as missionaries.

Amish:

- Split from the Mennonite Swiss Brethren in 1962 and have around 200,000 members.

- They believe that their religious faith and the way they live are inseparable and interdependent.

- Emphasize the values of humility, family, community and isolation from the world.

- Known for their separation from society and rejection of most modern technology and enjoy a 19th C way of life.

- Believe that the way to salvation is to live as a loving community apart from the world.

- Community governs itself strictly and baptized members are committed to church rules.

Jehovah's Witnesses:

- Best known for their door-to-door preaching, distributing literature and refusing military service and blood transfusions.

- They refer to their body of beliefs as 'the truth' and consider themselves to be 'in the truth'.

- They consider secular society to be morally corrupt and limit their social interaction with non-Witnesses.

Pentecostalism:

- Began among poor and disadvantaged people.

- Pentecostalism stresses the importance of conversions that amount to a Baptism in the Spirit. This fills the believer with the Holy Spirit, which gives the believer the strength to live a…