Mennonites
The Anabaptists differed from other Protestants in that they insisted on a conscious choice to join the church (adult baptism), a disciplined church in which members were responsible to each other, and a sharing church in which material needs were met by fellow members. They rejected the union of church and state and the validity of oaths and self-defense, including military service.
The Mennonites of South Carolina are a Protestant group descended from the Anabaptists of the Reformation. The Anabaptists differed from other Protestants in that they insisted on a conscious choice to join the church (adult baptism), a disciplined church in which members were responsible to each other, and a sharing church in which material needs were met by fellow members. They rejected the union of church and state and the validity of oaths and self-defense, including military service. Because Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin feared that these distinctive beliefs would undermine the social fabric of Europe and threaten chaos, they and the Catholics persecuted the Anabaptists, executing about four thousand martyrs.
The Amish, from whom about half of the Mennonites in South Carolina were descended, sprang from an internal dispute within the Mennonite Church at the end of the seventeenth century concerning church discipline and relations with those outside the faith. The Amish took the stricter approach, demanding strong church discipline, including excommunication and shunning of disobedient members.
Mennonites began migrating to South Carolina in the late 1960s. By 2003 there were twelve Mennonite churches in South Carolina, concentrated primarily in Abbeville, Aiken, Barnwell, and Oconee Counties. Membership in the state totaled more than seven hundred. Fair Play Church and Foothills Fellowship, both in Oconee County, were established to minister to at-risk juveniles in a camp setting. The other churches were founded to provide Mennonite witnesses in the areas or to provide rural settings for those in old Mennonite communities that were being crowded out by urban development.
Dyck, Cornelius J., and Dennis D. Martin, eds. The Mennonite Encyclopedia. 5 vols. Hillsboro, Kans.: Mennonite Bretheren Publishing House, 1955–1990.
Yoder, Elmer S. The Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship Churches. Hartville, Ohio: Diakonia Ministries, 1987.
