Jan. 16, 2012 issue
Writer turns U.S. history upside down
By Tim Huber Mennonite Weekly ReviewPage:
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Author and attorney David Bercot is the thorough type. When he grew curious about theology, he set out to read all the works of Christians who lived in the first centuries after Christ’s death. He wound up writing Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up.
Bercot — Photo provided
That emphasis on primary sources led him to write several other books and eventually to become an Anabaptist.
Bercot applied his brand of rigor both to his speaking engagements and his children’s homeschooling. It was only a matter of time before the two connected.
When the U.S. history textbooks he used came to the colonial era and the American Revolution, Bercot was troubled. He felt they glorified war and promoted the idea that it was God’s purpose for Europeans to kill America’s native people and take their land, refuse to pay taxes and use violence to gain independence.
“My main concern is countering the God-and-country textbooks that are definitely infiltrating Anabaptist circles,” said Bercot, who lives in Amberson, Pa., and attends an independent Anabaptist house church.
So he decided to write his own book, In God We Don’t Trust, challenging common assumptions about America’s founding, from Jamestown to the writing of the U.S. Constitution. The provocative title flips a phrase so enshrined in Americans’ consciousness that it’s minted on every coin.
Bercot believes the colonists’ war for independence and other actions reveal a lack of trust in God.
“Doing things from a human perspective and putting a thin Christian veneer over it — taking up arms and killing the enemy and giving all the credit to God that we were victorious — that is what they did,” he said. “They didn’t trust in God, and when they were successful, they gave God the victory.”
Bercot doesn’t limit his critique to religious textbooks. He believes secular textbooks bear just as much guilt for romanticizing American revolutionaries who put more faith in gunpowder than in God.
“We get the impression [that the laws the colonists objected to] applied only to the 13 colonies, but in most cases they applied to all British territories,” he said. “The Stamp Act — that applied in Nova Scotia and Jamaica, but only in America did people resort to violence.”
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Comments
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Mr. Bercot’s writing on the early church are very interesting.
Theses like his about the founding of the United States of America trouble this writer from the point of view of gratitude.
The U.S. government was one of the most significant states to adopt the Anabaptist position on separation of church and state. The U.S. offered safe haven and religious freedom to Amish and Mennonites to such an extent that they flourished in America and continue to do. In the case of the Old Order, the Amish and Old Order mennonites are more or less extinct in their European place of origin but a growing presence in America.
I am not a Fundamentalist Protestant but from the description I have read of Mr. Bercot’s work it is fundamentally lacking in the gratitude that is owed to this system of government for the protection extended to persecuted Anabaptists and for adopting Anabaptist standards of separation of church and state.
Moreover, the Bible and its laws were hugely influential in the 17th and 18th centuries even if Mr. Bercot objected to Puritan or Presbyterian influences. Americans were more Bible-literate than most nations and this was reflected in early laws against usury and various other transgressions of the Word of God. If the British Crown is Mr. Bercot’s model, he is welcome to try and live a Biblical life in Great Britain where the age of consent for homosexual acts is 15 or 16. He can try to speak out for Biblical values in Canada, a Crown Commonwealth nation, where American type freedom of speech is limited and preachers can be prosecuted for speaking forcefully about homosexuality.
I am a critic of America’s war and the national pride which, since the 9/11 attacks have become a type of false religion, but the roots of this nation were Biblical and the proof is in the fruit - the refuge America graciously extended to the Anabaptists of Europe. Let us be grateful!
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The book confirms many things I have researched myself. While various persecuted Anabaptist and other groups from Europe can be grateful to some degree to be given "safe haven." It would not be surprising that many whose ancestors were forced into slavery and others who were forced off their land might not have the same gratitude that brother Michael has. Africans, native tribespeople, and other minorities didn't have as much privilege as most Protestants of northern European heritage. Of course, there have been times when German-speaking Anabaptists have been persecuted for their language, pacifism and "strange ways," as well in the USA. One can have gratitude for, as well as negatively critique one's nation.
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Thank's for including the work of Juhnke and Hunter as forerunners in this important project.
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Michael Hoffman is making a common mistake when he says gratitude is due to the United States for allowing immigration by Anabaptists and others who were religiously persecuted in Europe and England. In point of fact, the COLONIES' tolerance of various forms of religion PREDATED the Declaration of Independence. William Penn, appointed by the King as governor of "Penn's Woods" was a Quaker who ensured religious freedom. This he did not AFTER the U.S. revolution, but BEFORE.
So, in short it seems that Michael Hoffman is the person who is not demonstrating the appropriate gratitude - to King George who not only appointed William Penn and allowed religious tolerance to exist in Pennsylvania, but also throughout the colonies.
Michael Hoffman demonstrates precisely why David Bercot's book is so sorely needed. It's too bad it seems to have passed right over his head.
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Right on, Caretaker!
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'Caretaker' could not be further from the truth - the fact that people would not only read but praise his comments is alarming.
He is right to reveal that colonial religious freedom predated the formation of the U.S- but the freedom did not cease upon the creation of the country, was further by the Declaration of Independence, was in fact codified into law by the U.S Constitution, and many Mennonites/Anabaptists continued to immigrate well after the formation of the U.S.
William Penn was indeed a Quaker but was not the only colonizer, nor was the concept of religious freedom generally limited to Pennsylvania. Penn himself was unwelcome in Britain and was granted his charter mostly to discharge Quakers and others from the British mainland where they were treated with hostility.
To insinuate that King George propagated religious freedom is nonsense as colonizers were fleeing mainland Britian to escape Anglican persecution. Apparently 'gratitude to the U.S' is simply too radical for some posters and believers today, but I think many would feel quite different 100 years ago.
Gratitude to a country does not eliminate or circumvent gratitude to God.
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I have not read the book, but it sounds like good reading for all the preceding commentators.
I wonder about the gratitude of the native Americans. What is their gratitude?
I agree that our gratitude is to God, not people or a nation.
I question the perception of Canada and religious freedom by one writer. Has the writer lived in Canada, or have a close relative that can give the actual situation?
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Thank you Mr. Hoffman for your input. I would like to add that a lie in its simplest form is nothing more than a revision of history. People conveniently ignore scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit. Such scriptures like the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes in which GOD himself says that there is a time appointed for war. Jesus himself, in Luke 22:36, told the disciples that if they lacked a sword, to sell their cloak and buy one. But he disarmed Peter, you say. No! He told Peter to put it away. He did NOT take it away from him.
One of the prevailing doctrines of anabaptism is that GOD sets up and tears down governments at HIS pleasure according to HIS purpose. HE chooses different ways to do this and sometimes through peaceful methods and others through violence. Now this country has down some despicable things in the past but we overcame them by the blessing of GOD.
Our forefathers, through much prayer decided that it was time for a new sovereign government separate from the empire. They severed ties to Britain peacefully by declaration. It was the king who decided to declare war, not the colonists. Just as the high priest told the pharisees, if the new government was not of GOD it would have come to naught. However, not only did the fledgling government survive, it has blessed the whole world. No country on the face of the planet has aided underprivileged nations as the United States has. No country is more generous. No country has done more to spread the gospel. This country, with all its faults, is truly blessed, not perfect. Remember, king David did some wicked things but GOD called him a man after his own heart. That's how I view our country. Imperfect, but blessed by GOD and formed by GOD.
Am I grateful to GOD for our country? Let's see. My mom's ancestors came hear as separatists in 1639 and Quakers a little bit later. My father's came hear in 1751 on ship Edinburgh from Switzerland. I'm part Cherokee and Seminole indian. You bet I'm grateful. If it hadn't been for the USA my european ancestors could have been wiped out by Calvinists or Catholics and my native american ancestors may have never become civilized christians.
One must also remember that minorities played a much larger role than liberals lead us to believe. Some of the greatest heroes of the revolutionary war were African Americans. One of the criers that rode with Paul Revere was a black man. Three of the largest slave holding plantations were owned by black men. Cherokees owned both black and white slaves. Cherokees also caught valiantly in all our wars.
You see, there is good and bad in all of us. But, if we can manage to keep GOD as our main focus, HE will bless us and use us to bless the world.
Mr. Bercot's problem is that he has confused history with opinion. I have always told my children that if they speak ill of someone who can not be present to defend themselves, that it's just gossip. I am afraid that is exactly the trap into which Mr. Bercot has fallen.
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