Better angels of our nature

James Madison’s defense of religious dissenters

We need a new Enlightenment. James Madison, a proponent of Enlightenment values, spoke for the rights of religious minorities in Virginia and in the new United States. Madison defended the rights of Baptists, Quakers, Brethren, and Mennonites, who were dissenters from the sanctioned Anglican church of the Virginia commonwealth. Madison argued that they should be able to hold their beliefs independently of the state’s official religion.

Among Madison’s many political involvements, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates for two years, 1784-1786. Brethren and Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley sent a petition for exemption from militia duty to the Virginia delegates in 1784. Again, in 1785, a group of 71 Mennonites submitted another petition to the Virginia House of Delegates seeking exemption from militia duty because their faith did not allow them to carry or use weapons in military service.1

During his years serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, Madison wrote a historic defense of religious freedom. He asked in the widely read essay whether the “Quakers and Menonists were the only sects that think it is unnecessary and unwarrantable to support their Religions compulsively?”2 Madison argued that each Christian denomination in Virginia should be able to worship freely as they choose. Madison had been baptized into the Anglican church and was from the privileged class. Still, he heard and read about Baptist ministers whom the authorities jailed for preaching their doctrine in Virginia, which upset him. A sheriff near Luray, Virginia, chased Mennonite Jonas Blosser Jr. into hiding because Blosser’s nonresistant convictions prevented him from mustering (marching) with the local militia.

Madison’s determination to establish the new country on the principles of freedom and equal rights for all religious groups became woven into the fabric of the new United States. Madison persuaded the Virginia delegates in Richmond to approve a “Statute for Religious Freedom,” written years earlier by Thomas Jefferson.3 The Statute disestablished the Virginia state religion and supported tolerance for all believers, regardless of denomination.

Elwood Yoder

Four years later, in 1789, Madison wrote the First Amendment for the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In the Second Amendment, Madison defended the right of all to bear arms, and he added a phrase in his original draft that “no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.”4 The phrase that would compel no one to render military service if opposed on religious grounds passed in the U.S. House but not in the Senate.

The 1780s were an axial time in Virginia and U.S. history, a hinge era when minority beliefs came to be accepted. James Madison, an Enlightenment philosopher, articulated a defense of dissenting religions in Virginia and then again during the formative political moments of the United States.

Researching the origins of freedom of religion in the 1780s is why I’m starting to think we need another era of Enlightenment. We need a resurgence of the belief that we must respect all people for their beliefs, nationalities, convictions, and heritage. The Enlightenment ideas of James Madison inspire me, and it’s time for a new Enlightenment in the twenty-first century.

  1. Richard K. MacMaster, Samuel L. Horst, and Robert F. Ulle, Conscience in Crisis (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1979), 331-334. ↩︎
  2. “Founders Online: Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments, 1785,” National Archives and Records Administration, accessed February 15, 2026, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-08-02-0163. ↩︎
  3. Contributor: John A. Ragosta, “Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom (1786),” Encyclopedia Virginia, February 18, 2025, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/virginia-statute-for-establishing-religious-freedom-1786/. ↩︎
  4. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt2-2/ALDE_00013262/ ↩︎
Better angels of our nature

With malice toward none and charity for all

We’ve fragmented in recent years. We seem tribal, isolated in echo chambers of like-minded opinions. Yet in one-on-one conversations, many Americans are remarkably similar. We help each other when needs arise, we talk when we meet in public, but we argue politics until we can no longer reconcile.

I think that the loss of common regional news sources has increased our tribalism — now we each choose our own media sources and interpretations of events. Ours is a time like in 1865, near the end of a protracted and gruesome Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln called the American people to exercise “malice toward none and charity for all.”1

Just before the Civil War, Lincoln asserted that the country could not survive divided. He dedicated four years to the presidency and worked to keep the country together, achieving that goal, but at the cost of his own life.

Lincoln worked from an attitude of respect toward those who disagreed, yet he was forceful in his call for the abolition of slavery. The sixteenth president grounded his speeches and government in moral principles, often recognizing the providence of God in leading him.

Elwood Yoder

We need healing today, as when Lincoln called for the nation to finish the work of binding up the nation’s wounds. At the end of his second inaugural address, Lincoln called on Americans to care for the vulnerable, including those in the soon-to-be-defeated southern states. Whatever our political views, it is incumbent on us to help people in need, those in distress, and those less fortunate than we are.

With a certain degree of humility, with a generous recognition of the providence of God in our world, with a commitment to binding up the wounds of those around us, we can achieve a just and lasting peace, as Lincoln wrote.

The political landscape keeps changing. Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, was drunk at his swearing-in as vice president, never attended school, was impeached, and is often thought to be one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.2 In the twenty-first century, politics swing back and forth like a pendulum, inciting arguments and hostile opinions on both sides of the continuum.

But I think most of us live in the middle, able to speak with liberals and conservatives, committed to building a better society despite divided politics, and seeking a just and lasting peace. As Lincoln spoke in his second inaugural address, when we extend malice toward none and charity for all, peace has a chance to emerge within us, our country, and in the world beyond.

  1. https://www.nps.gov/linc/learn/historyculture/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm ↩︎
  2. Jon Meacham, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (New York: Random House, 2023), 365, 415. ↩︎

Better angels of our nature

Rebuilding out of the ashes

The story of how Mennonites in Virginia rebuilt out of ashes after their barns, mills, and houses burned in 1864 somewhat parallels the difficulties faced by Anabaptist Mennonite believers in Venezuela in 2026.

First, the numbers are small. When Union General Philip Sheridan torched the capital resources of residents in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in October 1864, there may have been 500-600 Mennonites in Rockingham and Augusta Counties. On January 3, 2026, when the United States bombed Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, there were fewer than 500 baptized Anabaptist Mennonites in the Latin American nation.1

Second, many refugees have fled Venezuela to neighboring Colombia, hosted there by Anabaptist Mennonites. In an instance of the better angels of our nature, the rugged Union General Philip Sheridan invited Mennonites and other families who had been left desolate from the burning campaign to leave Virginia on a military-escorted wagon train to northern states. No one knows precisely how many Mennonites departed the Valley, but many did. Others, however, remained and weathered the brutal winter of 1864-1865 by sharing scarce food, huddling in the houses that Sheridan’s men did not burn, and surviving in the most primitive conditions imaginable.2

Elwood Yoder

Third, there are parallels between how Mennonites in Virginia responded to the burning of the Valley in 1864-65 and how Anabaptist Mennonites in Venezuela responded to the 2026 bombings. While there was heightened anxiety in Rockingham County, and church life was disrupted, the continuities of nonviolence, peace, and community support remained steady. Today, Mennonites in Venezuela continue to trust in God, seek peace for their country, and do not want to leave unless they must.3

In my study of Mennonites during the American Civil War, the resilience of Catherine and Samuel Shank has inspired me. Even when Union soldiers burned their house and barn on October 6, 1864, they exhibited the better angels of their nature.

On that fiery day of burning, Catherine Rhodes Shank protected her five children, all under the age of ten. She watched her recently ordained minister husband race into the house to try to save a few things. He rescued a small table and the family Bible. To save him from burning, Union soldiers stopped him from reentering the inferno.4

During the winter after the burning, 1864-1865, the family first found refuge at Catherine’s brother’s home. Then the Shanks lived in their small spring house while they rebuilt. From a kiln they constructed and from clay they dug from their nearby orchard, they made bricks for their new home, which the family constructed. They also built a new barn. Catherine had one more child after the Civil War, born five years before she passed away in 1875, at the age of 43, from pneumonia.5

From the ashes of their farm rose a new house and a new barn. Catherine made all the family’s clothing without a sewing machine, and three of her sons were later ordained ministers in the Mennonite church. One of Catherine’s cousins, Henry E. Rhodes, was among a group of barn builders who worked hard in the years after the war, rebuilding barns from the ashes across the Shenandoah Valley, like flowers blooming in springtime.

Despite political turmoil, war, or economic uncertainties, we can exhibit the better angels of our nature, as Abraham Lincoln called for in his first inaugural address. Whether after Sheridan’s fires that destroyed barns, fences, mills, and houses, or amidst the uncertainties faced by Venezuelan Anabaptist Mennonites, we must choose how to respond. The better angels of our nature, including peace, nonviolence, trust in community, and faith in God’s providence, seem the better course to take.

  1. “Membership, Map and Statistics,” Mennonite World Conference, November 28, 2025, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/membership-map-and-statistics/. ↩︎
  2. Elwood Yoder, Shenandoah Mennonite Historian 22, no. 4 (Autumn 2014): 2–5. ↩︎
  3. Karla Braun, “A Pastoral Letter Regarding Anabaptists in Venezuela,” Mennonite World Conference, January 8, 2026, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/stories/pastoral-letter-venezuela/. ↩︎
  4. Elwood E. Yoder, Under the Oaks: A History of Trissels Mennonite Church, Broadway, Virginia, 1822-2022 (Broadway, Va.: Trissels Mennonite Church, 2022), 26-27; 49-56. ↩︎
  5. Steven M. Nolt and Elwood E. Yoder, People of Peace: A History of the Virginia Mennonite Conference (Morgantown, PA: Masthof Press, 2025), 57; 63-64. ↩︎

Better angels of our nature

Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

In his first inaugural address, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln offered one of the most optimistic and beautiful turns of phrase in U.S. political history. Lincoln’s reference to the “better angels of our nature,” symbolizing our highest virtues and moral compass-at the end of his long speech still rings out today: “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Elwood Yoder

Seven southern states had already seceded from the United States; other states, like my own, Virginia, were poised to follow. The political outlook for the Union was gloomy. Most realized war was inevitable.

In 1861, Elizabeth Shank Showalter, 30, lived seven miles north of where I live today in Harrisonburg, Va. “Betsy,” as she was affectionately called, wanted to attend Lincoln’s inaugural address in nearby Washington.1 Why would a Mennonite woman leave her husband and four young children at home in Broadway, Va., travel north to Winchester, and then pay for a train ride to the nation’s capital? Probably, one of my historian friends has guessed that it was because she had neighbor friends who were going to the inauguration.2 Some of Betsy’s neighbors were second- and third-cousins of Lincoln, who still lived in the Shenandoah Valley. Years earlier, Abraham Lincoln’s father’s family moved west from Virginia to Kentucky. Abraham himself never lived in Virginia. “Virginia John” Lincoln moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1767, and he is buried at the Lincoln Homestead in Linville, Va.

Lincoln delivered the standard rhetoric of a political speech at his inauguration, but then he used poetic license in the closing to appeal to his listeners’ hearts. One wonders how many of the thousands who attended actually heard his voice without a public address system. Perhaps Betsy Showalter and others had printed copies of his speech in their hands.

We are divided today, but not like when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. There are those all around me on the strident left and on the intractable right. The vast majority of Americans are like me, I think, in the two-thirds middle category, who on most issues can be reasoned with and persuaded to think differently with good ideas and information.

I’d like to appeal to the “better angels of our nature,” to grasp, as Lincoln stated in his inaugural speech, that “we are not enemies, but friends.” It’s impossible to ignore the hellishness of the American Civil War, especially as it was experienced by Betsy Showalter’s family and others in the Shenandoah Valley who suffered through the burning of their barns, mills, and some houses. Lincoln appealed to the better angels of our nature, but he also demonstrated the worst angels of our nature in the brutal Civil War that killed hundreds of thousands. I still see signs of southern resistance as I travel throughout the Shenandoah Valley today. The raw feelings are not healed, much as we’d like to think they are.

One moment of “better angels of our nature” stands out to me in the American Civil War. On the night of October 5, 1864, Union General Sheridan gave orders to burn every barn and home in the vicinity of Dayton, Va. When an unknown Union sergeant and his men came to the farmstead of Peggy Heatwole Rhodes, intending to burn everything, Peggy pleaded for the men to preserve her house and barn. The night sky was full of fire when Peggy begged for mercy. While the sergeant listened to Peggy, his men looted the house, taking whatever they wanted.3

Peggy Rhodes, with five young children, explained that she had helped the Union cause by secretly hiding and assisting objectors to the war who fled Virginia to Northern States. She explained that her husband, who had just died a few months earlier, did not fight for the Confederacy. The Union sergeant ordered one of his men to ride over the hill to the church cemetery and confirm Peggy’s story. When her story was confirmed, the sergeant, under the better angels of his nature, blew his whistle, which meant that his troops were to move on to the next farm. Peggy’s barn and house were preserved, and the log barn still stands today.

I can describe more moments in the Civil War in Virginia, which I know something about, where better angels prevailed. I shall detail more stories in the coming months. Join me in 2026 on a journey to discover the “better angels of our nature” that occasionally prevail.

  1. Elizabeth “Betsy” (Shank) Showalter (1831–1913) married Michael H. (Herbert) Showalter (1831–1905), and Michael and Elizabeth Showalter are buried at Weavers Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va. ↩︎
  2. Elwood E. Yoder, Under the Oaks: A History of Trissels Mennonite Church, Broadway, Virginia, 1822-2022 (Broadway, Va.: Trissels Mennonite Church, 2022), 75. ↩︎
  3. David S. Rodes, Norman R. Wenger, and Emmert F. Bittinger, Unionists and the Civil War Experience in the Shenandoah Valley, vol. 3 (Harrisonburg, VA: Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center, 2005), 691-714; and, ↩︎

Anabaptism, Church, Mennonite, Virginia

A Call for Sustainable Living and a Rebirth of Anabaptism

Sam Funkhouser, a member of the Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference, challenged approximately 80 attendees at a November 15, 2025, stewardship seminar to live in radical nonconformity to a culture deeply at odds with the gospel message of Jesus. Most of those who attended the stewardship forum at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church were Mennonites, but not all. One woman who wasn’t Mennonite attended and confirmed how relevant this was for all followers of Jesus.

Funkhouser presented with the conviction of a modern-day prophet. But with a twinkle in his eye and a smile, he said, “You invited me to come and speak.” Most at this meeting live like kings, he declared, and “Our standard of living is predicated on masses of people living in poverty around the world.” Funkhouser, with an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, used Scripture to warn against the dangers of wealth and read from a 1903 Brethren doctrinal book on nonconformity to tell the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Funkhouser concluded his call to sustainable living by reading Isaac Watts’ lyrics from an 1882 Old German Baptist Brethren hymnbook: “Come, let us search our ways and see, have they been just and right?”

Sam Funkhouser spoke at the seminar on Nov. 15, 2025, at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. (photo by Elwood Yoder)

Steve Pardini, Virginia Mennonite Conference Interim Chair, spoke from a scientific perspective about sustainable economics in the twenty-first century. Pardini, with a PhD in physical chemistry and an MDiv, encouraged seminar participants to consider the environmental advantages of driving electric vehicles rather than gas-powered cars. Then he explained why blue whales matter in today’s world. Europeans, with deadly harpoons and fast whaling ships, hunted blue whales to near extinction by 1900 for their blubber, a source of lamp oil, machine lubricant, and perfumes. But they are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem, eating krill and producing excrement that feeds plankton, which all sea life depends on. Plankton removes CO2 from the atmosphere and releases O2, benefitting the biosphere.

Pardini explained that while indigenous groups sustainably hunted whales for centuries, a warped sense of dominion over the planet nearly led to the blue whale’s extinction. Pardini has just released Climate Change and the Healing of Creation. This excellent 217-page book outlines a readable scientific and theological foundation for creation care, available for purchase on Amazon.

Over the lunch hour, table discussion groups enjoyed a “stone soup” stew made with chopped vegetables participants brought with them. And in the spirit of renewed concern over world neighbors in need, over $2000 was raised for the work of Mennonite Central Committee.

While the long-term impact of the seminar remains to be seen, attendees departed with a clear awareness that, for Anabaptism to survive, sustainable economic living and choices that align with the gospel call of Jesus are essential.

Amish, Church, Mennonite, Pennsylvania

Musings at a century

My father, Elmer S. Yoder, was born 100 years ago, on October 6, 1925. His Amish farming parents, in Somerset County, Pa., would not have had indoor electricity or plumbing. He was born at home, and they drove a horse and buggy to their worship services.

Elmer S. Yoder lived from 1925 to 2007. He was a writer, minister, bishop, churchman, father, grandfather, and friend to many. Read an entry about Elmer that I wrote at gameo.org.

Esther J. and Elmer S. Yoder, Hartville, Ohio, 1996.

I’m reminded of the phrase from Isaiah 61:3, “beauty from ashes.” This seems to be a metaphorical promise of God to bring transformation, joy, and beauty out of sorrow, pain, and devastation. Outside my office window on this centennial day of Elmer’s birth are a dozen small yellow crocuses in full sunlight bloom. They seem to celebrate the beauty of a life well-lived.

Crocuses in full bloom, October 6, 2025, Harrisonburg, Va.

https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Yoder,_Elmer_S._(1925-2007)

Church, Mennonite, Virginia

The history book has arrived!

On August 1, 2025, I drove to Morgantown, Pa., to pick up copies of a new history book. I’m a co-author, along with Steve Nolt, of People of Peace: A History of the Virginia Mennonite Conference.

I’ve been selling and distributing copies of the 526-page hardback book to those who contributed and to churches that supported us throughout the past four years of work.

Our book release took place at the annual Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly, August 21-23, 2025. I continue to sell books from my home. Many have expressed appreciation for the book.

Ken Weaver (left) and Elwood Yoder sold books at the Virginia Mennonite Conference event held at the Brethren & Mennonite Heritage Center, Harrisonburg, Va., August 23, 2025. (Joy Yoder photo)

I’m grateful for the professional work of co-author Steve Nolt, who is the director of the Young Center at Elizabethtown College, Pa. Many people helped by reading chapters, editing, and simply encouraging me. A special shout-out goes to the Zion Mennonite Church, Broadway, Virginia, for supporting the book project.

Purchase a copy by contacting Elwood Yoder (elyoder@gmail.com) or at Amazon.com or at Masthof.com.

Anabaptism, Church, Germany, Mennonite, Music, Switzerland, Virginia

The Courage to Love

At the Mennonite World Conference’s 500th anniversary of Anabaptism event, held in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 29, 2025, to which I was privileged to attend, I was greatly encouraged.

I was encouraged by vocal ensembles from Paraguay, Switzerland, Indonesia, Kenya, and the United States. Each group brought a unique style, voice, dress, culture, and language to the global event. Many of the singers were young and energetic in their delivery of music and lyrics. Outstanding musicians added to the glorious sounds that filled the Grossmünster in Zurich. The organ was especially inspiring.

Agape singers from Paraguay, May 29, 2025. Photo by Elwood Yoder

The Eastern Mennonite University choir filled me with hope, refreshed my beliefs in young adults who proclaim the gospel, and inspired me with the courage to love. Three of the EMU chamber singers were former high school students of mine in Harrisonburg, Va. I loved their outstanding a cappella music at our 500th event in Zurich.

Eastern Mennonite University Chamber Singers in Zurich, Switzerland, May 29, 1525, Benjamin Bergey, director. Photo by Elwood Yoder

César García’s message, “The Courage to Love,” was a great challenge to love in the face of differences and a hostile world. Using the account of the Israelite slave girl in 2 Kings 5:1-3, García called Anabaptist Mennonites around the world to do something courageous for the kingdom of God: break the cycle of violence; confront the past to heal our wounds; mend fractured relationships; become beacons of hope in a fragmented world; and envision a new creation where compassion and love open doors to new beginnings.

Setri Nyomi, interim general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, left, and César García, general secretary of Mennonite World Conference, washed each other’s feet in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 29, 2025. Photo by Elwood Yoder

I was encouraged to hear Cardinal Kurt Koch deliver a message from Pope Leo XIV that encouraged Mennonites and Catholics to heal past wounds and build a new future through the ‘courage to love.’ I was encouraged by the footwashing event between the head of the World Reformed Church and the Mennonite World Conference general secretary.

From left, Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, who brought greetings from Pope Leo XIV, Larry Miller (Mennonite World Conference [MWC]), Janet Plenert (MWC), Anne-Cathy Graber (MWC), at microphone, Hanns Lessing, executive secretary for communion and theology for the World Communion of Reformed Churches, John D. Roth (MWC), J. Nelson Kraybill (MWC), and Anne Burghardt, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. Photo by Elwood Yoder

I appreciated Nancy Heisey’s prayer, in which she gave thanks for signs of healing and renewal around the world, as well as the work of peacemaking and evangelism in many places. She concluded by praying that we would never be ashamed of the gospel.

EMU Chamber Singers Lawson Kauffman and Lauren Kauffman (siblings) met Elwood and Joy Yoder outside the Grossmunster in Zurich, Switzerland, on May 29, 2025. The Kauffmans, EMU students, attend Zion Mennonite Church in Broadway, Va., during the school year, where Elwood and Joy are members. Photo by Eli Stoll for Lauren Kauffman.

Church

Pope Leo XIV, a Bridge Builder

The selection of Pope Leo XIV as the new head of the Catholic Church is encouraging because of his call for “missionary outreach,” building bridges of understanding, and his identification with “ordinary people.” As the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics globally, Leo can call for peace and justice, seek harmony between leaders, and invite people to faith in God.

Leo XIV understands the encroachment of current world values on those who seek to be faithful. In the context of power, wealth, and technology, Leo accurately said that some see the Christian faith as “absurd.”1 But without faith, Leo stated, comes a loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, violations of human dignity, and many other human wounds. These are profound thoughts from a global leader of the Christian faith.

When the Vatican announced his selection, the world slowed to consider matters of faith and religion. For a time, the news cycles wrote and spoke about faith, equity, and human dignity. These give us hope in our world today.

Recently, Anabaptist leaders from sixteen countries across the Americas met in Cusco, Peru, to mark the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism.2 Indigenous congregations from Peru and Ecuador participated. Pope Leo XIV has long been a missionary in Peru, and we applaud the new pontiff’s missionary spirit and work. May God bless his holy work as he seeks to build bridges between people and groups in the twenty-first century.

  1. Frances Mao, bbc.com/news, “Pope Leo XIV calls Church ‘a beacon to illuminate dark nights’ in first mass,” May 9, 2025. ↩︎
  2. “Trails of blood, sweat and tears,” mwc-cmm.org, March 27, 2025. ↩︎

"Articulating historical perspectives that inform current trends in the church, society and the world," by Elwood E. Yoder