Is religious secularist a contradiction in terms?
Early pioneers advocating courageously for the separation of religion and government include the Swiss Anabaptists, English Baptists, and also English Quakers. Anabaptists are a family of dissenting Christians that include communal Hutterites, Mennonites, and a Mennonite offshoot – the Amish. Anabaptists are celebrating 500 years this year, 1525-2025. They were the first religious secularists and were severely persecuted for their stand. Thomas Helwys, the first English Baptist and a profound pluralist, was influenced by Anabaptists through his time in Holland among Mennonites in the early 1600s. He died in prison in 1616. The Quakers are another religious secularist tradition. Quakers last year celebrated the 400th birthday of founder George Fox, born in 1624 in Fenny Drayton, 15 miles from Leicester.
What can we learn from these and other religious secularists today that can strengthen the secularist cause amidst the ideological and religious driven violence of our times? Can it be argued that Christian Nonconformity has been a liberating movement in the British story in its opposition to state enforced religion?
