It was Tuesday, December 31, the last day of the year 2019, when Sangmin Lee called me with excitement to report news of his amnesty. Early in 2014 Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete his mandatory military service. Although Lee was freed on Keep Reading…
All Mennonite World Conference member churches who participated in the recent Global Anabaptist Profile (GAP) survey were asked the following two questions: “If the government required military service, what would you do?” and “Do you agree or disagree that it’s okay for Christians to fight in a war?” For the Convención de las Iglesias Evangélicas Menonitas de Nicaragua (CIEMN), Keep Reading…
Sang-Min Lee, the South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector so many of you were praying for, visited the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism and Goshen College on December 8, as part of a longer visit in the United States. In April of 2014, SangMin was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for his faith-based refusal Keep Reading…
Last year we shared the story of Sang-Min Lee, a Mennonite conscientious objector sentenced to 18 months in prison. The global church and others who resonated with Sang-Min’s peace witness responded by writing him letters and praying for him. Over the course of a letter-writing campaign supported by Bearing Witness, Justapaz, and Mennonite World Conference, Keep Reading…
Stanimir Katanic’s story is written by Marcia Lewandowski, who interviewed Katanic in 2014 about his experiences as a Nazarene conscientious objector in Yugoslavia. I met Stanimir Katanic as an 83-year-old man living in Ohio. In our interview, Stanimir requested to speak about the years of his imprisonment as a young man in Serbian, rather than English. Keep Reading…
Although most of the stories of the Bearing Witness site come from decades, or even centuries, ago, we also highlight current, ongoing stories of costly discipleship through this blog and our Facebook page. In those spaces over the past few months, we’ve featured the stories of two young men—one a Mennonite from South Korea and Keep Reading…
Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared on the blog and on Facebook about Sang-Min Lee, a young Mennonite from South Korea who has refused to fulfill his mandatory military service, as a matter of faith and conscience. On April 30th, Sang-Min was convicted and sentenced to an 18-month prison term. Many people around the Keep Reading…
On Tuesday, we posted about Sang-Min Lee, a young Mennonite in South Korea who has refused to fulfill his obligatory military service. Yesterday we received some surprising correspondence from him. The judge has delayed his trial, without any explanation! So Sang-Min is not in prison at this moment, which is reason for rejoicing. At the Keep Reading…
By John D. Roth It was one of the passages narrating the week of Jesus’ passion that first led Sang-Min Lee to consider the way of peace. Soon after he became a Christian, Lee was moved by Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies, especially his rebuke to Peter for defending him with a sword in Keep Reading…
Gjorgje Nikolic wrote well. He loved to write, and with a job for a paper like Belgrade’s Politika, just after World War I, he had great opportunities. With the opportunities came a deeply troubling experience. In the fall of 1926 the reporting manager of Politika sent him to observe a strange case before the Danube Keep Reading…