A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

years." The five brethren who propagated the pernicious false freedom doctrine considered all members not in agreement with them as being carnal and still in bondage. Even when one of their group fell into grievous moral sin, they were not willing to admit that the moral lapse of this brother (as well as of two sisters) was the direct result of their false teaching. They banned the fallen brother with a self-righteous indignation, not realizing that they were involved in his guilt. The brother who had suffered this moral lapse went through great spiritual agonies; through genuine repentance he was restored to fellowship and later became a useful member of the church in America. The false freedom aspect of the movement was completely overcome by the end of 1862." The movement finally culminated in an incredible spiritual despotism, personified primarily in three leading brethren: Gerhard Wieler, Bernhard Penner, and Benjamin Becker. The religious fanaticism of these "apostles" (as they called themselves) found expression in the imposition of arbitrary rules and restrictions upon the members. All friendly associations with those who disagreed with their views were strictly prohibited, even the friendly greeting of blood-relatives, since this was "fellowship with the world." Religious books, such as Hofacker's sermons and Arndt's Wahres Christentum (True Christianity), which had been deeply appreciated earlier, were now proscribed and burned. That a false literalism in Scripture interpretation played an important part in this "regime of tyranny" can be gathered from the fact that even photography was condemned on the basis of the Second Commandment. 36 The spiritual egotism of the three leaders reached its most frightening expression, however, in the arbitrary use of the "ban." Members who did not participate in the noisy and hyper-emotional meetings were excommunicated and "delivered unto Satan." In Chortitza Abraham Unger and his followers were banned because of their opposition to this movement. In the Molotschna Jacob Reimer, his wife and daughter, as well as elder Heinrich Huebert were excommunicated for similar reasons. Huebert was deposed from office because he was not considered "blameless" since he had to appear before local authorities, and was subsequently imprisoned for ten months. The fact that Huebert's trial and imprisonment resulted from false charges, and that consequently he had suffered as a Christian, apparently did not enter into their judgment. Wieler even banned his own protesting father and twenty other brethren with the "raised fist" — the severest form of the ban. Perhaps providentially for the young Mennonite Brethren Church, Wieler was removed from the scene by imprisonment for "perverting" 62 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Orthodox church members. Furthermore, other men with sane scriptural views joined the Mennonite Brethren and contributed greatly to th