Militärdienstverweigerer - Conscientious objector

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Between 1970 and the 1990s, a number of young Swiss Mennonites were sentenced to prison for refusing military service. When a young man began his prison sentence in the mid-1970s, he wanted to take some literature with him for self-study, but was denied. To his great astonishment, he was told that the only book he was allowed to take with him was the Bible.

^{Stamp Swiss Army; Caption: Stamp of the military court that pronounced the sentence (1975).}

"How strange!" he said to a prison guard. "It was because of this book that I was sent to prison in the first place. Instead of forbidding me to read in this obviously dangerous and subversive book, this very book is supposed to be the only one allowed here at all!? Now that really surprises me!"

Gruffly, the warden ordered the young man to be silent and locked the cell door behind him.

This episode shows how much the Bible and Christian faith have been classified as 'harmless' by the public until very recently. The Bible is certainly credited with bringing criminals and offenders in prisons back onto the "good path”. On the other hand, the Bible is apparently not seen as having the potential to turn well-adjusted contemporaries into people who, because of their faith, sometimes come to hold convictions in our country that can bring them into conflict with the prevailing values and laws.

Among Swiss Mennonites, the rediscovery of a peace-church reading of the Bible has led to a new reflection on the relationship between church and society. This has inspired many of them to also work innovatively for new solutions. For example, the Mennonites were one of the few churches that committed themselves to the introduction of community service as alternative to military service in Switzerland (1992 to 1996).