"One Bad Thread" - from The Radicals

My July 4th tribute. Should serve as catalyst for rethinking the relationship of church and state... and that mysterious thing called baptism.

This video clip collage is taken without permission from the excellent and thought provoking film titled The Radicals. Please seriously consider purchasing the DVD for 15$ from www.visionvideo.com (search there for keyword of "radicals").

The "one bad thread" that is woven through the last 1,700 years of church history is that of adding man's authority to the church life. This film did a great job of showing this drama from three angles in 16th century Switzerland. It's a great introduction to the radical reformation. This collage ends with the forming of the Schleitheim Confession.

Adapted from the DVD jacket:

The year is 1525. Michael and Margaretha Sattler have fled their Catholic orders. They seek to restore the church to the purity of its earliest days when communities of believers practiced peace, endurance, compassion and sacrificial love. The Sattlers join a group called the Anabaptists (the twice-baptized in a time when an adult baptism was an act of treason against the state) and together challenge the 1,000 year control of the Church by the State. They call for baptism to once again become, not a mark of citizenship, but an adult and voluntary decision to follow Christ. As their movement grows, so does the determination of their enemies (both Protestant and Catholic) to stop them by any means necessary. In 1527, Michael is burned at the stake and Margaretha drowned.