For leftists in Mainline and Evangelical churches alike, the Anabaptist tradition has been claimed as a foundation for nonviolence, social justice protest, and even federal entitlement programs. Recently, neo-Anabaptists have been reaching out to traditionally conservative Southern Baptists. Although not ready for current leftist political themes, some Southern Baptists, especially if shunning Calvinism, do look to Anabaptist history as part of their tradition.
Anabaptist beliefs, or their modern variant, have experienced a resurgence of popularity, especially within the Evangelical Left. Twenty-somethings admire the work of pacifist Shane Claiborne while some seminarians tout theologians like Stanley Hauerwas and the late John Howard Yoder. Even Sojourners activist in chief Jim Wallis, who once glorified Marxist revolution, has been pointing to Anabaptist themes.
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