Of Holy Disobedience

Of Holy Disobedience

Abraham Johannes Muste, also known as A. J. Muste, was a Dutch-born American pastor and political activist. He is best known for his contributions to the labor movement, peace movement, anti-war movement, and civil rights movement. Muste was born on January 8, 1885, in the little harbor city of Zierikzee, Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands. Martin Muste, his father, worked as a coachman for a family with hereditary nobility in Zeeland. With his economic prospects in the Netherlands restricted, Martin chose to travel to America with four of his wife Adriana's brothers. They traveled across the Atlantic as third-class passengers in January 1891. Muste's mother grew unwell aboard the voyage and was hospitalized at Ellis Island for a month after the family arrived. After Adriana recovered, the family traveled west to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where her four brothers worked in a variety of small business ventures. The family attended services at the Grand Rapids Dutch Reformed Church, a Calvinist congregation that held religious services in Dutch. Its very existence reflected the quantity of Dutch immigrants in the area. The church outlawed dancing as a sin. It was also banned to sing secular music or watch dramatic plays.