Living in an Amish Paradise

[Big Steve]

Living here in Wisconsin we have areas with high concentrations of Amish. They make beautiful furniture and crafts, and are hard workers.

HOWEVER, I have discovered something about them that seriously makes me wonder how they can claim to want to follow Christ at all. Now I'm NOT saying this applies to everyone who is Amish, I don't want to offend anyone. But I wouldn't have believed this had I not seen it with my own eyes.

The Amish around here apparently have a problem with in-breeding. They ran an ad in one of the small town newspapers, looking for young men to come and have sex with their wives to help alleviate the problem and get some different DNA into the gene pool. They were willing to pay $500 cash to the men who did this.

A friend of mine I worked with told me about this, and I said no way, I absolutely do not believe it. Well, he brought in the paper with the ad in it. I read it myself, and I was floored to say the least.

My freind had a buddy who apparently needed the money and answered the ad. I won't detail everything, but it was conducted totally like a breeding operation you would see on a farm. Woman was covered with a sheet, her husband and other men stayed in the room, no personal contact, just business.

Like I said, I wouldn't have believed this for a minute if I hadn't seen the ad myself. Then some other people said they had seen it before, and it was fairly common for them to do this every so often.

The other thing that just recently happened is there were two brothers (amish) that were arrested for sexually assaulting a small girl. The amish elders were upset that the men were arrested, as they said they handle this type of thing among themselves. Which makes me wonder, as more came out about it, how often this type of thing occurs with-in their community.

Like I said, this obviously does NOT apply to all amish, and I don't want to offend anyone here. But the fact that these things are occurring and coming to light, makes me wonder about what else they let happen, seeing as they live in such seclusion.

[stevehut]

Most members of our church are born into it, and as they grow up have the option of remaining with the faith or moving on. Roughly 85% to 95% of the young people in our congregation remain with the church; the rest finding it's "not for them."

Yup, I read the whole thing, Laura.

And he admits their evangelism is sorely lacking. Kinda hard to win others for Christ when you live in your own little world.

And he said nothing about the destiny of the youngsters who leave.

[refugepsa91]

About ten miles from us we have a large area of Amish...we even have the horse and buggy road signs....shoulders were made wider to so they could fit safely in their carriage...the walmart in Fremont even have the hitching posts built into their parking lot.

I've never heard a bad thing about any of them....as a matter of fact I've heard of more than once they have helped out their non-amish neighbors when there was trouble.

Love and Blessings,

Angel

[DonnaPs25]

I'm the 'other' Mennonite moderator from worthychat.

First off I hope you all realize that Amish and Mennonite are completely different and separate.

Although my Mennonite church is not Conservative like Chief and Papasangel's church. My grandmother was raised and in turn raised her children in the conservative way. I was not blessed to have this tradition carried out in my generation. I respect those who do live modestly and with such focus on Christ rather than the World.

I would like to just post parts of the info from the website of my homechurch:

Trinity Mennonite Church is a community of God's people gathering under the Lordship of Christ and scattering to serve him in the world.

We want to extend to you a warm invitation to discover our community of faith. Each week we gather to worship God and nurture one another to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. It is our hope that these times together will empower you for life throughout the week in your work, family, or school.

The vision for Trinity Mennonite Church is "To share the Good News of Jesus at home, across the street and around the world."

By seeing this statement you can all see, that from what I've seen of the AZ Mennonite churches, there is emphasis on reaching out to the world with the message of our Lord. In fact, in my own life, I take it very seriously to witness to those around me who don't know Christ.

As chief stated, the non-resistance is a strong belief of the Mennonite faith. Other than that, we believe in the Bible as the living word of God. We believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Food restrictions? Mennonites are famous for potlucks

God's blessings to u all

[Guest The Chief]

Steve, that is absolutely news to me! I have heard accusations of the Amish having problems like that, but never have heard of the solution mentioned in that paper. Besides being an outlandish way to solve the "problem," it would run against Biblical principals of marriage, fidelity to one's spouse, and go right into sexual sin. (Please keep in mind that I am Mennonite, not Amish)

As far as the legal issues with the assault, I can think of no denomination offhand that hasn't had people who have done things like this at one time or another, terrible as this is. I am by NO MEANS condoning what was done; these men should face justice just as any man should. The view of their church is not the view of the majority of Anabaptist churches that I know of; if someone runs afoul of the law, then they pay the consequences. Anabaptists in general are law abiding citizens, insofar as the civil law doesn't interfere with God's Law. Molesting of a little girl is well within the boundaries of civil law, and I agree with the authorities who had them arrested and incarcerated.

As far as getting baptized in adolescence, this is common for those children who wish to remain with the church (usually around 13 or 14 here). Our particular branch (Conservative Mennonite of the Eastern Conference) does not practice shunning of these children who do not wish baptism into the church; they are prayed for, treated as children are treated, all the while leaving the door to baptism open. I am aware of numerous Anabaptist churches that do practice shunning; indeed, in our particular church we have one individual who is shunned, not for refusing baptism at a young age, but for conducting an openly adulterous affair, and refusing to return to the fellowship. Even then, he is allowed to attend services, converse with other members, and generally allowed to go about his business. But he has lost the fellowship of his brothers and sisters, and cannot take part in church functions (foot washing, Lord's Supper, etc) until he admits his sin, asks the Father for for forgiveness, and reapplys for full membership with the congregation.

"Stocking the larder" is simply providing food, groceries, cleaning supplies, and whatever else she needs to maintain her home.This usually goes on for as long as necessary. A lot of the food provided is from their own home-canned stocks.

As far as being "exclusive," I assume you mean do we exclude "outsiders?" In that sense no, we are not exclusive. Our church welcomes visitors with open arms, and will do whatever they can to extend the hand of friendship, including inviting visitors home for a home cooked meal and fellowship.

Stevehut, it seems you missed the 7th paragraph, where I did directly discuss evangelism and missions. Kind of hard to be considered in our "own little world" with missionaries and evangelists scattered to the four winds.

Concerning the destiny of those who leave, what is the destiny of those who leave your church, my friend? No one is to say that they won't find a God-fearing, Bible preaching church, find the Lord, and proceed to be a shining example of Christian virtue. We can't say that this person is destined to go to Hell for leaving our church; that's totally incorrect! WE don't know that, only God does! I feel certain that many of us will be surprised by those we meet again in Heaven (as well as those we don't!)

Other people's denomination is not as important as the person's heart being right with God. I understand that there are children of God in the majority of Christian denominations, and have no problem calling a born again Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Non-Denominational, etc. my brother or sister in Christ. God judges the heart and soul, not the name. He examines each of us to determine our right standing with His Son Jesus in accordance with Scripture and accepts us based on that standard; can we do less?

[tsth]

This has been an informative discussion. I have really been blessed by it. Now are there any Amish here? I do hope to hear and understand more.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[nebula]

I went to undergaduate college in soutcentral Pennsylvania. We had a fair number of Mennonites attending. Some were "traditional" - girls always wore dresses/skirts and the doilies on their head - and some were more conservative - were allowed to wear jeans, but still had the doilies.

I have these two things to say.

One is that I've been to Lancaster, PA (Amish country). There is a point in nearing the area where you can feel such a sense of peace. (I mean, we can all relate to the expression, "Tension in the atmosphere." Have you ever likewise encountered, "Peace in the atmosphere?" Well, that's what it was!

So, my impression of the Amish is biased by this.

Second is that I belonged to a prayer group whose leader was a Mennonite - more on the modern-side I guess you could say (they sang contemporary praise and worship songs in their church). He came from a likewise strong Mennonite family. let me tell you, he was definantly a very, very strong Christian. He'd been involved with church planting and evangelism in Africa, his sermons were hard-hitting, he was fervant in prayer and seeking the Lord, and all that.

So, I guess like any denomination there's good and bad, strict and less-strict, traditional and contemporary, old-fashion and cutting edge, enclosed and open, effective and non-effective, etc., individual congregations. I've known Mennonite whw were solid Christians; someone else may know Mennonites who aren't so great at being Christians (maybe?).

Each individual church within the denomination, and each individual person in each churched need to be merritted individually, really.

[ayin jade]

Chief, Papasangel and Donna have all been good friends, brother and sisters in Christ, to me in chat. Donna and I live sorta close by and are going to meet in real life one day. As friends. As sisters. Ive never encountered anything remotely exclusionary from them at all. And if you were to take a peek in chat, when any of them are present, you would see them as standing up for our Lord and evangelizing when the opportunity arises. I am blessed by knowing them.

[Laura]

TSth:

We probably will not see any Amish here on the boards or chat room, and MOST do not have electricity. That is one thing that makes the Amish different from others, and pretty much solely travel with horse and buddy (although at least here in NE Ohio where I live, and there is Amish nearby), they will travel to work and/or stores in vans that are driven by non-Amish.

I am near Cleveland, Ohio, and Middlefield is a nearby town with Amish.

Meanwhile, one of the largest Amish communities is in more southern Ohio in Holmes Country, towns like Walnut Creek, Sugar Creek and Berlin. These towns are intwined with Mennonites, which work at many of the shops and stores.

In Berlin, Ohio, there is a museum, which tells the history of the Mennonites and Amish, quite informative. I have seen it once, and some information is also on the internet.

Now and then, there have been documentaries on PBS regarding Amish communities, also.

I have not heard of the things which Steven has mentioned, involving sexual activity, but that does not mean it does not occur. The major problem we hear about here, even on the local news, is Amish teens drinking and smoking, which is just about any teens from the dawn of time. As most, they usually straighten out eventually, hopefully lol.

[papasangel]

Hi, well time for me to chime in I guess lol. I would like to take this opportunity to invite anyone who is curious about our lifestyle to come and visit with us. You will find us a plain down to earth type of people. Particularly I would like to invite Steve to our church so he can meet other conservative mennonite brothers and sisters and get the real story about us. I have seen "stories" on TV about Mennonite and Amish and have to bite my tonuge as to what I see portrayed on the screen as being truthful. The kindest way I can put it is that the producers are not above taking liberties and licenses with our lifestyle and portraying them totally correctly.

As to evangelism. No I don't go on street corners proclaiming the good news. I let my actions show my faith. I do not hesitate to tell people about Christ and I use tracts a lot because I am not very eloquent in speaking to strangers face to face. (I get nervous). Our Mennonite communities and the Amish communities are always ready to help out our nieghbors no matter what faith our neighbor practices. We try to meet needs in our communities are they are brought to our attention. We currently have a Mennonite disaster team in Florida helping out with the victims in the Pensecola area and another in Granada. Its totally voluntary to serve on the teams and we are never short of volunteers who go.

So as to being "exclusive" I would not apply that to the anabaptist faith (Amish and Mennonite and Hutterite etc) Besides we are ALL in the family of God and have many brothers and sisters of different faiths in that family.

Also its not about making converts to our faith. Its about showing everyone the Love and Patiencee and Goodness of God. After all isn't that what being a christian is about?