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PAMD · Senior Member

Amish Mafia Update, another arrest, and a letter to the editor from an Amish person

PAMD · Senior Member

Source: http://lancasteronline.com/.........Amish-life.html

'Mafia' masks serious issues of Amish life

Sunday News

Mar 10, 2013 00:02

By ELAM ZOOK, In My Opinion

The irony of the Discovery Channel reality show "Amish Mafia" is that it ignores the serious real-life issues the Amish have and instead focuses on phony ones.

The specifics of these issues won't be illuminated by Discovery's production though, because first, Discovery and the non-Amish in general have zero interest in knowing enough about the Amish to make an intimate portrayal possible. And second, the term "mafia" as a reference point is more useful in understanding mainstream American culture than it is in understanding the Amish.

"Amish Mafia" is just another example of mainstream culture projecting itself onto the Amish, i.e., creating and defining their reality. There's a word for this, it's called hegemony. In hegemony, the culture that's being subsumed is complicit in its domination and ultimate demise. "Amish Mafia" may have Plain- community-connected participants, but if previous portrayals of the Amish are an indicator, those calling the shots on the final content will be guided by what will attract viewers, relevance to real Amish issues be damned.

The Amish need to assume some responsibility for this, because of their separatist beliefs.

An example of a real Amish issue is their practice of shunning. My theory for why the Amish accepted shunning as common practice is because of how their identity is shaped from their experience of being persecuted. Unlike their Mennonite brethren, the Amish, even today, hold on fiercely to a persecution complex.

The Amish, as so often happens, on a spiritual level have taken on the characteristics of their oppressors. Through the practice of shunning, the Amish embrace the exact same behaviors of their oppressors. They've made a decision that their group integrity depends on implementing mechanisms that identify, isolate and remove undesirables from among themselves.

What's notable about this distinctive Amish practice is its absolute nature. Amish doctrine is frozen in fealty to their martyrs. Being prepared to emulate the martyrs' examples is the highest virtue to which an Amish adherent can aspire. This leaves the Amish poorly equipped to make reasoned decisions about life among the living. Everything is so fatalistic and black and white. History has shown that such an environment isn't kind to those who practice it.

Another example of tragedy produced by Amish rigidity is the genetic complications that arise from a limited gene pool. There are thousands of Amish children afflicted with genetic complications, some of them debilitating, and tragically so. What makes this situation a tragedy is, not only does Amish population growth guarantee an ever increasing number of afflicted children, but far worse, the one thing that could make a difference for future generations, an expanded gene pool, won't even be considered. Notwithstanding Amish efforts to love and care for their special-needs children, fanatic rejection of the only solution that would bring real hope for future generations is nihilism, pure and simple.

What makes the buffoonery exhibited in "Amish Mafia" so sad is that the Amish could benefit enormously from a portrayal of their actual issues. In mainstream cultural parlance, it's called "sunshine," a necessary ingredient for society to be able to address its issues and evolve to a better place. What I see though from my adopted society (I was born and raised Amish and now live among the "English") is a cold-hearted indifference, even a blase willingness to amuse itself, at the expense of an impoverished culture.

Elam Zook lives in Lancaster.

rumple · Senior Member

PAMD wrote:
...The Amish, as so often happens, on a spiritual level have taken on the characteristics of their oppressors. Through the practice of shunning, the Amish embrace the exact same behaviors of their oppressors. They've made a decision that their group integrity depends on implementing mechanisms that identify, isolate and remove undesirables from among themselves.

What's notable about this distinctive Amish practice is its absolute nature. Amish doctrine is frozen in fealty to their martyrs. Being prepared to emulate the martyrs' examples is the highest virtue to which an Amish adherent can aspire. This leaves the Amish poorly equipped to make reasoned decisions about life among the living. Everything is so fatalistic and black and white. History has shown that such an environment isn't kind to those who practice it. ....

It took a while to find it, but I remembered a story about an Amish woman who was shunned for reporting her brother(s) to "the English" after suffering sexual abuse since she was six years old (and after discovering her 4-year-old sister was also being abused). I'll post some excerpts from the article, including the part that really outraged me.

"...Through the years, by Mary's account, she was raped by several different attackers. But one abused her more often than the others -- her brother Johnny. Johnny, one of Mary's eight brothers, began assaulting her when he was 12 and she was 6. The assaults continued into her teen years, she said. "I couldn't go to the outhouse because there was always somebody waiting there. I couldn't go anywhere alone. There was just no place I could be alone," she said.

As time passed, another brother, Eli, followed suit. "He'd rape me down in the milk house when I was cleaning up the milk house. He'd rape me down in the barn," she said. The violence in Mary's family began with the head of it -- a stepfather who, she says, continually beat both Mary and her brothers. "He hit them with shovels and hacksaws, fists, halters, anything and everything he could get his hands on," she said. ..."

"...Don Henry from the Vernon County, Wis., Sheriff's Department said he had enough evidence to make an arrest in the case. When he spoke with Johnny, he freely admitted to raping her. The only question was how many times, according to Henry. ... "He wanted to know how many times she had said, and with him alone she said it happened between 100 and 150 times. He thought it was too many and that he thought it was between 50 and 75 times." Greg Lunde, Eli's lawyer, said Eli admitted to more assaults than Mary had alleged. " I think Mary's allegations against Eli were 12 or 13 times. By Eli's own admission, it was 15 or 16." David also confessed to authorities.

All three brothers pleaded guilty. David, charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child, was sentenced to four years in prison. Eli, charged with second-degree sexual assault of a child, and with a prior misdemeanor conviction on his record, was given eight years in prison. Johnny Byler's sentencing brought out the largest crowd -- and the most tears -- not in support of Mary, but in support of the confessed rapist. ..."

"... The community viewed Mary, not Johnny, as the villain, because they had already punished Johnny within the church, according to Garrett. "He went through that process. He was sorry for what he had done, so to the Amish he was forgiven and it should be forgotten," she said. Ironically, Johnny, who raped Mary first and most often, got the lightest sentence. Now married and with children of his own, he was given 10 years' probation. For the first year he can work in the Amish community during the day but must spend every night in the county jail. ..."

"... Garrett says Mary's case may strike people as particularly startling because the public has an idealized perception of Amish life. "It's like any other society. You have great families, very well-balanced, but you also have dysfunctional ones. Take the Amish off the pedestal. They're just like everybody else," she said. ..."

rumple · Senior Member

"Boy, them Stoltzfus boys sure have a way with kids and animals, don't they? You can't keep them out of the barn!"

anotheridiot · Guru

if there was an amish mafia, I doubt they would allow rape of children and would have killed the rapists.

PAMD · Senior Member

My ex wife is a Nurse Practitioner, and volunteers some of her free time to a women's health and prenatal care center in southern Lancaster County. That area is "thick" with Amish and Mennonite residents, most of whom chose to give birth in birthing centers administered by Nurse Midwives. She's conveyed stories of having to prescribe "Plan B", a.k.a. "the morning after pill" in more than one occasion, and in a few cases was mandated to report the fact that a girl was as young as 13 (Pennsylvania is a "16 or older" state).

The Amish tolerate incest for some, unknown reason. Two years ago, and Amish woman, whose husband "pounded the hell out of her", left the area out of fear for her life, and was arrested in a midwestern state for prostitution.

Many of the Amish who suffer severe birth defects are products of these "unnatural unions", and are imprisoned within their homes for life. The lucky ones are allowed to work at roadside stands. Those who aren't so lucky live a life of sheer hell, and I've seen this first hand, as I cared for a teenager who was wheelchair bound, and was allowed to sit in urine-soaked clothing for days on end. This happened in Parkesburg, Chester County, who's "crisis intervention" team managed to intervene and institutionalize him. Had that been Lancaster County, the powers that be would have turned a blind eye to the situation.

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Another 'Amish Mafia' cast member in legal trouble as Discovery orders 2nd season

'Mafia' masks serious issues of Amish life