http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYUTkCVWWE
Shunning from the ex-Amish view is much like WT.
by blondie 12 Replies latest jw friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYUTkCVWWE
Shunning from the ex-Amish view is much like WT.
Details???
Occasionally, in my travels I see the Amish selling their goods and some of the younger ones do have a "trapped" look about them. Once the cheap oil is gone, we might be wanting to buy a horse and buggy from them.
Once the cheap oil is gone, we might be wanting to buy a horse and buggy from them.
LOL @ Moshe
I guess their way of life will be vindicated when that time comes.
I lived in Amish country for a while, even called on them in the ministry. I often compare my situation with that of an ex-Amish person's experience. There is a great book called Crossing Over that tells the story of a woman breaking away from one of the most conservative Amish communities. At the end of the book, there are letters from people that left their high control religions and how they dealt with it. An ex JW wrote a letter, but at the time, my heart was still captive, so I disregarded HER letter, but took the rest seriously! How crazy I was.
My mom was in a hospital with an Amish woman being treated for depression. My mom said the woman would watch TV and read Cosmo and just laugh and then say, "I suppose it's okay because I'm in the hospital." When craft time came, this woman rocked. She had like 9 kids at home. Mom said she was very happy. But when her husband came to visit, she would just stare straight ahead!!!! No WAY she wanted to go back to that life. LOL!!
Fascinating. I was born in Columbia, MO, and still have family there. It is the middle of middle America.
What's interesting to me is that these closed groups like the Amish and the JWs believe that they have a monopoly on community. They do not. It is a human impulse, and it continues in those of us who have left.
As far as vindicating their way of life, I don't see much with their simple way of living that needs vindicating. It is their authoritarian refusal to allow members to even consider any other that is the problem.
If a way of life really has merit, why is it necessary to put chains around people's minds and souls to keep them there? Same with the JWs of course, although that way of life does not have nearly as much to offer as the Amish, I think.
As far as vindicating their way of life, I don't see much with their simple way of living that needs
vindicating.
I disagree. I worked with midwives that worked with the Amish, and there are many problems. We tend to romanitcize it from the outside because it appears quaint. My midwife friend said she sees a high number of genetic defects because the communities are closed and inbreeding just happens. One midwife has absolutely no problem with her "English" patients not gettnig immunizations but she pressures her Amish people to get them because their nutrition is very poor. I know that doesn't seem likely because they are farmers, but their diets are not balanced. She doesn't mind if "English" mothers don't want their newborns to get eyedrops (at birth), but she gives them to the Amish babies because the mothers so often have chronic untreated infections.
To the Amish, higher education starts after 8th grade. Amish dairy farmers have been pressed by government to install running water for sanitary reasons because if left on their own, they would not do this. Alcoholism is a problem among the Amish, and maybe worse because they are unlikely to reach out for help. I read a book by a midwife who attended the Amish, and she told the story of a young woman who everyone treated as though she was mentally disabled. The midwife figured out she was deaf---something they would have known had they reached out for help. THEN after the woman got married, her husband asked the midwife to check his wife's ears. He had heard a story of someone who got their ears cleaned and could hear. She actually cleaned the womans ears, and the woman could hear.
Of course, the story may not be true, but the rest of the book was believable so I tend to think it is. I did have a friend who could only hear out of one ear, and she seemed to be going deaf in it. It turned out that there was an unbelievable build up of wax, and she was much better after they took care of it. So I know it happens.
Then I heard that the community I lived near was no longer shunning young woman for getting pregnant before marriage. This is a good thing, of course, but it shows that our perception is not the reality. They are running away for a reason.
I live in columbia, mo....and it's true...I have know several amish that have left, and
were shunned...and they went thru the same thing i didn when i was df'd..
I just found out that an old friend went back, after his daughter died...
Although the Amish community is reluctant to use legal or political force against those who violate Amish practices, they do excommunicate or shun transgressors. Based upon religious scriptures, the Amish believe that members who openly sin again traditional church doctrines must be purged from the church as a warning and safeguard to maintain the purity of the church.
Members who are excommunicated and shunned are avoided by active members in all social and business activities. However, the offenders are always welcomed back to the community if they repent.
http://www.welcome-to-lancaster-county.com/amish-community.html