Up till shortly after they were married, my parents were mennenites. Mennenites are a break away from the same group the amish came from. The mennenite group saw things in a much more liberal way than the amish did. While they still were very conscious of their separateness from outside world (the english), they accepted a lot of the modern stuff, like cars, electricity, music, phones. For my father, becoming a jw was a rebellious act, and an escape.
Some of the characteristics carry over. The father as the authoritarian head. My mother put her feelings in the grave, so to speak, at a young age. She accepted without complaint the lousy treatment she got from my dad. Hell, i think she liked it. She supported all the abuse we kids got, and asked for more beatings for us. Work, work, work. That was the main thing. Guess i'm a rebel, and i only work when i have to. Anyway, if you read part of the book larc pointed to, you can see that the repression in the amish system is worse, in some ways than the jw's, although it is different.
One of my uncles joined a group of other mennenites that moved to bolivia, to get away from 'worldly' influences. They have farms down there. I heard that they had a few tough years. Most mennonite churches are main stream fundies now, from what i understand.
SS
Edited by - saintsatan on 25 September 2002 23:36:46
