Amish - JWs similiar problems

by larc 26 Replies latest jw friends

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  larc

  Something to read,

  I just found a site where David Yoder describes the Amish culture in great detail. It is fascinating to get an inside view of their world. However, it is very sad to read about the serious problems they have which are the same as the Witness problems. David's entire book is on the internet. On the front page of his web site is a numeration of all the chapters, so you can stop reading and go back later to where you left off. I spent most of today reading it, and I highly recommend it to you. The site is: amishabuse.com Sorry, I don't know how link things yet, but you can get there, I think, it you type this in. I would be most interested your thoughts on this.
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  waiting

  hey larc,

  Supposedly the links go like this:

  any word: http://www.amishabuse.com

  Will go and visit - thanks.

  waiting

  Edited by - waiting on 12 March 2001 11:13:56
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  mommy

  Larc,
  Thanks for the info, I just spent the last few hours there, and still have more reading to do. I agree there are some similarties, the shunning, which seems to be much shorter in the amish way, only lasting for a few weeks. Also not allowing outside investigations to occur, so it doesn't shed a bad light on the community. But too often gross neglet is covered up in the name of God and church. The fear of ex members is also seen. Thank you again for drawing our attention to this.
  I have lived in areas that were close to the amish communities and was not fully aware of their teachings. One thing is they really take to heart having no part of the world don't they? I was also struck by some of his comments, particularly him trying to return to the amish life because of his family being in. He made a comment about his children not understanding why their families didn't visit or want to be in contact with them. I too can relate to this, since my recent second shunning my mother has not written to my children, they are very concerned about this and and keep asking me to check the mail, because gramma should be sending them a letter soon. How sad for them that they probably won't be recieving a letter, I wish they would. It is hard enough to try to understand as an adult, how much harder as a child.
  My heart breaks for what people will do in the name of God, and sometimes I wonder if my own questions will be answered. This life we are given is so short, and to be further burdened with family rejecton is such a waste of time. I live everyday telling my children how much I love them and the door will always be open for my family to do the same.
  wendy
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  JAVA

  larc,

  I've spent a few hours pouring over some of the information on the Amish Web site. It's outstanding! I'll post some comments when I finish reading it.

  As a side note, I know a crisis worker at one of the area hospitals. She has had some dealing with Amish clients (they seek her services without the Amish community knowing). From what I understand, this Web site is "spot on," to quote Simon.

  --JAVA, counting time at the Coffee Shop
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  larc

  JAVA,

  I am glad you found this to be a valuable resource. As you find out later in the book, the man spent 30,000 dollars of his own money to save 5 children, his cousins - children of his own sister. He fought the religion and the governmental system and won. He put his book on the internet as a free resource. He is a fine man and has done for the Amish culture what Ray Franz has done for the suffering Witnesses. Anyone fighting abuse and the system should read how he did it.

  I think this book is a must read for your counselor friend.

  I sent him an e mail and thanked him for his contribution. I also told him a little bit about the Jehovah's Witnesses and told him I would let people know about his work.
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  Scorpion

  Larc,

  Thank you for this site. I wish I had this a few weeks ago.
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  larc

  Waiting, Mommy, and JAVA,

  I was curious as to whether you had a chance to read more of this outstanding book.
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  Moridin

  Thank you for posting this link. I'm about half way through and the stuff in this book is interesting. So many similarities and also many things I never realized.
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  SanFranciscoJim

  I also want to thank you for this link. I spent my youth in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania which is on the edge of the Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) Country. (I became a JW there also.) Innumerable accounts circulated of Amish drinking parties, Amish youths in motorcycle gangs, and Amish drug dealing and addiction. When I related these events to those from outside the area who believed the Amish to be kind, gentle folk who rode in horses & buggies and lived like it was still the 19th century, they were incredulous.
  This past September, I flew back to Pennsylvania to attend my grandmother's funeral. One day we decided to take a tour of the heart of the Amish country. On a road just outside Intercourse, Pennsylvania, the image is still indelible in my mind of Amish boys on roller blades racing a horse & buggy while the buggy's lone passenger yacked away on his cell phone. I wish I'd not been behind the wheel so I could have photographed this incredible sight!
  The older, traditional Amish who practice such strictness and shunning are not unlike the hard-core JW. Which is probably why it was so easy for Amish folk to be converted into the JW's. I knew several.
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  ozziepost

  The Watchtower of February 1st 1967 contains the life story of an elderly JW sister who was raised as an Amish in Eden, Pennsylvania.

  Of interest is her comment about what bothered her about her Amish beliefs, and made her receptive to the message of the Bible Students. She says: "Often I would stroll through the apple orchard, so beautiful in the spring, with the tree trunks whitewashed and the branches just filled with fragrant pink blossoms. “What a wonderful Creator and Provider!” I would say to myself; but in the Amish Church I was taught that someday all these things God created would be burned up. I was also bothered by the teaching that the wicked would suffer forever in torment. This all seemed so unreasonable, and was this really what the Bible taught?"

  This seems reminiscent of the feeling that many JWs have that they are made to live in fear of Armageddon.

  She also relates what happens when someone leaves the Amish religion. She writes: "The rules of the Amish Church are that if one leaves the church the members must not eat with him. I was shunned by them in many ways, but no intimidation or fear of man could turn me back from offering myself to Jehovah as a willing volunteer for God’s work. Jehovah had now shown me a new way of life. How well I remember the last time I went to church, and Revelation 18:4 (AV) kept going through my mind: “Come out of her, my people,” “Come out of her, my people.” That I did."

  We know it can work in reverse too, can't it?

  The pressure on her to remain in the Amish faith is similar to the pressure on lapsing JWs. She writes: "The Amish minister called different times to get me to come back to church. When I knew the day of his coming, I would get up at three o’clock in the morning to study my Bible so I could defend the truth, as the apostle Peter said Christians should be always ready to make a defense before everyone that demands a reason for their hope. For me the Bible was now a meaningful book."

  Instead of the word Minister above, we could easily substitute the word "elders".

  Of course, any religious group that is exclusive in nature is going to have similar methods.

  Ozzie