Escape from the Amish

The Amish? Those gentle, hardworking Luddites that won't lift a hand in anger even if you smear ice cream onto an Amish farmer's nose?

It looks like life among the Amish isn't all butter churning and barn raising. There's also the rape, incest, child beatings, misogyny, animal abuse, and religious brainwashing that take place among the Old Order Amish, according to one amazingly brave girl who had the head to see that she was in a bad place, and the nerve to make an escape.

I'm not going to blame religion here as the cause for the ills she describes. They're the kind of nastiness you'll find in any closed, insular world – heck, in the big, wide world too. As the story takes pains to point out, there are also praiseworthy qualities in the Amish upbringing, and the bad qualities certainly can't be taken as representing all members of the community. 

But I'll note that a triple dose of religion – the source of, and requirement for, all morality, the believers love to claim – doesn't keep some really ugly stuff from popping up among followers of the Ordnung. As always, an honest person is forced to look at the balance of good and bad within a religious society, and ask: How is this any better than the balance in a non-religious society?

Escaping the Amish - Part 1

Escaping the Amish - Part 2