Chapter 4 of the book:
The Failure of the Great Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment
Why Christian Conservatism Isn’t the Answer and What to Do
In this chapter we look at a number of Amish and Mennonite sexual abuse cases. Amish and conservative Mennonites have looked at modern Christianity and criticized them for how much like the world (non-Christians) they are. But within their own congregations there are men and women, boys and girls who are committing vile sins in secret that are as bad or worse than what is happening in the modern churches they are condemning. Over and over the church leaders have been turning a blind eye to what is happening when they find out. Sexual abuse in Amish and conservative Mennonite churches appears to be a much bigger problem than what most people ever imagined.
Are you looking for something more than just the same old concepts, interpretations, explanations, and perspectives you have heard regurgitated over and over again? This website will give you some new insights and things to think about. You may not agree with everything you read, but Biblical Research Reports will stimulate your thinking. Our goal is to help you to formulate in your own mind what is Jesus’ truth as you look at the research we share on the various subjects facing the Church.
Arthur J. Hershberger Case
In the early part of 2011, Art Hershberger, age 58, turned himself in for sexually molesting several young girls in a Beachy Amish Mennonite school where he was principal. The Arthur Hershberger case is an illustration that a sexual predator can be anyone of any social standing, and one whom you would least expect. They are probably not social misfits that give you the creeps to be around.
Art Hershberger’s information can be viewed at:
www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/VA35454/Arthur-Jay-Hershberger.html
When I heard about Art Hershberger, God impressed upon me these words: “The Great Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment is a failure”.
Art Hershberger was not just a Christian school principal. He was also the Administrative Secretary for the Biblical Mennonite Alliance conference and was one of the main leaders and founders of the conference. He was responsible for conference correspondence and was a main contact person. Hershberger was also a pastor and was overseer of five Mennonite churches in Virginia.
Biblical Mennonite Alliance (BMA) was the Mennonite conference that our family had been a part of before God told our family to leave the Mennonite church a number of years ago. BMA was started in 1998 because of the liberal drift of Conservative Mennonite Conference and other Mennonite groups. Their goal was to be the most Biblical Mennonite group, hence the name “Biblical Mennonite Alliance”. Their web address is Biblical Mennonite. BMA’s motto was “The Bible plus nothing, and the Bible minus nothing”.
The modest, conservative dress of these young girls did not protect them from the sexual advances of Mr. Hershberger. The conservative modest dress did not help this man to control himself as we were taught in the Mennonite church that it would. What is significant is that this man did not fall into adultery with an adult; instead it was sexual perversion with young girls. It is not normal for a man to be sexually interested in a young girl.
In Romans 1:28-32 God tells us: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient… without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Young Amish and Mennonite children are very vulnerable to being sexually abused by someone within their family or church group. Their religious community’s focus on a specified modest dress style and piety in conduct is a cover for sexual molesters to operate. Sexual molesters can dress right and act right and no one suspects what they are doing to the children.
The Shocking Bolivian Mennonite Rape Case Involving 130 Girls and Women
This is a case so depraved that I have not heard of this type of thing among non-Christians, and yet this sexual abuse was committed by ultra-conservative Mennonite men in the Mennonite colony of Manitoba in Bolivia. It reminds me of what God said in 1 Corinthians 5: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles,…”
“Peter Weiber, 48, a Mennonite veterinarian, is accused of transforming a chemical meant to anesthetize cows into a spray to be used on humans. For four years, Weiber and eight other Mennonite men allegedly sprayed the chemical through bedroom windows in Manitoba at night, sedating entire families and raping the females…The criminal charges detail depraved acts few would expect inside a supposedly upright sect like the Mennonites. ‘When there were no grown women’ in the houses that the men allegedly targeted, says Wilfredo Mariscal, an attorney for the victims, ‘they did what they wanted with the kids.’”
“…closure will be difficult for the victims, especially since many feel they can no longer trust their insular community to help them deal with the trauma. It’s hard to blame them: shockingly, some of Manitoba Colony’s male leaders have suggested that because the women were usually sedated during the rapes, they have no psychological wounds. None have yet received counseling. ‘I’d like to be able to talk to someone, but it will have to be when I learn Spanish,’ says Banman (one of the victims). ‘I rarely sleep through the night anymore.’
“Then there’s the stigma. Out of shame, many of the women no longer attend church, the colony’s only real social space; the younger among them say they fear they are “stained” and will never be able to marry.” Time Magazine Aug. 17, 2011
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2087711,00.html
In a February 2008 article in the Mennonite Brethren Herald, it was reported that TransWorld Radio was broadcasting Mennonite Brethren programs into the Mennonite colonies in Bolivia. “’We began receiving letters from kids and teens who listened to these programs where radios are prohibited by colony elders,’ said Klaue. ‘Through them we learned of addictions, depression, and sexual abuse common in the colonies. I was convinced that more needed to be done for these kids,’”… www.mbherald.com/47/02/news-1.en.html
A Mennonite Report on the Bolivian Rapes
Jack Heppner, a Mennonite pastor from Canada, visited Bolivia and investigated the rape allegations and what could be done to help the Colony Mennonites. He wrote an extensive report. What Heppner says about the motivation for church regulations among the colony Mennonites in many ways applies to the motivation behind why the Amish and Conservative Mennonite Dress Experiment is being continued today. The following are several excerpts from it (the term “Colonists” refers to the Colony Mennonites):
“Gradually I began to understand that the bottom line on any issue in colony life was that nothing was allowed to change. Colonists had moved away from “the world” in order to keep things the way their parents and grandparents had had it. From one perspective we would say they were anti-modern, but to me their anti-modernity seemed to be motivated less by the desire to remain a biblical people than by a stubborn notion that nothing should change from the way their forefathers had had it. Didn’t the Bible say, “Bleibe bei was du gelernt hast!” (Stay with what you have learned.) And this idea was clearly tied to the notion that to introduce changes that their forefathers had not thought of was to dishonor them. Stuck in this mode, colony leaders were in a difficult position to deal with emerging problems and issues with any degree of elasticity or freedom. There was little discernment or logic available. The only thing they could fall back on was the promise people had made at baptism to remain true to the church – the way they had received it from their forefathers…
“Isolation as a social grouping can do unexpected things to its people. For one, a sense of superiority develops with respect to the people living around them… So in the context of this “superior” colony life, it gradually became evident that social, religious and moral life began spiraling downward … So many young people really only had a very sketchy understanding of the biblical narrative and gospel imperatives. Severe tensions frequently erupted within the colonies over the smallest of deviations from dress and behavior codes. And sexual deviance, including rampant sex among young people and with neighboring Bolivian girls, men using prostitutes in town, brothers using sisters and fathers using daughters began to emerge…”
Jack Heppner met with Bishop Neudorf, the Bishop in the colony where the rapes occurred. The following is some of what he reported:
“Hans and I pressed Bishop Neudorf a number of times during our conversation about our perceived need to get some counseling help for the women who had been raped. We suggested to him that if women who are sexually abused do not get help, they frequently experience various forms of dysfunction later in life. His response was to say that if these women had been violated sexually while drugged, they would have no recollection of the experience and therefore would not need any help either…
“I had heard of rampant sexual misconduct among Mennonites. I asked him to tell me if what I had heard was not true. I then told him what one man in prison had related to me. How that the standard practice for colony youth was to begin drinking on Sunday afternoon, then when they were quite drunk by evening they would go to the end of the village to participate in sex with one another. The bishop did not deny any of this but did lament how the drinking of alcohol had brought a lot of trouble into the colony.”
http://doradueck.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/bolivian-mennonite-rape-victims-update/
The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia – The Perpetrators Were Caught, but the Crimes Continue
Almost two years after Jean Friedman-Rudovsky wrote the article in Time Magazine about the Bolivian Mennonite rapes, she went back to the Mennonite colony in Bolivia to see what had taken place since then.
She said that officially there were 130 victims, but not everyone that was raped was included in the legal case. It is believed that the true number of victims is much, much higher. The girls and women were married, single, residents, visitors, and the mentally handicapped. Residents privately told her that men and boys were raped too.
Jean states: “Over the course of a nine-month investigation, including an 11-day stay in Manitoba, I discovered that the crimes are far from over. In addition to lingering psychological trauma, there’s evidence of widespread and ongoing sexual abuse, including rampant molestation and incest. There’s also evidence that—despite the fact that the initial perpetrators are in jail—the rapes by drugging continue tohappen…
“On my last day in Manitoba, I got a shock. “You know that it’s still happening, right?” a woman said to me, as we drank ice water alongside her home. There were no men around. I hoped something was lost in translation, but my Low German translator assured me it wasn’t. “The rapes with the spray—they are still going on,” she said. I peppered her with questions: Had it happened to her? Did she know who was doing it? Did everyone know it was going on?
“No, she said, they hadn’t returned to her house, but to a cousin’s—recently. She said she had a good guess about who was doing it but wouldn’t give me any names. And she believed that, yes, most people in Manitoba Colony knew that the imprisonment of the original rapists hadn’t put an end to the serial crimes.
“As if in a strange time warp, after dozens of interviews with people telling me everything was fine now, I didn’t know if this was gossip, rumor, lies, or—worse—the truth. I spent the rest of the day frantically trying to get confirmation. I revisited many families who I had previously interviewed, and the majority admitted, a bit sheepishly, that yes, they had heard the rumors and that, yes, they assumed they were probably true…”
On a following trip by Noah Friedman-Rudovsky, the photographer for the article, five people went on record and confirmed that they had heard the rapes were continuing.
Sexual abuse is rampant in the Bolivian colony. Jean visited Agnes Klassen, who had left the colony, and talked to her about incest in her past. The sexual abuse began in her early childhood which included being fondled by several of her eight older brothers.
Jean reports: “Agnes said the abuse would happen in the barn, in the fields, or in the siblings’ shared bedroom. She didn’t realize it was inappropriate behavior until the age of ten, when she was given a stern beating after her father found her brother fondling her. ‘My mother could never find the words to tell me that I was being wronged or that it was not my fault,’ she recalled.
“After that, the molestation continued but Agnes was too scared to go to anyone for help. When she was 13 and one of her brothers tried to rape her, Agnes warily notified her mom. She wasn’t beaten this time, and for a while her mom did her best to keep the two apart. But the brother eventually found her alone and raped her.
“The sibling assaults became increasingly commonplace, but there was nowhere for Agnes to turn… ‘I just learned to live with it,’ Agnes said haltingly. She apologized for her stops and starts, for her tears. It was the first time she had ever fully told her story. She said the incest stopped when boys began courting Agnes, and she filed it away in her mind as a thing of the past.
“But when she got married, moved into her own house in Manitoba, and gave birth to two daughters, family members began molesting her children during visits. ‘It was starting to happen to them, too,’ she told me, her eyes following the movements of her two young platinum-blond girls darting past the windows as they played outside. One day, her eldest daughter, not yet four at the time, told Agnes that the girls’ grandpa had asked her to put her hands down his pants. Agnes said that her father never molested her or her sisters, but that he allegedly routinely abused his grandchildren until Agnes fled Manitoba with her daughters (and still allegedly abuses her nieces, who remain in the Colony). Another day, she caught her nephew fondling her youngest daughter. ‘It happens all the time,’ she said. ‘It’s not just my family…’
“The Old Colony leaders I spoke with denied that their communities have an ongoing sexual abuse problem and insisted that incidents are dealt with internally when they arise. ‘[Incest] almost never happens here,’ Minister Jacob Fehr told me one evening as we chatted on his porch at dusk. He said that in his 19 years as a minister, Manitoba had only one case of incestuous rape (father to daughter). Another minister denied that even this episode had happened.”
www.vice.com/read/the-ghost-rapes-of-bolivia-000300-v20n8?Contentpage=-1
This sad situation in the Bolivian Mennonite colonies highlights the failure of conservative dress in preventing sexual abuse. The Colony Mennonites made settlements in Mexico, Belize, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. They withdrew from society and made settlements in these countries so that they could raise their families in an environment that would be sheltered from the influences of the ungodly world. Manmade rules and isolation do not prevent sin from occurring in the home and church. In this case, and in many Amish and conservative Mennonite churches, and in the case of a significant number of conservative homeschool families in America today, manmade rules and dress regulations only make the end results worse. This will become clearer as we look at the rest of the evidence.
One of many beautiful Amish farms in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Most people have no idea of the amount of sexual abuse of boys and girls that goes on in secret on some these beautiful Amish or conservative Mennonite farms that look so idealistic and peaceful.
Melvin Glick, an Amish Sexual Abuse Case Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
This is a pathetic case in which the Lancaster Amish community supported the pedophile, a 32 year old Amish man who had repeatedly committed his acts of sexual abuse over a three year period with a neighbor girl, while ignoring the trauma that had been caused to the victim that she would live with the rest of her life. By supporting Melvin Glick, the Amish community gave indirect support to others to commit sexual abuse. They minimized the sin and crime of sexual abuse and accountability to the law.
“Despite urgings from leaders of a local Amish community, Melvin Glick was jailed on Wednesday for having a three-year sexual relationship with a young girl. Glick, 32, received a large show of support from his community after he was charged last year with sexually assaulting the girl about 100 times.
“However, a local judge said, that support doesn’t excuse the criminal acts. ‘To treat you differently just because you are a member of the Amish community would disrespect that honorable community,’ County Judge David Ashworth told Glick.
“…The trooper said that months later about 25 people showed up at a preliminary hearing in support of Glick. ‘Nobody was there from the community to support the victim or her family,’ Gerow said.
Ashworth agreed with prosecutors that the girl was traumatized by the inappropriate relationship. ‘You can’t take back what you have done,’ he told Glick. ‘That is something that little girl is going to have to live with.’
“Ashworth said he sentenced Glick on the low end of state guidelines, but told him his rehabilitative efforts should have come years ago. ‘All these things you are doing now, you should have done them before you victimized this young lady,’ the judge said.
“Ashworth received numerous letters on Glick’s behalf, many including references to Scripture. The judge, while handing down sentence, quoted a verse from the Book of Galatians. ‘For what a man may sow — that also he shall reap,’ Glick was told.”
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/449336_Amish-man-goes-to-jail-for-sex-crimes.html
Amish buggy in Lancaster County, PA. When cars were invented, the Amish decided to prohibit their members from owning cars and they required their members to use a horse and buggy. Photo credit
www.flickr.com/photos/livenature/176283898/
The Gentle People – Sexual abuse in Amish Communities
Nadya Labi, a senior editor at “Legal Affairs Magazine”, wrote an extensive article about sexual abuse in Amish communities called The Gentle People. She states that although the Amish appear to be a “gentle people,” there’s another world, namely one marked by a virtual plague of incest which has gone largely untouched and unpunished by social service agencies and law enforcement. She personally interviewed a number of people for the article and gives the stories of a number of unrelated sexual abuse cases among the Amish. The following are some excerpts from the article (emphasis is mine):
“Impressed by their piety, courts have permitted the Amish to live outside the law. But in some places, the group’s ethic of forgive and forget has produced a plague of incest—and let many perpetrators go unpunished.”
The first case is about Mary Byler, who was sexually abused and/or raped by her dad, brothers, and cousins on repeated occasions.
Labi makes this statement: “No statistics are available, but according to one Amish counselor who works with troubled church members across the Midwest, sexual abuse of children is ‘almost a plague in some communities.’ Some police forces and district attorneys do their best to step in, though they are rarely welcomed. Others are slow to investigate or quick to let off Amish offenders with light punishments. When that happens, girls like Mary are failed three times: by their families, their church, and their state.”
“Last March, a detective in Wisconsin phoned trooper Janice Wilson to tell her about statements that Mary and her family had made about rampant incest in the Amish community in which they grew up. That community is in New Wilmington, Pa., near where Wilson works. When she started investigating, she was stunned to hear reports of extensive sexual abuse, and of births resulting from incest.
“Amish insiders say the problem is so common that a bishop in the area has preached against it. Johnny Byler [Mary’s brother] said that, growing up in Lawrence County, he thought it was normal to have sex with his sister. ‘Other kids would talk about it,’ Johnny said.”
The second interview was with Kathryn Byler in Morrow County, Ohio. “This was the mother who had tried to shield her husband from prosecution, after the boyfriend of one of her three daughters reported to the Ohio police that Raymond was molesting two of the girls. The abuse began when the older girl was 5 or 6; it lasted more than a decade, and included repeated rapes. “
The third case is about Norman Byler from Guernsey County, Ohio.
“Norman has a history of pedophilia that dates to the 1970s, when he allegedly molested several of his eight daughters and at least one young woman outside his family. During that period, he confessed in church, repented, and was banished for four weeks.
“Aware of her father’s problem, Norman’s youngest daughter ‘went to great lengths to make sure he wasn’t alone’ with kids, said his public defender, Diane Menashe. In 1995, the daughter and her husband, Tobie Yoder, let Norman move onto their property. Four years later, the Yoders discovered that Norman was molesting three of his granddaughters, ages 3, 5, and 8.
“Tobie went to Bishop Moses Miller and the elders in his Swartzentruber district. That denomination falls on the most restrictive end of the spectrum from Old Order to New Order Amish…(some Swartzentrubers make allowances, like permitting tobacco and ‘bed courtship’: On Saturday nights in Moses Miller’s district, teenage boys are allowed to steal into the rooms of girls their age. The teens are supposed to keep their clothes on, but the boy isn’t expected to leave until milking time the next morning. Many parents encourage bed courtship because it often leads to early marriages, which make young people less likely to leave the church.”
Another interview was with Levi Schwartz,
He “said the church’s reliance on repentance failed him. ‘Sometimes I went into the bedroom and cried because of my sin,’ he recalled. In 1989 Schwartz started molesting one of his daughters… until she grew old enough to date, and then he moved on to her younger sister. On a late fall night in his cavernous living room, the 52-year-old, who has since left the Amish, talked about his past with unnerving ease while one of the daughters he molested sat on a nearby couch. ‘I confessed in church a number of times,’ Schwartz said. ‘I wanted to be clean, so I took it to the ministers. I thought that would give me grace, and the power to overcome it.’
Schwartz said his bishop, Eli Raber, discouraged Schwartz’s sporadic attempts to get counseling. (Raber declined to comment.) In 1994, Schwartz’s son Benjamin began touching his sisters; he confessed in church and was shunned for two weeks. Levi Schwartz, however, was losing faith in the church’s method of punishment. After one of his daughters started crying while he was molesting her, Schwartz checked himself into Oaklawn Psychiatric Hospital in Indiana. He asked the girl to pray for him, and she did.”
The last and saddest interview was with Anna Slabaugh.
“When Anna turned 11, she told me, her 19-year-old brother began molesting her, stopping just short of intercourse. When he moved away, another 17-year-old brother started raping her. (The court documents involving Anna’s family are sealed.) Anna didn’t try to stop her brothers at first. ‘You don’t tell your brothers, who are so much older than you, No,’ she said.”
“…When a social worker visited Anna’s home, Anna told her about the sexual abuse. She also reported that her parents were moving the family to Pennsylvania. Laurie Roberts, one of the social workers on Anna’s case in Ohio, said she was taught in training that sexual abuse among the Amish is pervasive, and seldom reported.”
“…When Fannie (her mother) found out about the CYS visit, she and Anna went with 13 other kids to the home of John Yoder, an Amish dentist who lived an hour and a half away in the town of Punxsutawney. Yoder’s living room had a recliner with a tin pan and some needles next to it. Anna watched as the other kids each had one or two bad teeth pulled. When it was her turn, Yoder shot some Novocain into her upper gum. She shook her head and told him that two of her lower teeth had cavities. He shot the lower gum, and asked Fannie which teeth should go. Anna’s mother answered, ‘Take them all,’ and Yoder pulled—along the upper gum, along the lower gum, until every tooth was gone. ‘After he had pulled the last tooth,’ Anna remembered, ‘my mom looked at me and said, ‘I guess you won’t be talking anymore.’ ”
“…Anna bled for three days. Her family ignored her, except to periodically hand her a drink. She couldn’t talk, but that didn’t matter, because Anna had nothing left to say. At church, she looked away when other kids pointed at her mouth. Fannie Slabaugh told me that Anna had asked for her teeth to be pulled. But the detective who investigated the case, Trooper Michael Pisarchic, said that the other kids who went with Anna to see Yoder said that Anna was being punished. Meanwhile, CYS was continuing to investigate. A court date was set for the spring of 2002. The bishop in Anna’s district, Moses Shettler, called Barbara Burke and asked her to testify that Anna had mental problems. Burke refused. On the Friday before Anna was scheduled to appear in court, soon after her teeth had been pulled, Shettler and a group of elders visited Anna’s parents. Anna said her parents threatened two days later to take her out to the woodpile, or worse, unless she told her lawyer that she took back her accusations against her brothers. Stripped of faith in the state to protect her, Anna did as she was told.”
http://legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2005/feature_labi_janfeb05.msp
Amish children on the way to school. It is sad to realize that requiring people to dress in a conservative, modest way as these children are, can actually increase the possibility that they will be sexually abused. It is even worse, for the victim to then be blamed by the church for causing the sexual abuse to happen with no protection from more abuse occurring. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadjoboy/
Torah Bontrager
In the article Escaping the Amish, Torah said that one of the biggest negatives of the Amish is “The rape, incest and other sexual abuse that run rampant in the community”
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/07/15/escaping-the-amish-part-1/
Ex-Mennonite
One man that grew up in Pennsylvania said this about sexual abuse in his Mennonite community:
“In the Mennonite Community that I grew up in incest was rampant… Some of the incest I know of first hand (although it didn’t involve me or my family directly.) Nor am I talking about cousin/cousin marriages which are common and accepted in Menno/Amish communities. There are some seriously screwed up teenagers (and adults) in the Mennonite/Amish communities.”
www.ex-christian.net/topic/37841-ex-mennonite/
Saloma Furlong – Sexual Abuse Among the Amish
“Even though I was born and raised in an Amish community and endured sexual abuse myself, it is hard for me to say just how prevalent sexual abuse is among the Amish in general. But what I do know is that Amish men are dominate in the culture and that girls are taught they should be submissive to the men (and boys) from the time they can understand the concept. Most Amish do not educate their children about sex, so girls can easily fall prey to sexual abuse.”
“…When sexual abuse is uncovered among the Amish, they focus mainly on the perpetrator’s repentance, rather than on the welfare of the children, which allows pedophiles to walk freely among innocents.” http://aboutamish.blogspot.com/2010/09/sexual-abuse-among-amish_08.html
She also writes: “Oftentimes, when law enforcement or social workers become aware of abuse among the Amish, there is an unwillingness to intervene because the perception is that the Amish have a way to deal with these problems within their communities.
“The truth is that they don’t. They certainly try. They use the only method they know: disciplining the perpetrator. If he is exposed, then he is expected to go to the bishop and ask to make a public confession. If he doesn’t, he will be visited by the elders of the church, who ask him to make the confession. If they deem the person to show proper remorse, they plan to “accept” the confession in the next church service. At the end of the service, the children and young people who are not yet members are dismissed and the confessor leaves with them. Then the members’ meeting begins. The bishop lays out what the “charges” are, and he suggests he will accept the confession with the person sitting or kneeling (kneeling is for the transgressions the bishop deems more serious). Then he sends the deacon through the members’ meeting, asking for people’s vote on whether they agree with the method the bishop suggested. The vote has to be unanimous. which it usually is (to disagree with the bishop is considered a transgression in itself, especially for women). Then the confessor is brought in, and he repeats the words of contrition after the bishop in high German. (He doesn’t have to say what he is sorry for, however, because the bishop has already done that.) The holy kiss and handshake are exchanged between the bishop and the confessor, and then all is forgiven and forgotten. Should anyone bring up the wrongdoing again, he or she can be subjected to the same discipline as the person who made the confession in the first place.”
Chester Mast – an Amish sexual abuse case
The New York Times reported in an article “A Crisis in Amish Country”: “Mr. Mast, who is married with two children and another on the way, stands accused in Wisconsin of incest and the repeated sexual assault of a minor. Meanwhile, officials here have charged him with two counts each of statutory rape and sodomy and one count of sexual misconduct involving a child. Investigators claim that Mr. Mast has victimized at least six girls, ages 5 to 15 — including some outside the Amish community — over the last 10 years.”
www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/us/03amish.html?pagewanted=all
Amish buggy in Wisconsin. Their church does not permit them to drive cars, although they are allowed to hire someone to drive them in an automobile. Amish rules requiring non-conformity to the world does not help keep people from committing horrible sins such as sexual abuse of boys and girls. Photo credit Fairchildgiftcompany.com
Anna Olson
“Sexual abuse is about as scary as it can get for a child,” she writes. “Growing up Amish did nothing to prepare me for the trauma end of this. Why would God let this happen to me? What on Earth did I do to deserve this? Anger, ashamed, dirty, and humiliation were just a few of my feelings while this was happening.”
http://www.growingupamish.com/media5.htm
Trudy Metzger
Trudy Metzger was born in an Old Colony Mennonite home in Mexico. Her family then moved to Canada. She had 15 brothers and sisters.
“While my memories of sexual abuse are few and far between, memories of what I observed are much more graphic. Most of our family had been sexually abused by someone, whether uncles and aunts, a parent, or neighbors, and that resulted in serious sexual dysfunction between siblings in various degrees of incest and inappropriate behaviors. Where this impacted my life, I have freely forgiven and released siblings. We were children with a frame of reference so vile, so harsh, that this was all ‘normal’.
“One of the most painful realities of sexual abuse is that children learn destructive behaviors and perceive them to be ‘normal’. But, because the topic is often not spoken of, other than a scolding or beating if caught, there is a sense of secrecy that leads children to believe that it is normal private behavior; it is getting caught that is the problem. Especially since the adults who punish children, beating them to within an inch of their life, are often the perpetrators in the lives of those very children. And, when caught in the act, it didn’t matter if the child was the instigator or the victim. The punishment was severe either way.
“That was the case in our home, and in many homes within the Old Colony culture and those who had broken away from that culture. How the sexual abuse and perversion took such deep root, I do not know, but it was rampant then, and in many communities it has not improved.
“The hardest part in healing has been remembering, usually against my will, the horrific sexual abuse I witnessed as I saw groups of older teens use and abuse little children. On at least one occasion I followed a group of teens as they led some of my older siblings to a ‘secret place’ where I witnessed horrible things. For many years I questioned whether I had imagined it, dreamed it out of thin air, but this year I had the courage to ask several siblings.
“Instantly, when I mentioned the ‘secret location’, the one sibling gasped, and before I could even describe what I thought I remembered, he repeated in graphic detail a vision that had haunted me for almost forty years. He had completely blocked it until I mentioned the place.”
http://trudymetzger.com/2012/07/20/sexual-abuse-violence-this-is-my-story/
The Little Girl
Ann Peachy Detweiler shared on her blog about her sexual abuse: “A few years ago, as I was sitting in a counselor’s office with my husband-to-be, the counselor looked up from across his desk after hearing only a fraction of my story, and asked, ‘Why aren’t you a prostitute?’
“I should be exactly opposite of who I am today. Statistically, with a history of abuse and self-destructive habits as I have, I should be a prostitute or a single mom with four kids to four different men.
“If it wasn’t for the grace and mercy of God Almighty, that is who I would be today.”
The Little Girl
by Ann Peachy Detweiler
Once there was a little girl, with pure and childlike trust.
But one day this girl became an object of one’s lust.
He told her she was pretty; that what he did was love.
How that must have hurt the heart of God in heaven above.
The little girl believed him, even though this “love” hurt.
It made her feel so yucky, and like a piece of dirt.
The pain became unbearable. She blocked it from her mind.
It lay there many years until Jesus she did find.
He beckoned her to come to Him. She came with shame and fears.
Her dress was dirty and torn her eyes were filled with tears.
“May I carry all your pain?” His voice so gently said.
“I’ve been waiting all these years. It was for you I bled.”
She began to cry great heaving sobs. Her chest hurt with the pain.
She lifted her eyes to His, and saw they held no blame.
“Yes, I’ll give it all to you,” she uttered in reply.
And so He lifted all the pain. She felt like she could fly.
“This is for you,” He said with love. And handed her a dress.
“This is what I think of you – Pure, clean and spotless.”
And so the little girl did dance while Jesus held her hand.
And happy circles they did make their feet upon the sand.
I know this little girl quite well. This little girl is me.
Redeemer, Saviour, Healer, Friend – For you, He’ll gladly be.
“Amish Molestation Runs Rampant”
A report from Indiana News Center
“…Andy Eicher of Berne. Police arrested the Amish man late Friday afternoon, on five felony counts. The alleged information would likely ‘never’ have made it to police without a neighbor who listened when one of the daughters cried-out for help.
“Cherie Dailey/Neighbor of Amish Family: ‘We knew in our hearts that the Church was not qualified to handle it and no one was above the law because of their religion…It is so rampant in the Amish community and someone needs to break the cycle and bring it out and hold people accountable so these girls will not be ashamed.’
“Dailey’s talking about allegations of incest and child molestation that she helped police file against her neighbor, 55-year old Amish man, Andy Eicher. According to court papers, Eicher’s 16-year old daughter confided in Dailey, that her father apparently, began “touching her in a sexual manner”, as early as age five… ‘mainly when she was helping with chores in the family barn.’
“Cherie Dailey/Neighbor of Amish Family: ‘She just came to us one day and said she had enough and she couldn’t stand it anymore.’ Dailey says she first confronted the Amish mother, who has 14-other children, nine of whom are girls.
“Cherie Dailey/Neighbor of Amish Family: ‘She stood there and related to this type of sin that Andy was doing was just the same as if someone was drinking a beer, or if they didn’t have their bonnets on if they had a buggy.’
“The teen girl also told police her father had ‘intercourse with her on more than 20-occasions’… Eventually, two other daughters came forward and told police similar stories.”
www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/18223154.html
Hidden in Plain Sight
Linda Espenshade and Larry Alexander wrote a series of articles in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal about sexual and domestic abuse among Amish and Mennonites in Lancaster County, Pa. In their research for the articles, they talked with at least 10 counselors and 20 victims and/or their families. They also talked with law enforcement officers and attorneys, and looked at court records of Mennonite and Amish offenders.
“Domestic abuse among Amish and Mennonites is often ignored, even tolerated among church leaders.”
The following are some excerpts:
“An Amish boy’s face is scratched by the straw as an Amish man from his church sodomizes him – again. Church leaders tried to make his parents say it never happened. They almost excommunicated his mother for telling non-Amish people about it, including someone who notified police…
“To many people, the thought that Mennonite and Amish folk – known for their work ethic, humility, gentleness and orderliness – would abuse their spouses and children is beyond belief…”
“’If you’re not hearing about it, it’s not because it’s not there,’ said Roger Steffy, an ordained Mennonite minister, who admits he was sexually abusive to his wife. ‘There’s a tremendous amount of secrecy around that stuff’…”
“’There’s definite sexual abuse and violence that happens in groups of conservative Mennonite and Amish. I have no doubt about that,’ said Steffy.
“’Denial of the issue runs high, however, not just in the general community, but from church leaders and members,’ said Steffy.
“’Our people don’t do these kinds of things. We’re good people,’ said Steffy, describing the thinking of the churches’ own skeptics.
“The topic of abuse in these churches – unified in their Anabaptist beliefs of nonresistance, adult baptism and nonconformity to mainstream values – is so sensitive that not one of the 20 victims, family members or conservative church leaders who talked to the newspaper would allow their names to be used. Even some counselors who work with members of these churches would only agree to be interviewed if their names would not be used…”
“The difference, according to counselors and victims, is the way abuse is handled. As members of a tightly controlled church system and tradition-bound culture, the victims, primarily women, turn to their male deacons, ministers and bishops for help.
“Instead of the listening ear and help they seek, they feel blamed and shamed instead.
“Wielding an uncompromising belief in the sanctity of marriage, man’s authority over women, forgiveness and resolution of conflict without the law – all beliefs based on Biblical passages – the leaders ‘shoot their wounded.’”
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/7473_Hidden-in-Plain-sight.html?page=all#ixzz25y5Xh1UX
Silenced By Shame – a newspaper article on Amish and Mennonite sexual abuse
In another Lancaster Online article, Linda Espenshade and Larry Alexander tell more about sexual abuse in Lancaster County, Pa.
“Concealed under the rug where they were hastily swept are dozens of stories from children whose emotional wounds still bleed.
“Girls and boys were repeatedly touched, rubbed, hit and penetrated in their most intimate places by their Mennonite and Amish fathers, hired men, cousins, teachers, brothers, family friends or sometimes even their mothers. Some of them were verbally assaulted or hit, kicked or beaten until they were black and blue.
“Many children didn’t talk about the abuse at the time because they were afraid, ashamed and embarrassed. Some tried to tell and were ignored, hushed or, in the worst cases, punished…
“Victims, counselors and relatives say there are many more children, including those who are now adults, whose stories were ignored because parents and/or church leaders did not want anyone to know.
“In the worst of cases, the perpetrators are free to keep offending because families and church leaders refuse to believe the victims or report them to police.
“’So many people don’t realize the far-reaching damage that it can do,’ said one Amish woman who was abused as a child and now helps other victims.”
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/7511_Silenced-by-shame.html#ixzz25qNGUPIP
A Lancaster Pennsylvania Amish man hauls pumpkins on a steel wheeled wagon drawn by a pair of mules. Scenes such as this draw a lot of tourists to see the Amish and their “simple” lifestyle. Most people have no idea of the amount of sexual abuse among the Amish that is covered behind the outward religious appearance of their unique conservative dress and old fashioned lifestyle.
Leaders Silence the Whimpers of the Littlest Victims
Jesus told us: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10) The Greek word translated “despise”, means “to think against or disesteem”.
In another report by Linda Espenshade and Larry Alexander on sexual abuse in Lancaster County, PA they share a number of accounts where churches did what Jesus told us not to do: they despised the young victims that spoke up.
“Caleb’s parents wondered why he started reacting so strongly to anyone who came up behind him or tickled him when he was only 8.
“Yet his parents never expected to hear what Caleb told them when he was 11: An Amish man, Samuel, had been sexually assaulting him for three years, while Caleb did chores at his farm.
“That night Caleb’s father confronted Samuel and together they went to the bishop of their Amish congregation. The bishop required Samuel to make a confession at church the next morning. Samuel was excommunicated for six weeks, the source said.
“It wasn’t Samuel, however, who received the brunt of the congregation’s anger. Caleb’s parents were blamed, the source said, because they ‘didn’t shove it under the carpet.’
“’Caleb was wrong, wrong, wrong and (his parents) were wrong to listen to Caleb,’ said an anonymous source, describing the opinion of many church members.
“Their opposition only increased when police came knocking on their door and Caleb’s parents allowed their son to explain what happened. Caleb’s parents also took him to the doctor, who confirmed physical damage from the abuse.
“After Samuel was arrested, church members blamed Caleb’s mother for talking to people outside the Amish church about it, one of whom probably called police. One Sunday morning, the congregation debated if they should excommunicate her.
“Church leaders urged her to deny that Caleb had been abused, but she would not, the source said…”
“It took a judge to believe Caleb’s story. Caleb, at 11, testified in court, even though he had to walk through 15 of Samuel’s Amish supporters to get into the courtroom, the source said.
“Caleb ‘did his part,’ the source said, even though he was frightened. Samuel was convicted and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison plus 50 years probation.
“The pattern of church members supporting the accused is not uncommon, other sources said. According to Justin Leighty, reporter at The Truth, a daily newspaper in Elkhart, Ind., many Lancaster County Amish wrote letters to the district attorney in support of Mahlon Shirk, a former Lancaster County man convicted of molesting a girl his wife baby-sat.”
The article goes on to describe how two conservative Mennonite mission agencies refused to believe the children of a man that served as a missionary under their organizations when they said that he had molested them when they were young.
At Amish bishop’s trial, sexual abuse is alleged
“An Amish bishop accused of orchestrating hair-cutting attacks in Ohio forced women at his settlement to have sex with him so he could turn them into better wives, one of the women testified Thursday.
“The woman said what started as hugs turned into kisses and then sex. She said she resisted at first. ‘He would say things like ‘I can’t understand why you won’t obey me. The other ladies can,’ the woman testified. ‘I always gave up. I was afraid not to.’”
Bonnets, Buggies and Sexual Abuse
Mary Demuth relates the following accounts of sexual abuse among Amish:
“The two men approached me, heads down, hands fidgeting. One man eventually met my eyes. ‘I was molested,’ he said. ‘It happens in our community, but no one talks about it.’
“The men used to be Amish. Now they lived on the ‘outside’ with jobs and wives and kids. They’d just heard me speak about my own story of sexual abuse. I looked at them both, remembering all those sweet bonnet books that peppered the shelves of Christian bookstores, these books that offered escape from modern madness, harkening us back to a simpler time. I couldn’t shake the dichotomy.
“‘In order to get healing,’ the other man said, eyes solemn, ‘we had to leave the community and get help.’
“We talked an hour or so, me still trying to wrap my mind around the conversation. Generational abuse. Bestiality. Sexual perversion. Spousal rape. Physical abuse. All behind the white doors of white houses and white barns dotting idyllic countrysides. People lived with secrets they could not tell, or risk shunning or excommunication.
“Another former Amish girl sat across from me, eyes gazing at her hands. She shared the kind of story that makes my own seem utterly small and insignificant. Long-term sexual abuse in her family. She’s on her own now, but left with ghosts and demons and a shaky heart. She’s trying to form new community, but she suffers from panic.
“When I spoke at Grace Mennonite Church in Ohio last winter, I had another eye-opening conversation with Larry Kaufman, the lead pastor there. He lives smack dab in the middle of Mennonite and Amish country. I asked him if these stories I’d heard represented reality. Sadly, yes.”
www.marydemuth.com/bonnets-buggies-and-sexual-abuse/
An Amish “pickup”, a buggy with a bench seat and a section in the back like a pickup truck for hauling things. Church rules requiring their people to be different from the world do not work to prevent sin. God has told us that rules of man do not work to keep people from sinning. Church rules do not produce the righteousness of God.
Mennonite ‘Healer’ sentenced for sex assault
The Essex County, Ontario newspaper The Windsor Star has this report:
“In his Mennonite community, David Fehr is considered a healer. Beyond, he’ll be known as a sex offender.
“Fehr, 63, began serving a six-month jail sentence Friday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a young woman he had been treating. During one of the treatments, he fondled her genitals.
“’Alcohol played a part in his lack of judgment,’ Fehr’s lawyer, Arun Maini, told the court. Assistant Crown attorney Craig Houle, had a different view—he called Fehr a predator who gained his victim’s trust before assaulting her…
“Fehr, a married father of eight and grandfather of 26, is hardly the picture of health. A former farm labourer, he has a leg injury and back problems.”
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/04/19/healer-sentenced-for-sex-assault/
Mennonite Preacher Sexually Abused His Daughter
One lady shared that she was sexually abused as a child by multiple people. One of them was her dad who was and still is a Mennonite preacher. Even though she was sexually abused by him, she idolized him until she was in her 30’s. She also experienced severe spiritual manipulation. The truth and lies were so skillfully interwoven that it scrambled her mind and created a confusion, even as an adult, until God revealed Himself to her and set her free from the spiritual bondage.
Boys and Abuse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
In the comments section of an article on sexual abuse in Amish communities, Dr Donald R Drake DD, PhD shares his experience of growing up in an Amish and Mennonite community:
“I am NOT Amish but I did grow up on a farm in Lancaster County, PA. In the summer, especially after haying many of us boys went swimming in local ponds or showered in the barn. Most always it was skinny dipping. Natural curiosity being as is, we always seemed to check out the other boys. Mostly this was just a quick look, however I do know of some boys who took this another step. These boys were both English and Plain People. In our teen years, there was a lot of talk about sex with siblings, and even with some of the farm stock. I know a lot of brothers shared a bed and even at times showered together. Some of the boys had friends over and to use a polite word, experimented with male to male sex.” http://amishamerica.com/sexual-abuse-amish-communities/
Bestiality Cases
Amish men appear in Centerville court for alleged animal sexual misconduct case
“Centerville, New York. — The two Amish men accused of sexual misconduct … Amos E. Girod, 23, and Mahol D. Miller, 22, both of Centerville, are each charged with misdemeanor sexual misconduct with an animal or deceased human body.
“Amity-based state police said each incident was allegedly with a horse and reportedly took place on each man’s family farm.” http://www.eveningtribune.com/news/x1672977164/Amish-men-appear-in-Centerville-court-for-alleged-animal-sexual-misconduct-case
Two Amish men charged with incest and bestiality in Wisconsin
“Although the Amish in America tend to keep their bonnets down and their plows out of “English” trouble, two young men in a Lancaster, Wisconsin Amish family have been charged with incest and bestiality in a case the Grant County Sheriff’s department says is one of the most “strange” and “disturbing” they’ve ever seen.
“19-year-old Christian G. Stolzfus and 18-year-old Dannie G. Stolzfus, both of Fennimore, face 400 and 90 years respectively in jail for the alleged sexual abuse of animals and unidentified human victims ranging in age from 5 to 16. Despite the hefty jail terms on the table, both young men have been released on their own recognizance pending trial. Local media detailed the charges against the two men:
“Christian Stolzfus is charged with repeated sexual assault of a child, four counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 without great bodily harm; attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 without great bodily harm; two counts of incest; exposing genitals or pubic area; and two counts of sexual gratification with an animal. Authorities said that they believe these incidents occurred during a four-year period.”
http://www.inquisitr.com/83042/amish-men-arrested-bestiality-incest/#bsmahGhIqg1Bpfxb.99
Many More Amish and Mennonite Sexual Abuse Cases
This is not an exhaustive list of all the sexual abuse, perversion, and sexual immorality before marriage that is occurring in Amish and conservative Mennonite groups. It is a tip of the iceberg. There are more stories we will be looking at later in the book. In addition, I know of other sexual abuse cases among Amish and conservative Mennonites and more stories keep coming in.
I want to stress that no one should get the impression that all Amish and conservative Mennonite men are sex offenders or are involved in sexual sins and cannot be trusted. Many are Christians and are fine upstanding citizens.
The sexual abuse cases that we just looked at illustrate that conservatism is not successful in preventing these sexual sins from occurring like it was supposed to with its strong emphasis on modesty. These cases also reveal that sexual abuse and other sexual sins are much more prevalent than what most people, including many Amish and conservative Mennonites, realize they are. It really should not be a surprise that these sexual crimes and sins are occurring, because Jesus told us the Amish and Mennonite Dress Experiment would not work and warned us against it.
The Next Chapter: The MennoPORNite Syndrome
Why Biblical Research Reports uses the KJV
When I started in-depth Bible research, I was using the NIV translation. I was not prepared for the deception and misguiding information that I found coming from Christian scholars. I did extensive research into Bible translations and into the Greek manuscripts themselves that the various versions are translated from.
I soon realized that the most significant subject facing the Church today is the Bible, what version is used and preached from, the Greek text it is translated from, and the way it is translated. Every Christian doctrine is based on the Bible. The way the Bible reads, the words that it has and the words that it does not have, the way the Greek words are translated or poorly translated, all affect the beliefs and teachings of the Church. At one point I thought that most translations of the Bible were basically the same except for the modernization of the old English in the KJV. This is not the case. Most of the modern translations do not have everything that the KJV does, as a result of changes in the Greek texts from which they are translated. In addition, significant changes have to be made in each new Bible version in order to copyright it. As a result of that research, I switched to the KJV. To read more about my Bible translation research check out these Research Reports:
Evidence the NIV is Not the Best Bible Translation
Evidence the NIV is not the best Bible translation (Condensed)
What is the Best Bible Translation?
I highly recommend the powerful, Free E-Sword Bible program for your computer, cell phone or other mobile device. Make sure you also download the free Treasury of Scripture Knowledge – cross references for each Bible verse to other verses on the same subject. For a cross reference database that is much larger and more complete consider purchasing The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury (in the dictionary category).
