Amish “reality” shows often create unreal, inaccurate impressions of the well-known peaceful society, according to prominent scholar David Weaver-Zercher. The professor at Messiah College in south central Pennsylvania gave a public lecture on Tuesday evening, March 26, entitled “Amish Behaving Badly? Amish Realities and Amish Reality Shows.” According to a… Continue reading…
Raymond King, an Amish farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is building on earlier measures he has used to save his soil by incorporating the latest management practices to protect his local watershed. He has been using a no-till technique of planting on his 75 acre farm since 1979, which has… Continue reading…
Asked if the community would take a united stand against the shale gas industry, the Amish man slowly shakes his head. “We try to avoid conflict,” he tells his visitors. A short ways behind his farmhouse, a hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, rig has been making loud thudding noises around the… Continue reading…
Birding has become a passion for many Amish people in Ohio, and not just the ones in Holmes County who are well-known (among birders) for their skills in the annual Christmas Bird Count. An article by Suzanne Fisher published early last week provided some new perspectives on their avocation. Many… Continue reading…
The Schwartzentruber Amish are finally leaving Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and the local paper, the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, is obviously pleased. In an editorial last Friday, the paper presented its law-and-order stance against the Amish violators of local regulations. It indicated that the Schwartzentruber families had refused, for their own religious… Continue reading…
Last Thursday, a federal jury in Cleveland, Ohio, convicted Samuel Mullet, Sr., and 15 of his followers for conspiracy and hate crimes in their hair and beard cutting attacks on other Amish people in 2011. The trial included three weeks of testimony, and it took the jury nearly a fourth… Continue reading…
Last Thursday, a federal jury in Cleveland, Ohio, convicted Samuel Mullet, Sr., and 15 of his followers for conspiracy and hate crimes in their hair and beard cutting attacks on other Amish people in 2011. The trial included three weeks of testimony, and it took the jury nearly a fourth… Continue reading…
Ohio has now topped Pennsylvania in having the most Amish of any state in the U.S., 60,233 to 59,078, according to three scholars who have just completed a study of their population. Professor of Rural Sociology at Ohio State University Joseph Donnermeyer, the leader of the study, indicated when he… Continue reading…
A Kansas county has become the latest American community to take a hard line against the Amish use of unregulated outhouses, according to a news story last week. The adversaries explored the issue at a meeting of the Bourbon County Commissioners, who indicated that they were studying the matter. Apparently,… Continue reading…
It may seem trite to say that no peaceful society is perfect, but developments last week relating to the aggressive Amish cult in Bergholz, Ohio, and its strange rampage of hair and beard cutting attacks last fall, certainly support such a truism. Sam Mullet, Sr., the Bishop of the Bergholz… Continue reading…
