Amish in the News: Creation Museum, LGBT Mennonites, Amish in Michigan, and Conscientious Objectors

Open buggies are common among the Amish of Highland County

By Kevin Williams

There are several

Creation Museum:  There is a museum and planned theme park in northern Kentucky dedicated to the Creationist beliefs. I've not been there before, but it is a popular stop.  Amish and Mennonites are quite fond of visiting there.  I wish I would have known about this event ahead of time or I would have gone.  Amish workers from all over came to the site last week to "raise an Ark" as part of the theme park.  Click here to read more.

LGBT Mennonites:  There are, of course, LGBT Amish and Mennonites.  How each church community handles the issues is very different and not something I'm going to get into in great depth right here and right now.  But it's a real struggle for the Mennonite church because their police-making is more centralized than the Amish.  Click here to read more.

BLANCHARD,  MICHIGAN - I love, love, this series from the Mt. Pleasant, Michigan newspaper.  SIGH, takes me back to my days as a young reporter when I would write about new Amish settlements.  Nothing groundbreaking about the series, just good, insightful writing, "comfort food" writing that gives insight into a small, but growing , Amish settlement.  The series is broken into 3 parts, but each part is relatively short and very readable.

PART I - Amish community growing in Blanchard.

PART II - Spend a day with Amish resident David Byler.

PART III - Amish businesses grow in Blanchard.

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS:  I thought this was a really powerful piece that ran in the Massillon newspaper over the weekend.  The piece takes us back to visit the Amish in Holmes Count in the 1940s.  You can imagine how rural and isolated and "backward" the area must have seemed to outsiders back then.  Heck, I remember Holmes County 25 years ago and it was definitely more of a backwater then.  Now it is much more difficult - not impossible - to get that real rural flavor in Holmes.  This piece also (and this is the powerful part) explores the roots of Amish pacifism. I think some of this is beginning to fall by the wayside, but many Amish are still very much guided by powerful pacifist principles.  Click here for the article!