DOC Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting; Hate Crimes; and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers by Donald B. Kraybill in History

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. An extremely important investigative book about Sam Mullet and his Amish cult.By OhioInvestigatorThis is a very important historical book about a very unique situation: an Amish cult.Professor Krabill is a world expert on the Amish and this book certainly proves it.When you start reading this book; you won't be able to put it down. Professor Krabillhas written many books about the Amish. Check out "Amish Grace"; available on .0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ... ancestory myself I must say this author has an amazing grasp of Amish life and cultureBy Kindle CustomerHaving Amish ancestory myself I must say this author has an amazing grasp of Amish life and culture. Seldom have I found such an acurate narritive especially by an "outsider". He does a great job of explaining the differences of these "Renegade Amish" and the mainstream Old Order groups. He has also done an excellent job of weaving a lot of potentially boring detail surrounding this account and the subsequent court trials into a readable format. If you want to know what really happened or just wish to understand the Amish better this is a must read!3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Kraybill is a slick salesman selling a productBy easyEZKrabill does the ultimate hack job here. It isn't that he doesn't know his subject; but that he is so brazen in promoting his agenda. Kraybill's agenda is to promote Amish culture. The conventional Amish narrative is ninety five percent his creation. The issues emanating from Bergholz threaten the carefully crafted image Kraybill has created. The Amish are like a product to him. Not unlike a fortune five hundred company's media spokesperson; Kraybill's job is to protect his product.In this book; whenever he is referring to the Bergholz Amish there is no innuendo he abstains from. No biased; unsubstantiated and prejudiced hearsay he doesn't trot out. But aside from that; he uses reason and logic based on conventional mores to describe the flaws and foibles of the Bergholz Amish. What is so revealing in this is that; in all of his other works on the Amish; he never does that. Moral relativism rules the day when he is writing about the "good" Amish. He even literally uses the term "good Amish" in the book.What makes his work so dangerous is; when it comes to the "good" Amish; there is no contradiction he won't obscure or obfuscate. The "good" Amish forgive at Nickel Mines; but they also write the judge in the beard cutting case asking him to give Sam Mullet a life sentence; and to Kraybill; this presents no conflict. I specifically asked him how he reconciles this dichotomy at a public meeting and he didn't engage the question at all.Kraybill's bias makes it impossible to engage Amish issues. All of the issues related to the Bergholz beard cutting incidents are inextricably Amish issues. Sam's power as bishop. His followers gullible acquiescence. The quest for a pure church. The us against them mentality. The ignorance and superstition that both enabled the malaise at Bergholz and hampers a solution; these issues didn't exclusively arise at Bergholz; but are inherently issues in the larger Amish culture as well.The terror Kraybill portrays the Amish experiencing wasn't exclusively about physically being harmed. This is evidenced in the teenaged girl running onto the scene of the crime and making demands of the perpetrators. If the perps would've been wreaking true terror on the community that girl would've more likely been quaking in fear at the furtherest corner of her closet.The terror; shame and embarrassment wasn't exclusively about having ones hair shorn; but the understanding that these incidents revealed something was terribly wrong in the Amish world. What made the beard cutting incidents so terrifying was that they arose out of the fertile soil of the Amish communities most revered ideals. A strong authoritarian leader. A docile subservient laity. An emphasis on "holding back" and adhering to the old ways. Moving to an isolated rural local and trying to get things right this time. These ideals are sacred in the Amish world. At least they were prior to the beard cutting incidents.The Amish tend to see the non Amish world as being where the danger lies. At Bergholz the danger arose from a strong exemplar of their most cherished ideals. That is what the terror; shame; and embarrassment were about. And to make it all worse; the Amish were at a loss to address the issues at Bergholz. Bergholz was their Achilles Heel. The disease was arising out of what they think of as the antidote.This is where Kraybill got his cue. The Amish needed to be saved. From themselves. But scapegoating the bad Amish may not be the solution. Cutting out the cancer may not cure the patient. Just like the war on drugs didn't deter drug use; a heavy handed prosecution of the Bergholz barbers may just entrench the malaise at Bergholz. Using the government to fix; save; or solve this intrinsically Amish problem; may be a far greater deviation from Amish norms and of much greater consequence to the rest of the Amish; than anything that happened at Bergholz.Kraybill though; isn't plagued with doubts on where to draw the line at Bergholz. He knows who the good Amish are and who the bad ones are. He actually does his job well. He would make a very good corporate media spokesperson. I just don't think his efforts are serving the Amish well.