News
Amish man jailed for alleged Vernon County sexual assault, violating probation
| February 13, 2012VIROQUA, Wis. -- An Amish man serving time for sexually assaulting young members of his family is back in jail for allegedly sexually asasulting another child.
26-year-old Isaac Yoder of rural Hillsboro told his parole agent he had assaulted the Amish juvenile in the Town of Union and violated rules for his electronic monitoring bracelet, Vernon County Sheriff John Spears tells News 8.
Feds Shut Down Amish Farm for Selling Raw Milk
| February 13, 2012The FDA has won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh, raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington region, after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines, and he told his customers he’ll shut his farm down altogether.
Why I Left the Amish
| February 9, 2012CLINTON - At age 20, Saloma Furlong stepped onto the night train out of Cleveland in a desperate attempt to escape her life among the Amish.
In that moment, "It was both very exhilarating and a terrifyingly open feeling," she said in an interview Wednesday, Feb. 1.
Thirty years later, out of a "stifling" childhood overshadowed by a mentally ill father, an abusive older brother and a mother who failed to protect her, Furlong's life has taken a very different direction; a college graduate and a wife and mother, as of January 2011 she can now add "published author" to her list of accomplishments.
Two buggies struck by hit-and-run drivers (Police seek leads)
| February 6, 2012Two horse-drawn buggies were struck from behind by hit-and-run drivers in the past two days, police said. A young woman was injured early Monday when a vehicle struck the back of a horse-drawn buggy in Paradise Township, state police at Lancaster said.
Man exposes himself to school full of Amish children
| February 4, 2012KOSCIUSKO COUNTY – Police arrested 46-year-old Darrin Ray Gibbs at his home in rural Warsaw Thursday after they say he exposed and touched himself in front of several Amish children at a school located just southeast of Nappanee, in Kosciusko County.
According to police, Gibbs pulled up to the school in his van and took off his pants last Friday at around 8:30 in the morning.
Amish Girl: From Salvation to Excommunication
| February 3, 2012When I met the Lord as a young Amish girl and was finally able to come out of the Amish some years later, it was a hard and difficult thing to walk through the mine field of explosive emotions and feelings I had during that time. Sometimes the pain and anger would explode inside of me so quickly, it was like stepping on a mine.
Religion News: Author of ‘Why I Left the Amish' to be featured on PBS special
| February 3, 2012“There are two ways to leave the Amish — one is through life and the other through death,” writes author Saloma Miller Furlong, who grew up in an Amish community in Ohio. “To leave through life, one has to deliberately walk away.”
Furlong tells how she made this difficult break in her memoir, “Why I Left the Amish,” she will tell her story on PBS’ upcoming “The Amish,” which is part of its “American Experience” series. The show premieres Feb. 28, at 8:00 p.m. EST/ 7 p.m. CST.
Idaho Amish family embraces modern ways
| January 30, 2012In many ways the Miller family is as Amish as the people they left back home in Wisconsin 10 years ago, carrying on the traditional ways.
Father Harley, 40, is a master carpenter who has constructed the sprawling, ski-lodge-style house the family now lives in. Mother JoAnna, 40, with the help of her nine children, ages 8 through 21, cooks, sews, tends a garden and the family's large flock of goats and teaches the younger children their school work.
But in so many other ways the Miller family is helping to define a new generation of Amish people who dress in regular clothes, work outside the home, use computers, cellphones and DVDs and drive cars.
Natural Amish Treatments and Remedies Impress Doctor
| January 26, 2012While Dr. Patrick Quillin cautions that his book Amish Folk Medicine is not intended to replace the personal care of a physician, he says he was simply looking for wisdom from people who historically have lived closer to nature and done well. He found that aboriginal groups kept record of helpful natural remedies out of the need for survival, and it obviously worked for them.
Bill would help Amish who reject reflective triangles on buggies
| January 24, 2012MAYFIELD, KY. — On Jacob Gingerich's farm in Western Kentucky, there is no phone or electricity for his family of 12 children. He even sees putting an orange safety triangle on their black horse-drawn buggy as as violation of the simple and pious life his Amish faith requires.
He and other Amish men in rural Graves County have become scofflaws for not using the reflective signs, ignoring state law, disobeying orders from a judge and even going to jail for not paying fines.
Amish journey from homespun to hipster
| January 9, 2012Miriam Jones doesn't waste time analyzing how an Amish girl in long skirts and bonnets went on to become the owner of a salon in the heart of Echo Park's hipster enclave.
In her first 30 years, in addition to starting a business, she's butchered large farm animals, killed snapping turtles with a crossbow, sewn her own clothes, grown and canned her food, learned to fly a helicopter and raised a 12-year-old daughter.
Horse left at Ohio Amish-area Wal-mart needs home
| January 8, 2012Wally the Walmart horse is looking for a new home. That's the nickname given to a 9-year-old standardbred horse that a humane society says was left at a northeast Ohio store by an Amish teenager more than two months ago.
Lydia Miller
| August 31, 2011Lydia Miller is a new volunteer with Mission to Amish People who received Christ after reading one of the Bible Club lessons that MAP sends out. She started receiving the Bible Club lessons when her sister-in-law, Esther, sent her name in. While reading the second lesson, she realized that knowing about sin and knowing about Christ dying for her sins was not enough. She must make it personal by receiving Jesus Christ into her life. That was in February 2010. She still continues to receive the Bible Club lessons. “They are encouraging, and they help you to grow.”
Amish Youth Get Friendly On Facebook
| June 19, 2011Lancaster, Pennsylvania - Kate's like a lot of American teenagers. She likes country music. She lists her favorite TV shows as "One Tree Hill" and "Friday Night Lights." And she's on Facebook, with more than 200 Facebook "friends."
And yet, Kate differs considerably from most other American teenagers on Facebook in one key respect:
She is — or at least, by her mode of dress, appears to be — Amish.
And she's part of what appears to be a growing — and, inside the Amish community, a worrisome — trend.
Mosie Shetler
| May 26, 2011He walked out the door of his farm house and for two miles debated his decision to leave. Eighteen-year-old Mosie, born into an Amish family in upstate New York, one of 12 children, turned from his family and culture because he “knew there had to be more.” With only his clothes and $50, he walked along the country road until another former Amish picked him up in a car and brought him to Ohio where, last summer, our lives intersected.
Ex-Amish woman finding new life
| March 7, 2011HARLINGEN — Emma Gingerich reached the age of 15 without ever having used a computer or talking on a telephone.
She never studied history or geography; for her, the earth was still flat.
The life she faced, she said, would be simple: a minimal education, which stopped at eighth grade, and little contact with those outside her immediate community.
Her purpose in life, she said, would be to raise children and continue the static traditions that were passed down to her from previous generations in the Amish culture...
Ex-Amish woman finding new life
| March 7, 2011HARLINGEN — Emma Gingerich reached the age of 15 without ever having used a computer or talking on a telephone.
She never studied history or geography; for her, the earth was still flat.
The life she faced, she said, would be simple: a minimal education, which stopped at eighth grade, and little contact with those outside her immediate community.
Her purpose in life, she said, would be to raise children and continue the static traditions that were passed down to her from previous generations in the Amish culture.
Columbia man opens up about his Amish past
| February 20, 2011Moses Gingerich doesn’t mind fielding the tough questions.
Do you go to church now? (“No.”)
Do you still believe in God? (“Yes.”)
Do you think you’re going to hell? (“Probably.”)
He gave the last answer on national television. He was feeling a little vulnerable when he said that, Gingerich admitted over a cup of coffee on a snowy January morning in Columbia...
A conversation with Saloma Furlong, author of 'Why I Left the Amish'
| February 18, 2011"Why I Left the Amish," shows a smiling second-grader with bright dark eyes. The story she tells, however, is anything but a simple tale of a happy childhood...
Alvin Mast
| February 4, 2011As a young child I was taken to the neighbor minister to be "brauched" (powwowed) on. This was done for such things as sore throat, earache, canker sores etc. As a child growing up I had an extreme fascination and attraction to these types of things...
Uncle to Nephew: You broke your covenant to the Amish Church
| February 1, 2011You mentioned that you don’t read in the Bible about “ordnung.” Well, probably a lot of it is tradition, but history teaches us over and over that when people leave the church, their children, or maybe more often their grandchildren will not belong to any church...
Mary Troyer
| January 30, 2011I was born into the Amish and lived most of my life in Michigan. When I was 15 my father passed away on December 22, 1997. Then on May 20, 2005 my brother passed away in a farm accident. I always thought the Amish church worried more about the rules than people. The night of my brother’s funeral proved that to me. The Bishops came and ex-communicated me, that night, because I knew my brother had a stereo and we had gone to visit my ex-Amish sister. The day after that, they announced it in church. I was eventually allowed back in but was constantly at odds with the leadership over various rules...
Death of ‘Little Boy Blue' remains a mystery
| December 24, 2010Danny Stutzman, a 9-year-old son of an Amish family from Dalton OH. No cause of death was determined, due to the condition of the body. Many believe his father killed him. Eli Stutzman Jr. never was convicted of killing his son, only of illegally dumping the body. He was in prison for 18 months....
Lydia Shrock
| December 15, 2010I left an abusive Amish family and lived in Joe and Esther Keim’s apartment for a while before moving in with my now, ex-boyfriend. Based on my abusive childhood, I picked a guy who became verbally and emotionally abusive during my pregnancy. After we moved in together in 2008, he became physically abusive, always blaming me for his abuse. Before I took the Life Skills classes, I thought I needed to have a guy in my life to be happy. All my Amish girlfriends had boyfriends, so I was competing with them...
Abandoning faith leads to shunning for Amish (Part 2 of 2)
| December 8, 2010The Amish are avid believers in the practice of shunning, which, in many cases, means expulsion from their Amish community for violating religious guidelines. It may sound harsh to non-Amish, but Dr. David Weaver-Zercher, professor of American religious history at Messiah College in Grantham, said shunning is seen by the Amish as a way to get someone's attention in hopes that the person will repent and return to the church...
Members of Amish church face life-altering decisions (Part 1 of 2)
| December 8, 2010Staring blankly into space, the 41-year-old man's eyes begin to look bloodshot as they fill with tears. Fighting back his emotions, he looks toward the floor. "Be good to go back home some time," he says as he nods his head in agreement with himself. "But you can't go back." Matthew knew the decision he made so many years ago would have its consequences. He knew that leaving the Amish faith behind would change his life forever...
Uriah Shetler
| November 17, 2010We lived in New York until I was 13 years old when we moved to a Wisconsin settlement with only five families. My Dad bought an 80 acre farm. About a year later, I started work milking 80 cows for our neighbor. I began to listen to Christian radio and heard the gospel. Living an Amish life, I had never heard the true gospel. The only gospel I had heard was you have to do this, that and the other in order for you to go to Heaven. Well, the true gospel was very new to me. I tried to argue and prove the radio ministers wrong by reading the Bible. Can you guess my surprise when I found out what they were saying was true?
Olson shares tales, trials from Amish upbringing
| November 15, 2010After years of living in an Amish community, Anna Dee Olson said she had to leave or commit suicide to stop her depression. Although Olson dreamed of attending college, the sect didn't allow it. At age 24, she left the community in Wisconsin knowing she'd have no support. Her mother's beliefs also shadowed her departure - the year was 1992, and based on her mother's Biblical calculations, the world would end by 2000.
Tiffany Raber
| August 29, 2010How easy is it for an English girl to date a former Amish boy? When I was younger I was probably just like any other person that wasn’t around Amish people that much. If I’d see one out or happen to see a buggy I’d think it was really something. I look back and remember how my friends and I would be at flea markets and see the Amish boys.
