Links O’ The Day - Ogling the Amish

For three years I lived in southern Lancaster county in Pennsylvania. Mt. Hope United Methodist, the church I served, had been founded in 1791 and placed in the idyllic and pastoral setting of rolling hills and farmland. Among the many farms there, more than a few were owned and tended by Amish families. I, however, considered myself lucky that I did not live closer to central Lancaster County where most of the Amish lived and where a healthy tourist industry, based on what I call “ogling the Amish,” thrived. Traveling north of Strasburg and anywhere near Paradise or Intercourse during the summer could be an especially daunting task as the numbers of tourists invariably swelled with the rising of season’s temperatures. At times it was frankly ridiculous to consider that the very people who had tried to separate themselves from society as a whole had become, of all things, a tourist attraction.

Mt Hope UMC and the parsonage in which I lived are just a few minutes drive from the farm where the movie Witness was filmed (starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGinnis), and it is is only a short drive from there to the schoolhouse where this week’s tragedy played itself out amongst this intensely private and religious community. I have driven past the schoolhouse in question numerous times myself, and have often seen children playing outside during breaks in their studies. Life in Lancaster county is inextricably tied to the lives of the Old Order Amish who have made the area their home for generations and who have unintentionally helped make Lancaster a popular tourist destination.

I have been loathe to write about the events that occurred on Monday. For one reason, I cannot begin to understand why Charles C. Roberts IV walked into that schoolhouse and proceeded to do what he did. The thought of his shooting these young girls is bad enough, let alone the revelation that he may have also intended to sexually assault them. How does Robert’s supposed anger at God and his own loss of a child even begin to explain his actions? Of course, they do not, and we are all left to ponder the question that always comes when such events sweep over us. The question: “Why?” And having asked the question once again, we are left with the understanding that there are no sufficient answers to our cry - that no amount of explanations or background information will ever suffice.

Another reason I have been reluctant to write is because I did not want to add anything to all the ogling that was already going on. Some of the media, in pursuing “the story,” have been incredibly insensitive to the culture and traditions of the Amish. The Amish take the commandment to not have any graven images literally, and so they do not allow photos of themselves to be taken. But this has not stopped the cameras from their clicking, the film from rolling, and even more than a few microphones being thrust into the faces of the Amish for their responses to the tragedy. Not wanting to contribute to this in even a little way has kept me from saying anything at all until today.

But today I thought it would be good to provide anyone interested with some links to a few of the better news stories and commentaries about this past week’s events. In particular, I figure if we are all going to ogle the Amish for a while, we might as well take a good look at what makes this religious community worthy of our attention and notice: their faith and their willingness to forgive. Below are some links to stories that show these traits, followed by something on a little lighter note: an audio tour through Amish country by Michelle Kholos from The Savvy Traveler (make of it what you will).

The Amish Protest Against Evil - Commentary from The Christian Science Monitor

Getting the Amish Response from the blog FaithCommons

Strong Faith and Community May Help Amish Cope With Loss by Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times

An Old World Close to a New World Horror from Ian Urbina in The New York Times

Duane Shank on the Amish School Shootings: The power of faith, the strength of community

Laid to Rest by Colby Itkowitz of the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal (As funerals begin, details emerge of girls’ schoolhouse bravery)

Stalking the Amish by Michelle Kholos from The Savvy Traveler (Listen in RealAudio) Even with world increasingly becoming one big global village, it’s still fun to travel to places where people have all come from just a few families throughout many centuries: the Khan family in Pakistan, the Mayan villages in Belize