Last night ABC showed an interesting British produced documentary about two Amish families in Pennsylvania who were shunned by their church (/community/ family) after they started studying the Bible (in English rather than old German) and questioning some of the rules of the community.
It was a well made documentary, which showed faith in a positive light. Even though the sort of faith they came to was the sort of simplistic evangelicalism which usually makes me cringe, they had such an earnestness and integrity that I was excited for them.
It’s a pity the program didn’t make clearer the historical irony of the current events – that the Anabaptis from whom the Amish are descended were a people persecuted originally for reading their Bibles and finding that what Jesus said was at odds with what they saw around them.
The hard working, honest simplicity of their lives also seems valuable to me. Whatever I would disagree with in Amish theology (or lack thereof), they have truly lived as a peculiar people in a consumer country.
You can watch it online, at least for a little while – http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s2606271.htm
2 Comments
July 18, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Greetings:
I just watched the documentary last evening. I too thought it presented faith in a positive light, considering especially that it came from BBC. And I too somewhat cringed at the $1,000,000 tract type of Christianity.
Anyways, I know someone from Charity Christian Fellowship where Ephraim now attends. In an email last evening, she sent me the following information, which I thought was quite interesting.
Anyways, write me sometime and tell me more about this Anabaptist fellowship (even thought it “fell apart”).
Mike Atnip
July 20, 2009 at 8:04 am
Fascinating story! It could make an interesting documentary on its own. I look forward to exploring your site.