Sexual Abuse in the Amish Community: Mary Blyler's story

[jdj]

(Well, here we go again, another cloistered religious community is discovered to have a protected epidemic of child sexual abuse. Comes with the territory, I guess. Heard on NPR today that social workers in these areas of rural Pennsylvania are told that sexual abuse of children is rife in these communities and are taught special tactics to deal with it. The woman subject of this article has been excommunicated from the Amish church because they believe in punishment then forgiveness, once the perp. has been "punished", to speak of the offense again is a sin.)

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"If somebody was raping me, I'd look up to the ceiling, count the blocks or count the cracks in the wall, or just I was completely not there emotionally. I would have committed suicide many times over if I wouldn't be strong," she said.

Through the years, by Mary's account, she was raped by several different attackers. But one abused her more often than the others — her brother Johnny. Johnny, one of Mary's eight brothers, began assaulting her when he was 12 and she was 6. The assaults continued into her teen years, she said.

"I couldn't go to the outhouse because there was always somebody waiting there. I couldn't go anywhere alone. There was just no place I could be alone," she said.

As time passed, another brother, Eli, followed suit.
"He'd rape me down in the milk house when I was cleaning up the milk house. He'd rape me down in the barn," she said.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=316371&page=1

[Is It Fascism Yet]

1. fascinating article, thanks for posting, aren't they something? damn

religions are evil.

[jdj]

2. the second page of this article is horrifying.

Mary wears a wire into talk to brother Johnny about having reported him.

He asks how many times did you tell them I raped you?

She says 100 to 150

He says, no, it was more like 50 to 75.

This is one of the most fucked up things I have ever read in my life. A young woman having been raped 100's of times before the age of 20 (she has EIGHT brothers) and her mother telling her just to forgive and go on.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

4. yeah, it's downright horrible, and a testiment to what brainwashing

and propaganda can do for a society. Too bad people can't be content to have a personal relationship with their god instead of insisting on having some slimy intermediary telling them what god thinks is good.

[Kat45]

3. This story was on 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC, I think about

a couple of weeks ago. It was weird because both shows were on at the same time, and both had that story. It was quite upsetting to watch. IIRC, there were stories about 2 different young women. For one, who saw her brother brought to trial, family and community came to the trial to support the perpetrator, not the woman.

[jdj]

6. yes, they "punish" the perp. ( no specifics given) then

once they punishment period is over (the reporter said 2 weeks, but I don't know if that is accurate or speculation) then if you bring it up again YOU are guilty of "unforgiveness" and must be punished.

So many ironies in this story, the reporter said that the Amish are pacifists and believe that even acts such as "filing lawsuits" use force...which begs the question, how is the act of rape not a use of force...it's unreal.

The worst rapist brother got 10 years PROBATION by the way.

NO JAIL TIME. #$%%%$#$#%@@@@@!!!!!!!!!!

[Kat45]

8. The TV report said what the punishment is

I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but it's something like not allowing the person to go to church for the 2 weeks and I think also ostracizing him for that time period. I guess, to those people, going to church is of major importance as is the sense of community.

I don't recall if it was the same young woman or the other one, but one (when still a girl/teenager) either told (for the second time) or tried to run away, and her parents took her to the dentist and had all her teeth pulled! These people may try to be pious folks, but man are they fucked!

[wicket]

5. horrible :(

[u4ic]

7. Sick sick sick

and it angers me tremendously that they got off lightly.

But she is one brave woman, and hope she has the strength and support to deal with her traumas. I wish her all the best in her new life, and hope she is an inspiration to others who are in same situation she was, and step forward, too.

[jdj]

9. there is a woman in the Morman community who is doing the

same thing, but in her case, she has an underground railroad for girls who want to get out of the polygamist state in UT, AZ and CO. She comes and gets them, and her life has been threatened. Her story is at http://www.polygamy.org. She escaped, and has shed alot of light on that community, a community rife with incest, child abuse which is essentially a welfare state.

I am starting to think the definition of religion= the will of God + the will of the penis.

[Mist]

10. I've always thought of the Amish as inoffensive pacifist types--

so they turn out to be yet another harmful organized religion.

[yardwork]

11. I grew up in Amish country (although I am not Amish)

There are a lot of romantic ideas about the Amish. I don't know how pervasive sexual assault is among the Amish, but I do know that it is an extremely rigid, hierarchical community that is completely cut off from the outside world. It matches every definition of a cult.

I've heard liberals comment about the virtues of Amish life and they are just plain uninformed. There is no democracy in the Amish community. The men are totally in charge, and there is a strict hierarchy among the men. Women have very few rights and children have none. The Amish don't treat their animals very well, either.

I'm not saying that they are all bad. I'm just saying, don't believe the romanticism.