..."and a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; evil minded people shall not travel on it, but it shall be for those wayfarers who are traveling toward God. (Isaiah 35:8, adapted)



Monday, October 09, 2006

More Forgiveness: Heaven & Hell Amongst the Amish

Ok, while I was composing the last blog entry on forgiveness, I decided to talk about something else that bothers me. First off, the families of those dear little Amish girls that were murdered have my complete and total sympathy. The young girls who stepped forward and said, "Kill me first" acted completely as Christians. I hope that would have been my reaction in the same situation. What a witness to the world. How warmly must they have been embraced in our Father's loving arms as they too quickly left this world to meet Him.

I guess what I want to talk about is how we glorify the Amish lifestyle wholeheartedly without really knowing that it has a darker side. People pour millions of dollars into Lancaster County to go and see what they think is a pure, simple lifestyle. The sad fact is that human nature is human nature and no matter how much you try to escape from the evil ways of man, you can't do it.

For at many of those the lovely Amish farms, apparently glowing with peace and godliness, are untold horrors in the barn. It is a well-documented but little known fact that the Amish run some of the most inhumane and hellish puppy mills in the United States. Just type "Amish puppy mills" into Google and see what you find. Click on these to get started:
Heart United for Animals
Humane Society,
New Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse;
Puppy Mill Articles and TV Reports;

Read them and weep. These poor animals are kept in atrocious conditions, abused and living in nothing short of a hell for the sake of greed. Is this the picture of the Amish that you have? Perhaps we all need to look a little deeper. I am not saying that all Amish are like this. But the facts speak for themselves.

There is no excuse for what happened to those innocent girls. There is also no excuse for what is happening to thousand upon thousand of innocent animals in Amish communities. God sees all. Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing in anyone's religion, much less Christianity, would find this conscionable. We are meant to be caretakers of the earth, not pawnbrokers, torturers, and murderers! Pray for God's mercy and the end to such atrocities. I'm going back to my article on forgiveness and work on it doing it some more. May God have mercy on all creatures, great and small.




2 comments:

CHIC-HANDSOME said...

life just a good

Anonymous said...

It's true, people are people. We can't put anyone on a pedestal; a pastor, a mentor, a person that associates with a certain group of people. I never would've thought that about the amish. Why would I think they're any different than any other human? hmmm.