Amish Violence - A close shave for victims.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Quote :

Police in the US state of Ohio are investigating a rare violent feud in the Amish community, in which members have had beards and hair cut off.

This is what happens when you let people listen to Weird Al's Amish Paradise. It's all east barn against west barn!

I managed to miss all the Amish when I was in Ohio. Apparantly the Golden Corral all you can eat buffet is against God.

Quote :

Spiritual differences were said to be behind the attacks on more than half a dozen men and women, said police.

Once again disagreements over how to proceed in dealings related to an imaginary friend results in violence. This is the kind of thing that the leading Emma Watson impersonator gets upset about.

Quote :

The investigation is being hampered by Amish reluctance to seek police help.

They Amish only want to deal with people with a similarly 16th century mindset of narrow views and ignorance. They've had to bring in LAPD officers.

Quote :

Over the past three weeks, at least six men and women have been assaulted in four different counties, losing their beards

Those women are missing a lot of good money working the freak shows!

Quote :

in the case of the women, clumps of their hair.

...oh. Less funny!

Quote :

The feud is thought to involve 18 Amish families, most of whom are said to be related

Nothing like a good old fashioned family tree stump. All of that inbreeding is obviously not doing 'em any good.

Quote :

Sheriff Fred Abdalla said some of the suspects had previously come to the attention of police after a threat against him, and a conviction of sexual contact with a minor

Special inbreeding offer: Kids ride free!

Quote :

Professor Donald Kraybill, an Amish expert at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press news agency that Amish-on-Amish violence was "extremely rare."

It has to be said that when someobdy spends twenty two words introducing a two word quote I always kind of wonder "Why bother?"

I'm sorry, that's... too absurd to not be funny.

It really is. Beards and long hair have a significance in Amish communities, don't they?

Lapin wrote:

It really is. Beards and long hair have a significance in Amish communities, don't they?

Men aren't allowed to grow beards till they marry, and women are forbidden to cut their hair. (I live in an area where you can drive ten miles in any direction and run into a conclave of some sort of Amish).

The thing is, it's not unusual for groups to split up over petty disagreements (whether you should use rubber tires on your tractor or the old-fashioned iron ones; whether you should allow a non-Amish neighbor who owns a car to drive you to town to buy groceries, or whether you should let one man in the community learn how to drive, buy a car, and use is communally), or doctrinal differences (disagreement as to what a certain Bible verse actually means)

I've never heard of them getting violent, though that could just be a case of them not interacting with outsiders. The fact that the situation's got bad enough someone's gone to the local police says a lot, because by and large, the Amish prefer to keep things to themselves.