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Renegade Amish

Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers

Donald B Kraybill author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:10th Jul '18

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Renegade Amish cover

How a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace of a peace-loving people and led to a new interpretation of the federal hate crime law.

On the night of September 6, 2011, terror called at the Amish home of the Millers. Answering a late-night knock from what appeared to be an Amish neighbor, Mrs. Miller opened the door to her five estranged adult sons, a daughter, and their spouses. It wasn’t a friendly visit. Within moments, the men, wearing headlamps, had pulled their frightened father out of bed, pinned him into a chair, and—ignoring his tearful protests—sheared his hair and beard, leaving him razor-burned and dripping with blood. The women then turned on Mrs. Miller, yanking her prayer cap from her head and shredding it before cutting off her waist-long hair. About twenty minutes later, the attackers fled into the darkness, taking their parents’ hair as a trophy.

Four similar beard-cutting attacks followed, disfiguring nine victims and generating a tsunami of media coverage. While pundits and late-night talk shows made light of the attacks and poked fun at the Amish way of life, FBI investigators gathered evidence about troubling activities in a maverick Amish community near Bergholz, Ohio—and the volatile behavior of its leader, Bishop Samuel Mullet.

Ten men and six women from the Bergholz community were arrested and found guilty a year later of 87 felony charges involving conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice. In a precedent-setting decision, all of the defendants, including Bishop Mullet and his two ministers, were convicted of federal hate crimes. It was the first time since the 2009 passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act that assailants had been found guilty for religiously motivated hate crimes within the same faith community.

Renegade Amish goes behind the scenes to tell the full story of the Bergholz barbers: the attacks, the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath. In a riveting narrative reminiscent of a true crime classic, scholar Donald B. Kraybill weaves a dark and troubling story in which a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace of these traditionally nonviolent people, compelling some of them to install locks on their doors and arm themselves with pepper spray.

The country’s foremost authority on Amish society, Kraybill spent six...

An insider’s perspective into how a small community of Amish people, nurtured in a religious tradition of nonviolence and forgiveness, transformed into a culture of revenge and retaliation.
Publishers Weekly
Digs deep into a story that, for all its seeming quaintness, has the power to both rock the underpinnings of hate crime legislation and to break the human heart.
Salon
Kraybill tells this fascinating story clearly, and has the knowledge and contacts to penetrate a tight-lipped community.
The Times
An acknowledged expert on Amish life and culture, [Kraybill] explains the religious and social background of the people involved and successfully explains the legal tangle that has not yet completely played out. This book will be of interest to those who study the intersection of law and religion or the sociology of closed groups like the Amish.
Journal of Church and State
A thorough, evenhanded, and accessible volume that provides keen insight on Amish culture.
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
Captures a fascinating chapter of legal history and Amish history . . . [This] is a tale begging to be told, and Kraybill proves worthy of the task.
The Mennonite Quarterly Review
Whether you want to learn more about the Amish in general, the Bergholz Amish in particular, are interested in the formation and maintenance of NRMs, interactions between religious groups and the law, or just want to read an informative book that is exceedingly well researched and written, balanced, and engaging, Renegade Amish is most definitely worth reading.
Nova Religio
The apparent dissonance in these opening narratives and the peculiar nature of Amish acting violently to shear helpless victims sets the scene for Kraybill’s fascinating exploration of the Bergholz Amish. . . The case has taken on new significance as the court system works to decide how people will be prosecuted under the Shepherd Byrd act and how broadly hate crimes can be defined.
Mennonite World Review

ISBN: 9781421425122

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 14mm

Weight: 318g

224 pages