Amish Paradise Lost or Paradise being Found?

aparadiseToday I wandered over to the BBC iPlayer and landed on an insightful documentary on the Amish Community near Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the US titled “Trouble in Amish Paradise” the blurb reads as followed;

When two radical Amish men, Ephraim and Jesse Stoltzfus, start to question some of the most fundamental aspects of their Amish culture, they face excommunication from their church and total rejection by their friends and family.

Setting the scene Ephraim’s and Jesse’s families hold their own prayer meetings, express their faith with those who are not Amish and a study the Bible in a language that they can actually read, not the antiquated German which is meant to be used. The local Amish church which they are apart of is threatening excommunication for these activities as it is against the rules. Eventually both men are excommunicated.

Really what the BBC have published, perhaps rather unwittingly, is a story of church persecution in the Amish community. At one point Ephraim’s daughter gets diagnosed with leukemia right after they had sold their house and given all their savings to those in need. They are people who live the gospel and hold shining faith that is dependent on Jesus. They want to hold on to the Amish way of living off the land but recognize that it has been corrupted by petty rules grown out of a legalistic religion.

The documentary ends with Ephraim struggling to find and relate to a new church that fits them culturally but I have to say from what I saw of him he had more charisma than many charismatics I have met. We might just be looking at the start of a true renewing of many Amish minds in terms of what is of God’s word. Revival in the Amish culture would be a wonderful thing to hear about, so I’m going to pray for it.

You can watch this on BBC iPlayer (only published for a short period). Also if you did not know, I used to attend a Mennonite church in Canada when I was a kid, apparently it was part of my parents training as missionary for Malawi. They were brilliant at BBQs and made mean corn on the cob.