EXPLOITING THE AMISH

Our society as a whole is generally oblivious to the exploitation that occurs of the Amish by the non-Amish. Sometimes the exploitation occurs while the perpetrators are protesting the "exploitation" of the Amish.


Example


From an earlier post.


The local GOP is to be commended for trying to increase voter participation, but it wasn't so long ago that Congressman Joe Pitts was in a snit about UPN's "Amish in the City," proclaiming it an assault on my people's sanctity of life. If Pitts and local campaign officials weren't so anxious to make political hay, or really knew their constituents, they would understand that, when the Amish align themselves with the government, they are violating one of their core principles in a far more detrimental way than a couple of marginalized teenagers on a reality show ever will.



The degrees of idiocy revealed in Rep. Pitts' efforts to protect the Amish from reality tv may only be apparent from an insiders perspective. So bear with me.



A prominent element of Amish faith is the scriptural admonition to be separate and apart from the world. In Amish life this isn't some vague idea, but is practiced in prescribed and established behaviors. The idea that a religious people, whose sermons are filled with praise for their Martyrs and the revelation that it was the government that persecuted them, would need Rep. Pitts to help resist the lure of reality tv, is an epic farce.



But there is an aspect of what happened between Rep. Pitts and the Amish that should concern us all. The Amish are very clear where their boundaries are and once one of their own crosses that line they are more than willing to establish that the transgressor is on his or her own. The problem is, there are, at any point in time numerous individuals who see themselves as functioning outside of the line, the Amish have drawn. But, their identity hasn't yet sufficiently coalesced into the other that the Amish boundaries insist on. In other words, unless you conform and submit you are the other.

The danger I'm trying to point out is that, while the constitution grants the Amish the freedom to practice their faith, Rep. Pitts' collusion with the Amish to project their morality onto those who aren't conforming to their standards anymore is extremely un-American. The Amish kids that are active and involved in the community don't need Rep. Pitts' protection. So the only ones left for his efforts to have an effect on are the ones who have stepped outside of the Amish communities' boundaries. Promoting the idea that they shouldn't go on a reality tv show is the same as saying, any other citizen shouldn't, which is a pretty asinine thing for a congress person to be doing.



Since the reasons Rep. Pitts gave for doing what he did are clearly bogus, there's only one explanation I can see that makes sense of his actions. Rep. Pitts used his power as an elected official of the U.S. government to promote the religious agenda of one select group of constituents, at the expense of another group, for the sole reason of garnering votes.