In at least one curious instance, however, an Amish churchmember reacted quite the contrary to heavenly will. In a historical piece in Family Life, David Luthy describes a now-defunct Amish settlement in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, which had already been experiencing church difficulties:
"The story has been related of one ordination where the lot fell on a young man with little ability. When the truth of the situation seemed to dawn on him, he jumped up in a frenzy and started to run for the door with several men in pursuit. One man grabbed him while he clung to the door kicking at his pursuers. He would not submit to ordination."
Typical reaction? Not likely. Although, even though it may seem comical, this man acted out what some Amishmen must feel when faced with the heavy burden of leading their congregation of souls.
So if it's not typical, why put it in a post on ministry? Is this some twisted attempt at "fair and balanced"? You do have sources that can enlighten you on what it's like.
The position of bishop is probably the most demanding. I was recently on the phone with an Amish friend in Ohio, already a minister. His church had divided earlier in the year, and an ordination had taken place a couple weeks earlier. Among other things, he expressed relief at being passed over for bishop. He describes dealing with church issues as more taxing than anything else he has to handle, including running a business with a dozen employees.
(nice name dropping there, Eric. I'll bet your fellow Amish writer wanna bees are green with envy! Aren't you just hot shit? You're on the phone with an Amish minister and he's a business owner to boot! Toot! Toot!) and "among other things"?, sounds like he poured out his heart and soul over that phone line! Har har, ya really got the inside track on that one. What the hell is he spilling his guts to some English lacky for? Could it be that you're sucking up to him just a wee bit?
Nah, it couldn't be that.
And yet, with all that bull shit you just fed us about your fucking personal relationship with this minister, you couldn't give us one little snippet of personal narrative from his ordination? Not some "parting of the sea" moment, but just a little tid bit that would reveal a fellow human being. It would've been very easy to come up with something better than the cartoon caricature Luthy peddled. But you failed to deliver. You're a fucking embarrassment!
5 comments:
Easy, you better double up on the Prozac. You're sounding unhinged. There was nothing wrong with Erik's post; it was a good one.
Easy, I shouldn't have left the above comment. I'm sorry. I have come back looking for a way to delete it, but I can't figure out how. If you can delete it, please do so.
yea yea, you want to withdraw your statement, based on what rational? That I'm unstable and I might actually take your medical advice. Where was your lawyer hat when you typed that one? Leave the meds out of it for a moment and make your case for why it was a good post. For Christ's sake you're the lawyer. Whether I sucked at it or completely failed, atleast I tried to make the case that Eric's writing about the Amish contains these tragic flaws. Flaws that will have real world consequences for real people.
Dad, crockhead is right. You're becoming a wacko extremist.
You may not like Eric's post, but come on, he is trying in his own way to portray the Amish as real people (which you think is important). So, as you like to put it, take a chill pill.
~your wise daughter
He sleeps in their homes, eats at their dinner tables, works on their farms, attends their church services and he can't come up with a more authentic narrative than this embarrassing, demeaning, caricature? In the entire post it's the only personal narrative. Why? It leaves this impression that they're a bunch of rubes.
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