FBI investigating Amish beard-cutting attacks

By Chris Welch, CNN

Bergholz, Ohio (CNN) - Members of the Amish community in eastern Ohio are the subject of a federal investigation following a wave of Amish-on-Amish incidents, FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

Five men have been arrested and charged with kidnapping and burglary stemming from an incident at the home of Myron and Arlene Miller in early October in which the group of men pulled Myron out of the home by his beard, held him down, and cut off large portions of the beard. An Amish man's beard is a significant symbol of his faith.

According to Jefferson County Sheriff Fred J. Abdalla, the incident at the Millers' home was one of a handful of incidents throughout several counties in which as many as 30 men and women carried out similar attacks.

Additional arrests stemming from the other attacks aren't likely, Abdalla said, because the other victims have not pressed charges. It is Amish tradition to solve conflicts by means of their faith and church, without the involvement of law enforcement.

The perpetrators are believed to be followers of a breakaway Amish group led by Sam Mullet. Of the five that have been arrested, three are Mullet's sons.

Local law enforcement officials and members of the Amish community believe Mullet has created a cult and is single-handedly behind the beard cutting incidents and other crimes in recent years.

Asked by CNN whether the accusations that he's behind the beard incidents were true, Mullet responded by asking rhetorically, "Beard cutting is a crime, is it?" He then denied the allegations that he's running a cult before dismissing CNN from his property.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/26/fbi-investigating-amish-beard-cutting-attacks/

 Longer article here with fun comments at the bottom

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/01/amish-beard-cutting-attacks-uncover-suspected-cult/

I think you missed my point, maybe you did not.

I sympathize with the victim of the attack. I don't care if you are not cutting someones hair by force. YOU NEVER hit or attack someone, unless it is self defense. What I object to is the superstitious reason the attacker did it, and the superstitious reason Amish men grow them in the first place.

Not wanting to be assaulted, FOR ANY REASON, is universal and doesn't need comic book super heros who tell you to grow beards.

It will ALWAYS infuriate me when ANYONE for any reason hits, beats, stabs, shoots, whatever reason, over ANYTHING.

I hate it when sports fans fight over a fucking game. I hate it when someone hits someone else simply because they got offended.

The attack should infuriate any civil person, and most certainly does you and I. Those dicks had no right to do what they did. I hope when they go to prison they are forced to watch TV and use electronics.

However, even without being attacked, the superstitious reason for keeping a beard is silly. I'd like to grow a long beard(cant) just to be able to shave it off in front of these people to SHOW them that having a beard or not having one does not make you good or bad, nor will it magically protect you. It obviously didn't help the victim in this case. And the perps had beards too, having that beard didn't make them good.

The Amish perps are lucky they didn't murder someone in a state with the electric chair. The irony would bee too much.

I wonder what an Amish electric chair would look like? They'd just wait for a thunder storm to execute you and stick you outside with Ben Franklin's lighting rod attached to the chair and hope the bolt hits it?

I saw a long time ago in the net a spoof of "Amish porn". It showed a woman lifting her dress to expose her ankle.

If they were doing that shit for secular and not superstitious reasons(meaning the way they live) It would make more sense. Self sufficiency, conservation of environment. But no, they have the superstitious baggage that causes them to put women in gender roles and prevents them from catching up with the times.

The modern equivelent without religion are the people who build environmentally friendly houses with solar energy and recycled water and grow their own food. Not a bad idea if you can do it. It leaves less of an imprint on the environment.

AND I recently saw some Amish hypocrites on a news interview trying to square established tradition with the fact that they were in a food flee market with electricity and were using cell phones. It just proved to me that religion is bullshit and the only way it survives is to change.

What I would say to these people is, why, if it is all about shunning modern life and living simply are you cherry picking what you do? If it is ok to use a cell phone, it ant going to hurt you to use a car or GPS or play a video game.

It's no different than the Ankor period where people change and their beliefs change.

YES THEY ARE, jeeze, you are defending the same argument theists use, "You are misinterpreting it".

Their entire idea, "motif" for the way they live is to shun the "evils" of modern society.  It is an isolationist attitude. Cell phones are access to the outside and thus create opportunities to sway people away from the group.  To be consistent they should not use them.

It's like the same religious bullshit where the lawmakers in make a dry county, but have their own stash in their mansion basement.

I am saying they use electricity and cell phones because there is no "misinterpreting". I am saying in any myth you can move the goal posts to suit your own needs.

You are enabling them to cling to their myth with that attitude.

There is no wrong way to be Amish. Or any label for that matter. But once you set up parameters and then violate them, you can only back peddle to avoid what was established. You are forced to adapt for the myth to survive.

The reason you make that argument is because ambiguity works in every naked assertion. You are justifying trying to nail jello to the wall with a fork.

OF COURSE THEY CAN use electricity and cell phones, but they cant say that the past claims and prior standards don't matter. They either have to stick to what was sold them in prior generations, or admit that they are simply making shit up as they go along.

Even the most right wing Baptists would not want to go back to the interpretations of the dark ages. But the words were the same back then as they are today, only with slight variations of versions. If they want to claim "I am doing it right, right now" misses the fact that there were people prior who thought the same thing.

It isn't a rights issue. It is a consistency issue.

Humans in general simply cannot face that life is never black and white and myths survive, because of the same meme adaptation in marketing ideas. If you remain stuck in the past, you get left behind. THAT is why they do it. But it is hardly consistent with the original starters of the myth they built off.

I think abortion bombers in Christianity and suicide bombers in Islam are far more consistent than the Amish who use electricity and cell phones. Cherry picking is cherry picking, no matter who does it.

The dark ages was an exercise in consistency. Sharia law is an exercise in consistency. Civility in the west exists because we don't force black and white thinking on common law.

To be fair, strictly on a human level minus all labels. It is impossible for any human to be 100% consistent on all issues all the time.

Even right now in other posts I made today with some economic rivals, I am quite sure they are screaming to themselves "WHAT THE FUCK BRIAN37"

The bottom line is that no human is perfect. The best our species can do is to seek universal tools to measure. And we have discussed this before, on skype, there is no human that can go an entire life without hypocrisy at some point. Bias is part of our psychology.

But the placebo affect of religion puts evolutionary hypocrisy on steroids.

having lived near amish for several years i have to say this seems accurate.

they can put up a rock-solid, attractive barn in no time flat too, and charge next to nothing for it.  i have no problem with the amish, or most other old-school christian fringe american cults.

except mormons.  i fucking hate mormons with a burning passion.