Dr. Donald Kraybill, distinguished college professor and senior fellow at Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, recently published a book about Amish beard cutting attacks and hate crimes convictions called “Renegade Amish.” The book focuses on a few different aspects of the case.
In the fall of 2011, five beard cutting attacks were committed by a renegade group of former Amish over an eight-week period. The attacks victimized nine Amish men.
In his book, Kraybill describes the history of the renegade group, the autocratic leadership style of their bishop and the motives behind the clan’s attack on Amish men in their area. According to Kraybill, the 16 members involved in the attack were convicted of federal hate crimes motivated by religion.
The beard cuttings are unprecedented in 325 years of Amish history. Kraybill mentioned that he does not know of any other forcible beard cutting attacks on Amish people prior to this.
Extensive coverage has been given to the beard cutting attacks by the media over a three-year period, since September 2011.
Kraybill had mentioned that the New York Times ran numerous stories, as did other national print presses. The events were also covered by several television and online publications. He said, “One of the reasons for writing my book was that the general public heard bits and pieces of this bizarre event over [the past three years], and I have tried to piece them all together into a coherent narrative in the book.”
The Lancaster Amish have been disgraced and appalled by this occurrence. In the book, Kraybill discusses two dozen reasons for how the offenders have violated Orthodox Amish practices and teachings. “In my judgment, the offenders are clearly no longer Amish,” Kraybill said.
The Amish are citizens of the United States and are accountable for any wrongs they may commit against the legal statutes, just as the rest of the population is. They do prefer to resolve any disputes they have within their community quietly.
However, if a violent crime takes place, or if state and federal laws are violated, the Amish are just as accountable as other American citizens.
The Amish are reluctant to press charges because they view it as exercising force, which for them violates the teachings of Jesus. In his book, Kraybill told the story of how one of the victims had his beard cut forcibly, and he struggled with the decision of whether or not to press charges. “He said Jesus didn’t press charges when he was crucified … eventually he agreed to press charges in order to protect other Amish people from future attacks.”
Kraybill explained that because the appellate court overturned the hate crime convictions, this case will likely stay in legal motion for some time. “The reversal deals with how to define and apply the specific legal language [2009 Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act] which makes a federal crime out of any attack causing bodily injury on a victim because of the victim’s gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, country of origin or disability,” he said.
This means that after the legal actions conclude, the Amish case will set an important legal precedent for how the Hate Crimes Act is applied and interpreted to future hate crimes all across America. Consequently, this unusual Amish-related case is considered very significant for the rest of us.
