This struck me as an amusing comment on the assumption that some groups are inherently less likely to go off the deep end due to the character of their beliefs. It sounds less dangerous, but still more colourful than the story of the Doukhobors, from back home, who fled Russia after refusing to take up arms, only to have a radical sub-set emerge and undertake a campaign of bombing and arson.
[quote=“LA Times: FBI arrests 7 Amish men on hate-crime charges”]FBI agents on Wednesday raided an Ohio compound and arrested seven Amish men on hate charges in connection with haircutting attacks on other members of the usually isolated Christian religion.
[…]
Court papers, distributed by the Justice Department after the raid, paint a picture of those arrested as a schismatic group with some of the attributes of a cult, at battle with the traditionalist and pacifist religion.
At the center of the splinter group is Samuel Mullet Sr., who with his family and followers left the established Amish community in Frederickstown, Ohio, in 1995 to establish a separate group in Bergholz, Ohio.
[…]
All are charged with conspiring to carry out a series of assaults over the last few months on Amish men and women, cutting off their beards and head hair with scissors and battery-powered clippers. The acts were especially heinous to the Amish who believe there is a biblical injunction to shaving when men marry.[/quote]Ok, that’s shaming, but otherwise harmless. But this? [quote]According to the affidavit, Mullet’s daughter-in-law and former son-in-law explained how Mullet “controls all aspects of the lives of the Bergholz clan members.
In disregard for Amish teachings and scripture, Samuel Mullet Sr. has forced extreme punishments and physical injury to those in the community who defy him, including forcing members to sleep for days at a time in a chicken coop” and allowing others to beat those who disobey.
In addition, the pair alleged that Mullet “has been ‘counseling’ the married women in the Bergholz clan and taking them into his home so that he may cleanse them of the devil with acts of sexual intimacy.” [/quote]Wow. Sounds like the kooky fictional religion in Murakami’s 1Q84. Funny how so many goofy splinter groups follow the same basic script. People are strange.
