Sins of the Amish

This series was incredibly eye opening!!

As a victim of sexual assault (also in the United States) I am truly grateful to Law Enforcement and legal support that allows survivors like us peace and security. It's mind blowing that similar crimes occur (in the same USA) in small Amish communities, and the perpetrators receive very different sentences! Thanks to Netflix for the time and dedication to this project.

SO proud of these women for coming together and sharing their deeply personal stories with the world in hopes of providing support, courage, and strength to the young victims and survivors!

This two-part documentary just became available streaming on Peacock, running just under two hours total.

It focuses sequentially on several women in several states with substantial Amish communities. Each of these women are either victims of child sexual abuse growing up, or the mother of children who have suffered sexual abuse within the family. Most are victims of their own older brothers but in some cases their own fathers or church leaders.

The documentary seems to suggest that sexual abuse of children is very common in various Amish communities. Whether it is or not more common than the rest of society, the fact that leaders always want to cover it up is distressing. It is a CRIME, it should never be covered up. Maybe if every offender went to jail then it would stop.

The film explains the church attitude that (1) men and boys past puberty have strong sexual desires and (2) if they act on them but later express remorse then they are forgiven with no need for additional action. Further if victims, or the mother of victims, contact the police with a complaint then they will be expelled from the community, excommunicated from the church, while the abuser gets the benefit of the doubt and support from the community. That is just so messed up.

The documentary does also cover some cases where the abuser was reported and how the legal punishment played out but the Amish attitude needs to be changed. If not voluntarily then forceably.

Those interviewed and the producers of the documentary hope this will serve to begin a movement to expose the sins of the Amish, and they compare it to such movements as the Civil Rights movement. Time will tell if it works out that way.

I found this to be a totally absorbing documentary, a glimpse into a culture with its own unique rules, a culture few of us ever have a glimpse of.

I wish and hope all the woman will get protection and help they need. I agree it's not the Amish those horrible stories are everywhere, but to just bring awareness to the community and hope that will bring a conviction to many. Such a tragedy, my hears goes for those and all girls/woman who witnessed and experienced those devastating moments.

I had read a few articles and memoirs composed by survivors of the Amish cult before watching this series so I wasn't "shocked" by the depravity but I was still disgusted by what these women and children were subjected to. The Amish and other similar communities need to face intervention from the real world to put a stop to the abuse and hold those committing these crimes accountable. Something is seriously wrong with these people - raping your own children and then justifying it with a fake religion is insane.

I made the acquaintance of a language professor, whose study of the "Pennsylvania Dutch" language led to his becoming a mediator with the outside world for various Amish communities in Pennsylvania and the mid-west. He portrayed a nuanced, decent, often beautiful way of life that maintains an equilibrium by the Rumspringa, a process of each young adult deciding whether or not to commit to the "plain" life. To the young people who do take it on, mainstream life seems noisy and distasteful. I have come to understand the Amish as fundamentally different from all the genuinely repressive, retrograde cults and sects they superficially resemble. I have no doubt that the individual horror stories in the series are authentic. But I take great exception to any claim that they are typical, representative, or more prevalent than in mainstream society. That is a bum rap!