By Lynn Selness
Spring Grove, MN
Recently I attended a court hearing in Fillmore County. I was honored to support a friend who had grown up in this Amish community. From her earliest memories as a child, she was often molested by her relatives. Then she was raped repeatedly by an Amish deacon whose farm she worked on as a maid. No one protected her. No one helped her. Why does this “Christian” community allow the children to suffer so much trauma?
When my friend grew up, she left the Amish. It took years for her to find her voice and the courage to go to the police. She felt compelled to protect other Amish children. The perpetrator confessed but was only lightly sentenced. Now he was asking to have his probation cut in half after serving only five years.
The scene in the court room was surreal to me, with the rows of Amish in their dark clothes on the one side, and myself and the other women who had come to support my friend on the other. My friend was too nervous to sit anywhere but in the back row, and as she read her statement her voice shook. Although a strong woman, she was still a terrified child inside. What an insight, to see how far-reaching the effects of trauma experienced at such a young age can be.
I am so grateful that the judge denied this man’s request. The judge called these “crimes against a child.” I know that if he is caught harming another child during his probation, he will serve prison time. This case sets a precedent for the Amish community.
We need to do all that we can to protect innocent children. Jesus says, “whoever harms one of these little ones…it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.”
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