To best illustrate how Mennonites deal with their problems, we’ll visit a recent news article. (Read the full article here)
Lets begin by meeting the father: David Knelsen. Mister Knelsen has a son: Johan. According to dad, Johan did something wrong. A few news outlets claim he stole 3 chickens while others state that he used a cellphone but the key is that Johan did something he shouldn’t have. Not only that, the father claims his son is mentally ill. Now we have two problems according to a Mennonite.
How David dealt with his difficulties is key. He locked away his son in a small jail like cell in the basement. Rather than confront the issues at hand, Papa literally hid them away from sight.
After authorities where contacted, it took pressure to force Mr. Knelsen to release his son.
Avoid confronting your troubles is the key to Mennonites.
Instead of working together with his son in correcting the behavior, it was pushed away in hopes that it’d sort itself out.
The core of this issue I believe is a lack of education. Mennonites finish school around the age of 12 and aren’t taught to think. Rather, follow! They prefer to default to tradition and if the answer doesn’t lie therein, avoid it at all costs or claim that God will eventually extend an olive branch.
Yes, I am heavily generalizing and this is an extreme case but it illustrates the point well. We don’t like to deal with our issues or deny they’re there to begin with.
(4.40 out of 5)
July 10, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Oh my God, I’m speechless! This is pure insanity! Not to mention, this looks like we stepped through a time machine into the ‘Dark Ages’ …
January 21, 2012 at 3:47 pm
This is a bunch of bologna! Mennonites go all the way through 12 years of regular school like all the rest of the kids living around us. We even go to college and become doctors, nurses, POLICEMEN, etc. They face the problems and have to deal with the law and government just like anyone else. Where on earth were you brought up again? I have a difficult time believing you were brought up a Mennonite. Are you talking about the Amish as they usually only go through the eighth grade? Again, I have never heard of a Mennonite hiding his kids from the wrong they have done. They usually face it and have to deal with the consequences of their actions. Our church,I guess, was much more liberal than the Mennonites you were talking about. We looked and dressed just like everyone else and the baptists down the street. My best friend was a baptist. Your rendition of life in a Mennonite community is really skewed.
April 25, 2012 at 9:51 pm
http://www.insidethebuggy.com/disclaimer/
June 15, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Some Mennonites do go through 12 years of school and on to college. Others still only go to 8th grade. I know this to be fact because I know Mennonites personally with varying degrees of education. My non-Mennonite step-daughter married a Mennonite with an 8th grade education. His parents drive horse & buggy, all of their 6 children drive. Another of their sons married a girl who was adopted into a Mennonite family,raised Mennonite & is college educated. There is a great deal of variety among people who are Mennonite, in their beliefs and lifestyles according to what I have personally seen.
July 24, 2012 at 11:36 pm
I grew up Mennonite. We were Conservative. Kids went to tenth grade and then got a GED. My parents were never cruel but we did learn to obey them. The only punishment was a spanking that seldom left bruises. They did not believe in spanking in anger and if they were upset would wait to punish us until they calmed down. The waited was worst then the spanking.
September 5, 2012 at 11:46 pm
This isn’t so far from the truth. I grew up as an Old Colony Mennonite, and this is bang-on for my family. My folks were extremely progressive, for Mennonites. My dad was educated to age 12, my mom to age 10. They immigrated to Canada when they were about 20 years old, as a newly married couple. See, my dad wanted to be able to see his cows when he was milking them at night. The Church disagreed with him. They confiscated his generator, and assumed ownership of their farm. My parents were excommunicated, and so they left for Canada. My dad has since made ammends with the Church, but he wanted better for his kids. We all attended public school, and either university or college. I’m currently finishing a Masters program in geology, of all things for a Menno to study. My parents gave everything they had in order to give us a fighting chance, even to the point where my dad didn’t buy a single new article of clothing for himself in nearly a decade. My aunts and uncles shun us (after demanding that my folks pay to have them and their families immigrate to Canada and take care of them for several months until they find a place to live and work – no thanks, no re-payment) and tell them that they’ve failed in every way with respect to how they’ve raised us. Apparently we’re all doomed to hell because of the way we were raised. My siblings are: an electrical engineer, a pharmacist, a manager for a business, a cabinetmaker, a highschool teacher, a band manager, and I am a geologist. I have cousins who are wanted by the government for fraud and tax evasion, but they’re perfect angels because they were raised as proper Mennos.
Now, don’t be so quick to assume that the blogger is exaggerating. I could tell you so many stories of abuse and ignorance. Not first hand, thank the great sky wizard. My parents had better sense. But I had an aunt who was physically, sexually, and emotionally abused by her husband. A Mennonite woman down the street was beaten to death by her husband (in Canada, too). My cousins were all used shamelessly as child labourers. I could go on, but remembering this is making me tired.
February 5, 2012 at 10:40 am
What would happen if he got an Ipad???? I don’t like the the useless electronic crap shit either but come on man What the fuck are you doing?grow a brain old man!
February 15, 2012 at 4:36 pm
There is insanity among the Mennonites as there is among just about any group. I grew up Mennonite and never heard of someone just locking their child away for disobedience. But my own home was unbelievable in other ways. But Dad was schizophrenic, so what do you expect?
July 3, 2012 at 8:53 pm
why can’t the people that post their comments for any and all to see obtain enough education so that they can communicate without using filthy words after all is not America a nation of higher learning?
September 2, 2012 at 7:55 am
This kind of thing is not just something that happens in the Mennonite community. One can find extreme ill treatment of children in any community rather one of faith or secular. Abuse is the result of ignorance to God’s will, the parents never learn their responsibility. My own father abused me from the age of 5 until my parents divorced, I was 14 then. For 9 long years, I was abused, sexually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It happens in all cultures and in all economic levels. The problem is accountability to the Word of God tempered with grace and mercy. There is injustice because people have not learned to use righteous judgments as we are called to. This is a sad story, yet there are many of these out there, not just in one select community.
Mrs. J.