Ken wrote:Reading the article again, I see this was a plea deal. So the bishop actually confessed and plead to the crime and agreed to the punishment. He could have taken the case to trial and made his case to a jury if he truly felt he had done nothing wrong and was innocent.
Some state laws are enforced and some are not. For example, masks are required in PA when interacting closer than 6' with anyone outside your household, but many Plain Anabaptists have been meeting maskless for months in many states and most places there are no consequences for violations. No one in my church was even aware of this law until they were informed in August by yours truly.
In Ontario, Canada, where my in-laws live, it is $7600 US fine for organizing a group of more than 25 people and $560 fine for each attendee. Whenever there are fines or jail time, people start spreading the word.
Sometimes people did not know that what they were doing was being enforced or punishable by law, and once they learn this, (after breaking the law), they are willing to accept the consequences. I'm guessing this is what happened in the Amish bishop situation but I don't know. I think there are still many Plain Anabaptist church leaders who don't know all the laws about reporting abuse, and don't bother to study up on it. Some are conscientiously opposed to reporting abuse to civil authorities and wouldn't report it, even if they did have information. For many years the abuse reporting laws were not enforced, so most Plain people never bothered checking into the laws. Now that a couple Anabaptist pastors in PA have been charged in the last year or two, word will begin to spread.
There is a Plain Anabaptist brother who is the main go-to person in PA among the plain people. He does "training" for pastors and organizational leaders on reporting to authorities. If someone comes to him to get advice about an abuse situation, he explains up front that he will need to report it to the authorities. Some at that point decided to go back home without telling him. Others reluctantly say, "Well... We need help so..."
That is actually the case with most laws and regulations in a civilized society. Compliance is largely voluntary and depends on law-abiding people to conscientiously follow laws and regulations regardless of whether they will actually ever get caught. Whether it is compliance with the tax code, speed limits, mask laws, OSHA workplace safety, food safety, environmental regulations, or child abuse reporting. The fact that a particular law or regulation doesn't see a lot of vigorous enforcement doesn't really affect its validity.
That's both the privilege and responsibility of living in a free society and not a police state. And when there is widespread non-compliance with a particular law or regulation it is usually time for the authorities to crack down. I don't know what else you can do.
I don't think the Amish should necessarily be made an example of. What I do think is that they should be treated equally like everyone else for whom this law applies. Neither more harshly, nor more leniently.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
Ernie wrote: That is a little too strong Ken. Some of us did not know this until the last few years, and I think there are some that still don't know this.
Really? Up until a few years ago you thought it was legal to rape or molest children?
I knew that rape of children was illegal. I did not know that this applied to consenting older teens and that states have different ages for this. I was not aware that it needed to be reported to authorities. I was not aware that an adult touching children inappropriately was a criminal offense, and as such, needed to be reported to authorities. I also didn't know anything about mandatory reporters. Up until about 5 years ago, I was never responsible or aware of any situations like this.
Now with my present job, I get involved in these kinds of situations quite often.
Wow. If I was their fathers, I think I'd put the offender in a non-resistant grave. Just simply tie him up, and lovingly hug the offender before burying him....
Or just millstone him into the depths of the sea.
I can't say the Bishop "knew" every detail of the law, or the details of the case. They are "old school". The fathers knew too.... It's hard to say. Govt always thinks it has the answers to "report". I tend to lean on Jesus's solution. Toss em overboard.
