I picked up this book because like so many of us, I've
got a natural curiosity about the Amish.
And no wonder - they've managed to stay in control of their culture
while the rest of us feel like our culture is controlling us. I know more than a few people - including
myself - who've often thought of the Amish with a certain wistfulness for days
gone by.
This book
surprised me, though. I knew it wasn't
going to give me an account of paradise in Amish country. You can't expect that from an author who
chose to leave the religion of his childhood.
What the book did was make me regard the Amish from a legalistic religious
perspective. Christians are meant to
understand the Bible from a post-New Testament perspective, believing that
Christ's sacrifice covers all repented sins.
The laws of the Old Testament are important, absolutely, but are not
meant to supersede the sacrifice of the cross.
From my understanding, the author became so boxed in by the rules of the
Amish that he could not recognize the forgiving power of God until someone
pointed it out to him. And that's
dangerous stuff.
I don't
know if that is the experience of every Amish person, but it did leave me with
food for thought. It does make me want
to study the culture more. And I am
grateful to the author for sharing his story with us. He leaves us with a message that God will be
there for the repentant, no matter what.
That's a
message which is important to all of us, regardless of denomination.
Three out of Five Stars
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