Gov’t Revokes Off-Grid Amish Community’s Religious Rights, Forces Them to Use Electricity

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

An Amish community in Warren County has just lost a major battle against the state which is now requiring them to violate their religious beliefs and use electricity. Despite the Yoder family never causing harm to anyone by not using electricity, the government is forcing them to connect to the grid anyway.

At the heart of the Amish religion is the rejection of individualism. The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on their community. Modern innovations like electricity might spark a competition for status goods which is in direct conflict with the Amish way of life. Therefore, they reject it.  

While the Amish lifestyle may seem odd to others, the fact that it causes no harm should mean that no one should be able to force them to change. Sadly, that is not the case.

The Yoder family lives entirely off-grid. This off-grid religious lifestyle includes the use of a self-composting toilet—an “old-fashioned privy”—that did not require electricity or running water.

Had the Yoder family been dumping their raw sewage into the public watershed or otherwise polluting the community in any way, requiring them to hook up to the grid would be more sensible. However, that is not the case.

The Yoder family is being required to violate their religious beliefs and go against their long-standing traditions—which have harmed no one—for the mere fact that they are in violation of a city code that requires all property owners to be tied into the grid.

For years, the Yoders have successfully fought off the sewer connection requirement. However, they will now be forced to hook up an electric grinder pump. The court ruled that the electric pump is the “least intrusive means” of connecting to the sewer system.

Judge Patricia A. McCullough voiced the dissent, arguing the Yoder’s are sincere in their religion-based shunning of electricity. “I believe (the Yoders) are being denied their rights to religious freedom,” she wrote.

https://twitter.com/PaulHair1/status/950545694904979457

The American Civil Liberties Union also weighed in on the ruling, noting their concern for the Yoder’s religious freedom as well as the unduly burden it now places on them to install the pump.

“They didn’t consider the other ways that the government could have achieved its ends,” Sara Rose, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU said.

Rose said that although this case didn’t set a precedent, it will undoubtedly be cited in future cases which may apply to Pennsylvania’s Religious Freedom Protection Act.

Unfortunately, in the so-called ‘Land of the Free’, the government can and will force you to conform or face consequences. This conformity often hits the innocent Amish communities the hardest.

As TFTP reported last year, Samuel Girod, an Amish farmer who made natural health products, was charged with conspiracy for the way he labeled his salve.

In June, Girod was sentenced to six years in prison for obstructing a federal agency and for making and selling herbal health products that were not adequately labeled as required by federal law.

In another case, which actually had a happy ending, 12-year-old Sarah Hershberger, an Amish child from Ohio, was persecuted and faced government kidnapping because she and her parents refused chemotherapy to treat her cancer.

In June of 2013, Sarah was receiving chemotherapy at the hospital and her parents were convinced that it was making her condition worse.

We were pretty sure we were going to lose her if we kept doing the chemo,” Anna Hershberger, Sarah’s mother said.

The parents began to object the treatment and faced strong resistance from the hospital staff, who even took them to court and attempted to gain guardianship over Sarah. The doctors had testified that without receiving chemotherapy immediately, Sarah would die within six months.

The family stood firm in their denial of the treatment, which prompted an intense legal battle. At one point during the ordeal, the family was forced to flee the country so she was not kidnaped by the hospital. Eventually, the family won in court, and it was decided that they had a legal and constitutional right to treat her cancer as they saw fit.

Now, years later, Sarah is not only still alive, but she is actually entirely healthy, and cancer-free.

Free Thought Project

22 thoughts on “Gov’t Revokes Off-Grid Amish Community’s Religious Rights, Forces Them to Use Electricity

  1. So now we might have the Amish along side us in the up coming Revolution
    I’d be honored to have them in my ranks , suck on that you tax parasites

    F-k the government

    1. If you watched the Deborah Tavares video featured here yesterday, you know there won’t be a revolution, nor will there be any Amish. They aren’t forcing electricity on these people, they’re forcing smart meters, something Matt Agorist failed to mention.

      It’s not about utilities needing more customers.

      How many people were incinerated in their homes in California? Seems I’ve read forty something. Those fires started in multiple places when everybody was asleep. How the hell would anybody make a count when bricks, bones, glass and teeth all turned to white ash?

      Genocide is here. Nobody outside of the “big club” stands a chance. Ironically, our only hope was Kim Jung Il, but it’s beginning to look like he was just kidding.

      1. “….Genocide is here. Nobody outside of the “big club” stands a chance….”

        We not only “stand a chance”, but we’re going to see every last one of them hang. There are at least tens of millions of Americans longing to rip ’em to shreds.

        One big event, or possibly a severe economic downturn that get’s ’em all moving at once will put an end to this nonsense real quick.

        1. Big events have come and gone for decades. Give me just one example of a big event that will inspire anything more than another salvo of whining.

          I have absolutely no faith — zero — in U.S. citizens. Every time I meet somebody new, I ask what they can tell me about Building 7. So far, over a period of years, not a single one has had the slightest idea what I’m talking about.

          They won the battles in 1913, 1933, 1946, 1963, and 2001, and they’ve faced not a single credible challenge since. And now they can counter our pea shooters with plasma beams from space.

          I keep wondering. How many of the people who burned to death in their California homes were regular readers of this website? It doesn’t matter if it’s a thousand or just one. The thought makes me absolutely sick inside.

          1. “Ironically, our only hope was Kim Jung Il, but it’s beginning to look like he was just kidding.”

            “They won the battles in 1913, 1933, 1946, 1963, and 2001…”

            Out of curiosity, Ann on a Moose, what country are you from?

          2. Ann, you say you “have absolutely no faith — zero — in U.S. citizens.” I’ve learned from this site not to use the word “citizen” because that reduces us to subjects. But if I understand your meaning, it’s that you have no faith in the people of this nation, in American nationals. I am curious about your answer to Angel’s question, because if you are an American national, then, if I have this right, aside from having no faith in any of us, you have no faith in yourself. That must be difficult. I can only say we work with what we got and offer the best fight we can. There may be some victory in courage and steadfastness.

            But… if you are not an American national, well, that brings up more curiosity. Is there a people of any country that you do have faith in? And if so, what advice would they have for us here. Sorry to repeat this from a few days ago, but accepting defeatism, or nihilism, or apathy is not an option. I don’t know what the future holds, but someone once told me: “The point of power is in the present.” In other words, we greet each challenge as it presents itself. So many are yellin’, “Sharpen your aim and make yourself healthy so you can help.” At least that puts some preparation in place, hard as it is for some of us who have resistance to healthy diet and exercise. Somethin’ better than nothin’.

            Thanks, Ann. Just tryin’ to understand.

            .

          3. I smell fear and I see a shill. To pretend we are not having a massive effect is wanton bullshit. What, are you one of those communists who see the southern invasion falling apart? How much are you being paid to betray your own people?
            Tell you what, you can wave your bare ass in the wind and scream your defeatism, but what has been unleashed cannot be stopped. Your manufactured comfort zone is getting ready to be removed and nothing can stop it. All of the power of mammon that has been applied in attempting to convince the largest army on planet Earth that there is nothing we can do, and you are failing.
            “Ann on a Moose” – quite a pseudonym to hide behind as you pretend to give me a commie perspective of my nation. You’ve spent a lot of time puffing out your hot air, the only question is, if this was your true belief what the f#@k would you be doing here.
            You are not only a troll paid agent, but you are a piss poor troll paid agent. You communists are not going to have this country, and neither are the masonic dirty church good ol’ boy capitalist cabal.
            I gauge the threat we pose to our enemy by the mammon and man power being applied in the attempt to make sure as few people as humanly possible are exposed to the information on this site. And when I look at it from that aspect, I see pure raw panic.
            Everybody see what this creature is and know she/he/it is an enemy agent. It knew it would be removed from this site as soon as it made its first move and this is the best it could do. I smell the enemy’s fear and it will continue to drive me to the day I get to physically deal with these treasonous bastards.
            Back in your hole you commie piece of shit. Bye.

          4. Well now “Ann on a Moose ” ,
            Hows about you tell us where your from and what your agenda is. Maybe where you live, work, etc. There are a number of us that would like to meet you face to face.

          5. American NATIONALS have been buying up guns, ammo and food at record levels for over a decade. SO WHY AREN’T WE WILLING TO USE THEM? Our lot isn’t getting any better, day by day we’re becoming more Communized. (((They))) can put whoever (((they))) want into government positions, the Alabama “victory” of Doug Jones over Roy Moore should tell us that. Don’t count (((Trump))) to save us and the Militias have been infiltrated by (((them))) long ago. We have the numbers to win (though (((they))) are importing Negroes and Mexicans here every day as (((their))) proxy army.

  2. Part of my family is Amish. Hard core Amish would rather be boiled alive than take up arms. however That doesn’t mean they wont get involved in a non-violent way

    1. goddamm right!! I’d LOVE to wake up from a bullet wound and see one of those funny beard effers leaning over me! i know it’d hurt like hell but I’d be tooken care of! so yeah.. what you said.

  3. It saddens me that they just won’t leave people alone that aren’t hurting anyone in the public.

    Intrusive. ..
    Nefarious. ..
    Full of hubris….and spite against anything good.

    What part of leave me the…fk alone don’t these people understand. ?

    The only thing they understand is violence and slavery.

    Because that’s what they rule by.

          1. Angel….

            Just to make you feel better.

            I just wanted to let you know …

            I fell off the roof again yesterday.

            But…this time I landed on my feet and I did a tuck and roll.

            Unfortunately. ..I skidded underneath my battery trailer.

            And then when I tried to get up.

            I smacked my head on the metal corner and got a golf ball size welt on the left side of my head.

            It was like a chevy chase prat fall on snl.

            After that I gave up on walking and crawled 40′ in the dirt to die in my shthole.

            But …again…..
            Unfortunately for some reason…
            I made it through.

            I could actually hear the gods laughing at me

            Hang in there.

  4. From Henry’s comment above:

    “Your manufactured comfort zone is getting ready to be removed and nothing can stop it.”

    Ha! Yesterday I came home from a movie and wrote down a line from it that I really liked:

    “Ah, comfort, the enemy of progress.”

    Synchronicity!

    Henry, that response to Moose-Girl gave me more than a dose of daily motivation. It gave me guts and fortitude. Thank you!!

    One last gem of yours:

    “What has been unleashed cannot be stopped.”

    🙂

    .

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