Oh, how I wish I could insert myself into the lives of some of the people on these shows.

Michaela has decided she wants to become Amish when it's obvious to to me and just about everyone else that what she really wants is just a better family life. Girl, there are ways to do that that don't involve an oppressive, misogynistic, 19th century religious cult.

I wanted to beat up the vulture evangelist lady for preying on a clueless, emotionally fragile person. But that's how they "save souls," isn't it, by promising sunshine and rainbows and happiness to messed up people. Hallelujah!

Meanwhile, over with the Hutterites, "the Elders" did their authoritarian thing and punished two women for sending their kids to high school. The justification for under-educating the children is to keep them tied to the commune so it doesn't die off. Oh yeah, because maintaining your little theocratic feudal state is the most important thing. But it was good to see some of the group ranting against the elders' interfering with their lives -- even though others proudly declared they were going to pull their kids out of school after the 8th grade, because further education is no use in farming. What a wretched combination of religion, fanaticism, xenophobia and willful ignorance!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2012 11:36AM by Stray Mutt.

The Hutterite show was filmed in my town. I know most of them personally (and got to know the film crew really well because they liked to drink Margaritas!)

I've had two friends that left the Hutterites. Both are women, and both wanted to be nurses. One was tragically killed in a car accident 5 years ago (but she was an amazing woman and a good friend) and the other is still here in town. Both were cut off completely from their families, but it really wasn't so different than some of us who left TSCC and were cut off. I totally get it. I felt unprepared to go out in the world when I left (I think the church made me very immature and very unprepared for real life adult situations) They're really a lot like me. Maybe that's why we get along so well.

As for the education thing, plenty of Huttierites, boys and girls, graduate from the local high schools. The Hutterite schools only teach until 8th grade (but so do a lot of the one room schoolhouses we still have out here--Hutterite or not) Much of this last episode was staged to show how some of the more restrictive colonies are, but they're certainly not all like that.

The best thing about being a Hutterite is the dresses. No, really! Some friends and I borrowed dresses from a Hutterite friend for Halloween and went to the bar. They're "One size fits all" and held together at the waist with a safety pin, so if you're having a fat day, you just let the pin out a bit. Sure beats trying to squeeze into my skinny jeans!

I suppose there are degrees of strictness among Hutterites - as with most religions I guess. It would be very unusual for a Hutterite child to go beyond Grade 8 in Alberta.

My wife worked for 18 months as a teaching assistant at the school at New York Colony S.E. of Lethbridge. None of those colony members have gone to high school. The control and guilt portrayed in the show is EXACTLY how it is according to her. I've known a few young men who have left to work in the oil patch for big $$'s. Some went back and of course have to give everything they've earned to the colony and be put at the very bottom of the pecking order with no hope of advancement. They portray themselves as a perfect communal society, but in reality they run the colony like a Communist state. The leading family(s) are the "Politburo" and they and their offspring will ALWAYS rule. Then come the various "bosses" and their male children are groomed to succeed them. And everybody else are the laborers.

Ron Burr

They drink waaaaaaaay to much on the show and they are overweight too.

It's odd how these sects latch onto certain physical indicators of identity and conformity.

The gene pool is relatively small. Care is taken so individuals who are too closely related don't marry.

Ron Burr

There are several Hoot colonies around where I live. I am friends with many of them.

There is a lot of animosity with the local ag community because they basically have slave labor, and are buying as much land as they can, many times paying above market value.

Many of them are great people. They are really good farmers and ranchers, with some of them now growing salmon (aquafarming) on the Montana prarie (wow)

They, like every one else, are each individuals. Some are interesting people, some are boring people, some hard workers, some not so much.

There are rebels, and though the show is somewhat staged, I admire the courage of Bertha and Claudia in bucking the status quote.

I almost got the sense that she was a gay pedophile.

Here is a woman who has devoted her life to the community and they think it's perfectly ok to shun her simply because she wants her boys to have an education??? Bastards. What an ugly immoral religion.

It's not the religion that is immoral it is what some have added as "rules" that they must live by that have nothing to do with following God's word. I am sure that those rules suited their purpose at one time but not now. I felt the evangelist lady should have been less pushy. She didn't need to invite Michaela to her house for lunch. As a Christian she could have talked about God and Jesus anytime. I did not get the sense that she had bad intentions, but the way she went about it was a bit odd. Michaela seems like a sweet girl...I hope whatever she chooses will be the best thing for her and that she will be blest.

Has the issue of whether or not "American Colony: Meet the Hutterites" staged or not been resolved? Any word on whether this show will be renewed for another season. I hope so. I don't care whether the show is real or not. It's very entertaining?

The Hutterites are suing Nat Geo and are saying they never want another episode of the show to air.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/08/hutterites-want-apology-for-natgeo-television-show/

Q: What goes "Clop clop clop bang bang bang clop clop clop?"

A: An Amish drive-by shooting.

The colony filmed for the series has complained that the show doesn't depict Hutterite life accurately and that they were duped into allowing the show to be produced. My wife and I watched it with great interest as we have several colonies within 15 miles of our farm plus my wife worked as a teachers assistant in a Hutterite school for 2 years and saw first hand how a colony functions. She said the film depicted EXACTLY what goes on in a colony.

Ron Burr

And here I thought 9 years in school was compulsory! Why do amish kids get away with it? And it's only one year extra anyway.

Yoder vs. Wisconsin...

Supreme Court held that the Amish weren't required to go to school past 8th grade because of their religion.

This is the same reason Hutterite children can stop going to school after the completion of 8th grade...

I grew up visiting the Hutterite colony outside Edmonton,Alberta every summer. I learnt about their ways and saw them frequently at the old Army and Navy store as we all shopped for bargains.

There too have been people who have left that colony because of the restrictiveness, but what I learnt that was most disturbing is because as their numbers dwindle in terms of gene pool choice, they have taken some very unChristianlike and actions that will put new blood into their gene pool.

There have been rumors almost as long as I can remember of colony's paying "stud fees" to get new blood into the gene pool.

Ron Burr

I had friends in Malta,Montana once that told me the Hutterites around Malta would pay local guys a fee for impregnating young ladies. They had to do it through a sheet and could not see the female....

They could have just worn garmies and had sex through those. Same thing as having sex through a sheet.

someone needs to tell them about artificial insemination. Still degrading, but not as bad as the sheet routine.

People who live in Malta aren't normal...;-) LOL

My father had a apiary business there in the '80's. When it was time to move the bees, I got shipped off to Malta to help...

No offense to anyone in Malta, but I hate that town...

No I am not related to the Burrs. The Hutterites had asked my married uncle to be a stud for their women in Edmonton and they also had asked a family friend. When they told the story to us, they were not joking. This is what they were told would happen. The Hutterite women would be lined up with their heads covered so their identities were unknown, and the "studs" would do their business and impregnate them. It was just disgusting. They chose men who looked like they could be a Hutterite.

Pimping out their women and facilitating their women to re raped and abused, i don't kmow where in the scripture that is condoned and i don't know how they can live themselves. They brought their women to willing men. Why are they not being arrested?

I don't have any printed documentation on this. It was many years ago that my uncle told my dad this (his brother). And then to have a family friend tell the same story what happened to him just didn't seem like it was a one off. My father then said that when he was a policeman(he retired in the 80s) said that this was happening in downtown Edmonton - in the back of the Hutterite trucks. I still don't know why they were not arrested.

Misha -

Is there any documentation of this?

Seems like it would be big news - even in the pre-Internet age, it sounds like good Jerry Springer fodder...

I can't believe, at least a few, wouldn't refuse to go along with this. And then talk about it...

Where I live, the Hutterites show up in town about once a month, park in the post office parking lot and sell produce... (A religion selling stuff in a government owned parking lot? Talking up the only handicapped parking space. I've never figured that one out.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2012 05:14PM by John_Lyle.

I can't decide who is the sickest. The Hutterite's for breeding their women like cattle.....

Or the men who would knowingly consign their children into that life of hell. The stupidity is mind boggling.

"Michaela has decided she wants to become Amish when it's obvious to to me and just about everyone else that what she really wants is just a better family life. Girl, there are ways to do that that don't involve an oppressive, misogynistic, 19th century religious cult."

I totally agree. It was a cringeworthy moment to watch her putting up with the sh!t they were spewing. Little Lost Girl was all I could think of while watching :(

Yes the Michaela storyline was very disturbing. She shouldn't have been given the opportunity to explore becoming an Amish. She was underaged too to make such decisions. She needed a counselor and yes just a better family life. Sadly, her mother thought that a life that would keep her out of trouble was good. But becoming Amish was not a solution.



Tupperwhere Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Michaela has decided she wants to become Amish
> when it's obvious to to me and just about everyone
> else that what she really wants is just a better
> family life. Girl, there are ways to do that that
> don't involve an oppressive, misogynistic, 19th
> century religious cult."
>
> I totally agree. It was a cringeworthy moment to
> watch her putting up with the sh!t they were
> spewing. Little Lost Girl was all I could think of
> while watching :(

Some of the comments here are so stupid,I have to wonder if you're retarded. No, hutterites do not breed their women with strangers. The people who claim this are liars, and those who believe it are complete morons. Hutterites are devout Christians. Sex outside of marriage is any unspeakable sin.
This rumour was started by a bunch of jealous and bitter farmers. They posted ads in local papers claiming to be hutterites looking for stud service. It was malicious and stupid, and the hutterites didn't bother to dignify it with a response. Anyone who repeats it now, is a serious idiot, and a hateful bigot.

Two year old thread.