The Awakening! The Alarming Results of Our CSA Survey | by Jonas Kurtz

For Adult Readers Only:

Parental warning from Debi:

This is a dark article exposing dreadful sin committed against children. We were hesitant to print, but ultimately recognize that by exposing this evil, it might help give victims the courage to speak up, as well as alert parents to this very real danger. Even in the strictest Anabaptist traditions this heinous act is destroying lives and robbing the innocence of the most vulnerable among us.
This is an abomination and everyone knows it.
Mamas…you MUST protect your children.
We cut most of the testimonies because they were too graphic to share on this platform. You can get a copy of Jonas' newsletter, The Awakening!, by writing to the
PO Box at the end of this article. The podcast we feature at the end tells the story of a group of Amish who are engaged in ending this atrocity through the Yell and Tell books.

The Alarming Results of Our CSA Survey

The article below is a condensed version of a similarly titled article published in Volume 3 Issue 1 of The Awakening!, a quarterly magazine that is mailed to more than 55,000 Amish households across North America with the stated objective of “Chronicling the Anabaptist Rediscovery of Their Special Spiritual Heritage.”
Over the last 2 ½ years, I have become increasingly aware of the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Amish communities as I have interacted with the readers of our magazine. This led us to conduct a voluntary survey in which almost 500 Amish and former Amish people participated. The rest of this article lays out the heartbreaking results of that survey.
About 90% of those who participated in our survey were former Amish/Old Order/Plain, and about 10% were current Amish/Old Order/Plain. 64% were female and 36% were male. 38% were age 41 and older, 58% were age 21 to 40, and 4% were 20 or younger.

Here are three of the primary questions that we asked, and the results:

1.) “Were you a victim of sexual abuse as an Amish/Old Order/Plain child or teen?”

49% said “Yes.” 51% said “No.”

2.) “Do you personally know someone, besides yourself, who was such a victim?”

86% said “Yes.” 14% said “No.”

3.) “Have you ever heard someone confess, to any degree, in a church gathering, to victimizing a child or teen?”

21% said “Yes.” 79% said “No.”

Our survey, of course, was not a scientific survey, as we could not obtain a random sampling of Amish and former-Amish responses. We did, however, encourage both men and women, as well as victims and non-victims to respond, and clearly, they did. Similar past surveys, I’ve learned, have revealed similar results.

In any case, although it certainly cannot be concluded from our survey that 49% of all Amish/Old Order/Plain people are victims of CSA, it would be foolish to conclude that the people who indicated in our survey that they had suffered CSA make up all of the victims within Amish/Old Order/Plain circles across North America. That being so, it is clear that CSA is a significant problem that has been hiding for a long time within some Amish communities.

Why is there any CSA in the Amish world? I can assure you that among truly born-again Christians, there is no CSA. No perpetrator is a believer in, or a follower of, the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, the purpose of our survey and this article is not to prove that there is more or less CSA in Plain circles, but to end all CSA. One victim is too many!

At the end of our survey we asked, “Please tell us anything else you feel would be important for us to know.” 171 people shared information they felt was important. I will shortly share a sampling of their responses. After that sampling, I will add some closing words for victims, perpetrators, and all readers.
Let me begin with the testimony of one person from our survey that hopefully represents the testimony of most Amish people:
I had an amazing childhood with a godly father and grandfather whom I will be eternally grateful for.

There were three comments among the 171 that were similar. The large majority, however, were more like those that follow.

1.) I was sexually abused, I told the ministry. They asked me abuser about it. He admitted to it, and he had to make a confession in church. But then his abuse continued, I reported it again. The ministry said to leave it, saying that he had confessed and is free now. I was put under the bann for a year for bringing it up again.

2.) I have _ siblings. At least 7 of us were either victims or perpetrators. My mom found out about it by questioning me, but there was no action taken to end the abuse. Through the mercy of God, I have found healing on a scale that only a loving and powerful God can accomplish. I truly am blessed because my husband is kind and very compassionate. We are still Amish, however the church we attend is different than many other Amish churches, and we have the freedom to follow the Word and the Spirit. Many of my friends have been abused. It's a plague everywhere and the Plain people have no immunity against it, rather, they seem more vulnerable than most. So sad.

3.) In our culture it is always the woman’s or girl’s fault if sexual abuse happens.

4.) I was sexually abused by an older cousin at age 4. My brother walked in on him and reported it to my parents, hoping for their intervention and help. (I learned in adulthood that he was being abused himself, and he also was hoping for help.) Instead, I was blamed for what had happened, and I was beaten with a leather part of a horse harnesses (called a tug). This was to keep the peace with my mom's extended family since the cousin pled innocence, and then my grandmother and aunt got involved and my parents didn't want to fall out of favor.

5.) I personally know of two bishops, both related to me, who raped their sons and daughters. A third bishop had 32 counts of raping his four daughters. All three bishops were defended by the church members, all three were convicted in court and put in prison. When I saw how corrupt the Amish leadership was, I began to realize they might not be the exclusive Bride of Christ according their narrative.

6.) Reporting abuse to the authorities is considered worse than the abuse itself.

There were 154 other heart-breaking testimonies that I wish I could include, as those precious victims deserve a voice, but we just don’t have enough room to publish them all. But I hope that all readers who are victims took note of the testimonies of victims who have found healing through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your hope as well! He can “restore your soul” (Psalm 23:3). The restoration begins with the new birth. If you would like more information on being born again you can write, call or email us and ask for an article titled, “What Does it Really Mean to be Born Again?” We also recommend a biblically-based, Christ-centered book, available for purchase on Amazon, to help victims of CSA titled, On the Threshold of Hope: Opening the Door to Healing for Survivors of Sexual Abuse.

If you are a perpetrator of CSA, your only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ and the forgiveness and deliverance from slavery to sin that He offers through His death and resurrection. We would also be happy to send you a copy of “What Does it Really Mean to be Born Again?” But I must tell you that if you are truly born again, you will seek out any and all whom you have abused and, in the presence of witnesses, tearfully beg for their forgiveness. If you committed your crimes as an adult who was legally accountable to the law, you will also turn yourself in to the civil authorities and confess, just as you would do if you were born again and had gotten away with murdering someone in the past. Born-again people obey God. By turning yourself in to the authorities, you are more likely to receive leniency, but you must prepare to suffer the justice you deserve.

To all readers: If you are truly born again, you will not remain silent about CSA perpetrators, regardless of pressure from any ministry leader to keep quiet. Apart from physical restraint, CSA perpetrators generally continue their pattern of abuse. By remaining silent, you are assisting them in their abuse of innocent children and teenagers. And you are violating the second greatest commandment, because you are not loving your neighbor by allowing predators to continue to prey on their victims. To only require CSA perpetrators to make a confession in church followed by a few weeks in the bann, (Which has nothing to do with biblical forgiveness) and to require church members to forever remain silent about perpetrators’ crimes, is a gross perversion of Jesus’ teaching about church discipline.
If you are a reader who claims to be born again, and you are angry that we’ve published all of these testimonies “because we are trying to make all Amish people look bad” (a false judgment), then you should instead weep for what has been happening for decades in some Plain circles and send evangelists to preach the gospel, as did your ancestors, to those Plain communities that are, unlike you, unregenerate and in complete spiritual darkness regarding the power of the gospel.
Finally, join me in praying for an end to the plague of CSA in Plain churches and EVERYWHERE ELSE that it terrorizes innocent children, often emotionally scarring them for life, which then has a cascading effect upon many others who suffer as well. “MAY YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN! IN JESUS’ NAME!” To contact me you can write us at The Awakening PO Box 611 Punxsutawney PA 15767, or you can call me at 814 952 7758.