In anticipation of Martin Luther King Day in January (I need something to keep my frustrations rising from all the Christmas hoopla), I have been reading a collection of his essential works. And one thing that absolutely fascinates me about his work comes from a museum display I saw in Lancaster County, PA.
The local School Boards were trying to impose manditory schooling on the children of the Amish. But the Amish refused. The men gathered and were arrested and held in prison for a time, embarassing the local authorities, until they finally struck a compromise, the eighth grade for men and I don't remember how little education for the women.
As a man with a couple of Masters degrees, married to a teacher, I find the level of education among the Amish relative to 'secular' standards to be too low. But I am also envious at times of how they have truly lived the Christian life as few others.
But I was amazed at the connection between a truly nonviolent Christian community embodying the nonviolent protests that were advocated and broke down the walls of segregation that shamefully divided our country.
