‘I Escaped The Amish'

AN EX-MEMBER of the Amish community has opened up about why she left the religious group

MISTY GRIFFIN currently happily resides in Pasadena, Californiaa with her husband; however she had an incredibly strict and difficult childhood, when her parents enforced an Amish-style life. 

The 36-year-old says, “When I was about six or seven years old my stepfather got the idea that we should start dressing Amish and we started dressing in Amish clothes. Gradually by the time I was 10 years old we were dressing in full Amish attire.

My sister and I were isolated. We were kept away from the rest of the world. We weren’t allowed to talk to each other or to anyone else and when I was 11 years old we moved to a mountain ranch. My sister and I were basically held prisoners there. When I was almost 19 years old I tried to escape the ranch and that’s when my stepfather got the idea to send us to an Amish community.” 

The Amish are a traditional subgroup of Christianity; they are known for simple living, plain dress and a reluctance to adopt modern day traditions or technologies and have strict rules – something Misty soon discovered after integrating in her new community. “When I got to the Amish community I realised that there was a lot more to being Amish than what you can learn from the outside. You can copy them but you can never fully be Amish without actually being in the Amish and learning all the rules. When I went to the community I learnt that there’s basically a rule for every single aspect of your life. Like the width of the hem on your dress, the length of the dress, your underwear. For me the Amish way of life was something I had basically only known my whole life. I had grown up on a farm, getting up every morning at 05 h00 taking care of the farm.”