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Breakaway Amish: Growing Up with the Bergholz Beard Cutters
“I am the grandson of Bishop Sam Mullet, who was arrested for the Amish beard-cutting attacks. This is my story.”
Beard-cutting attacks on Amish people in the middle of the night. Five incidents. Nine victims. How could members of a Christian tradition known for peace and forgiveness enact such violence? What could make members of one Amish group turn against other Amish? In Breakaway Amish, Johnny Mast tells in riveting detail how his Amish community became increasingly isolated from other Amish people, and how the wishes and edicts of his grandfather, Bishop Sam Mullet, overtook daily life in the group. Over time, members became convinced that cutting their own hair was a sign of repentance and remorse. When that conviction led them to cut off the beards of those outside their community, however, it was more than a strange religious ritual. It was a crime.
Here is an eyewitness account of the disturbing events at Bergholz, an Amish community gone awry. Yet redemption dwells even here, in the bravery and conviction of one who chose to break free.
Beard-cutting attacks on Amish people in the middle of the night. Five incidents. Nine victims. How could members of a Christian tradition known for peace and forgiveness enact such violence? What could make members of one Amish group turn against other Amish? In Breakaway Amish, Johnny Mast tells in riveting detail how his Amish community became increasingly isolated from other Amish people, and how the wishes and edicts of his grandfather, Bishop Sam Mullet, overtook daily life in the group. Over time, members became convinced that cutting their own hair was a sign of repentance and remorse. When that conviction led them to cut off the beards of those outside their community, however, it was more than a strange religious ritual. It was a crime.
Here is an eyewitness account of the disturbing events at Bergholz, an Amish community gone awry. Yet redemption dwells even here, in the bravery and conviction of one who chose to break free.
- GenresNonfictionMemoirAmish
177 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2016
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July 23, 2016
"Breakaway Amish" by Johnny Mast with Shawn Smucker tells the inside story of the Amish in Bergholz, Ohio, who cut the hair and beards of other Amish people from the perspective of Johnny being Sam Mullet’s grandson — at one time one of Mullet’s favored grandsons. I do not know the role that Johnny’s co-writer, Shawn Smucker, had in the writing of this book, but I think he did an excellent job. The writing is riveting, and he preserved Johnny’s voice beautifully.
The story opens with Johnny taking the witness stand in the prosecution when he was still a member of the community in Bergholz. This had me holding my breath to find out if Johnny would be honest, especially after his grandfather gave him a colluding smile during Johnny’s testimony. I should not have worried. It did not take me long to trust Johnny. In a voice clear and true, he tells the story of how the Bergholz community started out “nice and Amish” and then gradually turned down a dark road.
Defenders of Amish culture will want to claim that the Bergholz community was “not really Amish” and they want to claim that they are a cult. End of story. This accomplishes two things. It isolates the Bergholz community, and it preserves the public perception of the Amish as being wholesome and sometimes even a model of a good society.
Johnny Mast’s story complicates this view. The community in Bergholz was certainly Amish once, which raises the question: at what point did it cease being Amish? Defenders of Amish culture might say it was when they turned down that dark road. But that would belie the fact that darkness lurks in the corners of every Amish community, just as it does in any other culture or religion.
Donald Kraybill wrote a foreword for Breakaway Amish. In it, he writes about the book: “It chronicles what happens when men, in the name of God, abuse positions of power to exploit, harm, and denigrate others. It’s an important cautionary tale, and the rest of us would do well to listen carefully.”
I agree with this sentiment. I believe that the Amish are especially susceptible to repeating this story because they are already “primed” for accepting whatever the bishop decrees. When I joined my Amish church in Ohio, I learned the gravity of what it meant to become a full member of the Amish community. Twice a year, at every communion service, we were asked by the bishop of the congregation, to give up our individuality to become part of the community, just as the grains of wheat had given up their individuality to become part of the communion bread.
Conditioned to submit their will to that of church, members of the Bergholz community, blindly followed their narcissistic leader who supplanted their judgment and authority and turned them against one another. This tyranny was accepted one incremental step at a time, until no one dared to follow their own conscience or reason for themselves. Johnny addresses this in his book:
A lot of people ask me the same question, especially about those days in particular: Why would a bunch of grown men allow another man to treat them that way? I can’t say for sure, but I think for most of us, Bergholz was all we had. Every friend we had in the world lived there, every family member we cared about at the time. And Sam held the key to all of that. […] But you also have to understand that our beliefs as Amish people meant that Sam, as the church bishop had a lot of power over our eternal souls. The rules he put in place were the final words. If we didn’t listen to him–well, I think most of us truly believed that we’d be putting our eternity in jeopardy. (Pages 73,74)
Perhaps this last part sounds like part of the reason the Bergholz community is considered a cult. However, in most of the Amish communities I know, instilling the belief that those who leave the Amish will be putting their salvation at risk, is one of the ways that they preserve their culture. This is another way that members of the Bergholz community were primed to accept the abuse that Sam Mullet meted out.
There is yet another way in which the Bergholz community was prepared in advance for turning down that dark road, with Sam Mullet in the lead. The herd mentality of people schpotting one another (picking on one another), sometimes unmercifully, is a common story in Amish communities. Ira Wagler, in his book, Growing up Amish, tells a tragic story of a child who was scapegoated in his community.
Johnny Mast tells the harrowing tale of how this ganging up on one another manifested itself in Bergholz and how he regretted his part in it:
He [Sam] had the Bad Guys so confused and mixed up about what they had done and what they hadn’t done that they didn’t know how to respond. We Good Guys, on the other hand, listened to Sam, and I guess we listened for many different reasons. We liked being on Sam’s side. We liked being in the in crowd that was telling people what to do, and we knew that if we didn’t listen we’d end up in the Bad Guy crowd. We wanted Sam to approve of us. The Bad Guys spent a couple of weeks living in the barn, sleeping in the animal stalls. Sometimes Sam would let them come inside to eat, but usually one of us Good Guys would take food out to them.
Anyway, the Bad Guys didn’t know which end was up.
My dad was one of the Bad Guys. (Page 61)
Of course there is a big difference between the schpotting in my community and the Bad Guys in Bergholz sleeping in animal stalls because most Amish bishops are not as narcissistic and sick as Sam Mullet. And bishops are not usually the instigators. Johnny describes how Sam was behind everything that happened in his community:
Through all of this–the violence and the intimidation, the haircuts and the changes we couldn’t understand, the odd punishments and the penance–through all of it, Sam sat there and watched. As I reflect on what happened, I believe Sam orchestrated it, and he controlled as all, and that gave him the power to sometimes just sit and watch it all play out. He split up families, maybe because it forced everyone to rely on him. He pitted the strongest men against each other, and they couldn’t direct their energy at him or the things he was doing because they were all fighting with each other. When the weak or the punished got fed up, he flipped the tables, and they felt thankful to him for doing it, as though he was doing them some huge favor. As though he was some kind of savior. (Pages 81-82)
Every community, every culture, every religion has it’s narcissists. In the history of the Amish church, there is no other known case in which a bishop took his power as leader of his flock and abused it as Sam Mullet did in Bergholz. So far, the ordination process the Amish use to choose their leaders has screened out those who would become dictators. In Sam Mullet’s case, this did not work. He was just the kind of person who should not have been ordained. But he was. Once he had his community isolated, and he had instilled the fear and disdain for “outsiders” with the us-versus-them paranoia, he had created the conditions under which he could now abuse his power. He talked about his lust for power to Johnny:
“I’m sorry to confuse you like that,” Sam said in his quiet, understanding voice. He could be very convincing when he spoke like that. “And Johnny, I can’t explain it. I can’t.”
Then he said something I will never forget. “Somehow I’m getting a lot of power by committing these sins. I know it’s wrong, but I’m getting a lot of power.” (Pages 84, 85)
This chilling admission sums up the motivations behind everything that happened in Bergholz.
I am so glad that Johnny had the courage to break away from the Bergholz community. He didn’t slink away in the night. He faced his parents and told them what he was about to do. They tried dissuading him, but Johnny had made up his mind. He describes the exchanges with his dad:
“If you can give me one solid reason, from my point of view, that I should stay, then I’ll think about it. One good reason to stay.”
My dad looked at me for a little bit. His eyes went blank. “I can’t,” he finally said. (Page 158)
Johnny pointed out to his father that it was obvious that the problem was not the other Amish. He urged his father to look around and see where the real problem was. His father replied, “Well, if that’s the case, then that whole winter, what everyone went through–having their hair and beards cut, Eli being crazy like he was, writing all our sins down, people staying in the chicken coop–that would all have been for nothing.”
Johnny’s dad’s way of thinking is so very Amish. Most people taking an inventory of all that had happened would ask themselves why they are not leaving. It is so ironic that the suffering that Sam put Johnny’s dad through is the very reason he stayed.
Johnny describes the feeling of driving away from Bergholz and leaving his parents behind. “I hated to think about leaving them there in that community. I hated to imagine them growing old in that darkness.” (Page 161)
I am not only glad that Johnny found his way out of that darkness, but I’m also glad that he had the courage to tell his story. While many of his relatives are still in Bergholz doing whatever Sam Mullet tells them to do from his jail cell, Johnny is thriving in the life he has chosen. He has followed his love of horses by buying, training, and selling them to the Amish and he shoes horses for the Amish in the same community where his Grandfather Sam grew up.
"Breakaway Amish" by Johnny Mullet and Shawn Smucker is an important and riveting story. I highly recommend it.
The story opens with Johnny taking the witness stand in the prosecution when he was still a member of the community in Bergholz. This had me holding my breath to find out if Johnny would be honest, especially after his grandfather gave him a colluding smile during Johnny’s testimony. I should not have worried. It did not take me long to trust Johnny. In a voice clear and true, he tells the story of how the Bergholz community started out “nice and Amish” and then gradually turned down a dark road.
Defenders of Amish culture will want to claim that the Bergholz community was “not really Amish” and they want to claim that they are a cult. End of story. This accomplishes two things. It isolates the Bergholz community, and it preserves the public perception of the Amish as being wholesome and sometimes even a model of a good society.
Johnny Mast’s story complicates this view. The community in Bergholz was certainly Amish once, which raises the question: at what point did it cease being Amish? Defenders of Amish culture might say it was when they turned down that dark road. But that would belie the fact that darkness lurks in the corners of every Amish community, just as it does in any other culture or religion.
Donald Kraybill wrote a foreword for Breakaway Amish. In it, he writes about the book: “It chronicles what happens when men, in the name of God, abuse positions of power to exploit, harm, and denigrate others. It’s an important cautionary tale, and the rest of us would do well to listen carefully.”
I agree with this sentiment. I believe that the Amish are especially susceptible to repeating this story because they are already “primed” for accepting whatever the bishop decrees. When I joined my Amish church in Ohio, I learned the gravity of what it meant to become a full member of the Amish community. Twice a year, at every communion service, we were asked by the bishop of the congregation, to give up our individuality to become part of the community, just as the grains of wheat had given up their individuality to become part of the communion bread.
Conditioned to submit their will to that of church, members of the Bergholz community, blindly followed their narcissistic leader who supplanted their judgment and authority and turned them against one another. This tyranny was accepted one incremental step at a time, until no one dared to follow their own conscience or reason for themselves. Johnny addresses this in his book:
A lot of people ask me the same question, especially about those days in particular: Why would a bunch of grown men allow another man to treat them that way? I can’t say for sure, but I think for most of us, Bergholz was all we had. Every friend we had in the world lived there, every family member we cared about at the time. And Sam held the key to all of that. […] But you also have to understand that our beliefs as Amish people meant that Sam, as the church bishop had a lot of power over our eternal souls. The rules he put in place were the final words. If we didn’t listen to him–well, I think most of us truly believed that we’d be putting our eternity in jeopardy. (Pages 73,74)
Perhaps this last part sounds like part of the reason the Bergholz community is considered a cult. However, in most of the Amish communities I know, instilling the belief that those who leave the Amish will be putting their salvation at risk, is one of the ways that they preserve their culture. This is another way that members of the Bergholz community were primed to accept the abuse that Sam Mullet meted out.
There is yet another way in which the Bergholz community was prepared in advance for turning down that dark road, with Sam Mullet in the lead. The herd mentality of people schpotting one another (picking on one another), sometimes unmercifully, is a common story in Amish communities. Ira Wagler, in his book, Growing up Amish, tells a tragic story of a child who was scapegoated in his community.
Johnny Mast tells the harrowing tale of how this ganging up on one another manifested itself in Bergholz and how he regretted his part in it:
He [Sam] had the Bad Guys so confused and mixed up about what they had done and what they hadn’t done that they didn’t know how to respond. We Good Guys, on the other hand, listened to Sam, and I guess we listened for many different reasons. We liked being on Sam’s side. We liked being in the in crowd that was telling people what to do, and we knew that if we didn’t listen we’d end up in the Bad Guy crowd. We wanted Sam to approve of us. The Bad Guys spent a couple of weeks living in the barn, sleeping in the animal stalls. Sometimes Sam would let them come inside to eat, but usually one of us Good Guys would take food out to them.
Anyway, the Bad Guys didn’t know which end was up.
My dad was one of the Bad Guys. (Page 61)
Of course there is a big difference between the schpotting in my community and the Bad Guys in Bergholz sleeping in animal stalls because most Amish bishops are not as narcissistic and sick as Sam Mullet. And bishops are not usually the instigators. Johnny describes how Sam was behind everything that happened in his community:
Through all of this–the violence and the intimidation, the haircuts and the changes we couldn’t understand, the odd punishments and the penance–through all of it, Sam sat there and watched. As I reflect on what happened, I believe Sam orchestrated it, and he controlled as all, and that gave him the power to sometimes just sit and watch it all play out. He split up families, maybe because it forced everyone to rely on him. He pitted the strongest men against each other, and they couldn’t direct their energy at him or the things he was doing because they were all fighting with each other. When the weak or the punished got fed up, he flipped the tables, and they felt thankful to him for doing it, as though he was doing them some huge favor. As though he was some kind of savior. (Pages 81-82)
Every community, every culture, every religion has it’s narcissists. In the history of the Amish church, there is no other known case in which a bishop took his power as leader of his flock and abused it as Sam Mullet did in Bergholz. So far, the ordination process the Amish use to choose their leaders has screened out those who would become dictators. In Sam Mullet’s case, this did not work. He was just the kind of person who should not have been ordained. But he was. Once he had his community isolated, and he had instilled the fear and disdain for “outsiders” with the us-versus-them paranoia, he had created the conditions under which he could now abuse his power. He talked about his lust for power to Johnny:
“I’m sorry to confuse you like that,” Sam said in his quiet, understanding voice. He could be very convincing when he spoke like that. “And Johnny, I can’t explain it. I can’t.”
Then he said something I will never forget. “Somehow I’m getting a lot of power by committing these sins. I know it’s wrong, but I’m getting a lot of power.” (Pages 84, 85)
This chilling admission sums up the motivations behind everything that happened in Bergholz.
I am so glad that Johnny had the courage to break away from the Bergholz community. He didn’t slink away in the night. He faced his parents and told them what he was about to do. They tried dissuading him, but Johnny had made up his mind. He describes the exchanges with his dad:
“If you can give me one solid reason, from my point of view, that I should stay, then I’ll think about it. One good reason to stay.”
My dad looked at me for a little bit. His eyes went blank. “I can’t,” he finally said. (Page 158)
Johnny pointed out to his father that it was obvious that the problem was not the other Amish. He urged his father to look around and see where the real problem was. His father replied, “Well, if that’s the case, then that whole winter, what everyone went through–having their hair and beards cut, Eli being crazy like he was, writing all our sins down, people staying in the chicken coop–that would all have been for nothing.”
Johnny’s dad’s way of thinking is so very Amish. Most people taking an inventory of all that had happened would ask themselves why they are not leaving. It is so ironic that the suffering that Sam put Johnny’s dad through is the very reason he stayed.
Johnny describes the feeling of driving away from Bergholz and leaving his parents behind. “I hated to think about leaving them there in that community. I hated to imagine them growing old in that darkness.” (Page 161)
I am not only glad that Johnny found his way out of that darkness, but I’m also glad that he had the courage to tell his story. While many of his relatives are still in Bergholz doing whatever Sam Mullet tells them to do from his jail cell, Johnny is thriving in the life he has chosen. He has followed his love of horses by buying, training, and selling them to the Amish and he shoes horses for the Amish in the same community where his Grandfather Sam grew up.
"Breakaway Amish" by Johnny Mullet and Shawn Smucker is an important and riveting story. I highly recommend it.
June 21, 2023
A crazy story about growing up under the influence of the rouge Bishop Sam Mullet. It shows the power one man can have if his followers are convinced he holds the keys to eternal life.
July 10, 2016
Forgive me, I live in a cave. Which means that I missed the, presumably, sensationalized coverage of the Bergholz beard cutters.
Breakaway Amish, written by Johnny Mast, is the real story behind the headlines. His grandfather, Sam Mullet, founded the Bergholz Amish community in rural Ohio. Their strict doctrine--no tractors, no phones, no indoor plumbing--attracted many families who were seeking a deeper connection to God, the land and to each other. Among the first were Sam's sons and daughters and their families. When a church was built to anchor the settlement, Mullet, as the family patriarch, was the logical choice for bishop.
Under the increasingly autocratic leadership of Sam Mullet, the sense of community unravelled. Families began to leave the fellowship and those who remained were forced to support the bishop or be disciplined (or shunned.) Men who failed to abide by his rules were ordered to spend nights in a chicken coop, or have their beards or hair cut. Their wives were sometimes removed from their family homes to share the bishop's home and bed. In essence, Bergholz had devolved into a cult.
Spellbinding in its revelations of the inner workings of a particular Amish parish, and horrifying in its exposure of the depths of corruption to which it fell, this first person narrative takes you inside the events that led to five beard cutting attacks on nine Amish men and women, and the court trials which followed.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Breakaway Amish, written by Johnny Mast, is the real story behind the headlines. His grandfather, Sam Mullet, founded the Bergholz Amish community in rural Ohio. Their strict doctrine--no tractors, no phones, no indoor plumbing--attracted many families who were seeking a deeper connection to God, the land and to each other. Among the first were Sam's sons and daughters and their families. When a church was built to anchor the settlement, Mullet, as the family patriarch, was the logical choice for bishop.
Under the increasingly autocratic leadership of Sam Mullet, the sense of community unravelled. Families began to leave the fellowship and those who remained were forced to support the bishop or be disciplined (or shunned.) Men who failed to abide by his rules were ordered to spend nights in a chicken coop, or have their beards or hair cut. Their wives were sometimes removed from their family homes to share the bishop's home and bed. In essence, Bergholz had devolved into a cult.
Spellbinding in its revelations of the inner workings of a particular Amish parish, and horrifying in its exposure of the depths of corruption to which it fell, this first person narrative takes you inside the events that led to five beard cutting attacks on nine Amish men and women, and the court trials which followed.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 17, 2016
It’s very well written. The author takes you through the trial and the events leading to it at the same time, but he does it so well you never lose the chronology of either. It drags you right into the action and you don’t mind a break to take a breath and understand what’s behind such bizarre charges as beard cutting. It’s not long, but Mast relates his experiences very clearly. He doesn’t bog down in trial details. It is very interesting.
Human nature doesn’t leave much room for hope does it? You’d think if in any community tyranny of that magnitude was impossible, it would be in an Amish one. It just goes to show you humans are evil no matter where they are. It’s a sobering look at what people will do to each other for power, acceptance, or ‘salvation’.
The most shocking detail for me was the decree to put up the Bibles and quit praying. They all obeyed! What could have gone on before that to make them so subservient? Why would they put a man so blatantly in the place of God? It is a good study in what a bit of power will do to people even those that had suffered under the same regime. They gave up the freedom in Christ and Truth in the Word for slavery. Why? I just don’t understand. What a mixed joy it was to read of Mast’s escape from that community.
I’m glad Mast is looking for Truth. I pray he finds true freedom in Christ.
Thanks to Herald Press and Netgalley for the chance to read this book for free and review it.
Human nature doesn’t leave much room for hope does it? You’d think if in any community tyranny of that magnitude was impossible, it would be in an Amish one. It just goes to show you humans are evil no matter where they are. It’s a sobering look at what people will do to each other for power, acceptance, or ‘salvation’.
The most shocking detail for me was the decree to put up the Bibles and quit praying. They all obeyed! What could have gone on before that to make them so subservient? Why would they put a man so blatantly in the place of God? It is a good study in what a bit of power will do to people even those that had suffered under the same regime. They gave up the freedom in Christ and Truth in the Word for slavery. Why? I just don’t understand. What a mixed joy it was to read of Mast’s escape from that community.
I’m glad Mast is looking for Truth. I pray he finds true freedom in Christ.
Thanks to Herald Press and Netgalley for the chance to read this book for free and review it.
August 27, 2019
Im am from this area and this is a great account
10/10 recommend. This was such a good book and first hand account. It captures the mindset of southern Ohio well.
10/10 recommend. This was such a good book and first hand account. It captures the mindset of southern Ohio well.
July 24, 2017
I think the most upsetting thing about reading this book at this particular point in US History is the number of times the author says 'but now maybe things would go back to normal." They didn't, and they wouldn't, and it is discouraging to see just how long it can take someone to realize that an abuse of power isn't an aberration - it will happen again and again and again, as long as the person in power is able to get away with it.
Apart from that, this is a surprisingly quick and engaging read. A lot of it reads like YA Dystopia, except that it's true, and it doesn't actually spend that much time setting up the world it's talking about - it presumes that, if you're reading this book, you already have quite a bit of knowledge about the Amish in general, and the Bergholz Beard Cutters in specific. It doesn't delve too deeply into the whys and wherefores of what happened, but it does provide an insider's timeline of events, the slow understanding that what was happening was wrong, and the aftermath of leaving a community you've lived in your whole life.
Apart from that, this is a surprisingly quick and engaging read. A lot of it reads like YA Dystopia, except that it's true, and it doesn't actually spend that much time setting up the world it's talking about - it presumes that, if you're reading this book, you already have quite a bit of knowledge about the Amish in general, and the Bergholz Beard Cutters in specific. It doesn't delve too deeply into the whys and wherefores of what happened, but it does provide an insider's timeline of events, the slow understanding that what was happening was wrong, and the aftermath of leaving a community you've lived in your whole life.
September 2, 2017
Before reading this book, I was unfamiliar with this case. I just wanted to read something Amish-ish since I spend so much time in Amishland, Ohio. What I particularly liked about this book was the fumbling nature of the writer, Johnny Mast, not a professional writer. It wasn't an instructional book. It was really the honest, confused, and simple reflections of a very aberrant Amish micro-community. Some bits of fog cleared for him along the way, and during the trial, and these moments interested me, but they weren't expounded on. This isn't the work of a philosopher, a theologian, or even a matured aged man reflecting with awareness on his past. It is the raw and painful experience of a young man who is still trying to grapple with the meaning of events.
August 19, 2017
My knowledge of the Bergholz Beard Cutters was, "oh yeah, I remember reading about that on the news a few years back." I was hoping for a deeper understanding of the sect's beliefs and crimes. Didn't really get that. Why was Bergholz shunned by other Amish years before the beard cutting started? Dunno. Why was beard and hair cutting so devastating? Heck, why do Amish keep their hair and beards long in the first place? Never clarified. What crimes were they even convicted of? I'm gonna have to Google it.
This book made me curious about the case, but offered few answers. However, I wish Johnny Mast the best in his new life with his daughter.
This book made me curious about the case, but offered few answers. However, I wish Johnny Mast the best in his new life with his daughter.
September 29, 2020
The author does a great job of telling this sad but important story, with the help of ghost writer Shawn Smucker ... in the days before Smucker was producing what seems like a fiction book each year. I loved this book though for the truth it tells.
July 27, 2024
very informational
March 13, 2017
Breakaway Amish was a very interesting book. I tend to drift toward true crime books more than other memoirs, and this one delivered in quality more than many of them do. Johnny Mast was both a victim and a perpetrator in the crimes that happened at Bergholz, so his insights into what happened in that cult-like community are unique and fascinating. And although my interest in true crime books seems at odds with my desire for a happy ending, this book was able to deliver a happy ending as well.
To visit my memoir review blog:
https://memoir.blog/ (home)
https://memoir.blog/breakaway-amish/ (this book)
To visit my memoir review blog:
https://memoir.blog/ (home)
https://memoir.blog/breakaway-amish/ (this book)
July 6, 2016
Received this book as an ARC from Netgally for my honest review.
This book was about the Bergholz Beard Cutters. This is a true story based on one man's account of what happened. Johnny Mast was the grandson of the leader (Sam Mullet) of this "cult" and how quickly this Amish sect split from everyone and everything and how Sam was able to control the people under his religious authority. Sam then in revenge had his followers cutting the hair and beards of his own people and people outside of his sect. I am so happy that Johnny was able to see past what was going on and was able to leave and find a better life for himself at the expense of leaving his family.
This book was very well written. I wish there would have been more parts of the testimony on both sides but all in all it was a very good book that kept you hooked and wanted to cheer Johnny on for standing up for him and his friends/family.
This book was about the Bergholz Beard Cutters. This is a true story based on one man's account of what happened. Johnny Mast was the grandson of the leader (Sam Mullet) of this "cult" and how quickly this Amish sect split from everyone and everything and how Sam was able to control the people under his religious authority. Sam then in revenge had his followers cutting the hair and beards of his own people and people outside of his sect. I am so happy that Johnny was able to see past what was going on and was able to leave and find a better life for himself at the expense of leaving his family.
This book was very well written. I wish there would have been more parts of the testimony on both sides but all in all it was a very good book that kept you hooked and wanted to cheer Johnny on for standing up for him and his friends/family.
June 13, 2016
"Breakaway Amish" by Johnny Mast is a memoir about the author growing up in the Amish community called Bergholz that became famous for the beard cutting assault case. I had heard of the beard cutting incident but did not know much about it. This book was very interesting and gave me more understanding of the case. There was so much more to the story than the newspapers released. What is interesting is that the author is the grandson son of the leader of the group. It is not a positive look on the this group more of an honest look at this specific Amish community and how it was more of a cult. The author does not hold back and for that I was thankful. I highly recommend this book for knowledge of the Bergholz Beard Cutters and the honesty of the author.
I was given this book from Net Galley for my honest review and was not required to give a positive review.
I was given this book from Net Galley for my honest review and was not required to give a positive review.
August 24, 2016
I received this book free for agreeing to review it.
I grew up near the Holmes County, Ohio, and its nearby vicinity's Amish peoples. We still visit regularly. When the news story broke that this book is based upon, my family were all dismayed.
How can it be that Amish turned violent to Amish?
We've always known Amish to be a peaceful, peace filled, non-confrontational, non-violent people.
The story tells of several families that moved to a fertile area between Mt. Hope, OH, and Pittsburgh, PA. Most were related (birth or marriage) to the founder of the area who was the bishop of the District.
Many of us have heard the adage "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
See how the adage became real in the lives of some trusting, faithful individuals and families.
Enlightening read.
I grew up near the Holmes County, Ohio, and its nearby vicinity's Amish peoples. We still visit regularly. When the news story broke that this book is based upon, my family were all dismayed.
How can it be that Amish turned violent to Amish?
We've always known Amish to be a peaceful, peace filled, non-confrontational, non-violent people.
The story tells of several families that moved to a fertile area between Mt. Hope, OH, and Pittsburgh, PA. Most were related (birth or marriage) to the founder of the area who was the bishop of the District.
Many of us have heard the adage "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
See how the adage became real in the lives of some trusting, faithful individuals and families.
Enlightening read.
September 9, 2016
The author does a good job telling about his life in the Bergholz community of breakaway Amish. I still can't understand the strange events that Mast experienced, but he does his best to explain the strangeness.
September 19, 2016
Amish Cutting off beards and hair
I bought the book on Kindle and read it today, I can't believe how horrible they treat each other!
Sam the Bishop who is a dictator made some men sleep in chicken coops and horse stalls to punish them. He kicked his Wife out of the house and had a baby with his Grandsons Wife! Even while he is in prison he controls the people, he married his Daughter and her Husband in prison.
That is a cult 100%
I am glad his Grandson Johnny testified against him in court and got sentenced to 15 years in prison.
God can still save him if he asks Jesus into his heart and asks forgiveness for his sins.
❤ God Bless You ❤
I bought the book on Kindle and read it today, I can't believe how horrible they treat each other!
Sam the Bishop who is a dictator made some men sleep in chicken coops and horse stalls to punish them. He kicked his Wife out of the house and had a baby with his Grandsons Wife! Even while he is in prison he controls the people, he married his Daughter and her Husband in prison.
That is a cult 100%
I am glad his Grandson Johnny testified against him in court and got sentenced to 15 years in prison.
God can still save him if he asks Jesus into his heart and asks forgiveness for his sins.
❤ God Bless You ❤
August 24, 2016
I usually like to stay in the world of fiction when I read, but it's hard to believe that what went on in this community wasn't fiction. I was torn on what to rate this work -- I really liked it, so that's 4 stars but it's all so amazing, that's 5 stars, that Johnny Mast was willing to tell the story of his family. I sided with amazing.
You really have to read this one to believe it. We heard the news reports but hearing the inside story and how an entire community can be manipulated is something.
You really have to read this one to believe it. We heard the news reports but hearing the inside story and how an entire community can be manipulated is something.
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