You have probably heard of the Amish beard-cutting incidents that took place in Ohio recently. If you haven’t, simply Google “Sam Mullet”. Sam Mullet is the bishop of an Amish splinter group in Ohio, members of which have been accused of religious hate crimes. Sam Mullet is the alleged ringleader of the hair-cutting attacks against other Ohio Amish.

The bishop holds the highest office in an Amish church. He is generally the leader of a single Amish church and presides over, on average, 20 to 30 Amish families.

Evil bishops that are drunk with power are uncommon but not unheard of among the Amish. Sam Mullet is a notable example. I also had a personal experience with such a bishop. In the community where I grew up there were a small group of us Amish kids (several boys and several girls) that were friends with each other and hung out together as often as possible. After I left the Amish, my house became a popular place for us to gather because we could watch television and drink alcohol whenever we could get our hands on it.

One of the girls in our group was a daughter of the community’s bishop. Of course he tried to keep her away from my house with threats and all manner of punishments but she was a rebellious girl and continued hanging out with us.

Then one day when I was alone at home this bishop came to my house and threatened me with physical harm if his daughter continued hanging out with us at my house. She was not yet eighteen but it wasn’t like I was forcing her to come to my house. Anyway, I decided if that bishop was going to heaven then heaven was no place that I ever wanted to be. I moved hundreds of miles away from that community not long after that.