English Man

Mike Smitley

Description

THE ENGLISH MAN is a frightening tale of dark spirits weaving themselves throughout a serial murder investigation in a Missouri Amish community while attempting to alter prophesied events already set in stone by God before the creation of either man or angels.

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781937520472
• Langue: English

Extrait

The
English Man

by

Mike Smitley
Thanks to Darlene Kenaga for her editing services.
Special thanks to my wife, Jana, for her patience and support.
ISBN 978-1-937520-47-2
Published by First Edition Design eBook Publishing
December 2011
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

Copyright, 2011 by Mike Smitley


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other – except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without prior written permission of the publisher and author.

The author, Mike Smitley, can be contacted at: www.fatherspress.com. or [e-mail]

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.


For additional mystery and suspense, read Mike Smitley’s other novels,
IMPLIED CONTRACT (ISBN: 978-0-9779407-2-1),
GHOST HUNT: The Sequel (ISBN: 978-0-9779407-7-6),
PREY (ISBN: 978-0-9779407-5-2),
DEAD FILES (ISBN: 978-0-9779407-1-4) and
OUR MISSING (ISBN: 978-0-97953940402).

All available as E-Books through your favorite E-Book distributor, and as print version through Father’s Press and all retailers.


Father’s Press, L.L.C.
Lee’s Summit, MO
[phone]
www.fatherspress.com
INTRODUCTION


To truly appreciate the irony of a murder investigation in an Amish district, (district being the term for an Amish community rather than a city or township), one should be familiar with the Amish faith and their secretive culture. Having been a closed society for hundreds of years, insight into Amish life has only recently been revealed by the writings and testimonials of people who have been unable to accept the strict doctrine and harsh discipline of the faith, and have left the faith, either by choice or excommunication, to live with the English. English is the Amish term for anyone who does not believe as they do. To understand Amish culture, a brief history of the Amish faith is helpful.
There is no consensus on exactly where the Amish fit within Christianity. Some consider them conservative Protestants. Most Amish would probably consider themselves to be Anabaptists ( a member of a sect which arose in Germany in 1521 which believes that baptism should be withheld until a person is old enough to understand the meanings of sin repentance, salvation and the Gospel, and that baptism should be accompanied by a confession of faith. They further believe that infants baptized, as is the case in the Catholic Church, cannot understand any of the ramifications of baptism and should be rebaptized when they are old enough to understand the Gospel and willingly make the accompanying public confession of faith. ) J. Gordon Melton, head of the Institute for the Study of American Religion , classifies them as part of the European Free-Church Family along with Mennonites, Brethren Quakers and other reformation denominations.
The Amish movement was founded in Europe by Jacob Amman (1644 to 1720 CE ), from whom their name is derived. In many ways it started as a reform group within the Mennonite movement, an attempt to restore some of the early practices of the Mennonites.
The beliefs and practices of the Amish were based on the writings of the founder of the Mennonite faith, Menno Simons (1496-1561), and on the 1632 Mennonite Dordrecht Confession of Faith .
The Amish who split from Mennonites generally lived in Switzerland and in the southern Rhine river region. During the late 17 th century, they separated because of doctrinal differences and what they perceived as a lack of discipline among the Mennonites.
Some Amish migrated to the United States starting in the early 18 th century. They initially settled in Pennsylvania. Other waves of Amish immigrants established districts in New York, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and other states.
The faith group has attempted to preserve the elements of late 17 th century European rural culture. They try to avoid many of the features of modern society by developing practices and behaviors which isolate them from American culture.
James Hoorman writes about the current status of the Amish movement:
" In America, the Amish hold major doctrines in common, but as the years went by, their practices differed. Today there are a number of different groups of Amish, with the majority affiliated with four orders: Swartzengruber, Old Order, Andy Weaver, and New Order Amish. Old Order Amish are the most common. All the groups operate independently from each other with variations in how they practice their religion, and religion dictates how they conduct their daily lives. The Swartzengruber Amish are the most conservative, followed by the Old Order Amish. The Andy Weaver are more progressive, and the New Order Amish are the most progressive ."
Membership in the Old Order Amish Mennonite Church and other Amish denominations is not freely available. They may total about 180,000 adults spread across 22 states, including about 45,000 in Ohio and smaller numbers in Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, etc. About 1,500 live in south-western Ontario, in Canada.
Almost all members are born into and raised in the faith. Converts from outside of the Amish communities are rare. Due to their small size, partly attributed to the large number of young people leaving the faith, some Amish groups have a very restricted gene pool and are experiencing numerous inherited disorders .
During the Protestant Reformation in 16 th century Europe, John Calvin, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli broke from the Roman Catholic Church to form separate Christian faith groups. They promoted the concepts of:
Salvation by the grace of God, rather than through good works and church sacraments.
Greater individual freedom of belief.
The priesthood of all believers; no priest or other intermediary was needed between believers and God.
Close integration of church and state.
Reliance on the Bible alone, with little attention paid to church tradition.
In what has been called “ the radical reformation ”, some additional religious reformers took these beliefs to a logical conclusion; they preached that the believers should form “ free churches ”; quite different from the highly organized state churches which were typical at the time. They separated themselves from all secular activities, including the state, and formed independent, informal religious groups. These were much like the Christian congregations in very early Christianity.
A small group of Swiss Christians, led by Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, formed a study group intending to recommend changes to the state Protestant church. Their reforms were rejected both by Zwingli, the church head, and by the Zurich City Council . In 1525 CE, they formed the first Swiss Brethren congregation in Switzerland. They baptized each other into membership in their “ believers church ”, a crime for which some were banished; others were executed by drowning or burning at the stake. At the time, the Swiss state church was no more tolerant of what they regarded as heresy as was the Roman Catholic Church. Religious tolerance developed later in Europe.
A key belief of the Brethren was that only adults should be baptized. The normal practice at the time was to baptize newborns and infants. The name “ Anabaptist,” which meant re-baptizer, was first used as a nickname to describe this and similar groups. The name stuck.
The Anabaptists promoted the concept of church as a self-governing, loose association of adults, not including children. Worship services were held in homes rather than in a church building.
The Anabaptist leaders met in secret during 1527 in Schleitheim on the Swiss-German border. They developed what was originally called a declaration of “ Brotherly Union ” and is now referred to as the “Schleitheim Articles .” It consists of seven articles:
“ Believers baptism ” was only performed during adulthood after repentance and a confession of faith. They practiced anti-pedobaptism, opposition to the baptism of infants. They believe that a child does not have the knowledge of good and evil. Thus they cannot sin and would not benefit from baptism.
Members who slipped and fell into error were to be warned twice in private. If they persisted, they would be warned publicly in front of the congregation and banned from the group.
Only fellow believers who were baptized as adults were allowed to attend the Lord's Supper.
They pledged to separate themselves from the evil in the world. They were pacifists and pledged to reject violence.
The leaders in the church, called shepherds, were to be of good character and competent to preach to the congregation.
They advocated church-state separation . They generally withdrew from the world, which they regarded as a corrupting influence. They would not hold public office or engage in civic affairs.
Members were not to give oaths. Their word is to be sufficient.
These seven principles remain the basic guidelines used by the Swiss Brethren and Amish to this day.
Some radical Anabaptists who expected an imminent end of the world attempted to create a theocracy in Münster, Germany by force in 1534. Many governments viewed all Anabaptists as a potentially serious danger to the social order. The groups suffered extreme persecution. Many of their leaders were rounded up and executed. Programs of genocide were organized by various governments, by Protestant groups and the Roman Catholic Church. Some city-states employed “Anabaptist hunters” who were paid by the head to locate and arrest believers.
Anabaptists grew in number, in spite of the persecution. They became a loosely-organized “ lay-oriented, non-liturgical, non-creedal, Bib