S1E9 Elam Zook: Fighting for My People, Amish Issues Perpetuated By Academia, Amish Evolution

Part 2: Elam Zook is a writer, critical thinker, and self-taught-scholar on how the Amish religion intersects with modern society. He is a consultant for the course The Amish at Franklin & Marshall College, a rare position given that he has no degree. He is also co-writing a book with renowned Professor of Anthropology, Prof. Michael S. Billig, at Franklin & Marshall and just submitted a paper with Prof. Billig for publication in an academic journal.

Elam is a deeply devoted advocate of the Amish community and is on a journey to re-claim, re-own, and re-honor his Amish heritage. He believes that the worst betrayal is not in leaving the church but to not bring enlightenment principles to our own people. As founder and co-creator of The Amish Adrift Project, Elam’s vision is to wrestle with the dichotomy of precisely what the Amish faith’s call to be separate and apart originally intended, and how it plays out in Amish daily interactions with today’s modern society.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

- Elam’s explanation on why the Amish are a dying society and how he is fighting for his people

- Why we should not relinquish our claim to Amishness and why the church neither has the right nor actual ability to deny us our Amish heritage

- The Amish issues that are perpetuated to a devastating degree by academia, by so-called accepted experts on the Amish who are neither expert nor Amish

- Positive models for Amish evolution into modernity without sacrificing our core values; e.g., the Quakers and liberal end of the Mennonites

- The threat to Amish culture that has been happening as our community cedes ever-increasing control of our narrative to outside influences

- The poverty of Amish literature: the story of our lives aren’t found in the history books and libraries of the halls of academia—where are the Amish novelists and contributors in one of the wealthiest social capitals of the world?

LINKS AND RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE:

Find Elam on Facebook: www.facebook.com/easyEZ

The Amish Adrift Project: www.amishadrift.wordpress.com/a-new-north-star

Marriage and Love Counseling (a new model for building healthy romantic relationships that gave Torah permission to love again and believe that it’s possible to experience a love story she dreams of; “To heal war in the world we have to heal the war between the sexes”): www.evolvinglove.us

Grief Recovery Method (for physical and emotional losses, to find grief support groups and for a free ebook for info on the various kinds of grief): www.griefrecoverymethod.com

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): www.rainn.org; 800-656-HOPE; live chat. Get help 24/7. Free and confidential. Call/chat if you’ve been violated.

Prof. Michael S. Billig, Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Anthropology at Franklin & Marshall College: www.fandm.edu/michael-billig

See S1Ep8: Elam Zook on Why the Amish are A Dying Society, the Catch-22 of Amish Mental Health and Marriage Counseling, and the Role of Submissiveness for a new North Star for Amish evolution

See S1Ep5: Fiona Teng on Breaking the Cycle of Societal & Romantic Traumas—Trauma Doesn’t Discriminate—and How Mindfulness Can Help PTSD & Abandonment for a practice/tool that changed both Fiona and Torah’s lives

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Connect with Torah, speaker + memoir author of An Amish Girl in Manhattan: Escaping At Age 15, Breaking All the Rules, and Feeling Safe Again

http://www.TorahBontrager.com

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Connect with Elam:

www.facebook.com/easyEZ