Mary Byler is one of less than a dozen cases [we're still fact-checking this number] of Amish sexual assault on public record. The focus of our conversation is on not so much the details of Mary's heinous ordeals but on the effects of sexual assault 13 years later and the one simple thing anyone and everyone can do that will help a victim-survivor more than you'll ever know.

Watch, listen, and be inspired by a truly powerful woman who has been through the fires of hell a million times over.

This episode opens with a special introduction by Torah on the new vision and mission of this show based on the feedback we got from the pilot run (Season 1, originally titled Turning Tragedies into Triumphs). 

ACTION STEPS: 

Mary's story aired on ABC's 20/20 in December of 2004.  Read "Sexual Abuse Within the Amish Community" at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2365919

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

How Mary defines forgiveness and how society needs to change in terms of sexual assault

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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 Mary:
www.facebook.com/mary.a.byler

S2E1 Mary Byler: The Lingering Effects of Sexual Assault 13 Years Later: How to Understand Survivors

Amish Entrepreneur Show with Torah Bontrager (2018-03-22 14:28:41 +0000 UTC)

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This panel features memoir authors who are all sexual assault survivors.

The discussion centers around gratitude for the #MeToo movement, the everyday and extraordinary women speaking out relentlessly, and how we see societal support to eradicate sexual assault and uplift survivors. 

Torah selected gratitude as the theme in light that March is Women’s History Month and that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. 


PANEL/WEBINAR DETAILS:

Panel Members: Lisa Zarcone, Cameron Altaras, and Torah Bontrager

1. What are you most grateful for in terms of the MeToo movement?
 
2. How sustainable do you feel the MeToo movement is?  E.g., Is it going to eventually fizzle out or is it here to stay?

3. In light that it was Women’s History Month in March and that MeToo is led by women, who are you most grateful for post-assault in helping you in your journey?

4. What’s one easy thing that any non-survivor can do to help raise awareness about sexual assault?

5. What impacts do you hope to see the MeToo movement have on the next generation? And what do you hope the next generation will do differently?


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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 Lisa (Author, Speaker & Advocate):
www.lisazarcone.net

A wife, mother of three, and grandmother of three, Lisa Zarcone took all of her past experiences of her personal trauma and abuse and wrote a detailed memoir of her life. She shares her story through the eyes of a child: "HERS". She gives the reader a firsthand view of abuse through the child’s perspective. This is a very raw and real look at her life as it played out.

Lisa is currently the Massachusetts National Ambassador for NAASCA (National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse). She is spreading awareness for child safety/abuse and mental health Illness/stigmas. She travels all over to publicly speak as she is working towards raising awareness, educating people, and promoting change in a very flawed system. Too many children continue to fall through the cracks. She continues to work effortlessly as this is her passion, mission and goal to break the silence.

_____

Connect with Cameron (Writer & Speaker):
www.TorahBontrager.com/Cameron-Altaras

Cameron Altaras was raised Mennonite in Ontario, Canada and her mother was an Amish escapee. Childhood sexual abuse by her teenaged uncle set her on a path of further abuse, including at the hands of a highly revered, now deceased Mennonite pastor, Vernon Leis. She went through the Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada (MCEC) leadership’s clergy misconduct process regarding this “Mennonite Harvey Weinstein” under whose grooming process she fell victim in her twenties. She gathered a supportive group of family, friends, and former MCEC leaders around her and together, they plodded through six years of tough challenges before the MCEC finally publicized the crimes. 

Cameron holds a PhD in Religion from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation focussed on the critical theory of the Frankfurt School with regard to the ideological manipulation of power in religion and art. Before her retirement, she worked in Business Ethics. You can find out more about her at www.TorahBontrager.com/book, where there’s a link to the speech she delivered at the 2015 Annual SNAP Conference in Washington, DC: “Sex with a Pastor Is Never an Affair”.

S3 A Women's Spring: Gratitude in the Age of MeToo - Special Holiday Episode

Rachel Halder is a Sacred Sexuality Specialist/Coach and Founder of Our Stories Untold, a blog dedicated to sharing the stories of Mennonite/Anabaptist sexual assault survivors and raising awareness and healing around the topic of sexualized violence in the Mennonite Church. 

Rachel has since stepped down from that project and is now helping people bridge their spirituality with their sexuality through a proven step-by-step methodology that utilizes modern neuroscience, shadow work, underworld journeying, and ancient Tantric and Taoist techniques to transform trauma, heal sexual wounds, and tap into the natural pleasure and ecstatic capacities within the body. 

She went to Goshen College for her undergraduate degree, holds a Masters of Religion degree from Claremont School of Theology where she studied the topics of sexuality, religion, and trauma healing, completed 600 hours of coaching training with the Tantric Institute of Integrated Sexuality, and is the author of the *free* ebook Sacred, Sexy, and Whole: Undressing Purity Culture, Redressing Redemption.

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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 Rachel:
www.RachelHalder.com

S3E14 Rachel Halder:  How Purity Culture Shaped Abstinence-Only Sex Education + Slut Shaming

Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. She is also a partner at Pipestem Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. 

Nagle has authored numerous briefs in federal appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Nagle studied theater and social justice at Georgetown University as an undergraduate student, and received her J.D. from Tulane Law School where she graduated summe cum laude and received the John Minor Wisdom Award. She is a frequent speaker at law schools and symposia across the country. Her articles have been published in law review journals including the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Yale Law Journal (online forum), Tulsa Law Review, and Tulane Law Review, among others.
 
Nagle is an alumn of the 2012 PUBLIC THEATER Emerging Writers Group, where she developed her play Manahatta in PUBLIC STUDIO (May 2014). Productions include Miss Lead (Amerinda, 59E59, January 2014), and Fairly Traceable (Native Voices at the Autry, March 2017), Sovereignty (Arena Stage), and Manahatta (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). In 2019, the Rose Theater (Omaha, NE) will produce her new play Return to Niobrara, and Portland Center Stage will produce the world premiere of Crossing Mnisose.
 
Nagle has received commissions from Arena Stage (Sovereignty), the Rose Theater (Return to Niobrara, Omaha, Nebraska), Portland Center Stage (Mnisose), Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Yale Repertory Theatre (A Pipe for February).

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Please catch Mary Kathryn's play Manahatta, running through October 2018
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Ashland, Oregon
https://www.osfashland.org/en/productions/2018-plays/manahatta.aspx

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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 Mary Kathryn:
Twitter: @MKNagle
www.pipestemlaw.com/attorney/mary-kathryn-nagle

S3E13 Mary Kathryn Nagle:  Fighting for Native Americans in Court + Onstage, Legal Rape, Manahatta

Kenneth Copp is a rare (former) convert into the Amish church, who now calls himself an Amish atheist.  Kenneth builds handcrafted, solid wood Amish-style heirloom furniture, powered by real workhorses in an effort to produce goods in the most sustainable way possible.  His shop is Locust Grove Woodworks in Maine.

In this episode (Part 1 of his story), we cover what prompted him to join the Old Order Amish church as a teenager and then what the single defining reason was for him to exit the church at age 38.  Via his journey, we cover fascinating pieces of Anabaptist origins and history, including the myriad factions of Amish and Mennonite branches of Anabaptistism and some of their governing structures––and even a look at Amish fashion.  

In Part 2, we go in-depth in the freethinking, or rationalization, that led to Kenneth’s resignation of religious beliefs, and why he still identifies as Amish.  And, Kenneth learned the Amish language and still speaks it, no small feat for an outsider.  

Kenneth, raised Pentecostal, considered joining the Holdeman Mennonites who claim to be the one and only true church.  From there, he joined the Beachy Amish, and then converted into the Old Order Amish.


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Questions about Torah?  

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 Kenneth:
www.locustgrovewoodworks.com

S3E12 Kenneth Copp:  The Amish Atheist, Amish Fashion + Crafting Furniture Powered by Workhorses

Bridie Farrell is a former US National Speedskating Team Member and the founder of NY Loves Kids.  When she was 15 years old, she was sexually abused by Andy Gabel, a 33-year-old and the #1 speedskater in the US at the time.

In this episode, Bridie and Torah talk about how difficult it is for adult victims or survivors to come forward, even celebrities who have teams of lawyers, assistants, and PR to help them with what to say.  Child victims have no such backing, so it’s upon us adults to speak out on behalf of children everywhere. 

Bridie shares how we can help change the laws and raise awareness about sexual assault statistics by sending simple, easy tweets while binge-watching the Winter Olympics or our favorite TV shows.  If you do nothing else, tweeting a statistic at your state senators every time you watch a show is enough.  You will do more good and create more change than you realize if you’re as committed to tweeting stats as you are to binge-watching.  

For a list of Tweetable statistics, check out http://www.TorahBontrager.com/FREE or follow the podcast on Instagram @OurAmishNation www.Instagram.com/OurAmishNation  

ACTION STEPS: 

Send/schedule a daily Tweet/Gram to @NewYorkGOP or your State senator: 

1.  Did you know that 8 minutes ago, a child in our country was sexually abused? What are you doing about it?
 
2.  Every 8 minutes a child is sexually assaulted, 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 3 girls. What are you doing about it? 

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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 Bridie:
www.bridiefarrell.com and www.NYloveskids.org

S3E11 Bridie Farrell: How to Binge Watch and Do Good: Tweet to Save a Child from Sexual Assault

Amish Entrepreneur Show with Torah Bontrager

S2E1 Mary Byler: The Lingering Effects of Sexual Assault 13 Years Later: How to Understand Survivors

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