Mennonite, Amish Communities Face Growing Recognition of Sexual Abuse

In a Huntingdon County courtroom on Nov. 29, 2018, Martha Peight, 29, of Arcadia, Fla., read a victim-impact statement at the sentencing of her father, Daniel R. Hostetler. Members of area Mennonite churches sat in the benches behind her, wearing the traditional plain clothing of a separatist culture she had left behind. Some had come to support her father, who sat with bowed head at the defense table. Others came to support Ms. Peight.

Ms. Peight said her father sexually violated her years earlier, when she was a young teen. Her pastor had persuaded her to keep quiet for years, she told the court, and she was now speaking out in hopes of protecting other girls. “I will stand up and break the chains of this generational abuse,” she said. Mr. Hostetler received a one- to four-year sentence for indecent assault. Ms. Peight’s justice had been long delayed, in part because of actions by the former minister of the family’s Mennonite church, who was also present in the courtroom.

Ms. Peight’s words have been echoed by a growing network of current and former members of the self-described “Plain People,” a group that includes conservative Mennonites and the closely related Amish communities. Supporters who gathered at the courthouse saw the case as a milestone in a wider effort. They hope to reform a church culture that, they say, has too often enabled the sexual abuse of children and covered it up with forgive-and-forget teachings and the shaming of victims. Outside the courthouse after the sentencing, one woman in plain dress told Ms. Peight, “You’ve laid the foundation for a lot of victims that have no voices.”

Ms. Peight’s case also reflects a broader pattern. Echoes of abuse coverups have sounded across Plain churches in the country, a culture that has historically emphasized separation from the outside world. Former pastor David Fisher, 64, pleaded no contest on Jan. 10, 2019, to a felony charge of endangering the welfare of a child, in failure to report sexual abuse. Officials in the series’ coverage say communication and cooperation between Plain communities, police and social services have increased.

Like victims in other religious groups, members of these communities are increasingly finding their voices and each other. Ms. Peight traveled from Florida in her husband’s tractor-trailer to speak at the hearing, a step she said reflected a concern for the vulnerable (Psalm 82:3). “I spent my teenage years wishing I had a daddy to protect me, not a man I had to protect myself from,” she said. “This is about protecting other little girls.”

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