Beard cutting, pietism, growing up Mennonite, Heroes and Heretics subjects of Young Center events

Fall line-up at Elizabethtown College features Amish expert Don Kraybill

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Donald Kraybill

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (09/18/2014)(readMedia)-- A group of bearded, plain-dressing men and their accomplices were convicted in federal court in 2012 on charges related to attacking and cutting the beards or hair of nine Amish people in Ohio a year earlier. The government built its case on the 2009 Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act. An appeals court overturned the hate crime convictions in August 2014.

Where the perpetrators really Amish? Distinguished College Professor and Young Center Senior Fellow Donald B. Kraybill and an Amish guest answer this and other questions in their talk, "The Amish and Federal Hate Crimes," at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Gibble Auditorium in Elizabethtown College's Esbenshade Hall. A question-and-answer session follows the presentation. Kraybill is the author of the critically acclaimed new book "Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers," which will be available for sale and signing after the event.

Additional Young Center events, all held in the Bucher Meetinghouse, include:

• 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 23 -- Dale Brown Book Award Lecture -- "German Pietists as Translators in 'An Introduction to German Pietism' "

Gottfried Arnold and Gerhard Tersteegen translated the lives of medieval Catholic saints so they could serve as models of inward, spiritual Christianity. Arnold set the precedent for Pietist translators in terms of what and why to translate, and Tersteegen exemplified the approach of faithfulness to the original text in deciding how to translate. Doug Shantz discusses the work of these two translators and its place in the Pietism story. He is professor of Christian thought at the University of Calgary.

• 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 2 -- "Looking Backward on a Career: How Growing Up Mennonite Prepared Me for Leadership"

Shirley Hershey Showalter was the first woman college president of Goshen (Ind.) College, the first Mennonite college president to be given a leadership award by the Knight Foundation and the first person in her family to go to college. Like most Mennonites, she has received strong messages about the dangers of pride and humility. Few, if any, Mennonite women of her generation were taught to "lean in." In this talk, Showalter reflects on how she dealt with conflicting aspirations in the writing of her award-winning memoir, "Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World."

• 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 13 -- Snowden Lecture -- "Heroes and Heretics: Pietists and Anabaptists in the Evangelical Imagination"

American evangelicals have both revered and condemned the Pietist and Anabaptist traditions. The view they've taken often has depended on the historical context and the tensions within the evangelical subculture at the time. Jared Burkholder examines several episodes in historical memory and what they say about these groups and their place on the landscape of American society. Burkholder is professor of history at Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind.

All events are free and open to the public. Contact: Young Center at 717-361-1470 or youngctr@etown.edu

An internationally recognized scholarly research institute, the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College conducts and promotes research about and interprets the life, faith and culture of Anabaptists and Pietists through public lectures, resources, exhibits and conferences. The Center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies: www.etown.edu/centers/young-center

Read about additional events at Elizabethtown College.

Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

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