Mennonites leaving Mo. over photo law

[Kat Kanning]

Mennonites leaving Mo. over photo law

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press writer Wed Mar 21, 3:50 PM ET

HUNTSVILLE, Mo. - The grocer, the butcher, a cabinet maker and several other members of the town's Mennonite community are planning to move to Arkansas over a Missouri requirement that all drivers be photographed if they want a license.

The Mennonites ? a plain-living sect whose members are similar to the Amish, but usually more worldly ? say the 2004 law conflicts with the Biblical prohibition against the making of "graven images."

"We want to respect our government. We're not trying to fight them. But we still have our beliefs," said Ervin Kropf, a bearded, overall-wearing grocer whose market draws customers from miles around for the fresh milk, brown eggs and spices supplied by his fellow Mennonites.

Kropf said he is looking to sell his store. He said if he cannot find a buyer, he will stay in Missouri but rely on someone else to bring in his supplies, because he will not be able to hold a driver's license without agreeing to a photo.

Around Huntsville, community members say more than a dozen families altogether are preparing to move south to Arkansas, where state law offers a religious exemption to the photo requirement. Other Mennonite enclaves near Rolla, Springfield and Vandalia are facing a similar dilemma.

Missouri had an exemption similar to Arkansas' for more than 30 years. That changed in the security crackdown after Sept. 11. Now, those who object to the photo requirement can have their pictures left off their licenses. But the photos must remain on file with the state.

Many Mennonites in Missouri find that acceptable and plan to stay put. But "there are a bunch of us who don't want to do that," Kropf said.

Maura Browning, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Revenue, which oversees driver's licenses, said that while her agency is sympathetic, "we are the administrator, not the creator, of state law."

Some community members call their Mennonite neighbors peaceful, hardworking taxpayers wrongly ensnared in the government's war on terror.

"This whole business of homeland security is a farce," said Joel Hartman, a University of Missouri-Columbia professor of rural sociology. "These people are no threat whatsoever to the larger society."

Hartman estimated the combined Amish and Mennonite population in Missouri at 6,000 to 7,000. That number includes those who drive and don't object to the state law.

Several families have already left the state, with others waiting to sell their homes and businesses, said Mark Price, Randolph County recorder. Those planning to leave Huntsville include a cabinet maker, a butcher and an excavator, he said.

"They are pillars of the community," Price said.

Leo Kempf, a Mennonite butcher, said he has reluctantly decided to uproot his family and move. "It's something you don't take lightly," he said.

Unlike the Amish and members of some other Mennonite sects, Kropf, Kempf and their neighbors use telephones and drive cars, though they paint the vehicles black to make them less showy. They eschew radio, TVs and computers and dress in simple garb ? men in overalls and black shoes, women in ankle-length dresses and head coverings. The men typically wear beards.

Community members are intensely private; many politely declined to speak with a reporter for this story.

"These people do not have a strong emotional and psychological attachment to the land that many of us do in society. If things become unacceptable in one area, they'll move to another," said Hartman, who grew up in a Pennsylvania Mennonite community.

Pennsylvania and Ohio ? two of the states with the nation's largest Mennonite populations ? continue to license drivers whose religious beliefs forbid photos. But other states, including California and Kentucky, have joined Missouri in recent years in eliminating the exemption.

There are an estimated 500,000 Mennonites in the U.S., according to Donald Kraybill, a professor and a fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.

The Missouri Mennonites' opposition to having their photos taken for their driver's licenses put them in the minority among members of their faith nationwide, said Steve Scott, a research assistant at the Young Center. "Usually, if you accept a car, you would accept a photograph," Scott said.

The effect of the nationwide crackdown upon Amish and Mennonites is not limited to driver's licenses.

Amish who have been able to cross the border into Canada and Mexico for medical treatment or to visit relatives without passports will no longer have that option starting in January. So those who object to having their photos taken for their passports will effectively be unable to leave the country.

And in Pennsylvania, a state law requiring photo identification to purchase guns has prompted many Amish who hunt to hire non-Amish neighbors to buy guns for them, according to Kraybill.

[John]

... the Missouri Department of Revenue, which oversees driver's licenses ...

..."we are the administrator, not the creator, of state law." ...

..."This whole business of homeland security is a farce,"...

...The effect of the nationwide crackdown upon Amish and Mennonites is not limited to driver's licenses.

Amish who have been able to cross the border into Canada and Mexico for medical treatment or to visit relatives without passports will no longer have that option starting in January. So those who object to having their photos taken for their passports will effectively be unable to leave the country. ...

[Raineyrocks]

 I knew a lot of Mennonites where I used to live, if I'm understanding the article correctly, it's saying they don't get drivers licenses, right?

The Mennonites I knew had computers, no beards but the women did wear dresses and little white caps, very nice people, always ready to offer help to the community.  We had Mennonite neighbors for awhile and went over their house for dinner, no tvs which I thought was cool, a radio on the religious station always and their kids got along so nicely.  They had a weird rule to become a member if you were married more than once you had to go back to your first spouse or divorce the second one.  So this couple, (second marraige for the guy), divorced his second wife and they lived right next to each other for the kid's sake just to become Mennonites, I thought that was totally messed up.

When we first moved there, my sister had all the kids, so it just me and Rick in the house we were renting anyways I toked up and we were doing what nature instilled upon us to do when we were without kids, (how's that for a different way of saying F*****g),  and all of a sudden a knock at the door.  Rick went to answer it, the house was filled with mj smoke and he comes back and says there are people here with food, I said, "get the f**k out of here".  Anyways there they were our 2 nice Mennonite neighbors with an awesome plate of homemade munchies!  That was just too sweet!

Oh yeah, they didn't say anything about the smoke, I don't think they knew what it was!

[John]

Oh yeah, they didn't say anything about the smoke, I don't think they knew what it was!

Maybe they didn't care what others smoke?
Maybe they were/are still that nice - - - after NOT having been brainwashed to bud into their neighbor's business?

[Raineyrocks]

Oh yeah, they didn't say anything about the smoke, I don't think they knew what it was!

Maybe they didn't care what others smoke?
Maybe they were/are still that nice - - - after NOT having been brainwashed to bud into their neighbor's business?

Maybe!

[eques]

"We are the administrator, not the creator, of state law..."

That's right, you're just following orders... just doing your job....

[Braddogg]

"We are the administrator, not the creator, of state law..."

That's right, you're just following orders... just doing your job....

Where's that .gif you had . . . .?

[KBCraig]

I knew a lot of Mennonites where I used to live, if I'm understanding the article correctly, it's saying they don't get drivers licenses, right?

No, they just get them without photos. It's not the licenses they're objecting to, it's the photos. I'd never heard of that issue in our local communities.

Mennonite communities are very individual in their rules and "issues". There are several communities near here in western/southwestern Arkansas where I grew up. None are so modern as to allow TVs and computers, but many have cell phones (it's very cute to see a traditional Mennonite woman with a cell phone clipped to the belt of her dress  ). The men are usually the backbone of their local volunteer fire departments, so they have pagers and radios.

I don't know much about their theology, but I admire their independence.

Kevin

[eques]

"We are the administrator, not the creator, of state law..."

That's right, you're just following orders... just doing your job....

Where's that .gif you had . . . .?

This one?



When I posted it before, I had something like a 3x3 grid of them or whatever.





I don't want to overdo it, of course, because it can get kind of spammy... but that .gif I made is scalable!