Posted on 06/11/2005 1:55:31 PM PDT by NYer
I know a few Mennonites that are connected to Georgia. One family I know moved there years ago.
Yes, those were Mennos.
Either way. Are you familiar with HD?
None in my family, but I am relatively familiar with it from a medical historian's standpoint and from my interest in genetics.
Learn something every day, if I'm lucky.
They looked like nice girls, they were youngish teenagers, maybe 14-16, and they were having a good time laughing and chatting and walking on the beach. (Would they have been shocked at all the abbreviated bathing attire, or do they just figure it's "those English" and their strange ways?) Funny to think that my 17 year old daughter, who is very modest by conventional standards and will only wear a one piece bathing suit, is probably considered completely abandoned by those girls . . .
To be honest with you, I think they would have liked to have gone for a swim, but are forbidden by THE CHURCH...
Do they learn how to swim, though? Is (sex-segregated) attendance at the "old swimmin' hole" permitted?
I don't think the Hornings swim at all. One lady I know told me she had NEVER been in the water in her life. She was in her 50's.
Not sure about the others but the ones I know out here swim in their own private ponds and only let other Mennos come and swim, usually at segregated times. We used to go swimming at one Menno pond and there were certain hours for women/girls and young children and other hours for the boys/men.
AND NO SWIMSUITS. Some swam in their dresses, some made funny cape dress with bloomer legs.
On a similar note I have a dear friend who was 'recruited' heavily to join a small Mormon community in the Idaho mountains. He was tall and strong, and they were honestly looking to widen and stengthen the gene pool. It was kind of scary in retrospect, but he got a lot of good free meals for about 6 months...
I think everybody ought to know how to swim, purely as a self-preservation issue.
Don't forget the most inbred bunch of goons in history: the royal families of Europe.
Don't forget the most inbred bunch of goons in history: the royal families of Europe. >>>
You're right about that. And don't forget their "god"
Rasputin, took care of some of their problems.
That's just great. Interbreeding on the one extreme and homosexuality on the other. Not much of a future there, genetically speaking. Seriously, I think a problem with these insular, legalistic groups is pride. That, and a stubborness to accept change even when it makes sense. I don't know what the answer is when a group is so legalistic that legalism becomes their religion. Often in Christianity when a group becomes too legalistic, there will be a schism and people will go their separate ways (even if to form new legalistic groups). How does one begin to tell a group of people who all originated from the same 1,000 ancestors 400 years ago that they literally ARE wrong?
The Mennonites that are extremely liberal are also NOT the ones who dress plain as I showed in my examples above. They dress in typical American modern clothing. They are more "peace and justice" types who are anti-war, into action for "the poor" and so on.
I intereviewed for a job as music director for a Church of the Brethren chuch last year. The Brethren also have anabaptist roots and some of the groups: German Baptist Brethren, Dunkard Brethren, and some Church of the Brethren churches in our area are still conservative in dress and beliefs. They would NOT condone homosexuality.
To make a long story short, my interview with that particular (liberal) Brethren church came to an abrupt conclusion when they informed me that they have a gay couple on their church board.... this was after I told them my position on homosexuality of course....
Sad but most interesting dilemma.
Th eproblem is not that the Amish are marrying overly close (i.e., first) cousins. It's that EVERYONE in their family trees are related.
So, let's say there's an different abnormal recessive genes you may carry. But only 1 in a thousand people have those abnormal genes. If you marry a random person to whom you are completely unrelated, YOu have only a 1 in 1000 chance of marrying someone with any one of the same abormal genes you have.
But if you marry your sister, she shares 50% of your genes. So you have a 50-50 chance of both of you passing on the same abnormal gene, in which casem your child would have no functional genes, and would then exhibit the abnormality.
If you marry your first cousin, she carries 25% of your genes. Your second cousin carries only 12.5% of your genes. Now that's getting reasonably safe. Your third cousin carries only 6.25% of your genes, and your fourth cousin, only 3.125% of your genes. Normally, that's a reasonably low risk.
But here's the problem with the Founder effect:
Let's say you marry a woman who is your third cousin. From that relationship, you pick up a 6.25% chance of sharing a damaging recessive gene. But she's a third cousin two different ways, so your risk is now 12.5%. And she's a fourth cousin six different ways. That's another 12.5% risk.
And she's your fifth cousin 20 different ways. And with every step removal, she's your cousin in more ways.
Now, I'm simplifying some math here. If you have 10 1-in-10 chances of an event happening, there is not a 100% chance the event happens. Random chances are linked, so it's not 10%+10%+10%..., but rather 1-(.9*.9*.9,....) So the further you go out (i.e., 12th cousin), the numbers quit simply halving themselves, and start becoming more and more less than half. Otherwise it'd be a certainty we'd all have every genetic ailment, since we're all related, and all our relatives are related, etc., etc.
But you see the problem with the founder's effect, no?
This is so sad. Good people by and large and now they deal with a problem without a solution. Unless they want to abandon their way of life and marry outside.
Interesting thread!
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