The Nine are a group of people who were raised Hutterite, but felt the need to leave the community where they grew up and go into the rest of the world. They wrote a book about the experience, and will be in Yorkton to meet people and talk about what lead them to make the difficult decision to go. Glenda Mandel, Cindy Waldner, Sheryl Waldner, Rodney Waldner and Junia Waldner recently spoke to The News Review about their experience.
Mandel explains that the Hutterites are a group that believes in communal living, with a leadership of two ministers, a secretary, and a farm boss. Everyone in the community works for a common purse, with all of the money raised going into a common account.
The group says they had to leave because they could not feel spiritually fulfilled within the confines of the colony, and they felt that the isolation was hindering their religious experience. Rodney says that for him, he saw that for his faith he had to reach out and help others, something that was impossible from within the colony. Cindy adds that the culture within the colony made it difficult to reach out to people outside the colony, and the freedom to connect with others is what the group has gained since leaving.
"For me and my family, my dad accepted Jesus Christ at an older age, in his 40s, and he got excommunicated for it. Officially, he got excommunicated because he was asked if he could consider someone from the outside his brother or sister in the Lord, do you consider them a Christian, and he said yes," Rodney says.
"Often times in interviews we are asked, you grew up in this religious system, why didn't you just leave and forget about any religion? Every one of us left not because of the law and the control that is known to be in the Hutterite colony, we left to find fulfillment that was lacking in our hearts," Junia says.
"The freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, those things were all restricted. We didn't fully see in the colony how we were controlled, we had to come out and realize the bondage that we were in," Sheryl adds.
Mandel says that it's a culture where outward appearance is valued, so keeping up with traditions is the biggest priority for people within the colony. She says that if they did anything outside of what people were comfortable with, they would start to feel persecution.
"A good Hutterite is one that doesn't ask many questions. Whatever the Hutterite colony as a whole, the leaders decide this is what you do and you are obedient, you are a good Hutterite," Rodney says.
While it was something that the group needed to do, they say it was a challenge to take that step and leave the colony.
"Telling your parents and some of your friends that you're going to leave the Hutterite colony, that's the hardest part. They don't really don't outright say it, but in the back of your mind you think you're going to go to hell if you leave the Hutterite colony... Even taking off the dress and the head covering, that was hard for me," Mandel says.
"It was hard, because nobody had ever done it. The hardest things for me after leaving was having to think for myself and make decisions for myself, and it was my responsibility to make the right decision. That was the hardest thing but through it all it was freeing. It wasn't that we received freedom, we are receiving freedom every day. It has been very exciting to find new things, to learn new things we were not able to learn before," Junia says.
Expressing themselves was something that they had to learn, Cindy notes, because it was something that was discouraged in the colony.
"People that love us, they would ask what's in your heart, what do you feel? We all sat there blank, we didn't know what we felt, because we pushed things down so much that you don't know what you love anymore, you don't know your dreams. The most freeing thing was that once I made the decision that I was leaving it was so peaceful, because I had a whole new life ahead of me," Cindy says.
Mandel says that it was a challenge to reach out because the Hutterites have their own language and this also served to limit how they could interact with people outside. She says that talking in English was a barrier because they didn't feel comfortable with the language.
Now that they have been gone for seven years, they say that the book has become a way to reach out to people like themselves, who are struggling with a conflict between their personal faith and the restrictive structure of the colony. They say that the nature of the structure of the colony leads to oppression, not because of anything wrong with the people living under that structure.
"Leaders are also victims, because they learn from the people who came before... The system oppresses people. One thing I believe we shouldn't stand for is to take away somebody's free will, and in this case it's a freedom of religion," Rodney says.
"The reason that we wrote the book is because of love for the Hutterite people. We know that they are struggling with many of the things we are struggling with and we want them to get the message," Sheryl says.
Rodney adds that the book is for anyone who is struggling in their life and in their faith, because they have had struggles in their own journey towards a different life.
The Nine will be in Yorkton on November 6 at Coles for a book signing, to meet people and discuss their experience and their message. For more information visit www.thenine9.com.
