Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is home to the largest settlement of Amish in the world. The Amish, also referred to as “Plain People,” prioritize “family, farm, and faith” and “take seriously the Biblical commands to separate themselves from the things of the world.”

Unfortunately, the “things of the world,” including politicians with hidden agendas, are wont to intrude on the Amish and their peaceful way of life. Thanks to an unfounded measles story propagated by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen—and helpfully magnified by the media—Lancaster currently finds itself in an unwelcome spotlight.

The narrative about a “measles-associated death” in an Amish newborn who “tested positive for measles” (the PCR test’s usefulness for getting disease ops going never ceases to amaze) picked up steam despite Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni’s emphatic verdict that measles had nothing to do with the death, and despite County Commissioner Joshua Parsons’ immediate public questioning of the deception (which also featured a second alleged fatality for which zero details have been forthcoming).

Measles ops have proven to be highly effective for ramming through political agendas, as Californians found out in 2015 when the state used a declared Disneyland “outbreak” to accomplish its goal of deleting the right to nonmedical vaccine exemptions. Is it any coincidence, then, that in the same week it was drumming up measles drama, the Shapiro administration introduced proposed regulations “reminiscent of COVID lockdown-era government policy,” which would allow government officials to “enter private residences without warrants, and seek private health information without consent”? (See the September 3 Money & Markets, timestamp 1:40:31, for more discussion of the Shapiro administration’s attempt to “radically rewrite his state’s health code.”)

Both Celia Farber (at her Truth Barrier blog on Substack) and the Health Freedom Defense Fund (at HFDF’s Substack) have provided excellent analysis of what the weaponization of measles mania against the Amish might portend. Warning of “red psy op flags on steroids” and fearing “another Waco,” Farber says, “Discern the pattern: War on the Amish, war on exemptions, [and] war on Christianity, home schooling, AND home births.”

HFDF, for its part, offers several plausible motives for the “calculated scaremongering,” including not just using the Amish as a handy foil to target the unvaccinated but, equally ominously, going after a “deeper economic subtext”: the Amish own “vast tracts of Lancaster County’s most coveted real estate.” As HFDF elaborates:

“Driven by elite soil quality, massive agricultural productivity, and intense development pressure, this land is exceptionally valuable…. With some of the richest, most productive, non-irrigated soils on earth, Lancaster County ranks #1 in Pennsylvania and consistently lands in the top 20 counties nationwide for total agricultural market value, generating roughly $1.5 billion in annual sales through traditional farming methods…. The Amish offer living proof that small, decentralized farms can out-earn massive corporate operations per acre—all while completely bypassing the multi-million-dollar equipment loops, synthetic chemicals, and patent-protected seeds of modern agriculture.”

Successful Amish farms have been recurrent targets of federal agencies. Most recently, objecting to his sales of raw dairy products, the USDA has been persecuting farmer Amos Miller, who built up a 4,000-member private buyers club.

Outsiders tend to vacillate between romanticizing the pastoral Amish life (“evoked by pundits, writers, Hollywood scriptwriters, cartoonists, pie and donut lovers, and sociologists”) and, with more hostility, portraying the “Plain People” as “outmoded” and “technologically backward.” We choose to congratulate the Amish for not just surviving but prospering—all the while keeping their “family, farm, and faith” priorities straight. And in the current context—where vaccination becomes ever-more-politicized and land grabs abound—we invite you to include this resilient community in your prayers.