In the valley of the shadow

Description:

This compassionate examination of the dilemmas facing the Amish and Mennonite communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania focuses on the controversy surrounding construction of a 600-unit retirement complex on prime farmland. Through interviews, personal accounts, and newspaper reports of the controversy, Randy-Michael Testa traces the cultural and economic erosion that is threatening a unique minority, and Ed Worteck's evocative photos capture a physical destruction indicative of greater moral decay. The interplay of politics, deception, bigotry, and beleaguered faith succumbing to the age of technology vividly portrays "a place struggling to keep its spiritual dignity, a place where modernity thunders over tradition, as time races ahead."

subjects: Amish,  Mennonites,  Pictorial works,  Politics and government,  Real estate development,  Social conditions,  Mennonites, social life and customs,  Lancaster county (pa.), history,  Pennsylvania, politics and government

Places: Earl (Lancaster County : Township),  Earl (Lancaster County, Pa. : Township),  Mill Creek Valley (Lancaster County),  Mill Creek Valley (Lancaster County, Pa.),  Pa. : Township) Earl (Lancaster County,  Pa.) Mill Creek Valley (Lancaster County,  Pennsylvania