The Hutterite Punishment Where Nobody Speaks to You

On a Hutterite colony there are no police, no fines and no jail. Nobody is paid, so nobody can lose a day's wages. There is only one thing the colony can take from a man: his peace. When the church takes it, he eats apart. He doesn't sit with the others in church. He keeps working, but alone. And when it ends well, it ends one way: with the man standing up in front of the whole congregation. In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada had to decide whether a colony had done this properly to one of its own. Six judges to one, it said no. I'm Andreas Wurz, a Hutterite. I keep the books on a colony of 150 people in southern Alberta. IN THIS VIDEO • Unfriedn: the word for "un-peace," and why peace is all a Hutterite really owns • The ladder: a minister's visit, the council, shunning, the ban, and leaving the colony • What it looks like: meals apart, no handshakes, and how long it lasts • Who decides, and why the punishment is "offered" and must be accepted • Why children are never put under it • How a man is taken back, and the bread passed without a word • Lakeside Colony v. Hofer (1992): a colony secretary, a feeder he said he invented, and the Supreme Court • "Natural justice requires procedural fairness, no matter how obvious the decision" • The 1992 split of the Schmiedeleut, and an older case from 1970 • The part we've got wrong: when silence is used in a quarrel about who's in charge Tell me in the comments: Has anybody ever stopped speaking to you as a punishment, in a family, a workplace, a church? Did it bring you back, or push you further away? If you had been one of those judges in 1992, would you have sided with the colony or with the man? I read every one. SOURCES Victor John Peters, "The Hutterians: History and Communal Organization of a Rural Group," Manitoba Historical Society Transactions (1960–61): https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/hutterites.shtml John A. Hostetler, "Hutterites," Encyclopedia of World Cultures: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hutterites Lakeside Colony of Hutterian Brethren v. Hofer, [1992] 3 S.C.R. 165 (Supreme Court of Canada, October 29, 1992) Hofer v. Hofer, [1970] S.C.R. 958 (Supreme Court of Canada) Donald W. Huffman, "Life in a Hutterite Colony," reposted on hutterites.org: https://hutterites.org/beliefs/donald-w-huffman-life-hutterite-colony/ Rod Janzen, "The Hutterites and the Bruderhof," Goshen College (2005): https://archive.goshen.edu/news/october-2005-janzen/ "Hutterites," Peaceful Societies, UNC Greensboro: https://peacefulsocieties.uncg.edu/societies/hutterites/ Kenny Wollmann, "The Shunning," Ask a Hutterite (2012): https://askahutterite.com/2012/06/26/reflection-american-colony-episode-2-the-shunning/ Hans Kräl, "Hutterite Community Life ca. 1570," from The Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, reprinted in Preservings (2025): https://www.plettfoundation.org/?p=3751 "Hutterite Ten Points of Baptism," Plough Quarterly (2022): https://www.plough.com/articles/hutterite-ten-points-of-baptism Hutterian Brethren, Questions and Answers About the Faith: https://hutterites.org/beliefs/questions-answers-faith-hutterian-brethren/ Hutterian Brethren, The Schmiedeleut Split: https://hutterites.org/the-leut/origins-leut/split/ Hutterian Brethren, Organizational Structure: https://hutterites.org/day-to-day/structure/ Ingoldsby, "Hutterite Families," International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hutterite-families Alvin J. Esau, "The Judicial Resolution of Church Property Disputes," Alberta Law Review 40:4 (2003): https://albertalawreview.com/index.php/ALR/article/download/1341/1330/1452 Alvin J. Esau, The Courts and the Colonies (UBC Press, 2004): https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-courts-and-the-colonies Royden Loewen, review in Manitoba History 52 (2006): https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/MB_history/52/hutteritelitigation.shtml Dawn Walton, "Family feud lifts veil on private world of Hutterite colony," The Globe and Mail (January 20, 2003) Carol Maendel, hutterites.org (2013): https://hutterites.org/beliefs/nine-misrepresentation/ About the narrator: Andreas Wurz is a composite character. His voice and image are AI-generated. The facts in this video come from the sources above. Practice differs from colony to colony and between the three branches; the story of the man passed the bread is the narrator's, told as an illustration.