> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ‘The Forbidden’ Beverly Lewis • Bethany House - URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-forbidden-beverly-lewis-bethany-house/ - Published: 2008-07-26T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T00:24:21.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import *By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview* Change happens. Things must develop and grow. Yet in a small community of Amish things tend to stagnate. Then all at once new ideas and new ways of doing things intrude upon the community. Choices must be made. Change must be allowed or denied. When most of us hear “Amish” we think of people atop horse and buggy and wearing hats. We don’t think progress and modern ways. We think of families of about eight children on the average. Farming comes to mind as the means of livelihood. The truth is, the Amish community is currently in the midst of being confronted by change. During the mid-1960s there was a growing debate among the Pennsylvania Amish about tractors and other modern connivances. People were gathering to hold Bible studies without the bishop’s consent. This was leading to a revival among the Amish. It is around this actual historical event that Beverly Lewis writes her series known as “The Courtship of Nellie Fisher.” “The Forbidden” is the second book in the trilogy Nellie Fisher is the strong and loving main character who sacrifices all to hold together the split between the old ways and the uprising of the New Order Amish church. The tension is between her family’s new beliefs and her love for Caleb Yoder who holds staunchly to his old-order beliefs. If he marries Nellie he loses the farm which is his inheritance. The land has been in the family for many generations and his father wishes to pass it on to his son. But to keep it, Caleb must marry a woman of the old-order. To keep it he must persuade Nellie to give up her family’s belief system and the family bakery she runs almost single-handedly. “I expect you to marry a respectable girl from one of the families in our church. It’s the only way to get your land,” his father tells him. That is one plot. The other has to do with the desire of Rhoda to be part of the world around her. Electricity and phones as well as cars were forbidden, of course. We see a split forming within the Amish community over the old order and the new way. The old order wants to keep things simple and in its time-honored belief system. The new way wants to allow freedom of each member to determine the teachings found in the Christian faith. The theme of this book is change. The premise is that real, lasting change divides even the most tightly-knit families. An example of that is the splitting of a family over systems. In the first book of this series we saw the unselfish giving of twins to a cousin who is unable to bear children. In this book the twins are taken back because of the difference in belief systems. Another change is seen as Rhoda seeks a car, a phone and a life in the city away from her family. As the book ends we are left unsure about the love between Nellie Mae and Caleb because of the difference in belief. The third book in the series should be able to tie up all the loose ends. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)