Mennonites

As for what happened in your town growing up, I doubt it would be due to the Mennonite religion thing. If you think about it, its rather easy for a town to turn on some minority. Its not each person in the town knowing you individualy, its all in rumors and speculation. They hear "Oh, that the heathen family. You know they are into teh bukkake" or something like that. Mennonism (sic?) is just the scapegoat in this situation. It could have been anything. You were diffrent, thats all.

And when it comes to religion, people forget that one should "make their own yard the focus of their cleaning" or something like that.

I know that explainng away a microcosm like that is not going to make your childhood seem less crapped on, but I was hoping that I could help a little with my viewpoint.

Small towns suck in general. People are so fucking small-minded that all they can do is sit around gossiping. Whenever I go back to my home town it sickens me how everyone is into everyone else's business. When I was in high school my mom would always grill me for gossip about this kid or that, and I'd be like "Who the fuck is that? I don't know every kid in my grade, you know, and I really don't care to". Nobody in my family could understand the concept of minding your own damn business, and that was perfectly normal. I'll never live in a small town again.