Amish

The Amish are a denomination of Anabaptists, found primarily in the United States and Ontario Canada. They are very similar to and often considered a subgroup of Mennonites. Indeed, the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites are often confused by non-Mennonites because of the many similarities between the two groups. This article deals primarily with the more visibly conservative Amish groups but it must be noted that many "modern" Mennonites still consider themselves to be Amish, often using terms like "Progressive" or "New Order" Amish to describe themselves, regardless of whether or not they attend church regularly.

In broader society, the Amish are mostly noted for their restrictions on the use of modern devices such as automobiles and electricity. However, it is important to note that there are many different groups of Amish from those most conservative buggy drivers to those indistingushable from modern society at first glance. The Amish are a tight-knit religious and ethnic group of overwhelmingly Swiss-German ancestry — a parallel can be drawn with the combined religious and cultural heritage meanings of being Jewish. They do not proselytise and conversion to the Amish faith is rare, as most "seekers" find the Amish way too alien to American individualism, or simply too demanding. The Amish are divided into dozens of separate and occasionally conflicting fellowships. They do not join the military and many do not use insurance, draw Social Security or accept any form of assistance from the government. Contrary to popular belief, they do vote, and have been courted by national parties as potentially crucial swing-constituencies: their pacifism and social conscience make them attractive to one major party, and their generally conservative outlook to another. They are nonresistant and rarely defend themselves physically or even in court; in wartime, they take conscientious objector status. Though geographically close to the outside world, the Amish are socially isolated from the rest of society, often viewing others as unspiritual and not adhering to the Scriptures.

History

Like the Mennonites, the Amish are descendants of the Swiss Anabaptists (1525). The Swiss Anabaptists, called the "Swiss Brethren", had their origins with Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel. The name "Mennonite" was applied later and came from Menno Simons (circa 1496–1561), who was an Anabaptist leader in the Rhein Lowlands. Simons was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who converted to Anabaptism in 1536 and was baptized by Obbe Philips after renouncing his Catholic faith and office. He was a leader in the Lowland Anabaptist communities, but his influence reached gradually into Switzerland.

The Amish movement takes its name from that of Jacob Amman (c. 1656 – c. 1730), a Swiss Mennonite. Amman felt that the Mennonites were drifting from close adherence to the teachings of Simons and the 1632 Mennonite Dordrecht Confession of Faith. Much of the laxity was in the area of shunning excluded members, also called the ban (or Meidung in Pennsylvania German). However, the Swiss Mennonites never did practice strict shunning as the Lowland Anabaptists did. The ban meant that believers would terminate contact with a non-conforming member of the Mennonite society. Amman insisted upon this practice, even to the point of a spouse's refusing to sleep or eat with the banned member until he/she repented of his/her behavior.

This strict literalism brought about a division of the Swiss Mennonites, who, because of unwelcoming conditions in Switzerland, were scattered throughout Alsace to the Palatinate. This division occurred in 1693, and led to the establishment of the Amish. Because the Amish are the result of a division with the Mennonites, some consider the Amish a conservative Mennonite group—and, indeed, some Amish would not disagree with this title. Some Amish began to migrate to the United States in the 18th century. Many would eventually settle in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; the first immigrants actually went to Berks County, but later moved, motivated partly by security issues, tied to the French and Indian War, and land issues. Other groups settled in or spread to Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Tennesee, Wisconsin, Maine, and Canada.

Amish split in two

Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not ultimately retain their Amish identity. In fact, many more of the early communities eventually lost their Amish identity and gradually took on a Mennonite identity. The original major split that would result in the loss of identity occurred in the 1860s. During that decade Dienerversammlungen (ministerial conferences) were held in Wayne County, Ohio, concerning how the Amish should deal with the pressures of modern society. The meetings themselves were a progressive idea; that bishops should get together to discuss uniformity was an unprecedented notion in the Amish church. By the first several meetings, the conservative bishops agreed to boycott the Dienerversammlungen. Thus, the more progressive Amish within several decades became Amish-Mennonite, and were then later absorbed into the "Old" Mennonites (not to be confused with Old Order Mennonites). The much smaller faction became the Amish of today.

Lifestyle

Amish lifestyle is dictated by the Ordnung of the community. Ordnung differ from community to community, and, within a community, from district to district. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. No summary of Amish lifestyle can be totally adequate because there are few generalities that are true for all Amish. Groups may separate over matters such as the width of a hat-brim, the use of tobacco (permitted among older and more conservative groups), the color of buggies, etc.

Modern technology

Many Amish, especially those of the Old Order, are renowned for their avoidance of modern technologies. The avoidance of items such as automobiles and electricity is largely misunderstood. The Amish do not view all technology as evil. Technologies can be petitioned for acceptance into the Amish lifestyle. In some communities, the church leaders meet to review items for admittance. In others, it is done whenever necessary. Because the Amish, like other Mennonites, and unlike the Catholic or Anglican Churches, do not have a top-down governing structure, differing communities often have different ideas as to which technological items are acceptable.

Electricity, for instance, is viewed as a connection to the "World", the "English", or "Yankees" (the outside world). The use of electricity also could lead to the use of household appliances that would complicate the Amish tradition of a simple life, and introduce individualist competition for worldly goods that would be destructive of community. However, in certain Amish groups, electricity can be used in very specific situations. In some groups, for example, it has to be produced without access to outside power lines. Twelve-volt batteries are acceptable to these groups. Electric generators can only be used for welding, recharging batteries, and powering milk stirrers. The reasoning behind the twelve-volt system is that it limits what an individual can do with the electricity and acts as a preventive measure against potential abuses. Most twelve-volt power sources can't generate enough current to power what is viewed as worldly, modern appliances such as televisions, light bulbs, and hair dryers. In certain situations, outdoor electrical appliances may be used: lawn mowers (riding and hand-pushed) and string trimmers, for example.

Amish communities often adopt compromise solutions involving technology which may seem strange to outsiders. For example, many communities will allow gas powered farm equipment such as tillers or mowers, but only if they are pushed by a human or pulled by a horse. The reasoning is that Amish farmers will not be tempted to purchase more land and outcompete other farmers in their community if they still have to move the equipment manually. Many Amish communities also accept the use of chemical pesticides and GM crops. Again, it is not technology itself, but rather its potential negative effects on the community, which the Amish wish to avoid.

Hochmut and Demut

Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their horror of "Hochmut" (pride) and the high value they place on "Demut" or "humility" and "Gelassenheit" — often rendered "submission" or "letting-be," but perhaps better understood as a reluctance to forward or assert oneself in any way. The willingness to submit to the Will of God, as expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture. The anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on neighbors, or which, like electricity, might start a competition for status-goods, or which, like photographs, might cultivate individual or family vanity. It is also the proximate cause for rejecting education beyond the eighth grade, especially speculative study which has little practical use for farm-life but which may awaken personal and materialistic ambitions. The emphasis on competition and the uncritical assumption that self-reliance is a good thing, cultivated in American high schools, are in direct opposition to core Amish values.

Amish Separatism

The Amish often cite three Bible verses which encapsulate their cultural attitudes:

"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" (II Corinthians 6:14)

"Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord." (II Corinthians 6:17)

“And be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

The Amish prefer to have minimal contact with non-Amish. However, increased prices for farmland and decreasing revenues for low-tech farming have forced many Amish to work away from the farm (particularly in construction and factory-labor), and in those areas where there is a significant tourist trade, to engage in crafts for profit. The Amish are ambivalent about both the consequences of this contact and the commodification and consequent denaturing of their culture. The decorative arts play little role in authentic Amish life (though the prized Amish quilts are a genuine cultural inheritance, unlike hex signs), and are in fact regarded with suspicion, as a field where egotism and vain display can easily develop.

Language

In addition to English, most Amish speak a distinctive High German dialect called Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch, which the Amish themselves call Deitsch (German).

The so-called Swiss Amish speak an Alemannic German dialect that they call "Swiss". Finally, more progressive Beachy Amish, especially those who were born roughly after 1960, tend to speak predominantly in English at home. Amish children learn German first, and are taught English in school. However, children regularly learn English from older siblings as well.

The Amish travel between settlements, separated by many hundreds of miles and are quick to recognize dialectal variations, for instance, between Lancaster County and Indiana speech-varieties.

Dress

Dress code for some groups includes prohibitions against buttons, allowing only hooks and eyes to keep clothing closed; other groups allow members to sew buttons onto clothing. In some groups, certain articles can have buttons and others cannot. (The reason for the restriction on buttons is their former association with the military.) In all things, the aesthetic value is "plainness:" one's clothing should not call attention to the wearer by cut, color or any other feature.

Telephone booth set up by an "English" farmer for emergency use by local Amish families.

An Amish man will typically be clean-shaven as long as he is single. Upon getting married, he will grow a beard. In some communities, however, a man will grow a beard after he is baptized. Mustaches are generally not allowed because they are seen as symbols of the military, a custom with origins in the religious and political persecution in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Men of the nobility and upper classes, who often served as military officers, wore mustaches but not beards. The wearing of beards, however, is largely based on the same prohibition against shaving that leads Hasidic Jews to not shave their beards.

Other

The Amish and other Anabaptists do not believe that a child can be meaningfully baptized; this is, in fact, reflected in the name Anabaptist (which means "rebaptizer", as the Anabaptists would baptize adults). Amish children are expected to follow the will of their parents in all issues; but, when they come of age, they are expected to make an adult, permanent commitment to the church.

Of course, many young people make the opposite choice. There is a period known as "rumspringa" ("herumspringen,"< "running around," "jumping about") which is widely misunderstood outside the Amish world. It is the general term for adolescence, and the period leading up to serious courtship, which is connected to permanent commitment to the Amish life. As in non-Amish families, it is understood as a practical matter that there will likely be a certain amount of misbehavior during this period, but it is neither expected nor winked-at. Some choose not to join the church but to live the rest of their lives in the society at large. Some communities will actively shun those who decide to leave the church, even those going to a different Amish congregation with different interpretations of how things ought to be done. Still other communities practice hardly any shunning, keeping close family and social contact with those who leave the church. Some communities have split in the last century over how they apply the shunning, as in the case of the Holmes County (and area) Amish settlement.

Amish buggy rides offered in tourist-oriented Shipshewana, Indiana.

Amish communities may be slightly or even drastically different from each other. These differences can appear from district to district even within the same community. When describing details of dress codes, lifestyles, etc., a careful writer will note the specific community being discussed. These differences range from profound (such as groups like the "black bumper Amish" (Beachy Amish) who have come to accept chromeless automobiles and are widely seen as non-Amish by other groups) to what we may consider trivial (such as the disagreements between "one suspender" and "two suspender" groups or how many pleats there are in a bonnet). Groups with similar policies are held to be "in fellowship" and consider each other members of the same Christian church. These groups can visit and intermarry between one another, an important consideration to avoid problems with inbreeding. Thus minor disagreements within communities over dairy equipment or telephones in workshops can become splinter churches and divide multiple communities.

The Amish as a whole feel the pressures of the modern world. Child labor laws, for example, are seriously threatening their long-established ways of life. Amish children are taught at an early age (by modern 21st century standards) to work hard. Amish parents will supervise the children in new tasks to ensure that they learn to do it effectively and safely. The modern child labor laws conflict with allowing the Amish parents to decide whether or not their children are competent in hazardous tasks.

Genetic Disorders

As almost all of the current Amish descend from the same few hundred founders in the 18th century, they have been plagued by inheritable genetic disorders. Some of these disorders are quite rare, in some cases even unique, and some are very serious. These disorders affect the children and have led to a higher mortality rate among them. The majority of the Amish accept these as "Gottes Wille" (God's will) and reject any use of genetic tests prior to the marriage to prevent the appearance of these disorders and refuse genetic tests to the fetus to discover if a child has any genetic disorder.

However, there is sometimes genetic diversity from one community to another if the historical relationships between these communities are distant enough. Genetic diseases which are common in one community, will often be absent in another. For example, although within the Lancaster County Amish, there are only a few founding families, these founding families are quite distant to the founding families of the Perth County Amish community in Canada. There is an increasing consciousness among the Amish of the advantages of exogamy.

Many parents are using modern technology to care for their children. Treating these genetic problems is the mission of Dr. Holmes Morton's Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, which has developed effective treatment for such problems as maple syrup urine disease, which previously was fatal. The clinic has been enthusiastically embraced by most Amish and has largely ended a situation in which some parents felt it necessary to leave the community to care properly for their children, which normally would result in being shunned.

A second research and primary care clinic, patterned after Dr. Holmes Morton’s clinic, DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children, is located in Middlefield, Ohio. The DDC Clinic began treating special needs children with inherited or metabolic disorders in May 2002. The DDC Clinic provides treatment, research and educational services to Amish and non-Amish children and their families – the DDC Clinic is open to all children.

Insurance and Taxes

Like many Mennonites, many Amish do not use insurance, relying on their church and community for support. An example of such support is barn raising, in which the entire community gathers together to replace a barn, which has been destroyed by fire or some natural disaster, in a single day.

Amish Acres, an Amish crafts and tourist attraction in Nappanee, Indiana.

In the US the Amish pay the same taxes that anyone else pays, but as a rule they do not buy insurance - including Social Security. In 1961, the IRS announced that since the Amish refuse Social Security benefits and have a religious objection to insurance, they need not pay these taxes. In 1965, this policy was codified into law. [1] Self-employed individuals in certain sects do not pay into, nor receive benefits from, Social Security, nor do their similarly-exempt employees. Amish employees of non-exempt employers are taxed, but do not apply for benefits. A provision of this law mandates that the sect provide for their elderly and disabled. The Amish are not the only ones exempt from Social Security. Ministers, certain church employees and Christian Science practitioners may qualify for exemption under a similar clause. Overall, the Amish pay more in taxes, especially real estate taxes, than it costs for the minimal government services they receive.

Health Care

Because they lack insurance, the Amish sometimes encounter difficulty receiving medical care. A handful of hospitals, starting in the mid 1990s, created special outreach programs to assist the Amish. The first of such programs was instituted at the Susquehana Health System in central Pennsylvania by James H. Huebert. The program has earned national media attention and spread to several surrounding hospitals. [2]

Population growth and distribution

The Amish reside in close-knit communities in 47 states of the United States as well as Ontario, Canada. The largest concentrations of Amish in the United States are in Holmes County, Ohio, LaGrange County, Indiana, and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. By state, the largest Amish population is in Ohio, and the second largest in Pennsylvania. There are an estimated 150,000 to 228,000 Amish in the United States in all groups, and another 1500 in Ontario, Canada in 1990. Some Beachy Amish have relocated to Central America in an attempt to remove themselves from the influences of modern society, including a sizable settlement near San Ignacio, Belize. Predictions of the disappearance of the Amish have been overturned as the past twenty years have seen a surprising increase in the number of young people making permanent commitments to the faith.

Most Amish do not practice birth control, including barrier methods such as condoms, or even rhythm. With an average of seven children per family, it has been difficult to obtain sufficient farmland to provide for this growth. Consequently, there are constantly new Amish communities being formed, and the number of states with Amish communities has grown from 22 to at least 47 in the last fifteen years. Ever larger numbers of Amish men are employed away from home. This is a cause for concern among the Amish, who consider the unity of home, work and family to be essential to God's way.

The strictest Amish groups are the Nebraska Amish, Troyer Amish and the Swartzendruber Amish groups. The Amish Communities in Webster County Missouri are also some of the strictest Old Order Amish. The language used in Old Order Amish homes and in many Beachy Amish homes is Pennsylvania German (or "Pennsylvania Dutch"). English is used with the outside world.

Amish that leave the old ways often remain near their community, and in general, there are levels of progression from strict Amish gradually to more liberal groups (usually Mennonite).

Education

In 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were fined $5 each for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court concurred, finding that the benefits of universal education do not justify violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court quoted sociology professor John A. Hostetler (1918-2001), who was born into an Amish family, wrote several books about the Amish, Hutterites, and Old Order Mennonites, and was then considered the foremost academic authorities on the Amish. (Currently, Donald Kraybill may hold that distinction.)

Other

People who are not well acquainted with Mormonism and the Amish sometimes confuse the two, despite the vast differences between them. These misconceptions can sometimes be perpetuated in the mass media. For example, the film Witness is centered on an Amish community. However, the Spanish and French versions of this film mistranslated "Amish" as "Mormon". Roseanne Barr has played on this misconception by referring to Mormons as "Nazi Amish".

It is also common to confuse Quakers with the Amish. The early Quakers were influenced to some degree by the Anabaptists. The most meaningful connection between the two groups in modern day is their common expressed belief in the importance of peace over violence.

The 2002 documentary Devil's Playground is another film about the Amish community, focusing on the Amish tradition of Rumspringa.

The Amish have, on occasion, encountered discrimination and hostility from their neighbors. During the World Wars, Amish pacifism sparked many incidents of harassment, and young Amish men forcibly inducted into the services were subjected to various forms of ill-treatment. In the present day, anti-Amish sentiment has taken the form of systematic harassment, particularly claipping, the act of pelting the horse-drawn carriages used by the Amish with stones or similar objects as the carriages pass along a road, most commonly at night (claip is apparently a derogatory term directed at the Amish in some localities; its origin is uncertain). A 1988, made-for-TV film, A Stoning In Fulham County, is based on a true story involving one such incident, in which a six-month-old Amish infant girl was struck in the head by a rock and died from her injuries. In 1997, a young Amish woman in Milverton, Ontario, Canada was struck in the face by a beer bottle believed to have been thrown from a passing car; she required thousands of dollars' worth of surgery to her face (which was paid for by an outpouring of donations from the public). It was later found that this was not a case of 'claipping', as the bottle had been thrown by another group of Amish youth in a passing buggy.

On July 28, 2004, UPN began airing Amish in the City, a reality television series which involved five Amish teenagers being installed in a house in the Hollywood Hills to experience "American" culture and to decide at the show's end whether to rejoin their own culture (a variant of the Amish tradition of Rumspringa). It was later revealed that these Amish youths were already living apart from their Amish parents prior to the show.

External links

General Interest

Amish Culture and Tourism

Amish 101 - Amish Beliefs, History & Lifestyle
Pennsylvania Dutch
Amish links
"Amish Series & Articles" - from Amish Country News

Amish, Government and the Law

The Gentle People - Legal Affairs article about how incest is handled in the Amish community
An article about a hate crime against the Amish in Wisconsin

Amish Genetic Disorders

Genetic Disorders Hit Amish Hard - from 60 Minutes, CBS News
"Family Ties" - Article from University of Miami "Medicine" magazine, Spring 2004 During a lifetime of studying the Old Order Amish in central Pennsylvania, University of Miami professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Janice Egeland, Ph.D., discovers the genetic clues behind the mystery of bipolar disorder and helps generations of families cope with the devastating disease.

Amish and Technology

Look Who's Talking - Wired article about the Amish's selective and not technophobic use of technology

In Pennsylvania Dutch

Amish

Amish

History

Amish split in two

Lifestyle

Modern technology

Hochmut and Demut

Amish Separatism

Language

Dress

Other

Genetic Disorders

Insurance and Taxes

Health Care

Population growth and distribution

Education

Other

See also

Further reading from Amish sources

Further reading from non-Amish sources

External links