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Our monthly bible study is doing a series on religions and various denominations within the Christian religion. We are studying Atheism, Mormonism, J. Witness, Muslims, and several others, but not Amish. I brought the subject up yesterday and now, it fell on my shoulders, I need to report back in our Jan meeting. I am asking any of you that know anything about that and the Mennonites please let me know.
The Wikipedia article on the Amish is as good a place as any to start if you know nothing about them or their beliefs. There is an excellent American Experience (PBS) documentary that includes modern day Amish and how they live in 21st century America. Basically, they are Bible believing Christians who keep themselves separate to preserve their ways and beliefs.
Amish are like anyone else. There are good and bad among them. Keep in mind there is no one size fits all definition of Amish as the strictness of the "rules" can vary from county to county.
Their lives are centered on honoring God and having a close relationship with Him while on this earth. Which is why they are "plain" in their dress and style of living. Hard work is good. Sitting around is slothful, thus a sin. God can be honored by washing a floor to the best of your ability.
Amish speak a German dialect commonly referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch. (The Amish emigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland.) No paid clergy. Services are held in homes. Schooling stops after the eighth grade. At 16 children are encouraged to experience rumspringa (which means running around) and decide if they want to remain Amish.
Children are considered a gift from God. As is a good horse, land without a lot of rocks and a talent for making sausage. Amish are not adverse to making money. As is evidenced by the fact you can buy Amish-made baby Swiss cheese 2,000 miles from the Amish. They're also not adverse to saving the money they make selling baby Swiss to the English. (Their term for the non-Amish.) Money means the ability to buy land to farm, raise a family on that farm.... and keep the old ways
Last edited by DewDropInn; 11-10-2014 at 03:38 PM..
An example of "be careful what you ask for" I guess :-)
You are probably interested in the Old Order Amish. Google is your friend. I know that the main difference between Amish and Mennonite is that the Amish have a more extensive rejection of modern technology than the Mennonites, who, unlike the Amish, are okay with driving automobiles and having telephones and seem to have more purely stylistic concerns (type and color of dress and other possessions -- they favor black to avoid drawing attention to themselves). I tend to think of the Amish as mired in the 1850s and the Mennonites as mired in the 1930s. Which sort of underscores what I don't get about them, because what they reject as "modern" was modern once upon a time, and so presumably just as much a snare of the devil. Horse drawn buggies used to be modern technology. Living without modern technology is just kicking the can up (as opposed to down) the road. It solves nothing, IMO.
At one time I lived not far from an Amish community in Michigan and the scuttlebutt locally was that while the local Amish did not have phones in their homes, non-Amish neighbors, tired of Amish asking to use their phone to transact business, have been known to put an extension phone on the fenceline of their property so that their Amish neighbors could just pick it up when they need to use it :-)
Which sort of underscores what I don't get about them, because what they reject as "modern" was modern once upon a time, and so presumably just as much a snare of the devil. Horse drawn buggies used to be modern technology. Living without modern technology is just kicking the can up (as opposed to down) the road. It solves nothing, IMO.
Amish don't reject modern technology because it is a snare of the devil. They reject it because it separates them from God.
Amish believe ....the simpler the life....the easier it is to be close to God.
Our monthly bible study is doing a series on religions and various denominations within the Christian religion. We are studying Atheism, Mormonism, J. Witness, Muslims, and several others, but not Amish. I brought the subject up yesterday and now, it fell on my shoulders, I need to report back in our Jan meeting. I am asking any of you that know anything about that and the Mennonites please let me know.
Nita
Why is your bible study including atheism?
I agree with the others here that you can find good info online about the Amish. I remember watching some documentary once about the Amish and some guy burned his home down because they found mold (I think it was mold) in the house and had to burn it according to the Bible.
I have been to Pennsylvania where the Amish live. Many farms, no cars just horses, and lots of kids. The stores were selling quilts, furniture, pies and other stuff made by the Amish. I also know that some Amish run puppy mills, sadly.
Well okay. I don't regard lye soap and horse drawn plows as "simpler" but I guess it depends on your definition of "simple".
The point I was trying to make is the Amish don't use the devil as a reason for being plain. Amish don't see cars, as an example, as being from the devil or evil. They see it, instead, as something that could come between them and God. A horse is from God.
They have strong connections to the earth and nature. Fishing is an example. Amish enjoy fishing because it provides food, is something they can do with family and friends and it allows them to connect with God while enjoying nature. Which they believe is one of His gifts.
non-Amish neighbors, tired of Amish asking to use their phone to transact business, have been known to put an extension phone on the fenceline of their property so that their Amish neighbors could just pick it up when they need to use it :-)
I remember when I was just a little kid, we were driving through Amish country with my family and there was a phone booth by the side of a country road with not much around and there were a half dozen or so Amish teenagers in black suits and green and blue dresses waiting on line to use the phone. I still wonder who they were calling. My guess is Amish teenagers some distance away also standing next to a phone booth in the middle of farm country. This was back in the early 80s. I bet these days Amish kids bum cell phones from local kids.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DewDropInn
The point I was trying to make is the Amish don't use the devil as a reason for being plain. Amish don't see cars, as an example, as being from the devil or evil. They see it, instead, as something that could come between them and God. A horse is from God.
This is true, but I have also heard a buggy is not a buggy and that young men covet and save money for sleeker buggies with better springs and such and will modify stodgy hand-me-down buggies to make them more appealing to the young male need to have a cool ride even if by Amish standards.
Although the religion is too much for me, I admire and am fascinated by the Amish lifestyle.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
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Around where I live, there are no Amish, but a ton of Mennonites, who do not live on colonies, and Hutterites, who do. The Hutterites are closely akin to the Amish, except they DO have communal vehicles and the absolute best in farm equipment. You may want to include the Hutterites in your study. They have a number of sects, and each sect has distinctive clothing. There are the Schmiedeleut, the Dariusleut and the Lehrerleut. Interesting people, and like the Amish, Anabaptists.
As other have said, Mennonites can live on colonies, in tight communities, or they live in cities and towns like the rest of us and sometimes you cannot tell by their dress.
What's to know? A google on their belief will tell you that side...As for the people they're just like every other religion. The good and the bad all practice different religions...
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