Amish

[Mikhail]

Someone said they were interested in hearing about the Amish, Mennonites, etc. Is anyone interested?

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

I am

[cmotherofpirl]

I live in Amish country.

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

how is that?

[Mikhail]

Even people who live in the heart of Amish community have no idea what really goes on in the Amish religion and what they really believe. Would you like to hear about their history or what they are like today?

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

are you Amish or a mennonite?

[Cam42]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' date='Sep 1 2005, 10:19 PM']I live in Amish country.
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I grew up in Amish country....Iowa. The Amana colonies.....about three hours southeast of my hometown.....but the Amish are everywhere....just have to look.

[Paladin D]

[i]The Amish reside in close-knit communities in 22 states of the United States as well as Ontario, Canada. The largest concentrations of Amish in the United States are in [b]Holmes County, Ohio [/b]and [b]Lancaster County, Pennsylvania[/b]. By state, the largest Amish population is in [b]Ohio[/b], and the second largest in [b]Pennsylvania[/b]. There are an estimated 228,000 Amish in the United States in all groups, and another 1500 in Ontario, Canada.[/i]

[url="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Amish"]http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Amish[/url]



I grew up about 24-30 miles from Lancaster County.

[Semperviva]

couple days ago i saw an amish kid and his mom in WALMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[they defintely aren't distributist : ]
i respect them alot they seem to uderstand the dignity of the person not less, but more,
for covering themselves...so they are somewhat calvinist in their beliefs right?

[picchick]

Sure I am interested.

[Mikhail]

No, I'm not Amish or Mennonite, although my parents raised us with similar beliefs. My mom and one of my sister's still wear head coverings and dresses. I worked in an Amish community when went to their services for several years.

The Amish and Mennonite population doubles every 20 years. The Amish are the largest cult in the world today.

The Mennonites followed the teachings of Menno Simons, an Anabaptist from the reformation. The Amish broke off from the Mennonite church some time later. A man named Jakob Ammon decided that anyone who didn't believe exactly like he did, should be "shunned". Ironically, Jakob Ammon changed his views later and was excommunicated and shunned by his followers. I wrote a paper on the roots of the Mennonites and Amish and how they ended up in the US. If anyone is interested in that, I can post it.

Amish today are extremely different from the original Anabaptists. For one, there are over 300 different "ordnungs" which is sort of a Catechism. Every community has their own Bishop, who has an almost "Pope" like authority.

Here is what "How stuff Works.com" has to say about the Amish:

"The Amish believe in literal interpretation of the Bible. The Ordnung is designed to ensure that all members of the church live life according to the scriptures. A member of the Amish Church must live a simple life devoted to God, family and community, in accordance with God's laws. Electricity, automobiles, television, clothing fashions and the like are considered to be distractions that promote pride, envy, vanity, sloth, dishonesty and other undesirable traits."

This shows the mainstream view of the Amish, which is completely erroneous.

The Amish are not encouraged to think for themselves or read the bible, but to blindly follow the "traditions" laid down by their forefathers, who are basically infallible. It is the Bishop of each community's job to interpret the traditions and how they should apply them. The services are in German, which nobody but the ministers can speak.

When children grow up, after they turn 16, they go to "singings" which happen every Wednesday night. There, they sing old songs in German, and afterwards pair up and go home. From the time they are 16-21, they are in a period which is called "sowing their wild oats". In this time, the young people basically get into drugs, drinking, smoking, and sleeping around. Somewhere in-between these ages, they are expected to marry, join the church, and start a family. Once they join the church, they are no longer allowed to do drugs, smoke, drink, or sleep around. However, as you might imagine, many of them still do, especially "minor" things like smoking and drinking. Amish weddings are announced at exactly 2 weeks beforehand. The purpose of this is to keep people from knowing if the girl is pregnant or not. If a hasty wedding is needed, no one knows the difference.

The Amish use electricity, but only from generators. They use cars, but are not allowed to drive them. They use telephones, but only outside the house. They have lights in their buggies, but run on batteries. Some buggies are more luxurious than many cars. Of course, the limits are different based on the community.

Then there are different levels of Amish. Some are fairly liberal and even own cars (they just hire other people to drive them). Others, like the “strict shunning” communities, won’t even talk to non-Amish unless absolutely necessary.

Shunning is the core of the Amish tradition. When we lived in the heart of an Amish community we knew two brothers, Allen and Enos Miller, who had both left the Amish. When they were young, they both ran wild. However, Allen joined the church and was married in it, then left later. Enos never joined and left the Amish when he was young. To this day, the Amish won’t talk to, sell to, or associate in any way with Allen, while still doing fine with Enos. At family reunions they set a separate table for Allen’s family, make separate food for him. Enos is just considered another outsider, since he never joined the church.

The Amish intermarry to the extreme. We know at least 4 Amish couples where the both sides had the same last name. They have an extremely high rate of deformed children and children with genetic problems. Someone like me can pick even an ex-Amish person out of a crowd simply because their features are so distinguishing. Almost every large Amish family has a child with down-syndrome or some other mental disability.

Basically the Amish faith is not a faith at all, but a cult. They don’t follow the bible, but their bishop. Their suicide rate is high. They don’t know why they dress the way they do, they do it because they were told to. Their religion is extremely legalistic. They are allowed to use pins in their dresses, but not buttons. Some are allowed hooks. All dresses must be cape dresses, etc. They must be a certain length, depending on the community: no longer, no shorter.

If you would like an indepth account of what the Amish communities are like an superb book is “Katie” by Clara Bernice Miller. It’s extremely enlightening, but sadly out of print. However, you can usually find it online.

Mennonites are also extremely legalistic, but not to such an extreme. There are many different Mennonites as well. There are Hulderman Mennonites, who wear black headcoverings. There are Black Bumper Mennonites, who drive only black cars, and they paint the bumpers black as well. Most Mennonites have similar in beliefs, though.


If you want more info, let me know. I haven't even scratched the surface.

[Extra ecclesiam nulla salus]

i wouldn't call the amish a cult

[Mikhail]

well, you don't know anything about Amish, do you? :-D

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Extra ecclesiam nulla salus' date='Sep 2 2005, 08:08 PM']i wouldn't call the amish a cult
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By what he was posting, I would say so.

[b]Mik[/b], that is horrible to hear. I knew some traits about the Amish, but never did I imagine the rest (example, 16-21 period of booze and sleeping around).

[morostheos]

I grew up and live in a very mennonite community - I don't think they're very much like the amish at all. Many of my good friends in high school were Mennonite. I don't know many specifics about their beliefs, but I don't think it's quite like that...