AMISH PARADISE

“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” (Romans 10:2)

In my last posting, I mentioned that on Sunday evening I returned from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The countryside in Lancaster County is BREATHTAKING!  There’s a peacefulness and a quaint, country atmosphere that’s VERY unlike a busy, fast-paced location like Framingham, Massachusetts.  There are more Amish people and Mennonites per capita in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania than there are anywhere else in America.

I admit I still don’t know a LOT about the Amish and the Mennonites, but I learned a great deal on this trip.  I knew that many Mennonites live their lives in a very similar manner to other Americans.  The most liberal Mennonites drive cars, fly planes, and live pretty much the way I do except that (I believe) all Mennonites are pacifists.  I met a very impressive Mennonite physician from Alaska named Dr. Gaede on my March 1991 trip to Haiti.  He used to fly into remote Indian and Eskimo villages in Alaska and treat the sick.  (Sadly, Dr. Gaede, an older man at the time, passed away just six months after that Haiti trip.)

All Amish and Mennonites are from an Anabaptist background.  The Anabaptist movement began in Switzerland in the 1500s.  Their beliefs don’t seem particularly weird today, but in the 1500s and 1600s they were looked upon as “heretics” by both Roman Catholics AND other Protestants.  Many were burned to death or forcibly drowned.  The Anabaptists opposed infant baptism.  They believed baptism should take place only when a person was an adult (or nearly an adult) and that it should indicate a person’s conscious decision to embrace faith in Jesus Christ and Christianity.  The Anabaptist movement eventually spread to Germany and England.  Modern Baptists and others who also hold to the doctrine of baptism by total immersion in water for those who are old enough to understand what they’re doing and NOT infants (such as the Assemblies of God to which I belong) trace their heritage back to the Anabaptists.  Menno Simons was one Anabaptist and the Mennonites trace their beginnings to him.  The Amish trace THEIR beginnings to Jacob Amman who was a Mennonite who thought the Mennonites were NOT strict enough.  He taught the importance of “shunning” those who rejected “the true faith”.

The Amish were severely persecuted in their native Germany and that’s why they came en masse to Pennsylvania in the 1700s.  Although they are called “Pennsylvania Dutch” and although their dialect which is a mixture of English and German is called “Pennsylvania Dutch” that term is a corruption of Deutch (“German”).  I had always been taught (mostly from high school) that the Amish live exactly as though this was still the 1840s and have refused any technological advances of any kind that have happened since the 1840s.  On this trip, I learned that’s absolutely incorrect!  It’s true that the Old Order Amish do not drive cars.  They travel in buggies.  The Amish use gray buggies and the Old Order Mennonites use black buggies. (They are equipped with battery powered lighting for nighttime travel!)  I saw buggies all over the place in Lancaster County.  I don’t mean this in any bad way, but the situation reminded me of the way the Brazilians live almost as a separate society in Framingham.  You run into Brazilians all over the place, but they mostly stay in their own sub-group.  So, you run into Amish all over the place, and they spend much time in their own sub-group, although they DO embrace a surprising amount of the modern world!

Did you know most of the Amish have refrigerators in their homes?  They are powered by propane gas.  They also typically have gas stoves in their homes.  In addition, they typically use old technology “wringer” washing machines which were what pretty much all washing machines were prior to World War 2.  (I’m old enough to remember my family having a wringer washer back when I was about 3.)  There are SOME companies who still produce wringer washers.  The Amish have no dryers, however, gas or otherwise.  They DO use flashlights, and they have modern indoor plumbing!  They also shop at Wal-Mart, go out to eat at McDonald’s and other restaurants, AND many Amish young people use cell phones!  (One rule is you can NEVER turn a cell phone on inside the house!)  Over half of Amish adults are NOT farmers.  Many run businesses.  Eight percent of Amish are multi-millionaires and many Amish are wealthy.  They pay CASH for their homes and farms!  They NEVER use credit cards!  They go to doctors and have modern medical procedures done, including heart bypass surgery, and they pay CASH for all medical procedures.  If a family is too poor to pay medical bills, other Amish take up the slack.  The Amish hold their church services in homes, never in a church building.  They educate their children separately from the public schools and school ends for them after Eighth Grade.  (They won the right to have separate schools in in a 1972 Supreme Court case.)  The Amish refuse to fly, but they do ride on trains and on busses, and will sometimes hire a car to take them on a long trip.  

The Amish are very fearful of becoming “too worldly”.  That’s why they NEVER hook a home up to the electrical or telephone wiring.  They are very fearful of radio, television, and computers.  They WILL use telephones and computers at their places of business, but NEVER in their homes.  I think one of the SADDEST beliefs that the Amish have is that they NEVER allow themselves to be photographed as they think that’s “making a graven image”.  They are NOT fond of artwork and never have drawings or paintings in their homes.  They will only display what is “functional” (such as a calendar) but NEVER any kind of artwork.  The Scripture in the Old Testament which forbids graven images actually forbids graven images of GOD.   That DOES mean the Catholics are wrong when they have statues of Jesus.  BUT, that verse about “graven images” does NOT forbid photos or artwork!  Their misconception and wrong interpretation of that reminds me of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs against blood transfusions which are also a gross misinterpretation of Scripture.

I must say I DID find being around these people fascinating. On the road, one of the buggies we passed was filled with balloons and presents- a young family obviously on the way to a child’s birthday party.

Ironically, neither Jesus Christ nor the Apostle Paul would have qualified to be Amish.  Since I wear a mustache (the ONE part of the beard that must be shaved in their culture) and I wear a wedding ring (ALL jewelry is forbidden) I would not qualify, either!

Incidentally, comedian “Weird Al Yankovic” sings a song called, “Amish Paradise” and that’s how I got the title for this posting.