According to an article in the Washington Times, the Amish are on the rise. The article says the main reasons are two-fold: the traditionally high Amish birth rates coupled with an unusual absence of defection among Amish youths. You see, when Amish youths reach a certain age, they enter into a period of Rumspringa (lit., running around) in which they can experience the outside world. If at the end of this running around, they decide to stay in the Amish community, they are baptized and usually marry soon after. If the temptations of the world are too strong for them to resist, they leave the Amish community.
What recent studies are indicating is that very few Amish children are choosing to leave their communities. Apparently iPads/Pods/Phones, cheap sex, loose living… even electricity just aren’t enough to draw Amish kids away. But this trend is fairly recent. I don’t think it can be explained by a change in the Amish way of life… that’s been pretty static for some time. And it can’t really be explained by material differences between the Amish communities and the outside world. If anything, the outside world has become even more enticing with its material charms. But the outside world has apparently lost something in recent years that Amish communities still have.
What is it? I think it is community. More and more in recent years, American society has become more virtual, even more individualistic… less real. In contrast, Amish communities are just that… they are still communities. And they are real. A child who grows up knowing his neighbors, working with his hands, being self-dependent (but not independent)… what can modern America really offer him to replace that? Facebook? I recently received some “poke” suggestions on Facebook. As if it weren’t already impersonal enough.
I’m not saying we should all go back to Amish style living because I don’t think it is the lack of technology that makes the difference. What really matters here is real community. In light of my last article and the obvious decline of morality among our youths, perhaps you can do some good by just getting to know your neighbors, organizing a community garden, spending some time teaching your kids a useful skill, etc. If your kids grow accustomed to real things, they will be a whole lot less likely to get drawn in by virtual relationships and fake promises. (Hint: I might be referring to political promises here…)
God, Family, Community. Looks like the Amish nailed it.
THERE ARE FEW SIGNS OF HOPE FOR AMERICA BUT THIS IS A REALLY GOOD ONE. WOULDN’T IT BE WONDERFUL TO RETURN TO THIS KIND OF DECENCY?
Sure would. We came back to country living raising our own food and living away from town after 40+ yrs in cities. Its wonderful.We have nothing more than what we need but its enough.I personally couldnt live without electricity but dont mind not seeing tv.I would miss my laptop but could visit the library.I am on 02 24/7 so I need electricity.
Doris, I completely understand where you’re coming from. I spent 68 years in California in big cities. Upon retirement I moved to a small rural town in North Dakota. It truly is wonderful. I’m also on 02 24/7 and I love having my computer and my sewing machine. I’ve become a quilt maker and at peace in my life after so many years of organized chaos.
littlepat, I too grew up in CA, in Los Angeles by Gardena.Organized chaos is exactly the big city way of life.I went back and moved to Tustin in Orange county and really liked it there. Moved again to AZ and liked it but after 15 yrs we moved to KS and feel truly home.God is here with us and the people are great.
Yes, the midwest is best. It is very like it was in the 50’s. And you are right about God and the people.
Obamas’ new plan is to fold the suburbs into the cities to create new taxing zones to include the outliers and those of us that escaped the cities to “pay” for the failures within the cities. He hates the long distance you drive your car by living out there. He hates the fact that you became successful enough to escape full democrat inner city control. He thinks you “stole” that money away from the cities so they don’t have as much as needed to complete the “dream” of utopia in the cities.
I don’t know how one person can think up so many crooked schemes. He must have those czars working 24/7. I’m ‘way out in the country in ND. Nothing around here except crops in the good weather and snow in the bad. And now that I’m retired I only drive to the grocery store (5 blocks, app.)
Tucson AZ is the second worst city for being kidnapped, First is Mexico City. The illegal aliens kidnap Americans and hold them for ransom. It’s just another way for the Mexicans to make a living.
there are very few of you willing to live like the Amish – and it IS they way they live their lives – simple, humble, always walking before God. But most of “US” ain’t willing, we want to make that money, live in big fancy homes, have a 52″ flat screen TV, and iPad, iPhone, XBOX, PlayStation, a big fancy gas guzzling car or SUV. After we’ve ruined our lives and our children’s lives, now we want to retire in America the Beautiful, small town community where people still care for people. Just proves that we are stupid, we spend the best years of our lives running a rat race until we are too old and tired to really enjoy what we could have had.
reminds me of a story I heard about an American that went to a small village in Mexico where he heard there was great fishing and one old man in particular who knew just where to go. Sure enough, they went out and caught several really nice fish and went back in. The American said the old Mexican should get a few more boats and catch lots of fish, then get bigger and get a fleet and become a big fish corporation. Then when he had made lots of money he could retire and spend time with his family and bounce his grandchildren on his knee. No, senior, Why for should I go to all that trouble. I go out when I need to, catch three or four nice fish, bring one home for mamma to fix for dinner, sell the others for enough to buy a few beers, and spend my time bouncing my grandchildren on my knee. I do that now. Yes, the American said, but you could be rich!!
I grew up where I had occasional contact with them. I think they are genuinely good people, but I question making one style or period of life determinative for one’s faith. I find it interesting that, while they won’t drive a car, they have no objection to traveling in one so long as someone else owns it and drives. If the lifestyle is to be avoided, it is to be avoided, period.
You got it . There’s a lot they do thats not biblical like shunning, their discipline system does not follow Holy Writt.
The Bible does talk about how to dicipline sin in the Church. I believe that the The letters to Timmotthy cover this.
This is often misunderstood the entire chapter of Matt 18 is devoted to discipline and discipline only. Most have replaced scripture with by-laws. Jesus himself gave the instructions. Most pastor wont follow for two reasons one sin would have to addressed not overlooked second it gives final authority to the church the people.. I’ve never taken anything for granted that I heard in a sermon I checked them out and made sure I made sure mine were correct. Thee is a difference between thus this the the Lord and this is the pulpit. Find Matt 18 read and and be blessed.
Shunning sure beats killing. And it hurts the shunner as much as the shunned. Just imagine having to shun your child or parent or best friend?But it works for them and it is not done lightly.
My point is a blood bought blood washed born again child of God shouldn’t do either. Matt. Chapter eighteen give step by step instructions on how to deal with a believer that has ought against you or you against them.
Muslims kill that’s religion not Christianity. We are not christians until we fully surrender to Christ 2 corinthians 5:17 Says if any man be in Christ. It doesn’t say if any man be in church. We have been given the privilege to speak to the Lord one on one. Hebrews Let us go boldly (confidently) before the thrown of grace. This requires a personal relationship with the Lord JESUS. Thats what the sacrifice on the cross is all about.Doc.
It is not a matter of avoiding the cars; it is the principle of owning one. There are many thing they find “vain” and owning cars and other flashy things are one of them. Riding in a car with a neighbor is just good manners as is accepting a ride in a carriage. This is an honor (by the way).
The problem is that, if you lived in an all Amish community, there would then be none who would own a car and therefore none in which you could ride. This makes no sense.
They do accept rides in cars from English friends, as well as hospitals etc if they need it. Doing without the frills is not so much a restriction as an outward manifestation of an inner discipline.
We lived near Amish country in Harlan, Indiana, loved to shop in their stores.
Just from a health standpoint, not having electricity in your home is better. Think about the last time the electric went out in your home. The first thing you feel is the quiet. We would all have calmer children if each home had just one electric free room to go to.
I see, up near Ft Wayne. I grew up in Kokomo. We had a blacksmith in the church who primarily did wrought iron work, but the Amish would bring their horses in to be shod. I don’t think you would need an electric free room. All you would need is no radios or TVs or other gadgets. You could also simply turn them all off for a time.
Yes let “we the idots that don’t belive in God the way they do” carry them around and pay taxes that they don”t,. When they get paid for work the church is paid and no income tax is paid.
You are mistaken. The Amish do pay taxes just like everyone else does. They pay property taxes, sales tax, taxes on the income they derive from the sales of their farm goods, gasoline tax on the fuel they do use and all the other taxes you and I pay. Your tone betrays animosity towards them. Whats your real beef. Perhaps you are jealous of their simple life or their religious convictions.
Son of Liberty – Thank you for putting Roderick II’s head on straight, although with that attitude he has a long way to go. I don’t understand his animosity either. The Amish are human, but they are fine people in every way I know. We love visiting the Ohio Amish Country.
I believe they do not pay taxes. Not on any income, perhaps they pay sales tax, but that’s it! They do not serve in the military. They do not vote. They are educated only through the eighth grade.
The girls are married very very young and often I have seen girls, who are saddled with three sometimes more at a very early age. Too young. If they don’t believe in birth control, they should. Children are cheap labor. This is nothing new. Farm families have always been large for this very reason.
They dress in heavy clothes even in the summer months and personal hygiene is not a priority for them. The men particularly look as if a good bath would do them a world of good. I dare say you could reap a year’s supply of food from their beards.
I feel a great deal of empathy for Amish women because of the hard work that is expected of them, and because they are expected to procreate yearly and at what expense to their health. I believe they are held in very low esteem by the men of the community.
THIS IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF PEOPLE JUST WINGING IT – EXPRESSING WHAT THEY THINK IS TRUE OR WISH WERE TRUE AT THE EXPENSE OF TRUTH
Yes, the Amish are good people, and they don’t want to kill all non-believers.
Thats because they believe in a God that LOVES all of his children.
I have to admit, I admire them a great deal. Now, a Muslin thinks
he gotta kill you…mutilate their women so they can’t enjoy sex..
cut your hands off…your tongue out…and destory everything they
don’t agree with…and someone told me it is the fastest growing religion
in the world….DAMN! I didn’t know that there were that many democrats
out there?????.
LMAO!
I LOVE it, Jerry. Hahahahahaaaa! They’re gettin ready to be few and far between. Mitt and Paul. R&R. Yessss!
Good point………………………..they don’t behead you if you aren’t Amish.
Another thing Amish have that we are losing, is Faith. God has been cut out of much of our life while its the mainstay of Amish.Im guessing they dont use birth control but I dont know.I know they are against abortion.
The good thing about faith is that it IS faith, and it came to us the size of a mustard seed. All we need do is ask God to increase it! That is a very simple prayer which God I think will ALWAYS grant! We must not then take it for granted, but take it as the gift it is, and unwrap it to see what it looks like and how to use, to apply it. What Amish people have imho, that many others do not have is zeal and humility. These things we may ask for as well and God will give them to us! They WILL require us to actually do something. The Joy is to find out what it is that pleases God the father and then DO IT!
Amen David, Amen!!!
whatever works for you.
True Christians will still have faith in God after November. You know, sometimes God raises up an evil person to a position of power for a reason know only to Him. And, He can plummet that person from power just as easily. Not saying Obama is evil, but he is not a very good person, seemingly.
Remember the story of the Grinch? How he took away EVERYTHING the people in Whoville had that made their Christmas. But, guess what? Christmas came just the same. So, if the election goes badly for conservatives, we will still have faith in our God, just the same!
Some receive faith, and yes, it is a gift. The greatest of faith in anyone is described by Jesus as being very small, “..as a mustard seed”. Enough faith to be Saving Faith. Since God’s Word, the Holy Bible (KJV), is completed, faith is only necessary to save us. God won’t allow real Saving Faith to move mountains. Miracles are for the unbelieving, not believers. Miraculous acts at the time of apostles were for a sign to elect individuals who had as yet not known God. I Corinthians 14:22 “Wherefore tongues are
for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but
prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which
believe.”
Miracles were to bring them to prophesy (true preaching, not exclusively future predictions). Miracles were like desktop shortcuts, or pointers to the Truth. Only in the Truth is one made free. John 8:32 Faith is fed thru true preaching. Every week it is fed, and then it shrinks, fed, then it shrinks, week after week. God feeds it and preserves it. If it were up to us, it would fade as a flower.
Also, our actions, no matter how “good” or “righteous” are as “filthy rags”. Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we
all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away.” These filthy rags are the rags the menstruating woman removed from her groin once it was filled with blood and blood clots. Our best works stink! They are bloody with Christ’s blood. Christ’s blood is needed even for our righteous deeds. Recognize your miserable condition before God, so that you can truly repent. Every good work is a gift of God. God works good works through His people ( his sheep). Repentance is a gift, worked in the hearts of all God’s people by God Himself. Only in true repentance can you know salvation and the knowledge of Truth.
Amish people, as much as I appreciate their lifestyle, don’t know God or His Truth. There is no sin in a thing as they believe! Things, or animals don’t sin, nor can they be sin. Sin is only in how things are used by human beings. A porn magazine is not sin, but the lust in men’s hearts when they view it.
Doris C, God has only been cut out of our lives if you listen to the left and the radicals. He is always in our lives if you believe in Him and ignore the left. NO ONE can take that from you!
Your right of course, my bad.But the last few years since the 60s actually there has been a war on christianity so that our kids are not even allowed to say grace at lunch in school unless its to themselvrs and none can hear.
Did you ever try sueing them for freedom of speach?
Why should you have to sue for what is guaranteed in the Constitution?
You would have to sue for what is guaranteed by the Constitution because the liberals who run this country now under Imam Hussein don’t believe in the Constitution. Imam Hussein himself has said that it is nothing but an outdated document that was ridiculous to begin with. How did this Marxist Muslim wind up in the White House anyway? I still don’t get that one.
You are correct, of course, but how many small kids have the courage to stand up to the teachers and admins who would then come down on them for exercising their rights?
That has been a big problem in this country for the last 4 years now. Odumbo/Osama doesn’t believe in God, he thinks the Islam religion is the way to go. They are pulling God out of everything in this country, next it’ll be the money, it’ll say” in Odumbo we trust soon” God perish the thought of that day. The blacks already think of him as the black Jesus now!
They want NOTHING to do with the “English” ways (our ways). That includes our birth control methods and abortion.
We deal with the Mennonites and Amish all the time. I’d rather give them a fair price than get ripped off by Americanized jews and other greedy vendors, and they don’t add steroids and drugs to their meat and veggies, like the mafia does their veggies in Florida. Anybody ever read Tomatoland.com?
The Amish eggs are real eggs, not chemicals.
I can verify that!! my daughter lives very close to an Amish family that sells eggs and she brings me a doz. very often – they are huge and the yellow is twice the size the ones you buy in the stores….she is also the recipent of many of their garden goods (bushels of corn, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, beans – they even lent her one of their tents when she had a party for her son at graduation time. Great neighbors.
As a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant High Church Episcopalian and having lived among the Amish in Pennsylvania I can agree they are fair, honest, take pride in their work, raise excellent crops, and are devout practitioners of their faith.
HOWEVER YOUR REMARK, “get ripped off by Americanized jews”, IS IGNORANT,
STUPID, BIGOTED, UNTRUE, AND SOMETHING ONLY THE VILEST OF RACISTS WOULD
MAKE. The Jews are honest in their business dealings, devout in their
faith, and raise their children to revere education, to respect their
elders, and to devote their time and MONEY to many charitable
organizations.
Judaism IS the world’s oldest religion and is the faith of our Savior
Jesus Christ. They are a people who have suffered over 5000 years of
intolerance, bigotry, and attempted mass annihilation. Yet they still
survive, they still thrive,and they still stand head and shoulders above
those, of your ilk, who would disparage them.
The comment you made is indicative of the type of comments you hear
coming from many Middle Eastern countries. Members of the Ku Klux Klan,
Skin-heads or the Neo Nazis might applaud your comment but no decent
American would. Shame on you!!!
Robert Hayes Halfpenny
bob3443 • 7 hours ago • parent
As
a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant High Church Episcopalian and having
lived among the Amish in Pennsylvania I can agree they are fair, honest,
take pride in their work, raise excellent crops, and are devout
practitioners of their faith.
HOWEVER YOUR REMARK, “get ripped off by Americanized jews”, IS IGNORANT,
STUPID, BIGOTED, UNTRUE, AND SOMETHING ONLY THE VILEST OF RACISTS WOULD
MAKE. The Jews are honest in their business dealings, devout in their
faith, and raise their children to revere education, to respect their
elders, and to devote their time and MONEY to many charitable
organizations.
Judaism IS the world’s oldest religion and is the faith of our Savior
Jesus Christ. They are a people who have suffered over 5000 years of
intolerance, bigotry, and attempted mass annihilation. Yet they still
survive, they still thrive,and they still stand head and shoulders above
those, of your ilk, who would disparage them.
The comment you made is indicative of the type of comments you hear
coming from many Middle Eastern countries. Members of the Ku Klux Klan,
Skin-heads or the Neo Nazis might applaud your comment but no decent
American would. Shame on you!!!
Robert Hayes Halfpenny
They left out one tag Occult.
I’m a Christian and only wish that all Christianity had taken the same route to live and worship that the omish have taken. A simple life keeps you close to faimly, God and morals. Technoligy is removing God from our world leaving a country of imoral evil people.
You can boil down human life to the question of why we are here in the first place. If we are created by God then we are here for one reason and that is to walk with God and get to know him and then spend eternity with him. Otherwise you are here to fulfill your every desire and then you will be simply gone, annihilated, ignored your life force spent and you cease to exist. If you are indifferent to God he will return the favor. If you are in pursuit of knowledge of God then he will also return the favor. With fewer distractions from this pursuit you will be better off and happier. Maybe the Amish children see this when they try to exist in the busy Godless hateful distracted community we have built for ourselves. And God bless ’em.
great article! However, did anyone else notice the inappropriate placement of Genie Bra ads in the article about the Amish? Tacky!!
I miss that sense of family and community that still existed when I grew up in the 50s.
2 parrots and a dog: Have you tried the midwest. Doris C and I have found it suits us perfectly. You might really find peace here.
yes, i am from that time in life, and totally agree with you…life was so good!! We did not realize how good we had it. My parents had a cottage along a river and thank goodness my children got to experience those days…they still talk about it today, no TV, did have a radio, but we found other things to keep us entertained. During the summer time off from school, we lived at the cottage and played along the river all day or took our row boat out and played on the river.
I haved lived in an area surrounded by Amish for the last 12 years and have observed carefully the way they live. While no groups of people are without their contradictions or problems (after all they are still humans), over all as a group they are very hard working, honest, self-sacrificing for the sake of the community and family, persevering and very forgiving. The “english” could learn alot from them if they would just look past their garb.
I think the lack or morality is due to the lack of religious training. All religions teach morality, honesty and integrity; something to day’s youth are lacking. Without these things they will never be truly happy in their plastic world. This is also why our congress and government cannot get along and work together. They lack focus and self discipline which is taught in the military to most people. More and more we have politicians with no religious or military background demonstrating their lack of these qualities and you have seen the results.
The lack of morality is “monkey see, monkey do”, it’s what the children see their parents and other adults do. It has nothing to do with “religious training” – except the parents. It’s been a “ME” generation since the early sixties, selfish, hedonistic, care less about anything but the gratification of self.
Actually, I think that the religious aspect of teaching that honesty, integrity, etc. is the problem. I can give a kid a hundred non-religious reasons why it is wrong to lie, cheat, steal, be lazy, etc. I think that they are pretty convincing arguments too. But if all you can do to explain why you should be honest, hard-working, and otherwise good is that a magical being says so,I think that rather undercuts the believability of those moral principles. It does so even more when people insist that there can be no other justification for being that way. It’s bad enough if you say “God says to be good and there are also several other reasons why too.” but to say “There is no possible reason to be good except for these ancient stories about magical beings, talking snakes, and crucifixion.”
That said, the pervasive influence of Hollywood-driven “youth culture” has indeed been devastating to so many kids that cloistering ourselves into communities where we keep those things out might not be such a terrible idea, though I would prefer that we just keep them at bay without cloistering ourselves away into some weird little communities. If only I knew how to do that other than whining about how awful that media-driven youth culture thing is.
BY – How my heart hurts for you! Those moral values cannot be meaningful unless one confesses a deep, abiding love of God – The Redeemer of our
lives. The very values you mention all come from God’s directions for living a
happy, fulfilling life. To just say to a young person, “don’t do bad things” is
certainly not enough reason for one to obey.
But to understand that our world was made by GOD, he breathed life into
man, created a WOMAN to pro-create in His image and gave us 10 very simple rules to live by. Can you begin to appreciate how precious we are to God.? ?
Can you understand how our evil ways of disobedience and denial has brought us to the state we find ourselves today. Youngsters have NO conception of right and wrong. If they want something – just take it! How sad! ! !
I pray you seek and find the real meaning of values and where those values/morals come from.
Whether you choose to believe or not does NOT, will NEVER change the
fact of our God given rights, morals, values and gifts! ! ! Listen to Paul
Ryan’s speech. He knows who guides his life. Go Patriots.
You are only partially right about “all” religeons. Buddhism teaches that there is no right or wrong, just do your own thing and try to do some good now and then. Tiger Woods is a Buddhist and he still thinks he did nothing wrong by cheating on his wife with multiple women.
Muslims believe that it’s ok to lie to your neighbor if it will advance their religeon, and they can kill you if you don’t believe as they do. They don’t believe that you are even human.
Congress cannot “get along” because there is one party (Democrat) that is completely wrong on most issues and insists that the other party compromise by doing it their way.
Nancy Pelosi was raised a Catholic, and now she is listening to “dead spirits” to find out what to do. She is either schizophrenic or dabbling in witchcraft, either way she is a dangerous person to have in Congress.
You may want to just “drop out” of society, but if you do that and refuse to be involved, you could lose your right to conduct your life the way you want to. What if they make your new found religeon illegal?
first of all,,,this guy knows nothing about the Amish….I have been very good friends with several family’s for years…His story of Rumspringa is nonsense,,only one or two communities have this,,and they are very new order Amish..they are very community oriented but this is mostly due to there ways of there church…They have church in there homes,,not temples..I really dispise these writers who spew lies,,(which is most of them)
,,,there population doubles every twenty years or so…has since the mid 1800’s..and one last thing,,,the Amish can leave there communities anytime they so chose,,,Its getting back into there community that is the hard part…because as the progressive/socialist writer got one thing right,,,they are self dependent,,,but are not independent,,,
I would hesitate to call the writer of this article a liar because that says the guy really meant to deceive or mislead people about the Amish. Likely he is reporting what he has read or heard from others who know or think they know the Amish.
ALL THE MORE REASON NEVER TO PRINT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU’VE FOUND IT TO BE TRUE. THAT’S WHY ANY REPUTABLE WRITER LISTS FOOTNOTES SO ANYONE CAN FIND OUT FOR THEMSELVES WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE TRUE. TRUTH IS WHAT’S IMPORTANT NOT WHAT SOMEONE FEELS, THINKS OR BELIEVES.
This site is all about political *commentary*. These are opinion pieces, not research papers. Furthermore, I think that the things people write (even research papers and doctoral theses) are heavily affected by their pre-conceived notions, feelings, beliefs, etc., no matter how neutral or objectively truthful they may try to be. I could easily write a reply to your comment: “Well, I’m sorry you feel, think, believe, that way.” It would take a long discussion to hash this all out… But please, use your indoor voice.
I agree. There’s a whole lot of foolishness in the media about the Amish. A common thread I see is that a lot of the city folks who imagine they understand them see that they wear strange clothes and have a religious community and they think they are like the Hasidic Jews, which they certainly are not in most ways. Don’t even get me started about the well made but horribly confused Harrison Form movie “Witness”.
I never said the Amish had church in temples. I made no remarks concerning the source of their community spirit. You are right I know little from personal experience about the Amish. I never implied that their populations had been stagnant heretofore. I was commenting on publicly-available statistics indicating a recent surge in Amish populations using publicly-available information (some of which is apparently not as nuanced as you would like). I am happy to receive direction/correction, and I thank you for your comments concerning Rumspringa. I don’t think what I said even still was terribly misleading in the least, and it was not in any sense depreciating the Amish way of life. And I fail to see how anything in my article indicates even slightly that I am “progressive/socialist” or that I was “spew[ing] lies.” You can’t really fault me for presenting a thoroughly positive article on the Amish with *little* first-hand knowledge and then go on yourself to state a generally negative perspective on my stance, character, and politics with absolutely *no* first-hand knowledge. I guess I could have replied: “first of all,,,this guy knows nothing about me…..,,,..” And while we are in the spirit of constructive criticism, the spelling “there” is incorrect for the third-person plural possessive. It’s “their.” Thought you’d want to know. Although you may not be able to trust my information. I am a writer after all.
One does not necessarily need to be Amish to know that we – in the outside world – have lost the instrinsic knowledge of recognizing right from wrong. Therein lies the rub. We can no longer “go back to basics” because we have gone too far to stop this train which is due for a huge crash. This crash will involve the economy, education and home life. Not necessarily in that order.. WE THE PEOPLE have not taught our children the importance of family – because we were to busy following the Almighty dollar to be able to buy Chinese junk. Enough said.
Well stated , thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KUDOS to the Amish, and blessings from on High. ! Amen!
When the country crashes, the Amish better learn the defend itself or they will be overrun by the masses.
Just live a good decent life. Nothing is more important than a good example.
Apparently the Amish kids are smart enough to realize how insane the outside world has become due to the actions of their liberal youth counterparts out there. They are also likely aware that when everything goes to hell (as it will if this idiot gets re-elected) they are much better off with a strong support group and not have to rely on the cut throats in the world.
The Amish have kept God central in their life. Woe be to America. This country was dedicated to God and now He is no longer central to Americans. Even our Supreme Court took prayer out of the schools and unless I missed it, American Ministers did not lead the people to fight back. How do we get back to a simpler time with God in the center?
GOD AND THE FAMILY IS THE CORE OF IT ALL. THAT’S WHERE IT BEGINS AND MUST STAY.
Just like when I grew up,knew your family,neighbors and didn’t have to lock everything up!!
Big change and not for the betterment.
I wish they would put diapers on their horses,or train the horses to poop on the shoulder of the highway.
They DO poop on the shoulder of the highway. That is where the buggies travel. The problem is that some roads do not have shoulders. Appreciate them. These buggies are genuine green vehicles, fueled by a natural renewable resource, a resource that cleans the air, grown by the Amish, please don’t step in the exhaust.
Sure they travel on the shoulder, in your world not mine. Amish are killed in Iowa quite often,and they all werent on the shoulder.
Pick up that poop and sell it as fertilizer, or use it on you roses.
” Taking lemons, etc”
`It is sad that our country has turned from GOD in many areas of life.Could and would all
christian fast and pray in Nov. on election day. I believe with all my heart that it will move the hand of GOD. Please consider it and get the word out to all your church friends.
I wish I had been raised in their steps. I great respect the fact they are true to themselves and what they believe.
Integrity is a fine thing indeed, but adherence to false ideas is not a good thing. Certain Nazis and Communists were true to their ideas too and look what came of that!
I agree that adherence to false ideas is not a good thing. That is why i am an atheist. There are many, many religious people without integrity and full of hate. Thinking they have God on their side makes them feel like they have authority to do anything they want. They also think they have a monopoly on goodness and kindness. They don’t. No one does. There are good people all over the world who have never heard of Christ.
I think you mean to say that you respect that they are true to what YOU believe. I am an atheist who is true to what i believe. I believe in treating everyone fairly and with respect. Not because God tells me to but because it is the right thing to do. However, i don’t find too many Christians who respect that.
The Amish are probably better off than most of us. They are honest moral people and they take care of each other. They can live without electricy, computers and all that goes with that. IF we do have an EMP incident, That are on the minds of a lot of knowledgeable people right now, while we are trying to figure out how to survive, life for the Amish will go on as usual. Think about it who is better off, the Amish or us?
I defy anyone, including Ole Black Joe in Washington, to try to make me denounce my faith in Jesus Christ. I wonder what the Amish people would do if Washington tried to step in and stop their way of life ? I’ll bet Washington would be in for a huge surprise !
As a non believer and respectfull observer and student of Amish Life, I can say without any doubt, that the Amish represent the true practice and meaning of Christian Socialism. One thing that did bother me, was that they take the biblical term of “spare the rod and spoil the child” to unaxeptable levels in a modern society.
It is really unfortunate that the Amish cannot read these posts, where they are held in high esteem by reading many of these comments. The computer is against their religion, but the Mennonites are a different story. They also take care of their own and do not take social security benefits.
Believe you can even hope to begin to survive what is coming without the assistance of God Almighty? How naive!
Think again or prepare for a very, very, very rough ride which you will NOT survive.
Don’t forget………the Amish don’t vaccinate their children and they have virtually NO Autism nor “ADD/ADHS. Our society is KILLING and MAIMING millions of future adults courtesy of this government sanctioned policy of eugenics and depopulation. When I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s there was NO SUCH THING AS “Autism.” Therefore it is NOT “genetic.” We had all the normal childhood illnesses (measles, chickenpox etc) and not only survived, but have healthier, stronger immune systems as a result.
Gen X and Gen Y and even many of my Baby Boomer compadres are so dumbed down they are unable to see what is beyond obvious. The Amish will continue to grow and thrive due to their faith, values, independence and sense of community while 70 – 90% of the rest of the world will be eliminated by the NWO through vaccine induced disease, more insane wars, GMO’s, food and water chemical poisoning, trickle down poverty, etc.
You are wrong on across the board. First, the Amish DO vaccinate their kids. They also do have autism. According to one study, about one in 271 Amish kids have Autism. This is about double of the rate in the general population (which is about one in 500), so they have more autism than the general public. This might well be expected given the genetic problems that Amish have cause by the small size of their gene pool leading to a higher chance of their marrying someone who is related to them and with a similar genetic makeup.
As for your assertion that vaccination leads to Autism, that’s just nonsense. Nobody knows exactly what causes autism, but it is pretty clearly not vaccination, and it is clear for reasons that one need not be an expert in medicine to see. First of all, vaccination has been a common practice for a long time, going all the way back to revolutionary war times (“vaccina” is the name of the cowpox virus and this was used to inoculate against smallpox). Industrial strength uniform vaccinations took place throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries with no apparent increases in autism, but suddenly in the 1980’s the rates of autism shot up while vaccination levels remained about the same: http://www.drwile.com/lnkpages/mmr_aut.jpg
One of the strange things about your comment was that “We had all the normal childhood illnesses (measles, chickenpox etc) and not only survived, but have healthier, stronger immune systems as a result.” What in the world do you think vaccination is? It is giving the patient a weak form of the disease in order to make him more resistant to the real thing if it comes along. It’s not magic. That said, while most people recover just fine from the “childhood diseases”, some have horrible consequences from them. Some are left with horrible scars and others are left mentally retarded or even die from them. Here are some statistics: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/25/deaths-from-chickenpox-down/ But vaccination is not just for the traditional childhood diseases. There are also vaccinations against smallpox which has killed somewhere between 300 and 500 million people throughout history. Now it doesn’t kill any due to vaccination.
If you ask me there’s just one reason why people out there imagine there is some connection between the two and that’s because there are a whole bunch of vaccinations that kids get when they are one or two years old and that’s when kids are usually diagnosed with autism. They not unreasonably ask themselves “What could have happened to cause this terrible thing, and they look for things that happened to the kid at about the same time as they were diagnosed so they imagine that vaccination has something to do with it.
As for your paranoia about genetically modified foods, almost all of our foods are genetically modified including the ones your great great grandparents ate. Ever see the wild plants from which we derive our modern grains and fruits from? What the animals that produced the modern chicken, cow, and pig originally were? They were all changed (very much for the better) by manipulating their genes. The only difference between now and then is that we know what we are doing and we can do it faster and better.
Perhaps you are just paranoid about anything modern. If so then perhaps the Amish can find a place for you in their world, but even they are modern enough to vaccinate their kids against terrible diseases.
Way to Go Brian! I am so glad you responded. Yes, they do vaccinate and they take their children to Doctors, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants! Many plain folk in our area of PA attend school in a 1 room school house for 8 years and then they then learn a trade or skill. BTW several of the children I know took GED’s before joining the church and passed with flying colors! Something to be said for dear old reading, writing and arithmetic not to mention the best book of all, the Bible! I have dear friends that are old order Mennonite. They have similar beliefs and principles as the Amish. Community and family. They are a wonderful family, very well read and very down to earth! I am so blessed to know them. My children love to go out to their farm and learn from their actions, deeds and their conversations. We have great discussions about all sorts of topics, even religion. It’s a joy to go out to the farm, bring a covered dish and play Uno or a game of checkers and the conversation is always wonderful.
I wish people would really get a better understanding of their way of life before spewing such nonsense about lack of vaccinations for their children.
Holmes county in Ohio is one of the most beautiful, and peaceful places on earth if you ask me. Their inhabitants are mostly Amish. God bless the Amish.
What really matters is FAMILY and community. Most American “communities” aren’t anymore. There are not kids that can just go outside and play ball or go swimming. There’s no time in the modern American community for parents to parent, to play with, or even be involved with their kids; they are dumped off to a day care within six months, then it’s pre K, K, then school, and after school day care (boy’s and girl’s clubs). Parents, both of them, if there are two, are working a job each and sometimes a second job just to make ends meet – and pay for the ‘entertainment’ of their kids, keep a half decent roof over their heads and bring home pizza or KFC, or McDonald’s for supper. The kids are given everything on a silver platter, no responsibility to even clean up after themselves. Like most everything else – they are just throw away or put in the closet, filled with drugs, and sent off to government indoctrination centers until they are 18 or so.
Its NOT because they believe IN God. They actually BELIEVE Him.
Absolutely you’re correct & merely not slicing the semantic’s thin, either on the matter…..The primary causes both of blessings and curses fortunately are
very simple. The first two verses of Deuteronomy 28 says this:
“Now
it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord
your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you
today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the
earth: And all these blessings shall come upon you, and overtake you,
because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
As you state: “They actually BELIEVE Him.”
Bravo for your distinction!!
Community spirit and unity is all but gone in America. The only place you will find this is in small rural towns that are off the beaten path. I grew up in a very small town (pop. 200) and it was great. This same town now has been changed into a tourist and summer retirement destination now and there is no community spirit left. All the incoming people brought their “city ways” and ruined the rural feeling and community spirit. I admire the Amish people for knowing and living what they believe is true and important to family life, we all could learn a lesson. Rember God, family and community spirit…….never ending happiness.
Kind of hard to build and know your “community” while your
glued to the TV, I-pod, computer, iPads, Phones, cheap sex, loose living and
paying the power bill that you work two jobs to afford.
Yes, their simple lifestyle, their religious values, and
tight community bonds ARE the key.
Hard to feel like your part of a community while your locked
in your car, windows up, A/C on stuck in traffic
If you even look at the person in the car next to you, you
get a “what’s with weirdo” look.
Re: “I’m not saying we should all go back to Amish style living because I
don’t think it is the lack of technology that makes the difference. ”
That’s like saying, I don’t think it’s the lack of good whole-some exercise & clean honest living that brings about the onset of disease & physical/mental/moral degradations in to-days high-tech world that makes the difference.
Just a mere casual review of the following would dispel that notion:
Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision_syndrome
Oh, but then there IS this from over 2000 Years ago to also respectfully consider:
The Curse does not come without a Cause.
Even Science divorced from G*D states that there is no result without first a cause for it….
But, society to-day is replete with examples of cause & effect…thing is, we’re just too much bereft of wisdom to realise it…..
I doubt the Amish have the decadence of morality that our society inculcates…….but then, that’s cause & effect for yah!! =)
No one can stop you from praying …… bowing your head and saying a silent prayer infringes on no one and no one can stop you!!
What’s wrong with you people that you think that you can’t pray anytime that you feel the need!
I respect the Amish and we ourselves can bring ourselves back to a simpler place in life!
Nothing is wrong with technology it’s how we use it or allow it to be used in our households!
You can send your kids out to play instead of cuddled up with an electronic device ….you can control what they watch on tv ……. you can take them to the library ….you can control their music and language …..you can attend church with them or have bible study at home for an hour each weeks …. teach manners and respect and honesty and morales!?
If you don’t Ho around in front of them they probably won’t either!!
Growup people YOU have the power to change YOUR Life so do it and YES kids need thei butt tanned when they won’t do the right thing it’s called consequences. …. everyone forgets to teach this anymore and it’s one of the most important things in life to learn!!!!!!
If praying is about communicating with God then it should be silent and private, which no one has a problem with.Remember, God is not hard of hearing. However, if praying is about making sure everyone knows how pious you are then, yes, people get annoyed when you do it in a public place. It always amazes me when people think that God only listens when you shout. When you pray out loud in public all you are saying is that the beliefs of everyone else don’t matter. It’s no different than people who talk loudly on their cell phones so everyone hears their conversation.
In truth, I envy their strength of character, their belief in God and a family way of life.
God help us , the rest of us.
I just want to clarify something about “rumspringa”. I’m not Amish myself but I have loads of Amish relatives and far from being some kind of ordinary rite of passage or something that all Amish kids do, I had never even heard of such a thing until I started hearing about it constantly from the media whenever they mention the Amish as though that’s the most important or interesting thing about them. It apparently is something that some Amish in some places do, but it’s far from some kind of regular practice that everyone goes through, and if it were it would almost certainly not be some kind of drug and sex soaked bacchanal that the media portray it as.
I have no idea whether the central premise of the author here is true (that the Amish are leaving the church at much lower rates than in the past…in my own experience it seems like it is about half of Amish kids leave, but that’s anecdotal), but if it is, I would imagine that the reasons are perhaps a bit different. One is that the life skills that are required to survive in the “English” world are more different from the ones that the Amish grow up with. The level of formal education necessary to get along successfully is higher, and there are a lot more practical skills that are easy to pick up when you are young too. On a less practical level, the “English” world is also a lot less religious than it used to be. Going from living with a bunch of heavily religious Amish folks to living with a lot of Baptists or Catholics is a much smaller step than living with a bunch of atheists, agnostics, or “Easter and Christmas Only” Christians. Third, even our rural culture has (Amish folks aside) has become much more urbanized. The interests, language, and practices that stood between the Amish and the English used to be a fairly small jump. Take an Amish farmer and change his clothing, put electricity in his house, and swap his horse for a tractor and his practical lifestyle wouldn’t be all that different from his neighbors of 50 years ago. Today the differences are much stronger.
I do think that a close relationship with friends, neighbors, and extended family is an attraction of the Amish life, but it used to be like that for us non-Amish folks too at least in rural areas. If anything, I think that technology is giving back (in a different form) that kind of wider community by letting us communicate with one another more easily instead of never seeing people other than at work and at home and perhaps at the supermarket. I think that the reason for that is that we are now much more free of the control of physical location than we have ever been. First cars, then telephones, and now the Internet have made physical proximity rather unimportant for most things, so we treat it as unimportant. I think that the benefits of this are enormous which is why so few people do all that many things that require it.
I’m a retired fire chief and a bunch of us guys from the fire service get together for breakfast once a month at Bob Evans . Some one will ask the blessing on our group and no one that sets near has ever complained . Shame on them if they do ,as I would inform them that its our God given right to pray in public and if they dont like it to leave America .
Hopefully Barry’s Gestapo doesn’t shut the Amish down. Barry’s bullies sure love harassing them.
I live in Lancaster Pennsylvania and work alongside Amish on a regular basis and these people are a burden on our society, they take work away from us by under bidding and the money they take from our economy never comes back because with the exception of wal-Mart, they only buy from other Amish. I am a carpenter and I can not even buy the materials for a job at the price they give for the entire project. And this fantasy about Amish craftsmanship is wrong as well, most of those guys are hacks, I wouldn’t let them build me a shed. Buying from the amish is just as bad as buying from china, don’t do it. And btw, they have cell phones, trucks, refrigerators, and every other convenience we have they just don’t pay the same taxes we do. Why would they leave their community? They can leach off of our society tax free and still e joy anything they like. These Amish don’t even have to follow the same OSHA rules as us, I am required to wear a hard hat on every job but a straw hat is ok for an Amish man. One Amish man was recently arrested for child molesting and he’s out on the streets with probation…. They used to swarm around my house when I left for work to look in my windows at my beautiful wife, I called the cops several times and they do nothing, only because they are Amish…. I’m telling you all, this Amish culture needs to be re evaluated because it is not what most people think it is, they are just as crooked and gready as the rest of the world….
I believe then, that you aught to document all you know about them , and tell us. You’re right, in that most of us tend to think of the Amish as a bare bones livelihood, with the barest of essential needs and tools. If they have special deals going with our federal and state , or city governments, we need to know.
So are the Mennonites. I’d be proud to be either.
Ever see the Amish farmland? Stunningly beautiful. Ever see an Amish woman making a quilt with needle and thread and her finger moves like a sewing machine,amazing!
At the price of electricity I have been thinking of cutting it off I need to take a lesson or two on how to build a root celler to store food in though. The key here is the Amish haven’t taken God out of their lives. We have seperated God out of just about everything so the door is wide open for satan to take over. I hope and pray that Romney will put God back in America’s front and set us back on the right course to a stronger nation under God. GOD BLESS the Amish and GOD BLESS AMERICA
There way of life is hard but rewarding. They are good people. I am Spiritual and if I could I would live more like them.
I wouldn’t want to live without electricity, but I truly do admire them. They are people who adhere to their religious beliefs.
The enviro whackos are moving us back into a society that will make the Amish way of life seem cutting edge. Look at how much a CFL bulb costs as compared to an incandescent one; but those are being phased out to “lower our carbon footprint”.
The Amish population is realy not on the rise, its we the English, thats on the down fall, The Amish life has always been there, Its we the English, that is now noticing the Amish Life, They have Faith in God at all times, The kids r a gift from God, They work from sun up to sun down, Thats what keeps them a community, they r one Big family, The simple life!
AND THEY WILL SURVIVE WHEN THE OIL RUNS OUT,AND THE COAL POWER PLANTS ARE SHUT DOWN,,,,, AND NO MORE FOOD IS AVAILABLE,,,
Wonder if Obama did the clitoris removal operation on Queen Michele, himself or had another muslim do it for him.
We live in an Amish community. The men use more and more power tools. Chain saws, log splitters, nail guns, etc. However the women still live by doing by hand. It appears so unfair to me. Their education is getting farther and farther behind. They would be lost in our world and it would be very hard to find a mate. They did not even know what a potato peeler was when we moved here. They don’t vote, so the liberals would run them over in a second if we all lived like that.
One thing about the Amish – they believe the words in the Bible but add their own traditions to it. Matt 15 warned against that. You are in the world, not of it, but you have to live in it every day. Jesus within gives you the power to live in it but not be of it. It is the sacrifice of His blood he shed on the cross that saves us, when our sins are covered by the blood. Baptism by water does NOT save you. Baptism is only an outward sign that you have already accepted his sacrifice for your sins and repented and asked Him to make you a new creature in Christ – called being born again in the spirit. I don’t know anywhere in the New Testament that you can’t wear particular articles of clothing that are red or any other color, or what you should wear. That is man’s rules. The modesty you have when your body becomes the temple of God’s spirit will show by the way you dress anyways.
If you teach your children the scriptures, as the Amish and other churches do, and they accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, then they will be just fine no matter how many grades of school they go to, no matter what education and career they pick, no matter if they do own a car or have electricity. All those things are outward. If they are grounded in the word, they can be in the world and not of the world. You cannot go hide yourself from the world or you cannot let your light shine to the world. Like monks, that go hide themselves in a monestary all their lives. To me that is hiding and running from the world. What good does it do? My opinion, anyway.
I’m not knocking the Amish. I think they have some good ideas and intentions and believe God’s words. I just think they get carried away with too many man made rules mixed in with it all. This is where really knowing the Word comes in. And, “It isn’t what goes into your mouth that condemns you, but what comes out of it,” usually what is in your heart.
“Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together,” is the reason we should attend church, but going to church on Sunday can no way add to your salvation. Jesus died and shed his blood on the cross for that. You cannot earn or buy your way to heaven. “Not by works, lest any man should boast.” Remember? All quotes here are Bibles verses.
I believe that this article has some “real foundation”. The Bible clearly teaches that we are a social/relational people. We aren’t to forsake the assembling of ourselves. I think that is not just about worshipping the supreme God, but also a chance to share our victories and our sorrows, literally sharing life together as the “Body of Christ”!!