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Amish

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Peoples

   Amish
   (Amisch)
   Total population 198,000 (2000 est.)
   Regions with significant populations United States, especially
   Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Maryland, and Ontario,
   Canada
   Language Pennsylvania Dutch called "Deitsch" by the Amish), English,
   Alemannic German
   Religion Anabaptist Christianity
   Related ethnic groups Swiss German; See Pennsylvania Dutch (the Amish
   are included among the Pennsylvania Dutch)

   The Amish ( IPA: ˈɑːmɪʃ, Pennsylvania Dutch: ˈɑːmɪʃ) are an Anabaptist
   Christian denomination typically located in the United States and
   Ontario, Canada, that are known for their restrictions on the use of
   modern devices such as automobiles and electricity and for their plain
   dress. The Amish separate themselves from mainstream society for
   religious reasons: they do not join the military, draw no Social
   Security, nor do they accept any form of financial assistance from the
   government, and many avoid insurance. The Amish speak a German dialect
   known as Pennsylvania Dutch (or Pennsylvania German) at home, and are
   taught English at school. Church services are conducted mostly in
   Pennsylvania German. The Amish are divided into separate fellowships,
   which are each broken down in turn into districts or congregations
   according to geography. Each district is fully independent and has its
   own Ordnung, or set of unwritten rules. This article primarily
   discusses the conservative Old Order Amish fellowships that observe
   strict regulations on dress, behaviour, and the use of technology.
   There are many New Order Amish and Beachy Amish groups that use
   electricity and automobiles, but still consider themselves Amish.

Population and distribution

   In 2000, Raber's Almanac estimated there were 198,000 Old Order Amish
   in the United States. There are Old Order communities in 21 states;
   Ohio has the largest population (55,000), followed by Pennsylvania
   (47,000) and Indiana (37,000). The largest Amish settlements are in
   Holmes County, Ohio; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and LaGrange,
   Indiana. Significant populations are also seen in Delaware, Michigan,
   Iowa (particularly in Kalona and outside Hazleton), Oklahoma
   (particularly in Chouteau, Mazie & Inola) and Wisconsin. A small
   population is seen in Vinton County, Ohio; and in a small community
   nearby Wellston, Ohio called Berlin Crossroads (now Roads). With an
   average of seven children per family, the Amish population is growing
   rapidly, and new settlements are constantly being formed to obtain
   sufficient farmland. Some Beachy Amish have relocated to Central
   America, including a sizable community near San Ignacio, Belize.

   Most Old Order and conservative Amish groups do not proselytize, and
   conversion to the Amish faith is rare but not unheard of. The Beachy
   Amish, on the other hand, do pursue missionary work.

Amish as an ethnic group

   The Amish are united by a common Swiss-German ancestry, language, and
   culture, and they marry within the Amish community. The Amish therefore
   meet the criteria of an ethnic group. However, the Amish themselves
   generally use the term only to refer to accepted members of their
   church community, and not as an ethnic designation. Those who do not
   choose to live an Amish lifestyle and join the church are no longer
   considered Amish, just as those who live the plain lifestyle but are
   not baptized into the Amish Church are not Amish. Certain Mennonite
   churches were formerly Amish congregations. In fact, although more
   Amish emigrated to America in the 19th century than during the 18th
   century, most Amish today descend primarily from 18th century
   immigrants, since the Amish immigrants of the 19th century were more
   liberal and most of their communities eventually lost their Amish
   identity.

History

   An old Amish cemetery in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1941. The
   stones are plain and small and the inscriptions are simple.
   Enlarge
   An old Amish cemetery in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1941. The
   stones are plain and small and the inscriptions are simple.

   Like the Mennonites, the Amish are descendants of Swiss Anabaptist
   groups formed in the early 16th century during the radical reformation.
   The Swiss Anabaptists or " Swiss Brethren" had their origins with Felix
   Manz (ca. 1498–1527) and Conrad Grebel (ca.1498-1526). The name
   "Mennonite" was applied later and came from Menno Simons (1496–1561).
   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 Switzerland.

   The Amish movement takes its name from that of Jacob Amman (c. 1656 –
   c. 1730), a Swiss Mennonite leader. Amman believed the Mennonites were
   drifting away from the teachings of Simons and the 1632 Mennonite
   Dordrecht Confession of Faith, particularly the practice of shunning
   excluded members (known as the ban or Meidung). However, the Swiss
   Mennonites (who, because of unwelcoming conditions in Switzerland, were
   by then scattered throughout Alsace and the Palatinate) never practiced
   strict shunning as the Lowland Anabaptists did. Amman insisted upon
   this practice, even to the point of expecting a spouse to refuse to
   sleep or eat with the banned member until he/she repented of his/her
   behaviour. This strict literalism brought about a division in the Swiss
   Mennonite movement 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.

   The first Amish began migrating to the United States in the 18th
   century, largely to avoid religious persecution and compulsory military
   service. The first immigrants went to Berks County, Pennsylvania, but
   later moved, motivated both by land issues and by security concerns
   tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster
   County, Pennsylvania.
   A modern Amish cemetery in 2006. Stones are still plain, small, and
   simple.
   Enlarge
   A modern Amish cemetery in 2006. Stones are still plain, small, and
   simple.

   Other groups later settled in or spread to Alabama, Illinois, Indiana,
   Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,
   Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Maine, and
   Canada. The Amish congregations left in Europe slowly merged with the
   Mennonites. The last Amish congregation to merge with the Mennonites
   was Ixheim Amish congregation which merged with the neighboring
   Mennonite Church in 1937. Some Mennonite congregations, including most
   in Alsace, are descended directly from former Amish congregations.

   No Old Order movement ever developed in Europe and all Old Order
   communities are in the Americas.

   Most Amish communities that were established in North America did not
   ultimately retain their Amish identity. The original major split that
   resulted 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. As the non-Amish world's
   usage of electricity and automobiles increased, a tourist industry
   sprang up around the Amish in places such as the Pennsylvania Dutch
   Country.

Religion

Hochmut and Demut

   Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their revulsion
   toward Hochmut (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they
   place on Demut or "humility" and Gelassenheit — often translated as
   "submission" or "letting-be," but perhaps better understood as a
   reluctance to be forward, self-promoting, or to 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 Amish anti-individualist orientation is the
   motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less
   dependent on community; 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 that has little practical use for farm life but may awaken
   personal and materialistic ambitions. The emphasis on competition and
   the uncritical assumption that self-reliance is a good thing — both
   cultivated in American high schools and exulted as an American ideal —
   are in direct opposition to core Amish values.

Separation from the outside and among groups

   The Amish often cite three Bible verses that encapsulate their cultural
   attitudes:
     * "Be not 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
   commoditization 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 a display of vanity can easily
   develop.

   Amish lifestyles vary between (and sometimes within) communities. These
   differences range from profound to minuscule. "Black bumper" Beachy
   Amish drive chromeless automobiles and are rejected as non-Amish by
   most other groups, while conservative fellowships may disagree over the
   number of suspenders males should wear (only one is needed, so two
   could be seen as vanity) or how many pleats there should be 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 with one another, an important consideration
   for avoiding problems with inbreeding. Thus minor disagreements within
   communities over dairy equipment or telephones in workshops can create
   splinter churches and divide multiple communities.

   Some of the strictest Old Order Amish groups are the Nebraska Amish,
   Troyer Amish, the Swartzendruber Amish, and Amish communities in
   Webster County, Missouri. Nearly all Old Order groups, besides the
   "Swiss Amish", speak Deitsch in the home, while more progressive Beachy
   Amish groups often use English in the home. Amish who leave the old
   ways often remain near their communities, and in general, there are
   levels of progression from strict Amish to more liberal groups (usually
   Mennonite).

Baptism, rumspringa, and shunning

   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.

   Rumspringa (Deitsch, "running around") is the general term for
   adolescence and the period leading up to serious courtship during which
   rules may be relaxed a little. 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 encouraged
   nor overlooked. At the end of this period, Amish young adults are
   expected to find a spouse and be baptized. A few choose not to join the
   church, but to live the rest of their lives in wider society. Some
   communities will actively shun those who decide to leave the church,
   even those going to a different Amish congregation with different
   doctrines. 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. Shunning is also sometimes imposed by bishops on
   church members guilty of offenses such as using forbidden technology.
   Church members may also be "called to the carpet" to confess before the
   congregation.

Religious services

   The Old Order Amish have worship services every other Sunday at private
   homes. Since the average district has 168 members, they are often
   seated in several different rooms, men separate from women. Worship
   begins with a short sermon by one of several preachers or the bishop of
   the church district, followed by scripture reading and silent prayer,
   and another, longer sermon. The service is interspersed with hymns,
   sung without instrumental accompaniment or harmony. Singing is usually
   very slow, and a single hymn may take 15 minutes to finish. Worship is
   followed by lunch and socializing. The service and all hymns are in
   Deitsch. Amish preachers and deacons are selected by lot (based on Acts
   1:23–26) out of a group of men nominated by the congregation. They
   serve for life and have no formal training. Amish bishops are similarly
   chosen by lot from those selected as preachers.

Communion

   Generally, the Amish hold communion in the spring and the autumn, and
   not necessarily during regular church services. As with regular
   services, the men and women are in separate rooms. After receiving the
   elements, the members each wash and dry one another's feet.

Baptism

   The Amish practice of adult baptism is part of the admission into the
   church. Admission is taken seriously, for to leave the church after
   joining means being shunned by one's friends and family. On the other
   hand, those who do not join the Church are not shunned. Those who come
   to be baptised sit with one hand over their face, to represent their
   submission and humility to the church. Typically, a Deacon will ladle
   water from a bucket into the Bishop's hand, and the Bishop will
   sprinkle the head three times, in the name of Father, Son, and Holy
   Ghost, after which he blesses each new male member of the church and
   greets each into the fellowship of the church with a holy kiss. His
   wife similarly blesses and greets each new female church member.

Weddings

   In certain times and places, the father of a husband-high daughter
   ritually announced that she was available for courtship by painting a
   door or gate blue, but given the reluctance of many fathers and the
   eagerness of many teenaged girls, she may have chosen her partner for
   life long before the paint is applied.

   Weddings are typically held on Thursdays in late autumn, after the
   harvest is in. The bride typically wears blue. It will be a new dress
   for the wedding, but she will wear it again on other formal occasions,
   and of course, she wears no makeup. She will have no engagement ring,
   and no wedding ring will be exchanged, for the Ordnung prohibits
   personal jewelry. The marriage ceremony itself may take several hours,
   after which the community celebrates with the newlyweds, sharing food,
   drink, stories and laughter. Newlyweds typically spend the wedding
   night in the bride's mother's home.

   A sudden abundance of celery crops also hints at a near-and-coming
   Amish wedding. Celery is a prominent food used in the wedding feast and
   is also used as decoration throughout the house. Celery is used because
   of its abundance due to economic dependence on farming. It is not
   uncommon for the family of the bride to pay for a wedding in stalks and
   acres of celery.

Funerals

   Funeral customs appear to vary more from community to community than
   other religious services. In Allen County, Indiana, the Amish engage
   Hockemeyer Funeral Home, the only local funeral director who offers a
   horse-drawn hearse, to embalm the body. They hold funeral services in
   the home, however, rather than using the funeral parlor. Instead of
   referring to the deceased with stories of his life, eulogizing him,
   services tend to focus on the creation story, and biblical accounts of
   resurrection. After the funeral, the hearse carries the casket to the
   cemetery, for a reading from the Bible, perhaps a hymn is read (rather
   than sung) and the Lord's Prayer. The Amish usually, but not always,
   choose Amish cemeteries, and purchase gravestones which are uniform,
   modest, and plain; in recent years, they have been inscribed in
   English. After a funeral, the community gathers together to share a
   meal.

Lifestyle and culture

   Amish lifestyle is dictated by the Ordnung, which differs slightly 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 and culture 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 colour of buggies, or various other issues.

   Quilting is perhaps one of the best-known talents of Amish women. Amish
   quilts are made from scraps of worn clothing and therefore, incorporate
   those colors. The Pennsylvania Star, Idaho Star, and Shoo-Fly patterns
   are some of the more popular among their quilts. Most quilts are
   completely hand-sewn and passed down through each generation. They are
   often sold at auctions, along with Amish furniture and canned goods.

Modern technology

   Amish and modern transportation in Pennsylvania.
   Enlarge
   Amish and modern transportation in Pennsylvania.

   The Amish, especially those of the Old Order, are probably most known
   for their avoidance of certain modern technologies. The avoidance of
   items such as automobiles and electricity is largely misunderstood. The
   Amish do not view technology as evil. Individuals may petition for
   acceptance of a particular technology in the local community. In some
   communities, the church leaders meet annually to review such proposals.
   In others, it is done whenever necessary. Because the Amish, GAY
   BELLEND like other Mennonites, and unlike the Catholic or Anglican
   Churches, do not have a hierarchical governing structure, differing
   communities often have different ideas as to which technological items
   are acceptable.
   Telephone booth set up by an "English" farmer for emergency use by
   local Amish families.
   Enlarge
   Telephone booth set up by an "English" farmer for emergency use by
   local Amish families.

   Electricity, for instance, is viewed as a connection to, and reliance
   on, "the World", the "English", or "Yankees" (the outside world), which
   is against their doctrine of separation. The use of electricity also
   could lead to the use of worldly household appliances such as
   televisions, which would complicate the Amish tradition of a simple
   life, and introduce individualist competition for worldly goods that
   would be destructive of community. In certain Amish groups, however,
   electricity can be used in very specific situations: for example, if
   electricity can be produced without access to outside power lines.
   Twelve-volt batteries, with their limited applications, are acceptable
   to these groups. Electric generators can be used for welding,
   recharging batteries, and powering milk stirrers. In certain
   situations, outdoor electrical appliances may be used: lawn mowers
   (riding and hand-pushed) and string trimmers, for example. Some Amish
   families have non-electric versions of vital appliances, such as
   kerosene-powered refrigerators.

   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 to 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, forgoing more common Amish organic
   farming techniques.

   The Ordnung is viewed as a guide to community standards, rather than
   doctrine that defines sin. The four Old Order Amish communities of
   Allen County, Indiana, are more conservative than most; they use open
   buggies, even during the winter, and they wear black leather shoes even
   in the hot summer. The restrictions are not meant to incur suffering.
   In the 1970s, for example, a farmer near Milan Centre, Indiana, was
   ordered by his bishop to buy a conventional tractor. He had severe
   progressive arthritis and, with no sons to harness the horses for him,
   the tractor was seen as a need, rather than a vanity. The rest of the
   community continued farming with horses.

   The Amish will hire drivers and vans, for example, for visiting family,
   monthly grocery shopping, commuting to the workplace off the farm,
   though this too is subject to local regulation and variation. The
   practice increases the geographic reach of the Amish, and decreases
   isolation: a horse can travel only about 25 miles and then must rest
   for a considerable period, restricting the Amish to a radius of 12.5
   miles from home. Moreover, a horse and buggy can only sustain 10 MPH
   over an extended distance and so is impractical for emergencies.
   Regular bus service between Amish communities has been established in
   some areas. Hiring a taxi is forbidden on Sundays (as is any transfer
   of money).

   The telephone is another technology whose avoidance is often
   misunderstood. The Amish dislike the telephone because it interferes
   with their separation from the world; it brings the outside world into
   the home; it is an intrusion into the privacy and sanctity of the
   family and interferes with social community by eliminating face-to-face
   communication. However, some Amish, such as many of those in Lancaster
   County, use the telephone primarily for out-going calls, but with the
   added restriction that the telephone not be inside the home, but rather
   in a phone "booth" or shanty (actually just a small out-building)
   placed far enough from the house as to make its use inconvenient.
   Commonly these private phone shanties are shared by more than one
   family, fostering a sense of community. This allows the Amish to
   control their communication and not have telephone calls invade their
   homes, but also conduct business as needed. In the past, the use of
   public pay phones in town for such calls was more common; today with
   dwindling availability of pay phones because of increased cellphone use
   by the non-Amish population, Amish communities are seeing an increase
   in the private phone shanties. Many Amish, particularly those who run
   businesses, utilize voice mail service. The Amish will also use trusted
   "English" neighbors as contact points for passing on family emergency
   messages. Some New Order Amish will use cellphones and pagers, but most
   Old Order Amish will not.

Language

   Amish hymnal
   Enlarge
   Amish hymnal

   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"). Although now limited
   primarily to the Amish, Pennsylvania German was originally spoken by
   many German-American immigrants in Pennsylvania, especially by those
   who came prior to 1800. The so-called Swiss Amish speak an Alemannic
   German dialect that they call "Swiss". Beachy Amish, especially those
   who were born roughly after 1960, and more progressive groups tend to
   speak predominantly in English at home. There are small dialectal
   variations between communities, such as Lancaster County and Indiana
   speech varieties. The Amish themselves are aware of regional variation,
   and occasionally experience difficulty in understanding speakers from
   outside their own area.

   Deitsch is distinct from Plautdietsch and Hutterite German dialects
   spoken by other Anabaptist groups.

Dress

   Amish women in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
   Enlarge
   Amish women in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

   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 restriction on buttons
   is attributed in part to their association with military uniforms, and
   also to their potential for serving as opportunities for vain display.
   Straight-pins are often used to hold articles of clothing together. In
   all things, the aesthetic value is "plainness": clothing should not
   call attention to the wearer by cut, colour or any other feature.
   Prints such as florals, stripes, polka-dots, etc. are not encouraged in
   Amish dress, although these trends have been adapted by fellow
   Mennonites.
   Laundry day at an Amish home.
   Enlarge
   Laundry day at an Amish home.

   Women wear long dresses in a solid, plain colour such as blue. Aprons
   are often worn, usually in white or black, at home and always worn when
   attending church. A cape which consists of a triangular shape of cloth
   is usually worn beginning around the teenage years and pinned into the
   apron. In the colder months, a wool shroud is sported and pinned to
   hold together. Heavy bonnets are also worn over the prayer coverings
   when Amish women are out and about in cold weather.

   Men typically wear dark-colored trousers and a dark vest or coat,
   suspenders, and broad-rimmed straw hats in the warmer months and black
   felt hats in the colder months. Single Amish men are clean-shaven and
   married men grow a beard. In some communities, however, a man will grow
   a beard after he is baptized. Moustaches are generally not allowed,
   because they are seen as symbols of both pride and 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 beliefs
   against shaving that leads Hasidic Jews and conservative Muslims not to
   shave their beards.

   During summer months, the majority of Amish children, particularly boys
   go barefoot, including to school. The prevalence of the practice is
   attested in the Pennsylvania Deitsch saying, "Deel Leit laafe
   baarfiessich rum un die annre hen ken Schuh." (Some people walk around
   barefooted, and the rest have no shoes.) The amount of time spent
   barefoot varies, but many children and a few adults go barefoot
   whenever Sunday dress is not required.

Health issues

   Some Amish are afflicted by heritable genetic disorders, including
   dwarfism ( Ellis-van Creveld syndrome), and are also distinguished by
   the highest incidence of twinning in a known human population, various
   metabolic disorders and unusual distribution of blood-types. Since
   almost all of the current Amish descend primarily from the same few
   hundred founders in the 18th century, some genetic disorders from a
   degree of in-breeding exist in more isolated districts. However, Amish
   do not represent a single closed community, but rather a collection of
   different demes or genetically closed communities. Some of these
   disorders are quite rare, or even unique, and serious enough that they
   increase the mortality rate among Amish children. The majority of the
   Amish accept these as "Gottes Wille" (God's will) and reject any use of
   genetic tests prior to marriage to prevent the appearance of these
   disorders and also refuse genetic tests to the fetus to discover if it
   has any genetic disorder.

   There is an increasing consciousness among the Amish of the advantages
   of exogamy. A common bloodline in one community will often be absent in
   another, and genetic disorders can be avoided by choosing spouses from
   unrelated communities. For example, the founding families of the
   Lancaster County Amish are unrelated to the founders of the Perth
   County Amish community in Canada.

   Amish do not carry private commercial health insurance. The Amish of
   Lancaster County, however, do have their own informal self-insured
   health plan, called Church Aid, which helps members with catastrophic
   medical expense. About two-thirds of the Amish there enroll. A handful
   of American hospitals, starting in the mid 1990s, created special
   outreach programs to assist the Amish. The first of such programs was
   instituted at the Susquehanna Health System in central Pennsylvania by
   James Huebert. The program has earned national media attention in the
   United States and has spread to several surrounding hospitals. Treating
   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 might 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 has been treating special needs
   children with inherited or metabolic disorders since 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.

   Most Amish do not practice any form of birth control, including the
   rhythm method.

Education

   The Amish do not educate their children past the eighth grade,
   believing that the basic knowledge offered to that point is sufficient
   to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high
   school, much less to college. In many communities, the Amish operate
   their own schools, typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers from
   the Amish community. These schools provide education in many crafts,
   and therefore is eligible as a vocational education and fulfills the
   nationwide requirement of education through 10th grade or the
   equivalent. There are Amish children that go to non-Amish public
   schools, even ones that are far away and include a very small Amish
   population. For instance, there have been some Amish children who have
   attended Leesburg Elementary School in Leesburg, Indiana (about 12
   miles from Nappanee, Indiana) because their families lived on the edge
   of the school district. In the past, there have been major conflicts
   between the Amish and outsiders over these matters of local schooling.
   But for the most part they have been resolved and the educational
   authorities allow the Amish to educate their children in their own
   ways. Sometimes there are conflicts between the state-mandated minimum
   age for discontinuing schooling and the younger age of children who
   have completed eighth grade. This is often handled by having the
   children repeat eighth grade until they are old enough to leave school.
   However, in the past, when comparing standardized test scores of Amish
   students, the Amish have performed above the national average for rural
   public school pupils in spelling, usage of words and in arithmetic.
   They performed below the national average, however, in vocabulary .

   On May 19, 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish
   and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were each
   fined $5 for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high
   school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned
   the conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 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 authority on the Amish.
   Donald Kraybill, Distinguished College Professor and Senior Fellow in
   the Young Centre for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown
   College, is likely the most important scholar studying the Amish today.

Relations with the outside world

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

   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 to work hard. Amish parents will supervise the children in new
   tasks to ensure that they learn to do them 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.

   Contrary to popular belief, some of the Amish vote, and they have been
   courted by national parties as potentially crucial
   swing-constituencies: their pacifism and social conscience cause some
   of them to be drawn to left-of-center politics, while their generally
   conservative outlook causes others to favour the right wing. They are
   nonresistant and rarely defend themselves physically or even in court;
   in wartime, they take conscientious objector status; their own
   folk-history contains tales of heroic nonresistance.

   Like many Mennonites, Amish rely on their church and community for
   support, and thus reject the concept of insurance. An example of such
   support is barn raising, in which the entire community gathers together
   to build a barn in a single day.
   Amish Acres, an Amish crafts and tourist attraction in Nappanee,
   Indiana.
   Enlarge
   Amish Acres, an Amish crafts and tourist attraction in Nappanee,
   Indiana.

   In 1961, the United States Internal Revenue Service announced that
   since the Amish refuse United States Social Security benefits and have
   a religious objection to insurance, they need not pay these taxes. In
   1965, this policy was codified into law. Self-employed individuals in
   certain sects do not pay into, nor receive benefits from, United States
   Social Security, nor do their similarly-exempt employees. Amish
   employees of non-exempt employers are taxed, but they do not apply for
   benefits. A provision of this law mandates that the sect provide for
   their elderly and disabled; one visible sign of the care Amish provide
   for the elderly are the smaller Grossdaadi Heiser or Daadiheiser
   ("grandfather house") often built near the main dwelling. The Amish are
   not the only ones exempt from Social Security in the United States.
   Ministers, certain church employees and Christian Science practitioners
   may qualify for exemption under a similar clause. Otherwise, the Amish
   pay the same taxes as other American citizens.

   The Amish have, on occasion, encountered discrimination and hostility
   from their neighbors. During the World Wars, Amish nonresistance
   sparked many incidents of harassment, and young Amish men forcibly
   inducted into the services in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to
   the U.S. Constitution were subjected to various forms of ill-treatment.
   In the present day, anti-Amish sentiment has taken the form of
   systematic harassment, particularly claiping, 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. 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,
   Mary Kuepfer, 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 believed that this was not a case of claiping;
   the bottle may have been thrown by another group of Amish youth in a
   passing buggy.

The Amish portrayed in popular entertainment

   Movies: Peter Weir's 1985 acclaimed drama Witness is set and filmed in
   the Amish community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The story
   focuses on the interaction and culture clash of an Amish family with a
   Philadelphia detective hiding among them while he investigates a murder
   that an Amish boy witnessed. The film won an Oscar for screenwriting
   and was nominated for several other Academy Awards. Harvest of Fire is
   a 1996 Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-tv movie about an FBI agent's
   investigation of cases of suspected arson in an Amish farming
   community, and the relationship she develops with an Amish woman who
   helps her to uncover the truth. The 2002 documentary Devil's Playground
   follows a group of Amish teenagers during rumspringa and portrays their
   personal dilemma with both the vanities of the English world and the
   decision of whether or not to be baptised as adult members of the
   church.

   Some comic movie portrayals of the Amish include Randy Quaid’s Amish
   character "Ishmael Boorg" in Kingpin directed by the Farrelly brothers
   in 1996 and the 1997 For Richer or Poorer, starring Tim Allen and
   Kirstie Alley, also about city folk hiding among the Amish. Rob
   Reiner's 1994 comedy, North, includes a short vignette sequel to
   Witness with two of the original actors, Kelly McGillis and Alexander
   Godunov, portraying what might have happened to their characters after
   the end of Witness. The 1968 comedy The Night They Raided Minsky's is
   the story of an Amish girl who goes to New York in the 1920s to be a
   dancer and ends up as a burlesque stripper.

   Novels: Amish farmers involved in murder mysteries are also central to
   Paul Levinson's 1999 Locus Award-winning novel The Silk Code, a science
   fiction mystery about bio-technology and mysterious deaths and Jodi
   Picoult's 2003 novel (and 2004 tv movie) Plain Truth, a crime drama
   about the death of a newborn infant on an Amish farm. The Amish are
   portrayed in other novels including Lurlene McDaniel's 2002 The Angels
   Trilogy, and Beverly Lewis' extensive series of Amish romantic fiction.

   Theatre: An early portrayal of the Amish, the 1955 Broadway musical
   show Plain and Fancy, is also set in Lancaster County but with a much
   lighter tone: it tells the story of a couple from New York who
   encounter the quaint Amish lifestyle when they arrive to sell off some
   property. This show brought depictions of shunning and barn-raising to
   the mainstream American audience for the first time.

   Television: In 1988 NBC aired a family drama called Aaron's Way about
   an Amish family who move to California and have to adjust to a
   non-Amish lifestyle; numerous tv shows have had individual episodes
   with Amish characters and storylines, including Picket Fences, Murder
   She Wrote, MacGyver, among others. . In the summer of 2004 a
   controversial reality-television program called Amish in the City was
   aired on UPN, where Amish teenagers are exposed to non-Amish culture
   while living together with "English" teens as the Amish teens decide if
   they want to be baptized into their church.

   Music: "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1996 parody Amish Paradise song and
   accompanying video was a send-up of Coolio's earlier hip-hop Gangsta's
   Paradise, with Yankovic in Amish garb and lyrics reflecting Amish
   themes.

   Other: The original Extreme Championship Wrestling featured a wrestler,
   Roadkill, who dressed in Amish clothing and was billed as being from
   Lancaster County.

Groups sometimes confused with the Amish

   As Anabaptist religious groups that avoid automobiles and live apart
   from the outside world, Old Order Mennonites, Hutterites, and Old
   German Baptist Brethren are sometimes considered the same as the Old
   Order Amish by outsiders. However, all were distinct groups before
   emigrating from Europe, with different dialects and separate cultural
   and religious traditions. The Amish are called after Jakob Ammann, who
   disagreed with his Mennonite (after Menno Simons) brethren. The
   Hutterians, who live communally, come from the same broad Anabaptist
   background but were never Mennonites. They use the most modern farming
   methods on their colonies' farms. They do not use sedans, only
   extended- and crew-cab pickup trucks, for personal transportation.

   Quakers are unrelated to the Amish, although the early Quakers were
   influenced to some degree by the Anabaptists and were also " plain
   people" in manner and lifestyle. Modern Quakers have since abandoned
   their traditional dress.

   Despite the vast differences between them, the Amish are sometimes
   confused with Mormons, another distinctly different religious group.
   The French version of the film Witness mistranslated "Amish" as
   "Mormon".

   Oftentimes, members of the Haredi Jewish religious movement Hasidism
   are confused with the Amish or other Anabaptist groups that separate
   themselves from mainstream modern society. This was used to comic
   effect by Gene Wilder in the film ' The Frisco Kid'. The Haredi belief
   in limited contact with the secular world and modest behaviour and
   dress, similar to the styles of pre-20th century Eastern Europe, can
   erroneously lead some to believe that Hasidim avoid all modern
   technology and therefore must be Amish.

Abuse controversy

   Several recent high-profile cases have brought attention to sexual
   abuse of children among the Amish in some of the smaller more isolated
   communities, which has been called, perhaps erroneously, "almost a
   plague in some communities." Bishops and preachers of Old Order groups
   settle conflicts and mete out punishment for sins (generally in the
   form of shunning), and sexual abuse may therefore be less often
   reported to law enforcement. Those who are mistreated have little
   recourse and may be shunned for seeking outside help. Mary Byler was
   raped over a hundred times between the ages of 8 and 14 by her
   brothers; she was excommunicated and shunned for reporting her abusers.
   David Yoder, who grew up in a conservative Swartzentruber Amish family,
   recalls one man who committed incest with his daughter and was punished
   with 90 days of shunning. Another young woman was repeatedly raped by
   her brother-in-law, who was eventually punished by being shunned for
   two and a half months. Some groups have also been accused of tolerating
   severe physical abuse of children. Although the rate of physical or
   sexual abuse does not appear to be higher in the Amish community than
   in the general public, their physical and social isolation from the
   outside world makes it difficult for victims to seek help.

   The Lancaster Pennsylvania based Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
   published a 10-part series on domestic abuse, child abuse and child
   sexual abuse inside Amish (and Mennonite) families from the heart of PA
   Dutch country. These articles show how such abuse is systematically
   silenced inside Amish (and Mennonite) churches. The series published on
   August 4, 2004, won a state-wide award for Best Public Service
   reporting in Pennsylvania. It began with an article entitled Silenced
   by Shame: Hidden in Plain Sight and ended with an article entitled The
   Ties That Bind Can Form the Noose. As one article: Beliefs, Culture Can
   Perpetuate Abuse in Families, Churches makes clear, child and spousal
   abuse is often concealed and denied in the service of other church
   ends.

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