The Amish are a peculiar group in the U.S.
Isolated and private, what little media coverage they receive at times leads to
misconceptions. Here are all the things you probably get wrong about the Amish.
When you think about the Amish,
you may think of hard-working men who farm their land and then haul their crops into town.
It's true that farming as a way of making a living is central to many Amish communities.
The Amish believe strongly in maintaining the rural traditions of their forefathers, for one.
Farming is seen as a way for fathers to stay home and close to their families,
instead of having to travel out to a job outside of their community.
But as NPR notes, a growing number of Amish are choosing not to be farmers.
In fact, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where there is a large Amish community,
there has been a sharp rise in the requests for permission to house horses on residential lots.
This is because many young Amish are moving off the family farm to work at different occupations.
Those occupations include carpentry, construction, or even owning small businesses and shops in town.
"There's definitely not many dull moments around here."
Another reason for the decline in Amish farming is the difficulty in subdividing
farms to provide an inheritance for sons, as well as the rising cost of land. While farming
remains a core part of the Amish lifestyle, the Amish are increasingly branching out.
If you know one thing about the Amish, you know they're not allowed to use modern technology.
Except, of course, they are — and they do.
What most people misunderstand about the Amish is that they don't ban the use of electricity,
or technology in general. Most of their restrictions,
which vary from one community to another, are focused on the connection to the outside world.
Connecting to an electric grid would connect them to influences they'd rather avoid.
The Amish do, in fact, use a lot of technology, including cell phones. As
long as these technologies are generally kept outside of the home, they're perfectly okay.
Amish communities have extremely elaborate systems for determining
whether a piece of technology is acceptable and how it can be used.
There isn't always agreement. Back in the 1920s, a serious schism occurred within the
Amish world over the appropriate use of the then-novel telephone.
Now, the use of cell phones is a controversial gray area. The Amish resist having telephones
in their house because of the interruption it would represent. But they don't reject
technology completely — they just think really long and hard before allowing it into their world.
"They really don't like any technology, but there is much more in here than they realize."
To modern Americans, the Amish may look like a group of people from another country, but despite
appearances, the Amish do, in fact, speak English, and they speak more or less like everyone else.
In fact, they speak several languages. The Amish will speak English when outsiders are present,
out of courtesy. Among themselves, they'll speak a dialect of German called Pennsylvania Dutch,
or, in some areas like Indiana, a dialect of Swiss. Since Pennsylvania Dutch is
not a written language, they generally use German or English when writing things down.
And they use a dialect called High German in their church services and religious writings.
According to Babbel Magazine, an estimated 400,000 people speak Pennsylvania Dutch in North America,
and the number of people speaking the language is doubling every 20 years or
so thanks to the high birth rates among the Amish. And there are non-Amish who speak
the language — the Amish call these people the "Fancy Dutch." It's a shrinking group,
however, as many of the Fancy Dutch have started speaking exclusively English.
Since the Amish work hard at remaining separate from the larger modern world around them,
it's easy to assume they have none of the obligations that the rest of us do.
It's a common rumor that the Amish don't pay any taxes, but this is not true.
What is true is that the Amish tax situation is complex. They don't pay Social Security
or Medicare taxes, but they do pay income taxes, sales tax, and property taxes just like everyone
else. The Amish regard Social Security and other government programs as contrary to their beliefs,
so they don't accept Social Security, unemployment, or other benefits that are funded
by taxes. The Amish believe in self-sufficiency and caring for each other as a community,
rejecting any reliance on the wider world that might bring in corrupting influences.
This took a long time to sort out — the Amish clashed with the government
over these taxes for years. They finally received a religious exemption in 1965.
Because the popular image of the Amish includes horse-drawn buggies, many assume the Amish are
forbidden to even ride in a car. This is absolutely untrue — in fact, the Amish use
cars a lot. They just don't own or drive them. There's actually a thriving business driving the
Amish around. It's sort of like a low-tech Uber, where Amish call to make appointments
for rides ahead of time. They use car services to get to places where horses can't easily go,
to haul groceries or other loads, and to get to their jobs outside the community.
According to Business Insider, you can make decent money doing this. They pay by the mile and then
pay $10 an hour if you have to wait while they shop or conduct their business. Flat-rate jobs
also come along, like being paid $120 to pick up a family for a grocery run every Saturday.
And sometimes the Amish need those cars to get to charter buses so they can go on vacation.
Yes, the Amish go on vacation just like other families — often to a community in Sarasota,
Florida called Pinecraft. While on vacation, the usual rules are somewhat relaxed,
and the Amish can let their hair down, at times using technology that they might otherwise reject.
"So there are some things that are different here. That's just been accepted over time."
Because Amish culture emphasizes "plain living" that eschews most modern comforts
and connections to the world around them, it's easy to assume they live a primitive life. The
idea that the Amish rely on home remedies and old-timey medicine is completely wrong,
though. There's actually nothing in the Amish religion that forbids the use of modern-day
medicine. The Amish can and do go to regular doctors, specialists, and even hospitals.
What truly sets the Amish apart in terms of health care is insurance: They don't use it. Instead,
the Amish pay for their medical care in cash — often funded by the entire community. It's
actually a pretty complex system involving church funds and benefit sales. Although the
Amish reject insurance, they still negotiate with local hospitals for the best prices.
However, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that some Amish do hesitate to go to doctors or
hospitals because they fear they will be under the control of people who do not share their beliefs.
As a result, they tend to rely more on local doctors in nearby communities,
who they trust to respect their traditions.
The Amish are a subset of Christianity known as "Plain People." They are deeply religious and
keep themselves separate from the modern world, dressing and living as plainly as possible.
But that doesn't mean they don't celebrate life.
While it's true they don't celebrate many secular holidays, they celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Year's Day. Unsurprisingly for a strict Christian community, they don't observe Halloween,
but they do decorate with pumpkins and other gourds during the Autumn season.
Christmas is just as big a deal for the Amish as for other Christians,
although they celebrate in a less than flashy manner. According to Discover Lancaster,
Amish communities celebrate both Christmas and "Second Christmas." In fact, dinners and
gatherings can continue well into February. They exchange small, homemade gifts between
family members, bake cookies, and make candy. And they even make their own Christmas cards.
There's often an assumption that when a tight-knit religious community is isolated from the world,
they must rely on arranged marriages to ensure that no one wanders away. The truth
is the Amish get married the old-fashioned way, and it's all perfectly voluntary.
Amish communities are extremely close. They spend most of their time together,
and most members of a community know each other intimately from birth.
That means that by the time they reach courting age, they've forged some very strong relationships
with their neighbors. The courtship process is extremely charming and old-fashioned,
beginning with a male suitor giving a woman rides to and from church or community gatherings known
as "singings." After a while, the couple will be allowed some privacy. The woman,
it should be stressed, is a full participant in choosing her husband.
One thing the Amish do not believe in? Divorce. The Amish Church does not have any provision for
divorce. Getting a divorce would violate the oath an Amish person took at their baptism.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when discussing the Amish is to assume that because
they speak in a different language among themselves, dress in a unique, culturally
specific way, and hold themselves apart from modern society, they're an ethnic group of German
or Swiss descent. But that's not technically true. While most Amish do descend from German and
Swiss genetic lines, they use the term "Amish" to identify members of their community, in the same
way they use the word "English" to describe anyone outside their community, regardless of race.
That means that, at least theoretically, anyone can become Amish. The Amish at times
allow outsiders to convert and join the church and community — although it isn't
easy. You must embrace the lifestyle and live as a plain person, you'd better learn
to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and you'll have to convince them that you're serious.
And the Amish are not evangelicals — they do not preach to people and attempt to recruit.
So if someone wants to become a member of an Amish community, they will have to take the initiative.
This is also behind the purpose of the rumspringa,
the period of exploration that teenage Amish experience. They often return to
their community and choose to be baptized into the Amish faith after they see the alternatives.
The Amish are known to be a pretty gentle folk. They are officially pacifists and refuse to
serve in the military, but it goes deeper than that. The Amish actually believe in a
principle of "non-resistance" that applies to every aspect of their lives. That's why
they won't sue in courts of law and why they don't deal with the local police.
That gentle approach to life gives people the impression that the Amish are too pure for this
world — but the fact is the Amish have their own dirty laundry just like everyone else.
According to Type Investigations, the isolation and secrecy of Amish
communities can hide horrifying sexual assault and child abuse.
"A perfect, um, situation for abuse to, uh, flourish."
When the victims have the courage to speak up, they are often pressured
by the community not to involve the local authorities — and Amish communities often
have agreements with local police to let them handle their own problems. They are
sometimes threatened with excommunication and shunning if they don't back down.
As Channel 3000 notes, one problem facing victims of assault in Amish communities who decide to
leave is their lack of knowledge: They often have no idea how to live a modern "English" life.
"The toughest part about it was figuring out how to survive in the outside world,
figuring out how to successfully escape."
Amish education stops at grade eight, and their unfamiliarity with technology and
other aspects of modern life can trap them in communities disinterested in protecting them.
Many think the Amish are a small and shrinking part of the world, a relic
of the past that now exists as a sort of living museum exhibit. The truth is exactly the opposite.
USA Today reports that the Amish are actually one of the fastest-growing population groups
in the United States. Back in 1920, there were approximately 5,000 Amish in the U.S. By 1984,
there were about 84,000. Today, that number is closer to 300,000. One reason for this population
growth is their belief in large families. Most Amish have about six children. Despite
the fact that teenagers are encouraged to see the world and experience modern life, most of their
kids — about 80 percent — choose to remain in the community when they turn 18 and can be baptized.
These high birth rates mean the Amish will be a force to be reckoned with soon enough.
According to Babbel Magazine, the number of Amish in this country is doubling about every 20 years.
Of course, to put those numbers in perspective, there are 51 million Catholics in the U.S.,
so the Amish aren't going to be taking over anytime soon.
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