The Catholic denomination of Amish has very unique characteristics that make it different from any other Christian denomination. The Amish is a part of the Anabaptist movement that took place in Europe in the 1500s. The Amish religion tends to be thought of as a variation of the Mennonites. The Amish were founded in 1693 in Switzerland by a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists. Jakob Amman is the official founder of the Amish. Some people have said that Jakob was very determined and used a stricter line on religious beliefs and practices than others. This caused some issues along the way which led to a departing of the group. The followers of Jakob Amman became known as the Amish. Records show, that a large Amish movement to the United States took place around the mid 1700’s. When they arrived in America many of them went to Pennsylvania. Specifically, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, (Nolt 75). Many Amish still live in this area today. If you were to visit Lancaster Pennsylvania it would not be hard to see them, the Amish tend to stand out in the community. Many of the Amish speak is various German dialects. The Amish also dress in a very modest way. Amish women wear long, dark colored dresses. The dresses are often covered with a white apron and their hair is placed into a bun on the back of their heads. Along with the bun, they wear a prayer on their head. If they are single, they wear a black one and if they are married it is white. Amish women also do not wear jewelry. The Amish men wear dark colored suits, with a straight cut coat and suspenders. They also wear a black or a straw brimmed hat. They can grow a beard only after they become married and do not have mustaches. The clothing that the Amish wear is very basic and makes them stand out in the society we live in today. Another fact that makes the Amish stand out is the fact that they do not use electricity. Cars, televisions and computers are not used in the Amish community. The Amish want to live a very simple life and carry out the truth. The Amish believe that using electricity would negatively influence their Christian beliefs. There is so much hate on the television and internet today that may affect them in a very negative way. However, they do use electricity in some ways such as lights on their buggy’s, washing machine and lighting for their homes. This is very different from any other Christian denomination. Some people may think that the Amish are facing a challenge of attracting people into their community, but this is not the case. According to the latest census taken in the United States, the Amish population has doubled in the last twenty years. There are approximately 251,000 Amish people living in the United States today. In 1989, there were only about 100,000 Amish people living in the United States, (The Christian Science Monitor). Researchers believe that this number will again double in the next twenty-one years. One of the reasons the Amish population is growing is because many Amish children are making the choice to stay within the Amish religion community, which leads to them starting their own large families.
The Amish take their faith and beliefs very seriously. The Amish people believe that God gave his only son to die on the cross because he loved the people of the world so incredibly much. They believe that the Bible is the word of God and that our job as Christians is to live as brothers and do good work of God in life. Some of the basic beliefs that the Amish have are that there is one God who externally exists as the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. They also believe that salvation is through faith in Christ. If you were to go to an Amish worship service, you would most likely hear the verse Romans 12:2 recited. “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God,” (The Bible). The Amish live by the Ordnug which is ‘The Amish blueprint for expected behavior, regulates private, public and ceremonial life,” (Nolt 165). One of the more serious practices that the Amish follow is shunning of church members. Members of the Amish who do not follow the vows that they took at their baptism, they become shunned by the older Amish order. Also, if you are shunned by the Church, your family and community is also expected to shun you as well. These are some of the beliefs that the Amish have.
Even though the Amish fall under the Christian religion, there are some things that set the Amish apart. One of the elements that sets the Amish apart is that they do not believe that their faith automatically guarantees their salvation. They think the people that believe this are ignorant. The Amish also have an Ordnung, which is their own set of tradition and rules that govern their life. Instead of these rules being memorized and repeated, the Amish believe that the Ordnug must be taught by living it. This difference resembles the Bible. We go to church and read the Bible and memorize the verses and the stories that were told where the Amish do not spend the time memorizing the book, they represent it by their everyday lives. Another difference is the separation between the church and state. The Amish believe that the church is the primary authority. The Amish tend to reject any civilian authority. For example, they do not accept any public funds. They do not educate their children past the eighth grade, the elderly Amish do not receive social security benefits and if they testify in court they do not swear to oaths, they make affirmations of truth. Along with the idea of separation of church and state, they are also separated from the world. The Amish are separated from the world because they do not use electricity or technology. They believe technology would welcome sin into their lives. Another aspect that sets the Amish apart is the idea of evangelization. The Amish present their faith by the way they live their lives unlike Christians who think that spreading the word of God as part of the responsibility of their faith, (Podnar).
The Amish, like all other religions have conflicts and challenges that they face both individually and as group as a whole. Some of the conflicts the Amish face are behavioral rules such as voting. Many Amish do not vote because they tend to stay out of public life, however some of the Amish population feels as though they have the right to vote, especially if the issues being voted on directly impact them such as zoning, (Kraybill 165). Another conflict is should they be allowed to have buttons or pockets on their clothes. Traditional Amish clothes have neither buttons or pockets, but some want these additions for conventional purposes and making their lives easier. Some Amish also believe that children should be educated beyond the eighth grade. They feel as though it will help them become more successful later on in life. Amish bring the Church into their homes. However, some Amish want to construct churches to hold their worship and meetings. Having a whole village of Amish people coming to your house for Church I am sure can be very overwhelming. There have also been some disagreements on theological issues. There has been some conflict on whether Hell exists as a place where people are punished eternally. On the contrary to that statement, other Amish believe in universalism which states that nobody would be in Hell forever, they would eventually be saved. Disease has also created some problems for the Amish. In the late 1970’s, the polio virus wiped out a major portion of the Amish population because most of them were not vaccinated. ‘The Amish were not opposed to immunizations, but it was not convenient for them, so they were not motivated to get them,” (Kraybill 187). Genetic diseases are also a challenge in the Amish population because some of the villages have a very small gene pool because they tend to marry each other in the village. These are some of the conflicts and challenges that the Amish face within their community and individually as well.
The future looks promising for the Amish population, especially in America. The Amish population has been growing greatly in the past decade. According to a study from Ohio State University, there are currently 456 Amish settlements in Canada and the United States combined. This number is expected to jump to 1,000 settlements by 2050. That is a huge jump in the number of settlements that will be around. In the United States, the current Amish population is 251,000. This number is expected to grow to over one million by the year 2050, (The Christian Science Monitor). The main reason for these dramatic growths in numbers is because of the high birth rates and the importance of keeping the children within the Amish community. A majority (90%) of Amish children that are born within the community keep their family’s traditions even though some of them may take some time away from the community during their teenage years. This huge growth in population is creating new Amish settlements. There are settlements of Amish in thirty-one states in the USA, this number is also expected to grow exponentially in the future. Even though there is evidence that the Amish population is growing, I also feel as though more and more people are becoming aware of the population. I believe that part of this reason for the growing interest is because of the publicity of a few of the Amish communities. The TLC television network has had several shows that show the lives of people that are Amish or once were apart of the Amish community. Breaking Amish is the most popular of the shows on the network. The shows follow the lives of five Amish who move to New York and decide if they want to continue living the Amish lifestyle or be shunned from their community to live their own life without the Amish community. Breaking Amish shows how the cast react and cope with leaving the Amish community and figuring out how to live without everything that they have ever known. It also portrays how things are going back in the Amish community and how their families are coping with them being gone and how their families have reacted. Since the individuals in this show left their communities, they should be shunned and be in contact with nobody because of the choice that they made to leave. However, they are still in contact with people from their previous life and when watching the show, you can see the issues that this causes.
While doing my research I thought that it would be interesting to see if I could find any videos of Amish church services online. I tried to find videos of actual Amish Church services, but it was difficult because the videos taken had to be taken in secret because of the Amish not welcoming outsiders into their Church like that and because they do not approve of the use of technology. There were three videos that I saw that were pretty interesting to me. The first video that I watched was from an Amish church in Iowa. There was a man videotaping from outside the Church. The most interesting part of the video was when they went to exit the Church. The men and the women exited the Church through different doors. I also went back and watched the video again and you could tell that they were sitting on different sides of the Church. I thought that this was very interesting. The next video I watched was from a Church in Pennsylvania. This Church showed the men and the women sitting together and there was also a lot of children. It seemed as though they were grouped together by family instead of by gender. In this video there was also a baptism that was taking place in a small pond. In this video I also noticed that there was a dialect of German that was being spoken along with English. This was consistent with the research that I found earlier when I learned that some Amish communities today speak a form of German. There was a lot of people there for support. The final video I watched was taken in Maryland. In this video the men and women were also sitting together and there were children present. A common theme that I noticed in all of the videos was that there were a lot of songs that they were singing. The majority of the videos were that of spiritual songs being sung. I found the videos of Amish in their Church to be very interesting.
I believe that the Franciscan value that the Amish most closely represent is, education for truth and service. The Amish are very strict in their daily lives. Amish children only go to school up until eighth grade. In school they learn math, reading and writing, but most important to them, they learn the Amish history and values. I consider these the Amish truths. These are the things that are important to their daily lives and relationship with God. They get taught the truths to live their daily lives. After they get through the eighth grade, they go straight into the work force. The men are taught how to work the farm and how to care for their household while the women are taught how to take care of things inside the household and how to care for children when the time comes. The Franciscan value of education for truth and service closely relates to the Amish religion.
The Amish live a very independent life from the rest of the world. They are very simple and keep to themselves. Their population is growing drastically and will continue to grow in the future. The Amish are avid farmers and workers. The make furniture and quilts, things that you may have inside your house. The Amish are unlike any other religion in this day and age. They do not use technology and get around by using horse and buggy. The simplicity of their lives is very interesting, and I think we could all learn something from their way of life.