Amish

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Amish

The Amish branched off from the Mennonites in Europe in the 1690s under the leadership of Jacob Ammann, who emphasized the shunning (ostracizing) of persons who had been expelled from the church. They came to America primarily in two waves, from 1727 to 1770 and from 1815 to 1860, as part of a larger mass immigration of Germans, settling on farms west and northwest of Philadelphia. As the Amish population has grown, shortages of local farmland have propelled migrations to Indiana, Ohio, and other states. Differences over theological and lifestyle issues have also caused some groups to split away from their cobelievers and move to new areas.

Specific beliefs and practices vary in different localities, but generally the Amish adhere to the Anabaptist tradition forged in Europe in the early 1500s. They are best known to the larger public for their "plain" dress, largely unchanged for three centuries, and their rejection of modern technology (including, usually, motor vehicles and household electricity). Intent on preserving their culture, they speak an unusual German dialect, operate private schools for their children, and avoid excessive contact with the non-Amish, whom they call "the English." Occasionally they come into conflict with secular authority, especially over issues of compulsory education and military service (like other Anabaptists, the Amish are pacifists). In recent decades they have become, in their quaintness, a tourist attraction, and Amish settlements are often thronged with sightseers whose presence is not sought but cannot be prevented.

Differences over lifestyle issues, particularly, have spurred the fragmentation of the Amish into many subgroups, a process further propelled by the fact that local Amish congregations are self-governing and independent. The most traditional are the Old Order Amish, who travel by horse and buggy, farm with horse-drawn equipment, and do not use electricity. A continuum of more liberal groups also exists, including the Beachy Amish and the New Order Amish, both of whom allow for the use of motor vehicles, among other things.

Amish "districts," as local congregations are called, tend to be small—about twenty-five to thirty-five families. Most do not build church buildings, preferring to meet in homes, and none has professional clergy or Sunday schools. Modernization and social change do creep in, but at an exceedingly slow pace. The strong cohesion of the Amish is maintained by family ties, cultural heritage, and the Ordnung, the detailed system of regulations governing daily life. One who seriously violates the Ordnung is shunned, cut off from the social and religious life of the community (the process is called Meidung), until he or she publicly repents.

Conversion to Amish life is rare, and Amish population growth is due almost exclusively to the prevalence of large families (the average Amish family has seven children) and an ability to retain a strong majority of grown children in the movement, despite the attractions of modern secular life. By the 1990s their numbers had reached more than 125,000, including children.

Young Amish adults who have not yet joined the church often participate in "worldly" activities, in some cases owning cars and engaging in various youthful excesses, including, sometimes, heavy drinking and drug use. However, by their early twenties most submit to church authority, marry, and carry Amish traditions forward into a new generation.

See alsoBruderhof; Mennonites; Pacifism; Shunning.