In today’s interview, Mose Gingerich answers questions about the National Geographic Amish: Out of Order program. Mose shares his thoughts below on a range of topics including faith, hell, and his hopes for the series. Amish: Out of Order is in the middle of a ten-episode run on the National Geographic Channel. The series looks at [...]
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Grace Leads Me Home by Marlene Miller Marlene C. Miller grew up Marlene Bailey in a little town on the edge of the Holmes County, Ohio Amish settlement. One day while ice-skating, Marlene meets Johnny Miller, an Amish boy five years her senior. She would later marry Johnny, join the Amish church at age 23, [...]
Continue Reading Joining the Amish: 45 years later
How do you spend Easter Monday? The day is among those holidays observed by Amish. Here in heavily-Catholic Poland the Poles pack the churches. Right now I’m in Warsaw at my grandmother’s, waiting for family to arrive. We’ll have ten people filling the apartment for the traditional meal. My grandmother has gotten more creative in recent [...]
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I found myself thinking about this after reading an article about an Idaho family. Originally running in the Lewiston Tribune under the title “Amish family in Winchester finds its way” (and elsewhere as “N. Idaho Amish family embraces modern ways”), the article contains the following description: In many ways the Miller family is as Amish [...]
Continue Reading What does “being Amish” mean?
An ancient Anabaptist hymnal The Ausbund is a very important book for the Amish. This hymnal contains centuries-old songs originating with Anabaptist captives held at the Oberhaus castle prison in Passau, located in present-day southeastern Germany. Amishman Benuel Blank wrote The Amazing Story of the Ausbund about this remarkable songbook. About the Ausbund Blank writes: The [...]
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Today, January 6th, some Amish observe Old Christmas. From a previous post, on the change to the Gregorian calendar in 1582: As the years went on, time due to the miscalculation in the previous Julian calendar accumulated. This meant countries who adopted it later had to make a change of more days. When Britain (and [...]
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Lisa Kuhn writes: i am a 57 year old woman who has a number of chronic disabilities. this is very isolating for me as i am pretty much bed-bound. i have faith in god which helps of course, but i do not really have any family so this makes things much harder. i used to [...]
Continue Reading What if you’re Amish – and can’t work?
Alice Mary writes: About 6 years ago, my husband & “kids” (then ages 23 & 29 at the time, daughter & son, respectively) were coming back from some concert in Millennium Park (or Grant Park?) and a young Mennonite woman (late teens, I’d guess) greeted me (I guess it was obvious I was the “Mom”) [...]
Continue Reading Do Amish evangelize?
How much do Amish interact with the public? It’s a broad question, without a straightforward answer. Two recent stories show Amish crossing boundaries of sorts. Law Enforcement On the whole, Amish are less likely than your average American to call the police. They have been criticized for this reluctance, particularly when criminal matters are [...]
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Reader Stella shared some thoughts on the “Joining the Amish after 50” post: Perhaps I’m an unusual atheist but I’ve always admired the Amish philosophy and lifestyle, despite lacking the necessary Faith Trigger to join them. However, I was brought up by atheist parents and taught to respect all genuine engagements with life’s questions, religious [...]
Continue Reading What do Amish think about atheists?
