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 [...]
Continue Reading The Ausbund
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 [...]
Continue Reading Amish and Old Christmas
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 [...]
Continue Reading Amish and the public
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?
If you’re thinking you’d like to join the Amish, odds are it’s the wrong decision. As we’ve discussed many times (see “If you left the English, what would you gain?“), there are too many challenges for most people to adopt an Amish life. Still, some kindle a desire to become Plain. Many are younger individuals. [...]
Continue Reading Joining the Amish after 50?
A couple of heart-breaking stories this week. An 11-month-old Amish baby died late Sunday night when it fell from a moving buggy in Missouri. The person holding it had fallen asleep. Yesterday morning, an Amish woman in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, succumbed to serious burns suffered in a home explosion. She had thrown kerosene on a [...]
Continue Reading Is Amish life more dangerous?
When I first met the Amish, I spent a warm fuzzy period admiring and even idealizing Amish society. This was in the summer of 2004, and I was selling a set of books called the Family Bible Library to Amish families. I had spent a fruitful few weeks in the Arthur, Illinois community before traveling [...]
Continue Reading If you “left the English”, what would you gain?
