Amish Beliefs

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?

This October will mark 5 years since the Nickel Mines shootings.  The Amish forgiveness story was hugely powerful and quickly spread around the world, in part because it was so unusual.  People just don’t forgive, so quickly, after a crime of such magnitude. Five years on, one wonders how much the lessons of the Amish [...]

Continue Reading Lessons of Amish forgiveness

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?

“We could probably build a better car than Detroit can. I will go out on a wing and say that. I honestly believe we could do that.” It’s not often you hear an Amishman make such a claim. But it almost makes sense–when you learn that the fellow who said this is from northern Indiana. [...]

Continue Reading What does “wealth” mean to you?

You may remember the “Trouble in Amish Paradise” documentary film of a few years ago, which examined two Amish couples’ decisions to leave the Lancaster Amish. The maker of that film, Andrew Tait, has released a follow-up film called “Leaving Amish Paradise”.  This is one of a number of recent films and books on the [...]

Continue Reading “Leaving Amish Paradise” documentary

How active are Amish in mission work? As touched on in “So you want to join the Amish“, Amish have traditionally looked more inward than outward, focusing spiritual energies on their own rather than seeking converts. There has been historical interest in mission work within the Amish however.  The New Order Amish movement grew, in [...]

Continue Reading Amish mission work–creating “mission fields” at home?

You’ve probably heard about the accident in a Kentucky Amish community last Thursday.  Flash flooding in a normally passable creek caused a crossing buggy to overturn.  Four children, ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years, were swept away and drowned. The Amish community, in Graves County in western Kentucky, has suffered a difficult [...]

Continue Reading Amish sympathy cards

Today, January 6th, is the Epiphany.  It is also known as “Old Christmas” or “second Christmas”.  From the Pinecraft Pauper: January 6th is still widely observed as a holiday by many plain folks, who commemorate the Epiphany with rest and fasting.  The Epiphany, traditionally, is the day in which the wise men brought gifts to [...]

Continue Reading Amish celebrate Old Christmas today

Reader Alyssa writes: I have one question about the Swartzentruber Amish: do they have assurance of salvation? To put it bluntly, do they have Jesus in their hearts in order to go to heaven? Are they true Christians? In fact, I think this is 2, or even 3 separate questions.  I can take a shot [...]

Continue Reading Are Swartzentruber Amish “saved”?

Which Bible do Amish use?  Typically, the Amish use the German Martin Luther version, particularly for church readings.  For an English version, the most favored translation is the King James edition (KJV). Some Amish use the New International Version (NIV) as well.  Often, the Bible Amish read in the home will have a dual format-German [...]

Continue Reading The “Amish Bible”, and the appeal of Bible story books