The Amish plaintiffs appealed this case to the Supreme Court back in March (if you’re new to this story, here’s a summary of the issue, and some further explanation shared with us by expert witness Karen Johnson-Weiner). At the time, it was unclear whether it would even be heard. And it seemed unlikely, as the Supreme Court only hears 100 to 150 of the roughly…
Gloria Yoder writes an introspective Amish Cook column this week, on why she is Amish. As she often does, Gloria first notes that there are many different types of Amish people and that she can only speak for her community (Gloria belongs to a New Order Amish church). She then explains: Of the thousands of denominations out there, there is no other I’d rather spend…
Amish people in the Holmes County community have stepped in to rebuild the barn of a local non-Amish family, after a fire reduced it to rubble. The fire claimed the barn of the Linda Beachy family, located in the heart of the Holmes County community…and the new barn was up within a week of the fire. From the Wooster Daily Record: Dewey Mishler was one…
To help fund their schools and raise money for other purposes such as medical needs, some Amish communities hold fundraisers. The best-known and perhaps most common type is the benefit auction. There are other events as well – as in this story out of a small Missouri community, where we see a heavily-attended fish fry. Via the McDonald County Press: The Amish community generally holds two…
This story is a neat little slice-of-life in an area with a not-insignificant Amish population. Amish patrons of the Charlotte Community Library in Charlotte, Michigan will now have an easier time of visiting, thanks to new parking space installed for up to three buggies. What actually went in was a hitching post and painted markings designating the area as “Buggy Parking Only”: Some Amish regularly…
Given its remoteness and smaller population, we don’t get a ton of coverage on Amish in Montana. So it’s very nice that long-time reader Andrea D. shares some photos and a report from the West Kootenai Amish auction and community (this is the Rexford area settlement). Andrea writes that “I was visiting my sister in NW Montana this past weekend and we went to the…
Have you ever heard anyone make a claim like “the Amish are against technology”, or that they “shun” modern conveniences? There is even the idea that Amish think technology is “evil”. I recall the video for the silly Weird Al Yankovic song, with Amish feet stomping on a pile of gadgets in one scene. These ideas are out there, and they get perpetuated by television…
An upstate New York man used explosive Molotov cocktails to “burn down the mailboxes” of two Amish “business associates”. It’s been well-documented that Amish can be targets of vandalism and harrassment. Some cases are driven by pure dislike of the Amish, or as a sort of boredom-killing prank. This case seems to have had a financial motive behind it. According to the story in WNYT…
This happened Sunday in Oswego County, New York. From syracuse.com: Richland, N.Y. — A woman was killed Sunday afternoon when a pickup truck crashed into the back of an Amish buggy in Oswego County. Two people were thrown from the buggy after the carriage was rear-ended on county Route 41 in Richland, the New York State Police said. Susan Swartzentruber — one of the two…
“Amish Atheist” certainly feels like an oxymoron. That’s what I thought when first hearing about the turn in Kenneth Copp’s life in a story four years ago. Copp originally appeared on this site even earlier than that, when he was still with the Amish and living in the Unity, Maine community. In 2013 one of our readers contributed a guest post on Unity, much of…