I dropped in on Safety Days today, held at the Mount Hope Auction yards. Most of the hundreds in attendance were Amish. People slowly filed by educational booths promoting early learning, fire safety, and eye care. One fireman admonished listeners to ‘label their liquids’ since children could not tell the difference between potables and more lethal liquids such as kero or diesel. Besides the useful…
I winced when I saw the cover. I was sure this book would be another lightweight voyeuristic Hollywood look at the Amish. Yet Shachtman seems to reserve judgment and present the Amish even-handedly throughout Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish. He seems to have a heart for the kids involved, presenting their tales with compassion and respect. At the same time, like a…
I run into Amish dog breeders almost every day here in Lancaster County. On this blog I usually contend that allegations of animal abuse in what are termed Amish puppy mills are at least a tad overblown. I do feel sorry at times to see dogs kept caged. At the same time I don’t know that I’d go so far to allege abuse on the…
This week while selling books in Lancaster County, I met ‘Abe’ and ‘Anna Ruth’, an excommunicated Amish couple, kicked out, they said, for promoting the idea of assurance of salvation. While they still attended their local church services, lived and dressed ‘Amish’, they had lost full membership and were presumably under the Bann. Amish believe that all we can do is do our best to…
Just got back from my leisurely Sunday walk through downtown historic Strasburg, the borough where I’m living this summer. Amish buggies go past my window on a regular basis; horse manure lines the streets of stone and brick homes, many of which date from the 1700’s and 1800’s. One of the buggies rolling down main street today was a bit different though–from far off, it…
Most Amish have a fairly healthy attitude toward tourism–and tourists can mean different things to different Amish–a slight annoyance for some, a significant profit source for others, a chance for an interesting conversation for another bunch. Lancaster Amish by far have the most to deal with when it comes to visitors, though if you get out of the heavily-trafficked areas such as Amish tourism capital…
The Amish & alcohol When I was first learning about the Amish, I was kind of surprised to discover that some Amish people drink alcohol. As I met more and more Amish people, I kept running across examples of this. That’s not to say that alcohol is a big part of Amish society across-the-board. But neither is it completely absent from Amish culture, as outsiders…
A recent blog post on Amish and autism I stumbled across takes on the controversial view that childhood vaccines and autism are linked. Many have pointed to the Amish, who often forgo vaccination, and according to some have low-to-nonexistent rates of autism, as evidence of the link. Seems like much of the attention has focused on Lancaster County, with those in the know saying the…
When a baptized Amish person leaves the community for another church, it can be a jarring experience, both for the family involved and for others in the church. And especially so, in the very rare occurrence when one party stays behind. Most cases I have come across of Amish leaving have involved the full family; one or two peculiar situations have not–with the wife remaining…
I just Googled ‘amish news’ and it seems the Amish are getting some polarized coverage these days. If they’re not being lauded as an example of how we should all be more forgiving, they are under fire as heartless puppy abusers. What’s the real deal? Besides stating the obvious that we should look at the individual and not the whole, the Amish seem to exhibit…