Mennonite & Anabaptist

The 3 Hutterite Groups

The 3 Hutterite Groups

ByErik Wesner
16 Comments

Since the mid-1800s, the Hutterites have comprised 3 main groups–the Lehrerleut, the Dariusleut, and the Schmiedeleut. The Lehrerleut are considered the most conservative, with the Schmiedeluet being the most progressive, and Dariusleut somewhere in between. However, in 1992, The Schmiedeleut experienced an internal division, creating 2 separate Schmiedeleut groups. Donald Kraybill’s Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites gives some background on the Hutterites…

An Amish America Q-and-A with Dan Miller
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An Amish America Q-and-A with Dan Miller

ByErik Wesner
4 Comments

Dan Miller is a top careers and business consultant, bestselling author, and founder of 48 Days, where he helps people from all walks of life discover fulfilling vocations.  He is also a long-time successful businessperson and runs an online community for entrepreneurs at a second site, 48Days.net. Dan has Amish roots, which I first learned a few years ago after reading an article he wrote…

Nappanee, Indiana Amish

Nappanee, Indiana Amish

Byerik
8 Comments

The third-largest Amish community in Indiana Nappanee is what I tend to think of as a ‘prototype’ Amish community, smallish to medium-sized, centered around a single small town. It’s the type of place where once you leave the main town of a few hundred or thousand souls you’ll find Amish homesteads radiating out in a number of miles in any direction.  Little or no suburban…

The Hutterites

Byerik
17 Comments

Hutterites are Anabaptist cousins of the Amish who share certain traits in common, including plain dress, the practice of social shunning, and adult baptism.  They differ in a few key areas, including technology–Hutterites accept a wide array of technologies, including the automobile, but especially those that help increase yield on the wide parcels of land they farm. While Amish live in individual homes next to…

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Excommunication and shunning among Old Order Mennonites

Byerik
21 Comments

Shunning is a widely-known yet controversial social practice of the Old Order Amish.  How do the Old Order Mennonites, close spiritual cousins of the Amish, approach the matter?  An excerpt on the topic: “Members who stray from the teachings and practice of the church are reprimanded by the deacon.  Persons who refuse to cooperate with the church may be “set back” from communion.  If they…

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‘Eck balle’: disappearing sport of the Pennsylvania Dutch

Byerik
15 Comments

photo:  Rob Ward Richard Stevick, author of Growing up Amish:  The Teenage Years, describes eck balle, or cornerball, as ‘the plain peoples’ equivalent of NCAA March Madness.’ From Growing up Amish: ‘Until the 1950s, cornerball flourished among most of the Pennsylvania Dutch communities, both plain and fancy.  Although the “fancy” or “church Dutch” eventually abandoned the game, it still thrives among the plainest Amish groups…

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Clinic for Special Children benefit auction

Byerik
8 Comments

Today was the annual auction in Lancaster County benefiting The Clinic for Special Children. The clinic, founded by Dr. Holmes Morton and located in Strasburg, PA, serves Amish and Mennonite children with rare genetic ailments (and others from outside the Amish and Mennonite community as well). There was a large turnout today at the auction house at Leola, and much to keep one busy, including…

Amish versus Roma

Amish versus Roma

Byerik
16 Comments

photo: Stanisław Ciok Flipping through a recent issue of the Polish news magazine ‘Polityka’, I had a chance to read an article about the Roma people, perhaps better known Stateside by the more colloquial ‘Gypsies’.  Entitled ‘Romofobia’, the piece describes the challenging situation of the 8 million-strong Roma minority living within Europe.  Poland, where I live for a good chunk of the year, has a…

First-Cousin Marriage & Old Order Health Issues

First-Cousin Marriage & Old Order Health Issues

ByErik Wesner
23 Comments

Kevin at the Amish Cook blog has already posted on this issue but I found it so compelling I wanted to pass it along. This Wall Street Journal article examines the situation of a Pennsylvania Old Order Mennonite father of 11 children, nine of whom suffer from rare, genetically-inherited medical ailments. The father, who in keeping with Old Order belief is uninsured, has paid around…

Who are the Old Colony Mennonites? (11 Photos)

Who are the Old Colony Mennonites? (11 Photos)

ByErik Wesner
33 Comments

The Old Colony Mennonites are Anabaptist cousins of the Amish. Today their population numbers in the hundreds of thousands. But most of them live outside the United States. So compared to the Amish, they are much less well-known in this country. The bulk of Old Colony Mennonites live in Latin America, in countries including Bolivia, Mexico, and Paraguay, as well as some in Canada. For that…