Gloria Yoder: Why Aren’t Amish “Masking Up”?

In her latest column “Being Amish during a pandemic“, Amish Cook Gloria Yoder addresses the contention that “many Amish” are not wearing masks:

I gaze out the window of our little office, wondering what tidbits to share with you all. My mind turns to the letters and notes I received from those of you who kindly alerted me that, sadly, many Amish seem to be naive to the need to wear face masks throughout these pandemic-filled times.

Oh my, I wish I could make it all right for you. There seems to be more differing opinions and ways of living an Amish lifestyle than I could ever tell.

Gloria is rightly noting that there are few one-size-fits-all descriptions of “the Amish” (even though by necessity we often speak in terms of “the Amish this” and “the Amish that”). To me she sounds a bit frustrated by the conflict that can sometimes but generated by these differences – but also includes this note of tolerance:

At any rate, there is always a way of respecting others and valuing their ideas, no matter where we are or what denomination we may be a part of. Doesn’t it all come back to loving others more than ourselves?

Now what does Gloria have to say about Amish not wearing masks? Is this accurate? And if so, why is this the case?

Now, for targeting the stark reality that in numerous Amish communities, masks are not readily seen. I’m guessing you are correct; even though I do not personally know many Amish folks in larger communities or even know all of their living standards, my guess would be that most of those not wearing masks maybe for two or more three reasons.

The three reasons:

I am suspecting that most Amish folks are known to use various natural home remedies. Thus they are not as concerned about sicknesses, thinking that they can get better soon enough with things they have relied on over the years.

Second, I know Amish who have been watching other death rates decrease as corona numbers climb and have observed natural deaths be labeled with corona, raising questions about what may or may not be accurate.

Perhaps the third thing many of them hang on is the idea that though the virus is transferred by the air we breathe, the germ is ‘thin or light’ enough to go through the fabric or any substance used to make masks.

How does Gloria’s family approach this topic? Do they feel it is important to wear masks?

Here I am, only a little Amish housewife; while I cannot change all people with the given sticker, “Amish,” I do want to do my part in masking up. As a community, we wear masks when we go to town (as we call our grocery shopping). Regardless of what belief system any one of us may have adapted, in my mind, I wonder if it doesn’t all come back to loving and respecting others above ourselves.

Our children love masks. I made sunshiny yellow masks for each of them, with quotes on them like, “Jesus and me, He holds us tight in his arms, and He keeps His promises.” They love wearing their matching masks, which makes them feel quite grown-up.

If you read her columns, you know that Gloria is unfailingly positive, and a person of strong faith:

The pandemic had been a pull for all of us in so many different ways, may we all learn to pull together through it all, instead of ascending on our ideas, and stepping right on other’s perspectives in the process, only to both come crashing down again.

It was nice to get this perspective from an Amish person on this topic. Amish are used to being under the spotlight in normal times.

In these unusual times, they’ve again found themselves under the spotlight – but I would say, on balance, more often for negative reasons. But it doesn’t surprise me that Gloria and her family have an accepting or positive view of masks, given her background as a member of a New Order church.

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22 Comments

  1. DAVID HUGHES

    Effecton

    Do Amish show public signs of effection, such as holding hands, huggin, kissing?

    1. alber baker

      tender moments...

      sure they do. but its such a sacred experience. one time i drove a family to the bus station in canton new york to pick up their daughter and her family for a long awaited visit. when his daughter got off the bus her father greeted her by taking her hand and held it close to his heart. beyond words but the truest tenderdness i had had been privey too.

  2. Alex Knisely

    Gelssenheit, maybe

    If you don’t use lightning rods, you might not use masks either.

    And then there’s that proverb — Nothing is so easy as to bear with composure the misfortunes of others.

    In simpler language, whose ox is gored ? Unless it’s MY ox, I don’t much care.

    If you don’t want to do something, you can always find a reason not to do it. If you want to put a cherry on top of your excuses, the Bible has a quote for everything . . .

    1. Amish and masks

      Alex Knisely: I wonder what God thinks when he sees His people not using the common sense he gave them?

      1. Alex Knisely

        When folks don't use the common sense God gave them -- for Janice Reamer

        Well, I don’t know how God feels when he sees people wilfully messing up their lives. I haven’t been asked to give Him my opinion on that point. But I imagine it’s how He feels when He reads Martha Cable’s posts . . . somewhere between disgusted and discouraged. But He loves us just the same.

      2. KENNETH MILLER

        Reply

        I live with the Amish. We believe that common sense in this situation is to not live in fear from something of man. GOD is in control.

  3. Helen

    Another perspective

    I asked our local Mennonite bishop why they didn’t mask up here in our community and he said it was because they trust in God to guide their lives and if they are supposed to get covid (or not) it’s all part of God’s plan.

    1. Janice Reamer

      Helen: I guess the bishop doesn’t believe that God also gave everyone a brain and a modicum of common sense to help us live our lives as intelligently as possible. God also gave us science and doctors. I would imagine that God gave us that modicum of common sense for a reason. I’m sure it wasn’t in order to ignore science and doctors!

  4. alber baker

    amish and mask wearing

    “right is right no matter how many people are against it”
    wrong is wrong no matter how many people are for it.”

    William Penn

  5. Peaceflheary

    Amish & Home Remedies

    In the not do distant past. Die Botschaft had a “remedy” for curing Covid published. It was one theory and well, there is more validation to home remedies. I have heard of the Amish cancer cure, very strict regime of fresh foods and vitamins..
    The B & W and Burdock is, by far one of the best burn and wound healing remedies.
    I’m 100% for natural cures before any allopathic cure after caring for too many people the system used as guinea pigs for new medical procedures and drugs.

  6. Holly

    The Amish live by ” God’s will”, His plan. That being the case, why would they wear a mask? If it’s God’s will you get covid, you’re going to get it, mask or not.
    Also, I’m surprised that they, and all God-fearing Christians, don’t see their “life breath” from God, being interfered with by Satan’s muzzle.
    To each their own.

  7. Amish anti-maskers

    Amish are like the rest of the population: some are willfully ignorant and others choose to be informed.

  8. Denise

    Golden Rule

    I love Gloria’s answer of putting others before ourselves. Also, the William Penn quote in Alber Baker’s comment. What a difference those 2 thoughts can make in our day.
    My personal experience has been not seeing masks in the Hazelton, Iowa Amish community. Even with a county mandate for masks in stores in another county, about a month ago, 3 Amish men came in Menards. The older male wore a mask, the 2 younger men did not. Difference of opinion even among 3 Amish men…

  9. Richard H Nolan

    Loaded weapons

    Thank you for Gloria Yoder’s thoughts on masking up. From the beginning, I have looked at it this way: We are all potentially loaded weapons, able to shoot out potentially deadly rounds of virus toward other people. We must put others first, and wear masks around others to reduce our possibly deadly discharge. I have observed that many folks think that people that are masked up are faithless fraidy cats about the virus. I know that I want to protect my family and others from my transmittal of the virus first. If we think first to protect each other, we will all be protected. Experts have said that if everyone masked up for thirty days, the virus would be beaten in one month, no vaccine necessary. That’s a pretty convincing argument for masking up. Just my thoughts.

  10. Martha Cable

    Not wearing masks

    I will not submit to wearing a mask. It is a planned bio weapon and the complicit MSM pushes the fear. It is less deadly than other flues, but the marxists want to control everything we do so this is to see how many sheep they can scare into submission. If someone is that afraid of dying let them stay home and hide under their bed. Faust has made billions and along w gates want to depopulate the world. The shot has poison in it and does more harm than good and cannot be removed once given. They tested other shots in other countries and are now criminals who n those countries because they caused death and infertility. Why would anyone trust these people? Stop feeding fear, turn off your tv, live your life and trust in the Lord. This flu is cured by the hydroxy z pack, but that doesn’t make the above mentioned criminals any money, so they suppressed the info and threatened doctors who prescribed it. Wake up people!!!!

    1. Martha Cable

      Martha Cable: COVID-19 is NOT a flu. It is more deadly than the flu. It mutates the longer it is alive and allowed to spread. Nearly 2 million people worldwide have succumbed to it. COVID-19 was lab-created, you got that right. It is the ONLY thing you got right in your comment. Marxism has absolutely nothing to do with COVID. Willful ignorance, selfishness, and arrogant contrariness do. It is you and your fellow Qanoners who continue the spread this virus. By “Faust”, are you referring to Dr. Fauci? Are Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates are making billions on this virus and want to depopulate the world? Interesting conspiracy. Did you know that Trump owns stocks in Remdesivir and Regeneron, two drugs he was given when he caught COVID? The vaccine has poison in it? There is some truth to that since most vaccines are developed with the actual virus in it to build immunity to the virus by injecting a person with it. There is yet no proof that COVID vaccines cause infertility and death. Is it a possibility? Yes, but, that doesn’t mean they actually do. As for the Hydroxy Z pack, where is YOUR proof that it works for people with COVID? A friend who had COVID was given hydroxychloroquin last year, and nearly died from it. Was he the exception? No, he wasn’t. Did he have an underlying disease when given the hydroxy Z pack?? No, he did not. If you really trust in the Lord, why do you not believe that He had a hand in the development of the COVID vaccines? Why are you for the hydroxy Z pack, but, not the vaccines? Maybe you should turn ON the tv and watch real news being reported by real journalists? Maybe you should try trusting the Lord, and not Qanon conspiracies? By the way, didn’t Jesus say that we are to obey man’s laws as well as God’s laws? Wearing a mask, washing hands, and social distancing are man’s laws at the moment. If you do not follow them, you are not trusting in the Lord. Perhaps Qanon has more power over you than the Lord?

      1. Martha Cable

        Masking up

        Obviously you are a liberal and it is a waste of breath and time to bother w you. Keep watching the propaganda. Wow, almost two million. Car accidents and TB which IS contagious kill more people. There are nearly 8 BILLION people in this world. Go hide under your bed, for me I will live my life maskless and free. You think you know so much. Then research frazzledrip, andrenochrome, satanic ritual abuse, podesta artwork, spirit cooking, and that’s a start. Do you know who George soros is? How about Bohemian Grove? You assume I am a Q follower. You would be wrong.

      2. Alex Knisely

        Janice, let it go

        Saloma Wengerd was in her late 60s when I met her — I commissioned a few quilts from her, she did good work and she needed the money, her husband was mentally ill and couldn’t earn — that’s why it took me aback when she commented about a young man that one of her granddaughters was seeing (I knew him slightly, and who was indeed a handsome specimen) that if she were 50 years younger she’d go for him herself. Maybe she caught her breath on hearing what she’d just said and realised that it wasn’t a very grandmotherly comment. Maybe that my eyebrows hit my hairline was her clue. Anyhow, she said to me, rather crossly, I may be an old woman but there’s inside me yet the sixteen-year-old girl I once was !

        And in Martha there’s still inside the 14th-century believer in witchcraft and evil spirits that most of us manage to keep from leaping out of our throats and alarming people. She’d love to make America great again, but her America is — well, that of the Salem witch trials. “Satanic ritual abuse”. Has she researched adrenochrome ? I have ; it’s an everyday laboratory chemical, and if you want to order a couple of bottles, here’s a link — https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/a5752?lang=en&region=US

        I’d love to say, “Martha, you have a point”, about ANY of your rant. But that would carry no more content than, “Your stopped clock was right twice today”.

        Anyhow, Janice, let’s be pleased that we’re in the 21st century, and if Martha ever WANTS to be hauled back out of the 14th, she knows where to find us. Maybe the lack of dental anesthesia in the Middle Ages will convince her that we’ve got something going for us in modern America. Maybe.

        1. Martha Cable-Qanoner

          Alex Knisely: You are right. I know there’s no discussing, only arguing, with the Martha Cables of the world.

    2. Martha Cable-Qanoner

      Yes, Martha, I am indeed a liberal!

      “frazzledrip, andrenochrome, satanic ritual abuse, podesta artwork, spirit cooking, and that’s a start. Do you know who George soros is? How about Bohemian Grove? You assume I am a Q follower. You would be wrong.” You forgot to mention that you believe Trump is the Messiah, sent by God, to save the world from the likes of us. I do know who George Soros is. I doubt that you know the real George Soros.

      Of course you are a Qanoner! Only Qanoners would think of and believe such lunacy! If not for free speech, you and your fellow Qanoners would be hauled off to the loonie bin by men in white coats!

      As for liberals, it is they who legislated for child labor laws, unemployment insurance, social security, Medicare and Medicaid, welfare benefits, unions, etc. You know, all those programs that you presently benefit from, or will one day benefit from.

      I did research every incident you mentioned. I couldn’t stop laughing! It was so ridiculous! There is absolutely no proof of any of the garbage you believe in. It’s all fake news! It’s all made up by perverts and believed by people who want to believe such stories, because, they don’t like the people who supposedly did/do all that stuff. There is absolutely no proof of anything Qanoners make up or believe in. There are no UNEDITED videos of anyone doing anything perverted, as claimed, otherwise they’d be all over the news. Anyone who claims they saw an unfabricated, unedited videos proving any of those stories, is lying!

      Tony Podesta does appear to enjoy disgusting, weird, artwork. Does he have actual photos and videos involving pedophile acts? I don’t know. YouTube supposedly has edited videos of Podesta, Hillary, Huma, Pizzagate, etc. The guy claims he edited those videos before posting them to YouTube because they were just too awful to watch in their original form. How convenient! Edited videos cannot be trusted, therefore, there’s no concrete proof.

      1. LS

        @Janice Reamer

        “I did research every incident you mentioned. I couldn’t stop laughing! It was so ridiculous! There is absolutely no proof of any of the garbage you believe in. It’s all fake news! It’s all made up by perverts…….”

        Proverbs 15

  11. alber baker

    how about we all take a deep cleansing breath and not lose sight that our dear God holds all of us in the palm of His hand.