Here’s another video in my series with Ben (previous video – “Do Amish Believe They’re The Only True Christians?” here). In this one, he answers a question about Amish marriages. A viewer asked the following: You made a comment about Autumn being the wedding season for the Amish people. I’m not trying to be sarcastic or funny, but is it so they will have their…
On January 8, the first day of the so-called Spring Semester at The Ohio State University, the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures sponsored a very interesting and special presentation by Professor Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar on “Old Order and Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Women’s Responses to the Media.” Her lecture was built from a comparison of two very distinctive groups by lifestyle and…
Formal charges now assert that the driver of the vehicle which killed two Amish children in Minnesota last autumn was not in fact the woman – Sarah Petersen – who claimed responsibility. According to new charges, the driver was her twin sister Samantha Petersen, as suspected at the time. Drug tests have also confirmed that Samantha had several drugs in her system at the time…
The current Amish population stands at around 385,000 people, based on estimates from the Young Center at Elizabethtown College (or perhaps a bit more than that, since they came out several months ago). Personally, it’s remarkable to look back and consider how much the Amish have grown in the time I’ve known them. In fact, I came across an old post the other day where…
I recently sat down with my friend Ben Riehl for a couple of extended conversations on a wide range of topics (more to come). Ben is Old Order Amish, living in Lancaster County. You might remember Ben from previous posts on Amish auctions and how he chooses a horse. So in this clip, a YouTube viewer asked: “Do you know if the Amish believe they…
This Amish home is found at Tionesta, Pennsylvania. I hadn’t heard of the town and really had no guess where in the state it might be. It turns out this community is in Forest County, in northwestern PA. And it is a well-established settlement – founded in 1972, with a total of three Amish churches today. Northwestern Pennsylvania is a region with numerous Amish settlements…
Following last week’s story of a knife-wielding Michigan man threatening Amish, another strange incident out of the Wolverine State. It turns out parked Amish buggies (and their horses) are targets for thieves – at least for one individual in Sturgis (St. Joseph County). From The Sturgis Journal: STURGIS — An Amish horse and buggy was recovered shortly after being reported stolen from the Sturgis Walmart…
A Michigan man has been arrested for threatening violence against an Amish family, while equipped with a large knife. But when you actually read this story, you’ve got to wonder why it took so long. The incident occurred in Manistee County, though the man is said to be from Clare (also home to a significant Amish population). From upnorthlive.com: On Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, a husband…
The very first issue of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities was published in the Summer of 2020, and in that issue, the lead article was written by Mark Louden, who is the Alfred L. Shoemaker, J. William Frey, and Don Yoder Professor of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His article focused on what is arguably the most distinctive difference between Plain people…
In the time-honored tradition of neighbor helping neighbor, Amish came to the rescue yesterday, after snowfall in Tennessee caused an SUV to plant itself in a ditch. From WKRN: LAWRENCE COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — There’s horsepower and then there’s HORSEpower. During Monday’s major snowfall across Middle Tennessee, many good Samaritans lent a helping hand to drivers who were stuck in the muck. An SUV ended…