Any work that discusses bundling in ‘the good old-fashioned way’ has got to be a heady read. And so it goes with Little Known Facts About the Amish and the Mennonites, a tourist booklet first printed in 1938. The seeds of Amish tourism were planted in the early 20th century, with the enterprise really getting a proper start in the 1930’s and 40’s. Amish-themed postcards,…
In this second part of an interview with an anonymous Lancaster County Amishman, we look at the phenomenon of outsiders joining the Amish, using the Amish name to market and sell products to the public, Amish participation in the recent presidential election, and the meaning and purpose of shunning. (And if you missed the first part, here it is: An Amish America Q-and-A with a…
From Living Without Electricity (by Stephen Scott and Kenneth Pellman): “The majority of Old Order Amish use lamps that burn “white,” or clear, gasoline or naphtha. The fuel tank in these lamps is filled with compressed air. The air forces the fuel to the generator tube, where it is vaporized, and then to the mantles, where it is burned. Mantles are loosely woven fabric bags…
‘It sure is a hard emotional read. To see forgiveness layed out (sic) in such clinical terms while for us it is just a gut feeling…I was glad to see how you stressed that we also are human and struggle with this issue on a daily basis. The thought came to mind that this generation can not claim credit for our attitude on forgiveness beings…
David Weaver-Zercher is chair of the Department of Biblical and Religious Studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He is also the author and editor of numerous publications on the Amish, including The Amish in the American Imagination, Amish Grace (with co-authors Donald Kraybill and Steven Nolt), and Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler. His latest book, The Amish and the Media…
Donald Kraybill has written and edited over 20 books and dozens of professional articles on the Old Order Amish, Mennonites, and other Anabaptist peoples, and is the Senior Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In addition to his current projects, Professor Kraybill has spent recent months in locations from Texas to Vancouver promoting Amish…
I may have missed this before, but this is the first year I’ve seen the Calender printed in an English version as well as in the usual high German. The bulk of the 88-page pamphlet, produced by an Ohio Amish printer, is a more-or-less comprehensive listing of Old Order Amish church districts along with their respective ministers. The Calender/Almanac also contains a curious mixture of…
Rumspringa: To be or not to be Amish got a lot of attention when it was released in the spring of 2006, with media such as the Wall Street Journal calling it a ‘wonderfully rich portrait and history of the Amish as a people and a faith.’ Rumspringa is also, and primarily, an on-the-scene look at a crucial period of Amish adolescence. Tom Shachtman was…
The Amish commitment to restricting schooling to eight grades is well-known. But what happens with those individuals who are driven to go further? In Amish Society, John Hostetler examines the issue. ‘Before the Amish operated their own schools, more Amish youths were exposed to the possibilities of higher education and to teachers who inspired them to continue their education than is the case today. To…
Today marks a year since the Nickel Mines School shooting. Ten girls were shot. Five perished. Five lived on. A community was rocked by an unthinkable loss. The world watched and learned a rare lesson in forgiveness and grace. ‘The happening’ is the name local Amish attached to the event, and The Happening is author Harvey Yoder’s attempt to reconstruct, order, and make sense of…