Ben: Why Don’t Amish Fly (Or Use Bikes)? Plus: Amish in Florida

Reader Brad of the Brethren recently raised the question of common ownership of goods among the Amish. Amish are not like Hutterites where the vast majority of property is shared in common.  Amish individuals own private property like anyone else.  Amish households operate independently in a commercial sense, though within a web of church and community support galvanized in times of need. But what about the handful of…

From Rules of a Godly Life, Section 1 (“Thoughts”), Rule #8: If other people praise you, humble yourself. But do not praise yourself or boast, for that is the way of fools who seek vain praise. Be honest in all your dealings and this will be enough reward; then others will praise you. Of all the Rules, this one seems to strike hardest at the…

A funeral director serving the Amish in Lancaster County says that Amish rarely donate organs. But the law still requires that the bodies of the deceased be held “until an organ procurement organization reviews the case and releases the body.” This hold-up frequently causes distress to Amish families who wish to proceed with traditional viewing and funeral preparations, according to Philip W. Furman. Furman’s family’s…

I was reading through the Economist magazine a couple of days ago and came across an article entitled ‘Where angels no longer fear to tread’, discussing a study whose main objective it describes as an attempt to provide a ‘biological explanation’ for religion. Whether science should be ‘poking its nose into the God business’ may be of issue to some.  But if you can get…