Taking the Scenic Route

Jennifer Z

Senior Member

I am Mennonite and I can tell you that one of the reasons that it is so hard to nail down what the Amish and Mennonites believe is because the “rules” are decided by individual congregations/communities and then filter upward to the conference level (basically, an inverse of how the Catholic Church operates). That is why there are Mennonite Churches across the street from one another and one will wear “normal” clothes and the other will be in bonnets. (I grew up in a “normal” family) Mennonite and Amish are similar because the Amish broke off of the Mennonites because they were too worldly. (different interpretations of “be ye in the world but not of the world”). So, the doctrine is very similar, how that doctrine is interpreted is very diverse.

The Amish are not opposed to technology. When a new piece of technology become available, they get together and evalute the pros and cons of the technology. They will accept things that don’t interfere with community or family life. Sometimes they will have a radio or tv out in the shop to keep up on grain prices and weather reports, but not in the house for entertainment because that would bring an unseemly element in and people would spend time watching instead of being with family. By not owning cars, they continue to live within walking distance of their community and are tempted to be idle or just go goof off. They aren’t opposed to using the technology, but by not owning it, you have time to decide whether or not it is neccessary to make that trip into town. Some of the funny results of these decisions is things like no rubber on the tires of tractors….it isn’t very tempting to drive to town on steel wheels where it might be if it were a smoother ride.

I don’t know of any restrictions on medical care for the Amish. In fact, nursing is actually a fairly common profession for the Holdeman (a form of old Mennonite) women and they dominate some of the smaller rural hospitals. I think they might be more thoughtful about “quality” vs “quantity” of life and don’t necessarily use the technology if they feel like it is too extreme (like my 78yo grandpa who got a brain tumor….wasn’t worth the side effects to have surgery and wasn’t afraid to die) I doubt there is a restriction on eye glasses or anything like that.

Keep in mind, the local Amish communtiy nearby is fairly small compared to PA, so they are not as sheltered and probably have adopted more technology than those deep in the heart of PA Amish community simply because they are exposed to a lot more. This might not be reflective of the more conservative communities there.

Any other questions? I would be happy to answer what I could.

p.s. Yes, the traditional foods are yummy!!!

Jennifer Z

Senior Member

Around here, they do have to pay taxes on their buggy’s as if they are autos, but I am not sure if they have to have licenses, although I assume they don’t. Somebody else mentioned compliance to safety laws (tail lights and such) Around here, buggies do have those things, but they also build the roads in heavily Amish communities to have a very wide shoulder so they can ride on the side of the road on highways. They actually changed an interstate to go over a highway heavily travelled by the Amish to be an overpass because so many people were dying trying to cross the intersection.

On another note, I know I was driving pickup trucks on very rural small backroads as young as 5 or 7….so it isn’t neccessarilly an Amish thing, it is a rural farmer thing. (we are talking very lightly traveled gravel roads traveling under 5 mph following equiptment…not actual “driving”) I was so little when I started driving that I couldn’t touch the accelorator and brake, so dad made the engine idle really fast and I just turned it on to go and off to start. (he went through a LOT of starters doing that…lol) It was for hauling / laying irrigation pipes. I would drive, dad and mom would pull the pipes off and lay them at the end of the rows. Dad could walk faster than I was driving, so it wasn’t as unsafe as it sounds. I remember sitting on my knees and looking out over the dash, but under the curve of the steering wheel to see out. My brother was driving younger than I did because he was a lot taller than I was.