Who are the Amish ?

Karen M. Johnson-Weiner
Department of Anthropology
SUNY Potsdam
Potsdam, New York 13676

We look at the Amish and see them as somehow trapped in a time warp—relics, misplaced in time.
They’re not.
Like their ancestors, the first Anabaptists, who rejected both the Catholic church and the state-led Protestant Reformation, today’s Old Order Amish consciously attempt to create a society in which, living according to Biblical precepts, each member of the church is unconformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
The first Anabaptists were widely persecuted, and, as a result, developed a strong sense of group solidarity. Anabaptist literature from the 16th and 17th centuries is full of stories of government-sanctioned torture to encourage believers to remain strong in the face of persecution. For the early Anabaptists and their descendants, non-conformity and non-resistance (meaning that one does not fight back even to protect oneself or one’s family) in the face of the persecution was evidence of faith. Forced by secular authority to flee homes, family, and possessions, the early Anabaptists found in statelessness the commitment to higher authority that still marks their modern-day descendants. These persecutions also convinced the Anabaptist (a conviction that holds for their contemporary Old Order Amish descendents) that they should expect persecution—it is the lot of a Christian in an ungodly world.
The Old Order Amish continue to believe that God’s people must be a faithful minority, “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11), in the world but not of it. They interpret the command to be separate from the world literally and, in refusing to assimilate to “English” or non-Old Order society, put strict barriers between themselves and the outside world. Distinct and self-defined, separate not only from the “English” or non-Amish but from other Old Order groups as well, each Old Order group is a redemptive community formed of those dedicated to putting the teachings of Christ into practice.
The standard German word for church is kirche, which, like its English equivalent, refers to the building in which services are held or to the services themselves. The Amish, Pennsylvania German, word for church, however, is Gmay, from the standard German Gemeinde, meaning community. In other words, the Amish church or Gmay is not a building, not the service, but the daily secular and sacred interaction of those in the Gmay. Each Amish church-community is separate and distinct from all others, although though Groups that are in fellowship with each other will share ministers, and the young folk will socialize with each other. Each will remain, however, a separate Gmay, and decisions made in one will not be binding on the others—and may lead others to break off fellowship. One joins the fellowship—the Gmay—by being baptized—and in baptism vows to maintain until death the Ordnung or “discipline” or the church. The Ordnung encodes the church-community’s beliefs, and so it governs nearly every aspect of Amish life. Yet it is more than simply a collection of rules ; it ties the individual to the Gmay and protects the Gmay from the outside world.
Amish historian Joseph Beiler, describing the Ordnung, notes that “It creates a desire for togetherness and fellowship. […] to live together, to work together, to worship together, and to commune secluded from the world.” To the Amish, obedience to the Ordnung—to all of the Ordnung—indicates one’s love for the church, the Gmay, and the fulfillment of one’s vow to God. One cannot follow it halfway ; one is either in church or outside of it.
The Ordnung protects the church-community, which is the daily reality of Old Order life. For the Old Order Amish, religion is performing one’s faith. Thus, believing is doing. And since God’s truth is, by definition, unchanging, sacred time, repeated actions and constant relations are a primary focus of Old Order life. In other words, because something has always been done a particular way is justification for continuing to do it in that way. Old Order means “maintaining the Old Ordnung of the church-community.” The Ordnung defines the social order, the actions and relationships the Old Orders believe God ordained for human beings.
The Amish believe that human beings, individually, are weak, and that, left alone, they will be guided by carnal desires and live a worldly life. Only in fellowship with others, guided by the Ordnung, can human beings live a life committed to God’s service. Only in fellowship, guided by the Ordnung, is the individual likely to have the strength to live a life that will be pleasing to God. Such a belief necessarily calls for the subordination of individual desire to group will. This is what baptism—joining the Gmay—is all about.
In making one’s baptismal vow before the church, one commits oneself to the Ordnung. Baptism is a vow of obedience, a vow to yield one’s individual desires to the church and unchanging truth as revealed in scripture and interpreted by the Ordnung. One’s clothing, the architecture of one’s house and barn, the buggy one drives, and the interaction one has with the outside world illustrate the ties that bind the community ; thus, all are subject to the Ordnung. Visible differences in dress and transportation, a different language, separate schools, and the rituals of church and home all serve to remind the Old Order Amish that they are pilgrims who must remain, as the Apostle Paul admonished, unconformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
We speak of the Amish as unchanging ; yet, the Amish change. Their communities have evolved. Ordnungs reflect the forces that have affected the different church-communities. No two Amish communities have exactly the same Ordnung because no two communities have faced the same set of circumstances. Some permit indoor plumbing and flower gardens ; others don’t. Some allow kerosene refrigerators and freezers, telephones in shops, rollerblading, and bicycles—others do not. The Byler Amish have brown buggies, the Troyer Amish have black buggies, and the Lancaster County Amish have grey buggies.

The Ordnung ties the Gmay together, ensures its solidarity, and makes the Gmay the pervasive force in Amish existence. If one has doubts about one’s ability to commit to the Ordnung, one is advised to put off baptism. Being baptized and then breaking the Ordnung is seen as breaking a vow to God, and the other members of the community will have no option but to shun the offending member. To do otherwise would be to break their own vows to God.
The Gmay and the Ordnung allow Amish families to live as a community within a community, surrounded by the non-Amish English (and interacting with them daily) yet apart from them. Even time runs differently. For example, most of the ultra-conservative Swartzentruber Amish keep “slow time.” That is, they do not move their clocks ahead in summer. Or they move their clocks ahead only half an hour.
Ordnungs may also determine what one’s house looks like and how it may be furnished. Swartzentruber homes, for example, follow a common pattern. Some Amish groups permit linoleum floors, gas refrigerators, and indoor plumbing. Others do not. Ordnungs govern language and dress, further strengthening the community by clearly marking the boundaries between those who belong and those who do not. For the Old Order Amish, the survival of Pennsylvania German or Deitsch, commonly called Pennsylvania Dutch, is intertwined with their survival as a separate and “peculiar” people. The use of Dutch within the community serves as a reminder of the differences between the community and the outside, not only isolating the Amish from the dominant culture but protecting them from it.

Young children often do not begin to learn English until they enter school, which further reinforces the notion that English is the language of outsiders. Only in schools do the Amish use English as the sole means of oral communication with other Amish. In many schools children and teacher stop speaking English when school is not in session, even if the break is just for recess.
Ordnungs shape the schools in which children learn English, each school reflecting and reinforcing the values of the church-community.

Dress also marks one’s membership in the church—and has done so from the earliest days of the Anabaptist movement. Jacob Ammann, an Anabaptist minister in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, who led the Amish in schism from the larger body of Mennonites in 1693, argued that non-conformity to the world meant not only non-conformity in thought and belief but also in dress. The break-away Amish were called the Haftler or “hook and eye” people in contrast to the Mennonite Knopfler or “button people.” Plain dress now identifies the community of believers and gives the wearer a sense of belonging. The Amish don’t think of it as Christian clothing, but as Amish clothing, essential not to salvation but to carrying out the full will of God that believers not conform to worldly fashion. Thus, in getting dressed in the morning, each Amish person follows the Ordnung. In not ever cutting her hair and in keeping it hidden under her cap, the woman acts in accordance with Paul’s advice to the Corinthians (11:1-14). In cutting his hair according to the Ordnung and shaving his mustache, the Amish man signals church membership. Whether boys’ shirts have collars, whether women’s capes are the same color as their dresses, whether the capes are crossed or straight, whether the caps are pleated or plain all indicate one’s membership in a particular church-community.
The church-community’s Ordnung regulates nearly all aspects of daily life. While church members will acknowledge that not everything in the Ordnung is scripturally based, what cannot be supported by reference to the Bible is justified by the feeling that to do otherwise would be worldly and disruptive to the community. For example, all Old Order Amish groups forbid automobile ownership and regulate when members can hire drivers. The Amish know that with fast, easy transportation readily available, family members are apt to be away from home more often than not and the church community is likely to become very scattered. Cars also draw people to cities, and the Amish know that this is no place for a Christian to be. After all, they reason, Lot’s downfall was his entrance into the city of Sodom.
Other machinery is similarly evaluated. That a piece of machinery or a household appliance saves the owner time does not necessarily recommend it, nor does it being “modern” condemn it. The question is simply how it will affect the church-community. All Amish use machines, and when they are working outside the community, they use machines that are forbidden by the Ordnung. Most Amish communities use some battery-powered devices, notably flashlights, but all have determined that connecting to power lines “could lead to many temptations and the deterioration of church and family life.”
Daily life, shaped by the Ordnung, is bound by scripture. The father reads the scripture in the morning when the family rises and again before they retire for the night. Every meal begins and ends with silent prayer. Every day practice reinforces the scripture lesson. The father sits at the head of the table, and children in order of age, boys on one side and girls on the other. Each child knows his or her place in the family, and, thus, in the community.
Church as community and church as ritual come together every other Sunday when the Old Order Amish meet to worship. Like the first Anabaptists, they gather in homes, away from worldly intrusion and threat, each family taking its turn. Once it is announced who will next host church, the family can expect help. A wife will expect mother, sisters, nieces and married daughters to come to help, reinforcing the bonds that keep the community together.
The everyday is sacred on church Sunday. The house is as clean as new when everyone arrives for Sunday services—every pot scrubbed, new shelf paper laid and mountains of food prepared. The older children will have popped several gallons of popcorn to feed the young people who will stay for “singing” in the evening.
The host family is not worried about what people will think, nor is it hoping to "show off." Instead, they have prepared the home to welcome friends and family to share in worship. The hard work is done gladly in devotion to the Ordnung and to the Gmay ; that others have shared in it is a sign that the community is intact.
When an Amish child is born, it is born into the community and treated as a future church member. The parents have an obligation to train the child so that it does, indeed, become a contributing member of the group. Ultimately, parents hope that the child grow up to simply do its best, trust in God, and accept without resistance or questioning whatever comes. They want their children to, as the Amish say, "give up. For the Amish, to be resigned, to submit to God’s will as expressed in the Bible, is to achieve Gelassenheit, a term that, according to Sandra Cronk, incorporates the personal attributes of yieldedness and powerlessness. The Amish don’t believe that they are saved—only God can know. They hope, instead, to achieve Gelassenheit. To trust in God so completely that one questions nothing that befalls one is the ultimate goal of every Amish individual. If one can yield oneself completely to God, then, perhaps, one will live a life worthy of salvation.
Passivity, large families, unwillingness to trust to new treatments, an acceptance that whatever happens is God’s will and that “this too shall pass.” Gelassenheit favors a way of life in which one asks few questions. Learning is by doing and copying—words are not to be trusted because they can be used so easily. Amish parents instruct children by example, and so there is no dark line between work and play. Rather than telling her daughters how to make a pie, the mother hands them dough and they copy her actions, a four-year-old banging her lump flat and a thirteen-year-old duplicating her mother’s twisted crust edging. By the time they finish school (8th grade), girls can care for children, cook meals, and take care of most household chores. Boys can work the farm, build small structures, and take care of the livestock. They still have much to learn, but they can run a farm in their parents’ absence. From infancy, children learn to be patient. Mother holds her child’s hands together while the rest of the family bows their heads for silent prayer before and after meals. By age 5 they’re old enough to spurn the cookies offered to keep the “babies” quiet during the long church service.

As Huntington has noted, the Amish draw a distinction between Schooling and Education that is neatly captured in one bishop’s observation that, “By fourteen you’ve pretty much learned all you need to in school but you can’t wait ‘til then to start learning what you need to live.” (See Johnson-Weiner, 2006). Learning the important lessons is what children do in their daily interaction in the Gmay.
The Amish don’t study their religion, read learned texts, or debate biblical scholarship. Theirs is a lived faith, expressed in the actions of dressing, cooking, lighting lamps and pumping water. Leery of those who assert individual authority or will, the Amish acquire from their church-community a sense of who they are, where they come from and where they should be going.

A Bibliography of Old Order Amish Life :

Hege, L. & C. Wiebe. (eds.) 1996. Les Amish : Origine et Particularismes 1603-1993. Ingersheim : Association Française d’Histoire Anabaptiste-Mennonite.

Hostetler, J. A. 1993. Amish Society. 4th ed. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hostetler, J. A. (ed.) 1989. Amish Roots. A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hostetler, J. A. & G. E. Huntington. 1992. Amish Children. Education in the Family, School, and Community. (2nd ed.) New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Johnson-Weiner, K. M. 2007. Train Up a Child. Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kaiser, G. H. 1986. Dr. Frau : A Woman Doctor Among the Amish. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Kraybill, D. B. (ed.) 1993. The Amish and the State. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kraybill, D. B. 2001. The Riddle of Amish Culture. (rev. ed.) Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kraybill, D. B. & C. F. Bowman. 2001. On the Backroad to Heaven : Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kraybill, D. B. & M. A. Olshan. 1994. The Amish Struggle with Modernity. Hanover : University Press of New England.

Luthy, D. 1995. Amish Folk Artish Barbara Ebersol. Her life, Fraktur, and Death Record Book. Lancaster, PA : Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society.

Meyers, T. & S. M. Nolt. 2005. An Amish Patchwork. Bloomington : Quarry Books.

Nolt, S. M. 1992. The History of the Amish. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Nolt, S. M. & T. Meyers. 2008. Plain Diversity. Amish Cultures & Identities. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Scott, S. 1992. Amish Houses & Barns. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Scott, S. 1988. The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Scott, S. 1981. Plain Buggies. Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren Horse-Drawn Transportation. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Scott, P. & K. Pellman. 1990. Living without Electricity. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.

Stoltzfus, L. 1994. Amish Women : Lives and Stories. Intercourse : Good Books.

Stoltzfus, L.1995. Two Amish Folk Artists. The Story of Henry Lapp and Barbara Ebersol. Intercourse, PA : Good Books.