We all know the Amish, don't we? They drive buggies, not automobiles. They plow family farms with horses. They speak German among themselves. Their men wear beards but no mustaches. Their children leave off schooling after age 14. They are exempt from Social Security payments. They are absolute pacifists. They do not serve on juries.

What else?  What messages do they send to the rest of us?

At the turn of the century there were about 5,000 Old Order Amish in the USA and Canada. Now there are over 130,000 men, women and children. They live in at least 22 States and in Ontario. They own private property, but are not rugged individualists. They are descendants of Anabaptists ("Re-baptizers" in Greek): early Swiss, German and Dutch Protestants representing the radical side of the Christian Reformation. They do not baptize their children. The Old Order Amish do not build churches, but worship in one another's homes. Their religion calls upon them to draw apart from "the world" and to become perfect Christians.

The Amish heartlands are in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.  My wife Mary and I visit Goshen, Indiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Holmes County, Ohio whenever we can to soak up the atmosphere. We visit museums of the Amish and Mennonites and Hutterites. A great treasure which we found in May 1997 was the Anabaptist research center which occupies half a floor of the library of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. Nearby we bought  for our home library a 1993 paperback edited by Professor Donald B. Kraybill of Elizabethtown College called THE AMISH AND THE STATE,  published by Johns Hopkins University Press. I have checked my facts and analyses in the fascinating essays of this book.

How do the Amish survive without Amish politicians to protect them?
Without Amish judges to interpret the laws in their favor? Since they will not press lawsuits themselves.  Scholars have identified a large array of interlocking networks of non-Amish who admire the Amish, who are often accepted as spokesmen for the Amish by Amish bishops and who make it possible for the Amish to live a non-persecuted life on the periphery of the American mainstream. Amish can be hard on Amish adults who choose to be baptized as Amish but then seriously violate church norms. If charitable admonitions fail to reform, the Amish may then "shun" the erring brother or sister. A man's wife and children may regard it their religious duty not to speak with a husband or father.

The support networks of non-Amish, however, begin intimately with children born Amish but who in good conscience do not later accept baptism in the faith. They are not shunned. They continue to interact with their families. They often join kindred peace churches, especially the Mennonites and generally stand up for their Amish parents and relatives. Not all Mennonites are former Amish, but many are, and they build museums and give lectures to explain the Amish, Hutterites and other descendants of the early Anabaptists. Neighbors of Amish farmers come to know and like them--and speak out for them. The same is true of educators, politicians, lawyers, non-Mennonite church groups and civil libertarians. The Old Order Amish survive in peace with "the world" largely because they have made so many friends.

The Amish remind all of us that the earliest Christians were absolute pacifists. They cause us to ask: why are most of us only pacifists up to a point?

The Amish exhibit communities virtually free from premarital sex, abortions, divorce, unwed mothers and personal violence. If Amish can behave so well and be happy, why can't we?

The Old Order Amish work hard and do without automobiles,  electricity, television and education beyond the eighth grade. Our government has grudgingly exempted them from Social Security. They do not serve on juries. Most do not vote. They demonstrate for us another very different way to live. Their way works! It therefore causes us to think about our own personal lifestyles and social values.

The Amish ask mainly to be left alone. Some Christians call them unevangelical and not keen enough about personal salvation.  Some Amish, for their part, wonder about the pride of people who call themselves "saved" or "elect."  Some few tourists and neighbors throw rocks at their carriages and horses. This, too, makes us think.

The Amish have caused State, Provincial and National courts in North America to think hard about the rights of parents to decide how their children shall be educated; about slow-moving vehicles, about working on construction sites without hard hats, about parental rights to decide about medical treatment of their children. Thanks to the Amish we all have more explicit space to EXERCISE our religion--not just to think private thoughts or pray private prayers, but to do what we sincerely believe our God wants us to do.

No wonder the Amish have so many friends and admirers.  They  earn them every day.

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