NPR has a segment this morning on the Amish tradition of Roomspringer (sp), where, it is explained Amish parents turn a blind eye to 16-year old children’s natural tendencies.
My question is the relationship to the Amish and the Mennonites. I am really only familiar with the Amish in Lancaster PA, but have encountered Mennonites in NY, AL, VA, Belize,…
Is it that the Amish are a subset of the Mennonites, or an interesection.
Is there a mainstream analogy?
I heard the segment this morning also. Very interesting to hear accurate mainstream press coverage of Amish culture. Here’s a link:
Amish Teens.
I’m from the Wayne/Holmes county area in Ohio which has one of the largest concentrations of Amish and Mennonites. In my area the teenagers drag-race their buggies. Very interesting to see.
The two demoninations are related like sisters. They are both pacifist Anabaptist sects. Each congregation has its own rules. Amish tend to be more disconnected from the modern world. Some of the more conservative Mennonite congregations are virtually indistinguishable from the more liberal Amish groups. The most liberal Mennonites are like any other conservative, non-Fundamentalist Christian community.
The Amish are a branch of the Mennonites. They split off a couple of hundred years ago over differences in doctrinal interpretation. The Amish are the arch-conservatives of the Anabaptist denominations-sort of like the Southern Baptists of the Baptist denominations, I suppose.
The Mennonites (and the other Anabaptist churches-eg. the Church of the Brethren, the faith in which I was raised) hold the same basic principles as the Amish, but disagree on how those principles should be implemented. The best known, of course, are the doctrines of the ‘simple life’ and pacifism. I can’t speak directly for Mennonites, but I can say for my church, the ‘simple life’ was interpreted as owning objects for utility and never for ostentation. Growing up, I never got any designer clothes, my family never had any upscale (or even new, generally) cars, etc. Clothes are for modesty and protection from the elements, cars are for transportation, and if you choose them for any other reason, you’re not being a good Christian.
The Amish, of course, interpret the principle as requiring that clothes be homespun, undyed, and of a uniform style, and horses and carriages work just fine for transportation. I doubt a Mennonite would insist that they’re wrong, just, perhaps, a bit extreme.
The mennonites follow Menno Simmons and the Amish follow some guy with “Am” in his name (not enough time for a lookup, here).
My grandparents are Mennonites, and my grandmother was raised Amish. When her family left the order, they became Mennonites. My grandfather became a Mennonite when a Mennonite Church was built in his Cleveland-suburb neighborhood in 1950.
Anyway, I don’t think the two religions are related other than they originated in the same areas (Germany then Switzerland) and many Mennonite women do practice plain dress and covering their heads (only at church, I think.) My grandparents are as modern as anyone.
Here’s some major differences between my grandparents’ church and their Amish neighbors, off the top of my head:
-Mennonites worship in a church with a pastor. Amish worship at parisoners’ homes every other week with a guy who was appointed to lead the service.
-Mennonites drive cars, have electricity and enjoy a completely “modern” life. Amish do not, to varying degrees.
-Amish only marry Amish or they become “English.” Mennonites can marry whoever and stay Mennonites.
-Amish belong to districts, which are basically geographical due to their lack of far-reaching transportation. Mennonites live wherever they want and go to whatever church they please.
-Mennonite pastors are ordained (and go to school). Amish “pastors” are guys who are picked nearly at random by some ceremony involving the Bible and pieces of paper.
-Amish services are in German (or old German) which is not the language Amish people speak. They speak Pennsylvania Dutch and don’t understand German. They also don’t learn English until they’re about 5 or 6. Mennonites are raised to speak English (in America) and their services are in English (of course this can vary).
-Amish kids can go to an Amish school which is in their community and usually a 1-room schoolhouse. Class is usually taught by a young girl who has nothing more than an 8th grade education. They have the option of going to an English school, and many do. Many don’t go past 8th grade (and don’t have to). Mennonite kids go to school with your kids.
-Amish men sport beards once they’re married. They also are likely to build on to their houses once their kids get married and have the new family live right there. Mennonites don’t do the beard thing and I am not aware of any building on for new additions to the family.
Some similarities:
-Both are religions that began in Germany and have many German-based traditions.
-Almost all Amish are farmers, whether they are commercial or substinance farmers. Mennonites can be farmers too.
-Both have intense “love thy neighbor” ideals and are welcoming and humble people.
-Some Mennonite women practice head covering and plain dress and all Amish women do.
Pleonast posted while I was still writing, darn it! 
He’s nailed it, pretty much. I should mention that I grew up in a pretty liberal church in Illinois, and there are definitely conservative CoB churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio that look a lot more like the Amish. There’s no ‘central authority’ for any of these churches, so each congregation has its own ‘style’ of worship and doctrinal interpretation. Again, I can’t speak for Mennonites specifically, but our denomination had annual conferences where representatives from each church met to hammer out some denominational positions that everyone could agree with. They rarely, as I recall, got much more specific than ‘War is bad.’ 
A couple comments/corrections:
The Amish most certainly do dye their fabrics! They don’t wear patterned fabrics, which is different. Generally the outermost layer is black, but shirts and dresses are a solid color. Also, certain colors are standard. I’m not sure if there is a religious reason for this, or only traditional.
Some Mennonites will not own cars, have electricity or phones in their homes, etc. These groups are easily mistaken for Amish - even their dress is similar (except they’ll use buttons) - but they’re not. Others allow modern conveniences but with restrictions - so, for instance, a family might be allowed to own a car as long as it isn’t “flashy”. The most basic model with no extras, in black or another dark color, is fine. In the days when car bumpers were always chrome, some would paint over the metal - we called them “Black Bumper Mennonites”.
Mennonite schools certainly exist, although not all Mennonite groups have or use them. Near where I grew up there was a Mennonite high school that had boarding facilities for out-of-town students, as well as several K-8 schools.
OK, I’ll through a question out:
Do Hutterites have a relation to Mennonites/Amish? If so, what?
I was under the impression that the Amish and Mennonites were of Swiss origin, not German (although since German is one of the ‘official’ languages of Switzerland, they may well speak it.)
This should probably also be: “SOME Mennonites drive cars, have electricity etc…”
As flodnak wrote, “some Mennonites will not own cars, use electricity etc. and are easily mistaken for Amish - even their dress is similar”. I live near a very large population of Mennonites in Ontario. While some make use of modern conveniences (like the “Black Bumper Mennonites” flodnak describes, or like my buddy the paramedic), there are very many groups and communities that absolutely do not.
Believe me, while commuting on unlit, country roads at night, nothing can freak you out more than almost running over a bunch of kids because they’re all walking along the roadside covered head to toe in black! (There’s the “Lunchbox Lady” who teaches at the little schoolhouse who has a few stripes of relfective tape stuck to her metal lunchbox. She has to cross a narrow, very old, iron bridge, and in the late fall when it gets dark early, that tape is the only thing that keeps her from getting flattened by cars crossing the bridge.)
ZipperJJ gives a godd summary of differences between Amish and Mennonites, but keep in mind there are many differences within each sect.
In my area many are also carpenters, both woodworking and house-building.
Most of the Amish and Mennonite in my hometown area are of Swiss origin. The language they speak is a variant of High German.
Try a Google search on Amish. The first two sites have useful information: Amish Heartland, Pennsylvania Dutch.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~pasomers/amish.htm
There’s a brief history of the Amish, touching on the Amish split with the rest of the Anabaptist movement.
The Hutterite Bretheren are another Anabaptist group.
Anyone who does much traveling in the rural areas of the Mid-Atlantic/Eastern Plains states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, etc.) knows that some sects will ride buses. In my semi-regular travels via Greyhound from Akron to Ithaca it was the rare journey in which no “Amish” were present. (From reading the above, I’d guess most of them were probably conservative Mennonites, but whatever language they spoke amongst themselves, it certainly wasn’t english.)
–Cliffy
Hmm… Having just read the brief NPR story, I think that’s kinda cool that kids are given the opportunity to discover if they do in fact want to enter the Church instead of it being forced on them without the opportunity to see if there’s something out there for them in the “modern” world.
–Cliffy
To a certain extent (in Pennsylvania at least) that’s a matter of necessity. The farms have been split evenly between the sons as many times as it’s possible to do so, and now the younger sons need a way to support their families, too. Small carpentry businesses are one way of allowing this, without requiring the young men to move to where they can afford to buy land.
When my boyfriend redid his house in Philadelphia, they had Amish woodworkers come in to do the woodwork. A contractor hires them and then they come over and do the work. They worked quickly, diligently and almost in silent. The woodwork was amazing. Absolutely stunning.
I said in my post that they were either sustinance farmers or commercial. I meant it to mean that most live on farms even if it’s not their profession. My grandmother’s father was a woodworker professionally but had quite a large farm. My bad.
It’s my understanding that even though a lot of them are from Switzerland, it’s only because they were “run out” of Germany and tried to find religious solace in Switzerland and then decided to come to America. I think that’s what my Grandma told me, and it makes sense. Their religion is very German-heavy.
Also, i forgot to mention both groups are pacifists and if you become a member of either, you can be a consciencious (sp?) objector when you’re drafted
Oh, and all of the Amish I know can ride in cars and busses, even planes (of course, like everyone has said, it’s very much based on what your bishop says). My grandfather makes a fairly good living being an “Amish Hauler” - Amish call him (from phones posted along the streets, in English neighbors’ homes, or on some Amish people’s properties) and schedule him for rides just like a taxi service. Lots of English people who live out near Amish do this sort of thing.
I grew up in a Mennonite community in Ohio and for 35 years have lived on the fringe of an Amish settlement in Iowa. My mother was often referred to as “that English woman” and my home town had five (5 count ‘em 5) Mennonite congregations divided on doctrinal differences. That’s pretty good for a town of some 1200 souls, maybe half of whom were Mennonites. Some of the meeting houses were big substantial brick buildings with classroom wing and steeples.
We could not have moving pictures in grade school because that was a graven image that ran afoul of the Commandment. By the time I was in high school the outbreak of television encouraged the five local ministers to decide that movies were not graven images after all. Centuries of theological thought were routed by Uncle Milty.
There was also a prohibition on girls and women cutting their hair. Thus the Mennonite Bun. This came to a stop when the wife of one of the ministers announced that all that hair was sapping her daughter’s strength.
There are all sorts of doctrinal splits within both groups, although the Mennonites seem to present a much more united theology that the Amish, probably because the basic precepts of the sect prevent the Amish congregation from having much contact with each other.
The real purpose of this is to say that ZipperJJ is pretty close to right as far as my experience goes.
Regarding the origin of the Amish, whether Swiss, Dutch, or German, it’s well to keep in mind that there was no “Germany” per se when they were migrating hither and thither in Central Europe, and to the U.S. And “Dutch”, the English cognate of the German word “Deutsch”, took in Germanic dialects and people from anywhere between the Alps and the North Sea.
From what I can discern, having once been fluent in Standard German, their dialect does seem to be more Southern in nature–not actually Swiss German, but definitely not like what we now call Dutch.
One more thing, Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, seems to have been a center of Mennonite thought and was a training center for the ministers. Of the kids from my high school class who went to college a fair number went to Goshen. As far as I know, the Amish have no similar center for scholarship and culture.
One more one more thing, the first Mennonites in America came to PA in the late 1600s from Northern Germany. They founded Germantown, PA, and were deeply envolved in the anti-slavery movement in PA before the American Revolution and in the Anti-Penn Family politics of what was then a proprietary colony.
Reminds me of a David Letterman “Top Ten Amish Pickup Lines” list from the mid-80’s. I can only remember two:
“Art thee up for a barn raising?” and
“Thy buggy has a bitchin’ lacquer job.”