It’s quite accurate to say that we DO deserve these things…because we’ve paid into them for precisely that purpose. They belong to us.
I don’t see how it “stands to reason” that at all. I mean, you have a hypothesis there, but it’s pretty far from being proven. The idea that they should kick out whole groups of people based on that is frankly bizarre.
To be fair, I don’t expect FEMA aid or court damages, but you better believe I expect insurance payouts- that’s why I carry insurance in the first place! It’s not an entitlement; it’s the insurance company living up to its side of the insurance agreement.
Right, and I’m not saying it’s a moral question - most Americans think it is quite sensible and the normal thing to do to purchase/carry insurance, and then get the payouts if/when something bad happens.
The Amish don’t.
One way isn’t better or worse than another, they just don’t think the same way we do about insurance and social security and court damages and disaster aid and what-have-you.
If my house gets blown away by a tornado, you bet your bumper I’m lining up for FEMA aid, and I sure as snot better get insurance money from it also! I paid in, so I should get back out.
The Amish never pay into those types of systems in the first place, because they don’t agree with the point of them.
Just trying to explain, not to rile people up.
ETA - I focused on the damages/deserving angle because **aceplace **seemed to think that the Amish didn’t go in for court damages and punishment because they like to forgive people. I was trying to establish that the no court damages are a separate issue from the legal punishment, which is also separate from the idea of forgiving people.
According to this story, this is all some kind of intramural war. The father of the barbers is an Amish bishop that got into a dispute with his community.
Reminds me of Monty Python’s bishop skit, where he and a few priests roamed around like a street gang.
as far as I know, the Amish are not exempt from taxes and pay them. Optionals like insurance are another story.
Or Herb Kornfeld, who led an accounts receivable posse until his brutal gangland slaying in the office photocopier.
From what I know, the only tax-or-governmentally-required thing the Amish don’t pay into is Social Security.
IRS Form 4029 is used by the Amish to opt out of SSI/Medicare. The restrictions are pretty tight, BTW.
I should have used <nitpick> instead. 
I dunno about that, I can’t see ZZ Top dressing like that or covering Nirvana.
This is true for a lot of Anabaptists, due in part to Biblical injunctions about not taking your internal disputes before the [ungodly] civil authorities.
Wicked disputes over authority and authenticity are going to be far from rare in small, inward-looking communities, especially ones that use shunning-type disciplinary precepts. Here’s an (admittedly highly tendentious) account of trouble in an Anabaptist community in the rural U.S.