The Amish Rule of Order, or Ordnung, prohibits public electricity and TV. It also prohibits running for public office. Does this mean the Amish do not vote, either?
Just to be clear, the Amish are big on keeping grid electricity out of the home, because it’s a tie to the outside world. They have been increasingly using solar, though, as they don’t need to be patched into the grid to get it. Before that, you would see Amish using gas powered washing machines and the like. Amish have no problem riding in cars or trains (as long as they are not in the driver’s seat), so again the use of technology is not so strictly prohibited as it might seem. Same with using a public phone, but never have one in the home. (Some of this might vary by community-- not really sure myself about that.)
As for voting, I’ll let someone more knowledgeable about that than I am weigh in.
They’re not officially prohibited from doing so (at least not the moderate group I was familiar with from Ohio) but they are more likely to be involved just on a local level and stay out of national politics. I do remember hearing that one of the conservative PACs was courting them, which is a weird thought; getting the Amish to vote for a celebrity.
How would he watch the election returns? Surely not on a television.
The article doesn’t mention him being Amish; I’m guessing he is not.
It doesn’t say that he’s Amish, just that he cofounded the PAC. In any case, I’m pretty sure that they can watch TV elsewhere, they just can’t have one in their homes.
They sure as hell can vote, and they do so when recruited by the Right. In 2004, the Ohio Republicans got the Amish all riled up over the issue of same-sex marriage. Almost every one of them in Holmes County had homophobic yard signs up, and there were enough of them to sway the election and put a ban on SSM in the Ohio constitution.
You would think that a bunch of pacifists who live off the land would vote for Democrats, or even Greens, before they’d vote for Republicans, but that is most definitely not the case.
But they are religious, hunters and against abortion and same sex marriage.
Dennis
The Amish prohibition against technology is partly the tie to the outside world, but mainly it is that is saves time. They want labor to take time. If your whole day is taken up doing the work you need to do to survive, then it’s not spent getting into trouble.
They do avail themselves of medical care, like setting broken bones, getting vaccinations (a few communities don’t, but most do), getting help with childbirth for a woman with a history of miscarriages, stillbirth, or neonatal deaths, and even building things for money for “the English.” The money comes in handy when they need to buy things for themselves, which they do. They have things like storm radios, and a single phone at a central location for emergencies. They do call ambulances. If a guy falls of a barn during a building, they’ll call 911. And if the reason a family has lost several children is a genetic disorder that needs to be treated with access to electricity in the house, they’ll hook up a generator. They’ll buy formula for an infant whose mother is very ill after childbirth.
Also, Amish who sell food to tourists obey all laws of sanitation and refrigeration.
There are a lot of them in Indiana. And I don’t mean Mennonites. I’ve seen them buying snacks at Speedways, and the Horse and buggy is parked outside-- and those things are big when you are standing right next to them.
Interestingly, and Amish-- or probably Mennonite couple-- I didn’t ask-- participated in Hands Across America, and was near the group I was with. Maybe it was Rumspringa.
Pacifists? Yes. Live off the land? Not the ones I know. They are small businesspeople. I don’t think there are many left who are subsistence farmers.
Amish can watch television, listen to the radio, use a telephone. They just can’t own one.
In my experience, Amish get around this in various ways. One Amish i knew, bought a cell phone, got a plan on it, and then gifted it to an English (what that group called non-Amish) with the stipulation that this Amish guy could use the phone whenever he needed to.
Another one i knew had a company install a payphone in their woodshed.
The REALLY strict Amish that might not even use the previously mentioned funny business to use technology are called the Schwartzentrubers.
Just want to add that not all Amish live by the same set of rules. There are Amish who own telephones, drive cars, and have electricity in the home.