Can I Convert to Amish-ness?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

In college, we read a book on the Amish; they talked about how little interest they had in people converting. For some reason, an otherwise intelligent classmate invited a guy to class to talk about the Amish.

He came in looking the part, sort of: long beard, somber expression, Germanic features, arm tattoos (sound of record-scratch).

Arm tattoos?

Yeah, see, this guy was an ex-biker. Also wanted to be a pool shark. And an ecoterrorist. He saw a lot of value in the Amish lifestyle, he said, and he thought it might be his life’s work to become Amish and teach them to be more open-minded.

As I understand it, the Amish consider open-mindedness to be a moral failing. Sorry, dude.

Turned out he’d agreed to come to class because he had a major crush on my classmate. Poor guy, with his big old crush on a lesbian. She thought it was kinda cute.

And that’s my story about converting to the Amish.

Daniel

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Yes, you can convert, but you’ll have to give up a lot of things you probably like about modern life.

I was once involved as a lawyer in a custody dispute involving a man who left the Amish faith, and his wife, who wanted to hang onto their kids (two or three, I think) and raise them Amish, as she remained. Ugly situation; the wife eventually got sole custody. What I remember most, though, was that the Amish I met loved orange juice. Just loved it.

[ralph124c]

@Kalhoun

Lissa and Ralph…according to the site above, neither of you are quite correct (with regard to selling wares or seeking medical help):

There is nothing in their religion that forbids them to earn money. They just don’t flaunt it.

I may be mis-remebereing, but i once read that the Amish 9due to their lak of immunization) represented one of the last resevoirs of the polio virus in the USA. Do you know if this is true?

[Sonia_Montdore]

Aren’t diseases associated with inbreeding a major problem in Amish communities? You’d think they’d welcome converts, who’d bring some healthy new strains to the gene pool.

[Kalhoun]

@ralph124c

I may be mis-remebereing, but i once read that the Amish 9due to their lak of immunization) represented one of the last resevoirs of the polio virus in the USA. Do you know if this is true?

According to the Washington Post, there was an outbreak about a year ago in Minnesota: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301733.html

The virus that all four children are carrying is derived from the oral polio vaccine. That vaccine has not been used in the United States since 2000, in part because it causes paralysis in about one of every 13 million doses administered. American children now get an injected vaccine, which also prevents infection.

The oral vaccine, which is still used in most places in the world, is made of a live but severely weakened strain of polio virus. The vaccine virus can be passed person to person, although it rarely becomes part of a prolonged “chain of transmission” because most people in a population are vaccinated and cannot be infected.

Occasionally, however, a vaccine strain circulates for years, passed from one unvaccinated child to another. When that happens, it undergoes genetic mutation that can restore the dangerousness of the “wild” virus.

Jane Seward, a vaccine expert at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said genetic fingerprinting of the Minnesota strain shows it is about 2.3 percent different from the vaccine strain. This suggests it has been circulating for a little more than two years.

Where it was circulating, however, is a mystery. Hull said it is likely the virus was imported from a country where the oral vaccine is still in use, but the Amish have little contact with people outside their community. The first infected child had no known exposure to foreigners.

Public health officers are going door to door offering polio vaccine and requesting stool samples of all children. About 35 samples have been collected and 32 tested. Fewer than 20 children have been vaccinated, Hull said.

It mentions that the Amish frequently don’t get vaccinated, but that contradicts the website link. Not sure what to think about that. It may be small groups who refuse vaccination.

[SCSimmons]

@ZipperJJ

The only awkward difference I’ve ever noticed when attending their service is when there was a foot washing (everyone washes someone else’s feet). Something about humbleness. I was too squicked to get the message

It’s funny how things like that fade into unconsciousness when you participate regularly. It honestly never occurred to me how uncomfortable that ceremony must feel to an outsider … And I’ve washed some pretty nasty-looking feet in my day, I have to say.

[Lissa]

@ZipperJJ

As Philster pointed out this is utter bullshit. I know lots of Amish families (my grandmother was raised Amish) and they are indeed “true Amish” and they sell handicrafts to the public and their daughters work in restaurants.

From the book Amish Society by John A. Hostetler;

An Amish boy will work on his father’s farm until he is trained. After this he may hore out to relatives, or his he wishes to work outside the Amish community, in construction or in a small factory, he will typically work with other Amish persons.

<snip>

An Amish girl will coccasionally work for an English family or in a small business, frequently as domestic help or as a cleaner, and in a capacity where she will not meet the public.

<snip>

Since about 1960, new occupations have emerged. . . The listings include [myriad of kinds of shops]. The shops are generally located on farms and are neither obvious or advertised.

<snip>

If their enterprises serve the needs of the communtiy, as for instance a manufacturing or servicing operation for horse-drawn farm equipment would, their attitudes and innovative skills are not percieved as a threat . . . However, one Amishman who invented a farm impliment-- who produced and marketed it for the American farm population in partnership with a non-Amish relative . . . was expelled from membership.

<snip>

The Amish realize that the state and local economy benefits from the flow of tourists. They occasionally threaten to migrate if “things get worse.” . . . Amish communities are promoted as “living museums”. . . In all of this, the Amish have not been a willing partner. . . Tourism from the Amish viewpoint is a “nuisance and a bunch of foolishness.” . . . . [Because of outside tourist activities] the Amish are somewhat protected from personal encounters with them. . . . Although the Amish discourage members from working in or conduction establishments specifically for the tourists, some Amish benefit indirectly from the flow of business activity [by making crafts which are sold in the shops.]

So, my statement was not bullshit. Some sects have different rules and belief systems (the book I mentioned lists dozens of them and their differences) but the Old Order Amish are seperatists who prefer to do as little interraction with “the world” as possible.

[alphaboi867]

@Sonia Montdore

Aren’t diseases associated with inbreeding a major problem in Amish communities? You’d think they’d welcome converts, who’d bring some healthy new strains to the gene pool.

AFAIK most Amish accept the medical problems caused by “inbreeding” as “God’s will”.

[JillGat]

From Lissa’s Amish book:

An Amish boy will work on his father’s farm until he is trained. After this he may hore out to relatives

So they allow this but they won’t allow the girls to work as waitresses?

[Lissa]

@JillGat

From Lissa’s Amish book:
** An Amish boy will work on his father’s farm until he is trained. After this he may hore out to relatives**
So they allow this but they won’t allow the girls to work as waitresses?

Aw, jeeze . . smacks forehead

Hire! He may* hire *out to relatives.

[flodnak]

@alphaboi867

AFAIK most Amish accept the medical problems caused by “inbreeding” as “God’s will”.

Not true. The Amish believe that they have a moral obligation to remain healthy and take care of the bodies God gave them. Knowingly creating a sick child doesn’t mesh well with that, and they are perfectly aware of the contradiction. The challenge is to come up with a solution that doesn’t have unacceptable drawbacks. Making changes to their religion to make it more inviting to outsiders simply for the fresh genes would have too many unacceptable drawbacks from their point of view. On the other hand, perhaps an acceptable way could be found for young people from one Amish community to meet their peers in another, and encourage marriages between people less likely to share the bad genes.

While they are working this out, the Amish community in Lancaster County is cooperating with the Clinic for Special Children to find ways to detect and treat the rare metabolic disorders that are more common among the Amish in the area.