Now, all of my information comes from trying to remember 2 research papers I wrote on the amish in college, but here I go:
The important thing about the Amish is that you are not Amish until you CHOOSE to be so. Which can’t happen until after you turn 18. So you’re aren’t getting banned from the church by breaking the rules until you join the church (and another thing, it’s not an outright shunning for breaking the rules. That’s really only reserved for the worst repeated offenders) Rumspringa isn’t an official “congratulations, you have two years free,” it’s more like the period when you have independence from your parents but haven’t joined the church yet. And you can stay on rumspringa indefinitely, it’s just a community pressuring you to make your choice.
Also, the rules about technology aren’t as simple as new=bad and old=good. They basically disallow anything that would drive people apart. So, for examply, a machine that requires ten people to run might be allowed, but a machine that suddenly lets one person do the job of many probably wouldn’t. Being Amish is less about beliefs and more about being part of a community that works together.
It might be worth emphasizing that the point to Amish lifestyle ‘eccentricities’ is self-sufficiency within a community of like-minded families, eschewing technology not out of a sense it is sinful or prohibited, but because (a) it cannot be made or in general repaired ‘on the farm’ and/or (b) it distracts from their chosen lifestyle. Even the most high-tech of gadgetry is appropriate for the saving of lives or a few similarly urgent purposes – the killing at a Lancaster County high school a year or two ago, they approved of the LifeFlight helicopters transporting critically injured children to the hospital. Similarly, a telephone may be present on the property (but not in the house) for emergency use only. It’s important to realize this is not hypocrisy or compromise, but something like the idea that an emergency vehicle is not subject to normal traffic laws when responding: what are ‘normal rules’ for everyone’s benefit may – and should – be superseded with complete propriety when human life is at stake.
Madonna hasn’t had a number one single in almost ten years.
While she’s still popular, it’s no longer unheard of for teenagers to be completely unfamiliar with her music. Although I’d be shocked if they never heard of her.
A few years ago, I was at Craigville Beach (Hyannis, Cape Cod). There were a bunch of amish folk at the beach-the men (in long black pants, long sleeve white shirts, and funny hats-the women were wearing those long dresses. The men were fishing, the women sitting down.
So weird-they were surrounded by girls wearing bikinis, and guys in board shorts and sunglasses.
It’s probably a little bit of all three. Religions change over time to adapt to the greater society around them and technological development, and the Amish are no more immune to that than anyone else.
Just to drive home the point that not all Amish have the same rules here, my dad went to Pennsylvania to purchase a piece of farm equipment from an Amish guy. My dad wrote to him and was surprised to get a phone call about meeting. He was told to come to his address any time and if he wasn’t there, someone would know where to find him. Dad figured it was a community phone and forgot about it.
When the guy took him behind the house and into his workshop, he was a little surprised to see a phone, computer and that everything was running on a generator.
I don’t remember the exact explanation he gave when my dad asked, but it was along the lines of they didn’t have a problem with certain things, especially if they were used for business. They just didn’t want to start depending on them and wouldn’t use them in their house because it would change the whole dynamic of the home and lead to dependence.
We’re talking about teenagers here–they can’t get into the clubs. Their familiarity with music will be based on radio play & disc sales (i.e. what their friends are listening to), so your reference here should be the Billboard charts.
Their familiarity with music will be based on radio play & disc sales (i.e. what their friends are listening to), so your reference here should be the Billboard charts.