I do as well. However, when comparing entire communities I do not think there is much to compare. I wish an Amish person would give their two cents, however that is very unlikely.
I’m Mennonite (well, was raised that way, anyways), does that count?
Probably not, given that the branch I’m from doesn’t go in for the rejection of technology stuff.
Regarding “rumspringa”, I drove up to Amish country earlier this spring and took a tour of a rstored Amish home. The woman who did the tour had been raised Amish but is now a practicing Mennonite. Anyway, she said that at least in her particular sect/offshoot/whatever, there really was no such thing as “rumspringa.” She said that certainly if a child decided to go off and explore “English” ways, they’d be welcomed home afterwards, but it’s not like that sort of thing was encouraged.
Lehman’s is the bomb, by the way. If you need any sort of cast-iron cookware whatsoever, they’re your source. I have an irrational lust for the 30-inch cast iron frying pan. I don’t know what I’d do with it. It wouldn’t even fit on my stove. But it would be so cool to have.
All I know is that the ignorance in the Amish communities can be appalling. I have a friend who is an ER nurse in PA, and she often has Amish teens coming in asking if Saran wrap tied with a rubber band will work as contraception–that sort of thing.
I admire them for their focus on the simpler joys in life, but I cannot admire the ignorance. There was a book written recently about an Amish woman who left and wrote about her dealings with the minister and her family etc. Parts of it were horrific. Amish are people and the good traits and bad are demonstrated in them as much as they are in us. It’s easy to romanticize their lives, but it’s doubtful any of us would trade places with them.
You don’t really think English teens don’t have bizzare notions about contraception, do you? Google contraception myths and weep.
There was a thread within the last year wherein Doper women admitted they didn’t know where a woman’s urine comes out. Never underestimate women’s ignorance about our own bodies.
But yes, I agree we shouldn’t romanticize the Amish.
I didn’t mean to imply that only Amish teens have messed up notions as to contraception–but that is the one example that stuck in my head.
You wouldn’t happen to have the name of that book, would you?
It’s commonly believed–I heard it from one of my teachers in middle school, myself–that the Amish believe cameras steal souls. We’re here to fight ignorance, but you don’t have to be a jackass about it.
As Yankees (or English–different Amish communities use different terms for outsiders) begin encroaching on available farmland, the Amish (who tend to have large families and so need to keep expanding their farmland to give all the kids places to live) keep seeking new locations. In the late 80s, a number of Amish discovered that there was farmland going cheap in some region of Kentucky and there was a flurry of movement as a number of younger families moved there. I do not know whether you live in the area that was the destination of the Holmes and Geauga County Ohio Amish, but the movements are pretty carefully selected and planned.
I don’t wanna speak for eleanorigby, but I believe this is what she was talking about:
fetus writes:
> It’s commonly believed–I heard it from one of my teachers in middle school,
> myself–that the Amish believe cameras steal souls. We’re here to fight
> ignorance, but you don’t have to be a jackass about it.
It’s a remarkable silly belief about the Amish in itself, but it’s also typical of a remarkably silly set of beliefs about the Amish. Believing that the camera would steal one’s soul is the sort of thing that some group completely cut off from the modern world might believe, not the Amish, who interact in many ways with the rest of the world and have seen many people use cameras. The Amish do not have some utterly weird set of religious beliefs. Theologically, they are fairly conventional Christians. They have a fairly unusual way of putting their beliefs into practice, but that doesn’t mean that they have weird religious beliefs.
Claims like “the Amish believe that cameras steal souls” seem to me to be typical of the sort of technology-worshipper who insists that everyone must use the absolutely newest piece of technology or there’s something wrong with them. These are the people who demand that everyone must immediately switch from landlines to cell phones and from VCR’s to DVD players and from records and cassettes to CD’s and that anyone who doesn’t must be some sort of primitive savage. It’s possible to hesitate about using some new piece of technology without believing that the technology is cursed. The Amish are fairly rational people without bizarre beliefs about technology.
Dude, Wendell, I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just saying that ignorance about the Amish is widespread, and it’s unfortunate but it’s not going to get solved with vitriol. Most people here who educate themselves on problems of bigger scale, don’t educate themselves on the Amish because it doesn’t affect that many peoples’ lives. Tone it down, alright? This is GQ fercrissakes.
Thanks. I’ll see if I can’t find it in the library-I’ve been needing something new to read.
The problem with Jinx’s OP is the same as the problem with most of his OP’s. He asks questions which show that he has a much wider area of ignorance than just the subject he’s asking about. He really needs to read a book about the Amish, not just have us answer some little question about them. In general, he needs to read more and post less.
So take it to the Pit, and try not to jump on those having a discussion here.
You’re saying that every time you have a little question, you go and read a book about it instead of asking a community you’re a part of?
Again, fighting ignorance doesn’t mean going batshit nuts on people. The soul-stealing-camera thing is a UL that a lot of people believe. I was taught it in school. Anyway, this is fucking GQ. If you want to Pit someone, we have a forum for that.
Yes, please do. There’s a pit thread in progress, but people have focused on the OP rather than giving Jinx the pitting he so richly deserves.
fetus writes:
> Again, fighting ignorance doesn’t mean going batshit nuts on people.
This is what I wrote:
> What? Just what sort of bizarre beliefs do you think the Amish have? They
> aren’t some sort of Stone Age savages hidden in some remote jungle. The
> Amish are, theologically, fairly conventional Christians. They don’t believe that
> the engines of cars are the breeding ground for devils. They don’t believe that
> electricity is Satan’s personal tool. They don’t believe that television is the
> doorway to Hell. And they certainly don’t believe that cameras steal souls. In so
> far as they refuse to use certain modern inventions, it’s because they think that
> these devices would distract them from their church and family life.
That is not remotely “going batshit nuts” on him.
fetus writes:
> You’re saying that every time you have a little question, you go and read a
> book about it instead of asking a community you’re a part of?
When someone asks me a question that shows that they are ignorant of a rather large area of knowledge, I tell them that it would be a good idea to learn about that larger area, not just the small part of it they are asking about, so I tell them that they should read a book about that subject.
So, anyone else think “rumspinga” sounds like the name of a hip-hop song?