I read where the Amish are now using LED’s on their buggies at night. This is considered to be acceptable within their proscriptions against using electricity. The article I read referred to the “fact” that LED’s don’t use electricity. That’s news. And I don’t understand how that exception can be made, but I also don’t really understand the Amish guidelines. What is it in their behavioral codes that is prohibited and how do LED’s get in under the radar, so to speak?
[quote]
Amish people interpret linking with electrical wires as a connection with the world - and the Bible tells them they are not to be conformed to the world. (Romans 12:2) In 1919 the Amish leaders agreed that connecting to power lines would not be in the best interest of the Amish community. They did not make this decision because they thought electricity was evil in itself, but because easy access to it could lead to many temptations and the deterioration of church and family life.] From The Amish FAQ. The buggy LEDs you mention are solar-powered, and therefore have no link to the outside world, the way mains power and batteries do.
How are batteries different from solar power in this respect?
I had the same question the other day until I saw QED’s explanation. Here’s the article. It’s quite interesting.
One could argue, I suppose, that batteries, and particularly rechargeable batteries, get their energy from the outside world, and therefore represent a proscribed connection, whereas solar powered devices get their energy from the sun. Hey, I never said it was logical, but then logic has no place in religion. 
The Amish have used battery powered taillights on their buggies for years. I am not sure where the idea arose that they eschewed electricity. Decisions regarding applications vary vary from community to community, but the principle is entanglement with the world, not electricity, as such.
I do not understand the use of the phrase “not electrical” in the linked web site or the OP. However, the Amish have avoided tying in to the electric grid (“the world”) to charge their batteries before this, using gas-engine generators.
I understand that the illogic here is on the part of the Amish; but I would further question why energy from outside in the form of electricity is proscribed, yet energy in the form of bottled gas is not. From your link:
Some Amish also use cell phones, since they’re not “connected” to the outside world by phone lines. I saw this on Time magazine a couple of years ago, on an article about the PA Amish.
I don’t know for sure that it is, however the Amish aren’t known for using other battery-powered dvices, like notebook computers or calculators. The terrm “electricity” appears to mean the mains supply, rather than electrical power in general.
Are they solar powered?
As Q.E.D., has noted and I mentioned earlier, the resistance is to being tied to the power grid.
There are two basic principles involved with the Amish views toward “modern” stuff and those principles tend to be interpreted separately (and differently) by different groups.
The principles are that they should not be “involved” with the world and that they should be modest and avoid things that are Hoch, (the German word meaning “high” that carries a connotation in their belief of excessive pride, showing off, elevating oneself too high before men).
In terms of worldly entanglements: they do not allow their homes to be tied in to the power grids; they do not have telephones in their homes (although some businessmen may have a phone in an outside booth since the community recognizes that a phone may be necessary to keep from going out of business); they do not participate in Social Security system (and they only got that exemption by demonstrating to the U.S. government that their community would always take care of their own elderly).
In terms of avoiding Hoch things, they dress plainly (not colorlessly, but without fancy prints or bright colors), they avoid decorating they carriages, etc. (The fact that such decisions are made at local levels have interesting results. In Pennsylvania and Ohio, where they have been surrounded by encroaching Yankees for years, they recognized the utility of the orange triangle that indicates a slow-moving vehicle years ago and began using them to reduce the number of cars smashing them. In Minnesota, where they were farther out from cities, they resisted the Hoch bright orange of the triangle, and fought the state up to the Supreme Court, eventually forcing Minnesota to adopt a new color scheme of silver-gry reflective material.)
Things like machinery can fall into different categories, according to the group, and may be accepted or rejected according to their application of either or both the principles regarding involvement in the world or being Hoch. Tractors are generally avoided for draft horses–but some communities will buy a single tractor and run their baling machines and drying fans off the Power-Take-Off. In Middlefield, OH, (world’s third or fourth largest Amish community), their large families have expanded past the point where they can guarantee that each son can have a farm. Their two responses have been to ship out expeditions of emigrants to other states, farther from large cities, where they hope to be able to maintain their way of life, and to accept jobs working with the Yankees. There are some small factories in Middlefield and there are hundreds of Amish builders in the Northeast Ohio area. They pay Yankees with 12-passenger vans to get them to work, where they happily use power tools for construction. The pressures of the surrounding society have occasioned some compromises, and they now use gasoline grass whips for trimming their yards and compressed air or gasoline pumps to get their well water. (I have never seen anyone using a yard tractor and I do not know the reasoning that granted them use of the trimmers.)
At last, the final part of the diabolical “gry” puzzle falls into place!
isn’t there some sort of amish clause that allows them to use things that are deemed necessary? p’raps the lights increase visibility, leading to less car-buggy collisions
Mobile phones need a base station in order to work, the signal doesnt go straight from your phone the the one you’re calling, so those Amish who use mobiles are cheating…
The power to charge batteries also comes from the sun only several steps removed, unless it’s nuclear generated. And using the battery after it has been charged and disconnected from “the world” is not much different from using the solar powered LED, some components of which were doubtless manufacted using power from “the world” but are now disconnected from it.
Of course trying to make sense of such things is futile. Ya gotta believe!
For you non-native English speakers, “manufacted” is so close in meaning to “manufactured” that it is hard to tell the difference. Maybe I should have used “made.”
manufacted is a word rarely found outside a textbook
Although several of the posts came close to the mark, there was a New Yorker article a couple years ago that explained it in a more nuanced way.
First, as noted, one objection is to being connected at all. The main other is resistance to anything that disrupts family life and connectedness. So a phone in an outbuilding is acceptable if necessary for business. A phone in the store is certainly acceptable. A computer is ok, but it ought to be powered by a generator not the grid. (There is a bit of doublethink there since there is a large network supplying gas, but never mind.) This probably limits them to laptops.
Now cell phones are a real problem. They are connected, but not visibly so and the hierarchy is understandably leery of making a rule that is hard to enforce and that might lead to more and more violation. IIRC from the New Yorker, the jury was still out on cell phones. After all, they were still disruptive of family life (sometimes I want to throw mine out, after getting 4 telemarketing calls in one evening). In my opinion, solar cells and energy-efficient LED lights are entirely consistent with their philosophy, simple, modest, efficient.
Are LED lights made for bicycles?
So in an entirely Amish community there are very few phones in homes, if any. So what good is the phone in the store? Maybe to order more merchandise. That is if you ever sell any.
There is a fairly large Amish community to the south of Madison, and many of their community are treated at the hospital where I work. I’ve seen numerous Amish families there using cell phones.
There are apparently some work-arounds for vehicle use as well. Last Thursday I saw a large group of Amish alighting from a chartered bus to have a picnic in the park.