# Why aren't LED's considered electricity to the Amish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096 "2003-07-26T15:23:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/21 "2003-07-27T03:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > So what good is the phone in the store? Well, it sure helps trying to reorder stock or tracking a lost shipment if you’re in a hurry. And, as yet, there are no exclusively Amish communities. We Yankees tend to show up in the most remote locations, so a phone helps bring in non-Amish business. The largest Amish community is Holmes County, Ohio. Amish farms are found across the entire length and breadth of the county. The county seat, the village of Millersburg, has fewer than 5,000 people and it is much larger than any other community in the county. Still, the Amish population is probably a bit less than half of the total. Looking at Lancaster, PA (# 2) and Middlefield, OH, (# 4–recently passed for # 3 by some other region that I forget) or Shipsewanna, IN, you find that they are all embedded in places that are heavily Yankee. To survive, Amish tradesmen do not limit their clientele to the Amish. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/22 "2003-07-27T05:42:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*Well, it sure helps trying to reorder stock or tracking a lost shipment if you’re in a hurry. And, as yet, there are no exclusively Amish communities. We Yankees tend to show up in the most remote locations, so a phone helps bring in non-Amish business. > > The largest Amish community is Holmes County, Ohio. Amish farms are found across the entire length and breadth of the county. The county seat, the village of Millersburg, has fewer than 5,000 people and it is much larger than any other community in the county. Still, the Amish population is probably a bit less than half of the total. > > Looking at Lancaster, PA (# 2) and Middlefield, OH, (# 4–recently passed for # 3 by some other region that I forget) or Shipsewanna, IN, you find that they are all embedded in places that are heavily Yankee. To survive, Amish tradesmen do not limit their clientele to the Amish. \*\* Well I was really just joking. Just the same, I would think that conducting commercial operations, some of which must get the store deeply involved with banks and the like, with non Amish is certainly a close connection to worldly things. I am further reinforced in my opinion that people, and that includes me, have a remarkable ability for virtually bottomless rationalization. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/23 "2003-07-27T06:39:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boyo Jim \* > \*\*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. \*\* Apparently automobiles harm nothing so long as both the driver and owner are not Amish. There’s actually at least one man I know of who makes a living hauling Amish around in his car. The term applied to this gentleman occupationally was “Amish hauler”. Go figure as to why he’s not just referred to as a cab driver or a chauffer. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/24 "2003-07-27T06:57:41Z")
They use solar cells to power their GameBoys so they can play Konami’s “Super Barn Raiser 2003” and “Butter Churn Challenge Presented By Ron Jeremy.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/25 "2003-07-27T11:33:48Z")
It might be well to consider that the Amish do not eschew all medical technology. So, while they are against vaccination, if ill or injured they will make use of medical treatment, including such high tech stuff as ambulances and kidney transplants. So having _access_ to a phone, even if it’s not in a home, may be justifiable for uses in emergencies (remember, a lot of them are farmers and farm accidents can be gruesome), as are ambulance rides. If the only way to save someone’s life is to have them airlifted to a hospital they aren’t going to object. Likewise, since the use of phones and pagers is standard in organ transplants, their use for a severely ill Amish awaiting transplant would probably be OK. So maybe some of the Amish using cellphones in a hospital setting have the OK because of the particular circumstances they’re in. The other thing is the portability of cellphones - they aren’t locked to one person or one place and really could be used as a _community_ resource. So, it wouldn’t be a phone for one person to yak to his English friends, it would be a tool for those who truly had a need to communicate with the outside world for a specific purpose - such as someone who needed to communicate with doctors in a different city about an ill or injured relative. I’ve also heard that there’s a period of time for Amish teenages before they formally join the church and are baptized (the Amish were part of the “anabaptists” who did not practice child baptism, believing the decision to join the church had to be an adult one) when deviations from the strict rules are tolerated to a degree I have a book of various essays published by and for the Amish - even THEY argue over the sense of some of their restrictions and periodically revise them. Each community sets it’s own rules, so the restrictions vary considerably from place to place, as already noted. But the Amish aren’t some museum diorama, either - they are a living culture, and by virtue of that, they _do_ change over time. The Amish of 2003 are not the Amish of 1903 or 1803. Perhaps if people didn’t see their rules as a _rejection_ of technology but rather a refusal to adopt technology unless it worked in accordance with their culture this might lead to better understanding. They want technology that unites them as a community, not that divides them. They don’t view the new as automatically good. They want to know that a new gizmo will not disrupt their life before adopting it. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/26 "2003-07-27T11:37:38Z")
Butter Churn Challenge rocks. I don’t know. I find the rest of this rather strange. I understand they don’t want to be “connected” to the outside world, but I would think mobile phones and LED’s connect them. At least in one way. I think the Amish are on a slippery slope. What next? Velcro shoes? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/27 "2003-07-27T11:42:34Z")
Buttons are not permitted, nor are zippers - they use hooks and eyes. But for some reason I suspect velcro would also be permitted, at least for the disabled who can manage the hooks and eyes. ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/28 "2003-07-27T13:12:45Z")
People always find ways to reinterpret their beliefs or value system in order to suit their own personal desires thus allowing themselves to justify their actions without feeling like a hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![iwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a87d85/32.png) [@iwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwire)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/29 "2003-07-27T13:39:31Z")
I saw a woodworking show that went to an Amish furniture “factory”, all the production equipment was powered hydraulically (think amusement rides not water wheel) the primemover in this case was a diesel powered hydraulic pump. The commentator said this was acceptable as a diesel has no need for electric. This is true if you can figure out how to initially turn it over for starting. The added expense to run table saws and milling equipment by hydraulics would be substantial and technically more difficult. If as others have said generators are OK why would they have not used one here? To me it seems “the times they are a changing” for these folks and they is no set standard that can be applied. What one family believes may be different from their neighbors view… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096/30 "2003-07-27T18:02:05Z")
> [@](#): > > The commentator said this was acceptable as a diesel has no need for electric. > > This is true if you can figure out how to initially turn it over for starting. They are not opposed to _electricity_. They oppose tying in to the Edison (or whoever) grid. Diesels start quite well with batteries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-leds-considered-electricity-to-the-amish/191096.md?page=1)