Page 10 - C.A.L.L. #23 - Spring 2004
P. 10
The Amish Colonies – Are They or Aren’t They?
Every so often, on hearing of my interest in Following David Luthy’s advice, I contacted Marc
communal living, someone tells me that they have Olshan (folshan@alfred.edu) and his useful reply
visited an Amish colony. My response has always was (in part):
been a negative one, such as, “I have never seen
them mentioned as belonging to the communal ”I can certainly offer a couple of suggestions with
movement”. Recently, my curiosity got the better regard to reliable sources of information on the
of me, so – through the good services of world internet regarding the Amish. You need to take
communes expert, Bill Metcalf, I got in contact into consideration, however, that none of these
with Amish member, David Luthy. His brief but sites officially speaks for the Amish and that such
informative reply, under the letterhead of the an official site doesn't exist since the Amish don't
“HERITAGE HISTORICAL LIBRARY, Preserving Old use such technology. (There are probably some
Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite History”, is Amish, or former Amish, who can be found on the
here quoted in full. internet but their perspective certainly wouldn't be
typical, much less official). The following would be
“Whether we Amish are ‘intentional communities’ a good starting place:
depends on how people define that term. It is of no “http://www.holycrosslivonia.org/amish/origin.htm"
concern to us how they define it or if we are Since your interest seems to be in communal
included. While we have private ownership, we are arrangements, let me also make clear that the
communal in spirit and practice. For example, we Amish are not a communal society. They engage
do not participate in insurance or hospitalization in some communal activities and sometimes
plans. When there is a large hospital bill, money is share labor and agricultural equipment but own
taken from our ‘communal purse’ by the deacon real estate privately and live in separate family
and given to the person needing assistance. We units, usually scattered over a large geographic
also collect money by freewill giving to help pay area and mixed in with non-Amish farms and
such bills. Our parochial elementary schools are houses.”
also supported entirely by freewill giving from our
group. We have four in our community. In The above-mentioned website was, of course, not
the event of fire and the destruction of set up by the Amish themselves, but by the
buildings, we all help financially and physically to National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom.
rebuild. Our Sunday church services last from 9 to (Such a body was set up by friends to defend the
2, which includes a communal meal afterwards. Amish from legal action.) Suitably designed in
We are very communal without living in a sober black and white, it is well worth a visit. The
commune. We do live as close as possible following quote from the site may be of interest:
depending on which farms come up for sale. We
wear distinctive garb and drive horse and buggies. ”The Amish,
We live separate from the society around us even called ‘The
if we live on private farms. Plain
People’ or
I hope this answers your questions. I do not have Old Order
time to correspond further. We do not have Amish,
electricity, thus have no computers, radios, TVs, originated in
etc. We are aware there are many Amish-related Switzerland
materials on the Internet, but we would not know about l525.
which are reliable. You might write to Marc Olshan, They came from a division of the Mennonites or
P.O. Box 862, Alfred, NY 14802, USA, who teaches Anabaptists (Re-baptizers). They opposed the
an Amish-related course at Alfred University.” union of church and state and infant baptism. They
baptized people only as adults at about age l8.
This description really got me thinking along the Adult baptism was a crime in the l6th century.
lines of: “They certainly are very intentional, even if Therefore, the Amish come from an impressive list
they don’t actually live adjacent to one another. of martyrs. They were put in sacks and thrown into
Even if they couldn’t care less how others define rivers in Europe. There are no Amish left in Europe;
them, aren’t they really intentional communities?” The Amish were saved from extinction by William
Penn who granted a haven from religious
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