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A few things about the Amish

Last night i saw this thing on tv about the Amish.

I admired how they live in comunuties seperate from the rest of the world. Their kids were victims of a mass school shooting. I sympasized and admired how they made a point of giving solace to the family of the perp.

This was a close one, but i even sided w them in their conflict w the state when they decided not to send their kids to public school past eighth grade. I probably differ w most people here in thinking that statism is a greater evil than theism. But anyway.

I did side w the state tho , if i am understanding this dispute correctly, when the Amish decided to not install smoke detectors in their public buildings. Apaerently they believe fires are gods will. And it is sinfull to opposse this even w children. Also they are quite sure these children are in heaven and so in a better place. I have no problem w any competent adult making this decision for themselves. But when this desicion leads to children dieing, i have to side w the nanny state as distastcull as that is for me.

This was not mentioned in the entire show. But i did not once see a single black person among the Amish, nor for that matter, any member of any of the other three races of man.

I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a rule against blacks like the mormons used to have. Or is it more that there is not any black person stupid enuf to join or what the explaination is .

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on February 29, 2012 at 7:51am

I'm fairly certain that the Amish don't accept conversion, per se. You're either born into the Amish or you aren't - thus, no blacks.

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on February 29, 2012 at 9:48am

Cool!

Yeah I agree with the Nerd --

Interesting topic!

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Permalink Reply by paul babcock on February 29, 2012 at 8:58am

Thanks yall. This has put me on track to investigate it further (tho if i ask directly about amish and black mostly all i get is info about their hats. The amish usually wear black hats. Get it?)

Appearently there is no distinct prohibition One poster, in fact, knew of one person who was converting. But it doesnot seem to be more than merely theoreticly possibile. A black person could learn Penselvania Dutch just as readily as a white person, I imagine. And I can imagine having a dislike for the dominant mainstream culture and desire to opt out into a seperate society.

They do have converions. But they are rare. And from reading even what little I have about the particulares, it is no surprise that no blacks have converted.

I googled the diff between amish and Menonites and Menonites do do missionary work and appearently there are more of them in Africa , than anywhere else. So I would think that there were at least a few black Menonites. But that would just be another distinction between Menonites and Amish.

Amish have that bit befor marriage where they go out into the larger world a bit. They have a specific word for it that escapes me. This show had one woman explaining how this and her being taken out of school after the eigth grade were both particularly influencial in her particular deconverion proccess. She met a guy who she later married.

So anyway i couldnot help but wonder if it never happened the other way around. People convert to juhdism for marraige. So why not Amish. I can imagine the Amish thinking that is not a good enuf reason. But if they truely believe their way of life is best, then why wouldnot they want this couples children growing up amish in an amish comunity?