Conversation is a central feature of high-context culture, and a favorite pastime in Amish circles. Credit: Don Burke
The papers are ubiquitous in Amish homes, and this old-fashioned medium seems miles removed from the world of Twitter and YouTube. Yet there are some intriguing parallels. Like Internet interest groups, The Budget and Die Botschaft bring together people who share mutual interests and whose conversations are grounded in a common discourse of insider knowledge and acceptable topics. The daily routines described in the letters assume horse-and-buggy travel, for example, and virtually every letter mentions which family hosted church services. In that sense, the newspapers are significantly different from online virtual communities, since the life reflected in these pages is absolutely grounded in real-time, face-to-face interactions of Amish church members.
Religious Rhythms
The Amish way is rooted in the religious rhythms that mark Amish church life.3 Each church district gathers for worship every other Sunday morning. On the intervening Sundays families remain quietly at home with family devotions around the kitchen table or attend a neighboring Amish district that is having church that week.
A worship service lasts for about three hours and is soaked with rituals that express the Christian values Amish hold dear. Adult members and unbaptized children attend worship together, but they group themselves in age and gender cohorts, sitting, in effect, as the family of God rather than as nuclear families. Worship opens with the slow cadence of sixteenth-century hymns whose tunes have been passed on orally for generations. Singing a four-stanza hymn can take fifteen or twenty minutes. The hymns are sung a cappella and in unison. No part of the worship service is rushed.
One of the ministers or the deacon reads aloud one or two chapters from the New Testament. There are long prayers during which everyone kneels in humility before God. And there are two sermons, an initial sermon that may last up to a half hour and a main sermon that takes an hour or more. All this time the congregation has been sitting on backless benches (pregnant women and the elderly may be offered folding chairs for comfort). Ministers stand to preach but do so in the midst of the congregation. As one church publication explains, having everyone on the same floor level “gives the ministry and laity a sense of being on equal grounds.”4 A preachers deliver sermons without prepared texts or even notes—props that suggest he has honed his homiletic skills—but relies on the Holy Spirit to provide the words. Sermons convey a somber and serious tone. There are practical illustrations from nature and daily life, but no jokes and certainly no eye-catching PowerPoint slides or video clips to grab listeners’ attention.
Indeed, the entire atmosphere of worship is minimalistic compared with many other places of worship. Worshippers are assembled in the first floor of a home or in the basement or in a shop or barn. Furniture or equipment has been rearranged or moved out, and the district’s benches have been moved in, transported from house to house in a special wagon that is the only property the church collectively owns. But there is no pulpit, no candles, stained glass windows, icons, choir, organ, incense, or religious symbolism other than the plain clothing that all the worshippers are wearing. “Having churches in our homes helps mesh the sacred and secular,” one minister has written. “The room where God was worshiped one day becomes our place of work the next day.”5
Fig. 4.1. Church District, Western New York. Families within a church district, such as this one, take turns hosting Sunday worship, rotating the meeting place from home to home throughout the year.
Helping their parents prepare to host a church service, two boys place Ausbund hymnals on benches they have arranged in the second floor of their barn. Credit: Burton Buller
Following the close of the worship service everyone stays for a simple noon meal provided by the family hosting church, and visiting continues through the afternoon. The lunch menu is dictated by local custom, which discourages any competitive impulse to outdo a previous host.
Church leaders are selected through a process that combines group choice and divine intervention. Since ministers and deacons serve for life, vacancies occur only when someone dies or becomes incapacitated, or when a church district grows large enough to divide into two districts and the new district needs its own clergy. All baptized members, men and women, are invited to nominate a man to fill a leadership vacancy. No one campaigns for the job. In fact, if a man were to say that he thought he would be a good preacher, that bit of boasting would almost surely disqualify him! Indeed, the major qualification for leadership in the Amish church is not speaking ability or administrative skill but leading by example and demonstrating a faithful Amish way of life.
Individuals who receive a certain number of nominations (the number varies from one community to another) then make up a cohort that the Amish call “the lot” because these men will draw lots to determine whom God is calling to fill the role. The tension in the room when the lots are drawn, in the presence of the gathered congregation, is palpable because everyone firmly believes that God is making the final selection. The one who is chosen cannot decline. He must submit to a new and heavy responsibility. He will receive no salary for his church work and will not attend seminary or receive any formal theological training apart from apprenticeship to more seasoned ministers in the church. Ministers, who preach and provide pastoral care in the congregation, and deacons, who collect and distribute alms and offering money to the elderly and to those with large medical bills, are all chosen in this way. Bishops, who bear overall responsibility for a church district and lead member meetings at which matters of church discipline are discussed, are also chosen by lot, but from the ranks of those already ordained ministers. Each church district typically has one bishop, two ministers, and one deacon.
The bishop plays a central role in the annual cycle of religious rituals. Twice each year, once in the spring and again in the autumn, the church district reaffirms fidelity to the Bible, renews its commitment to living within its Ordnung, and seeks to have any interpersonal disagreements resolved. In their sermons, the bishop and ministers stress the need for reconciliation within the church as a prerequisite for the church’s observance of communion. In many other denominations, communion is a sign of an individual member’s right relationship with God, but in Amish theology relationships with God and with one another are not easily separated. Only when each person believes he or she is at peace with everyone else, as well as with God, can communion move forward. The weeks preceding communion, then, are filled with visiting, confession, forgiving, and making amends. Participating in communion also signals one’s submission to the dictates of the Ordnung.
Communion itself features a longer pattern of worship with sermons and other components that can stretch into the afternoon. Around 3:00 p.m., the time of day the Bible says Jesus died on the cross, the bishop breaks pieces of bread from a single loaf and distributes them to the members. He also passes a single cup of wine from which each member takes a sip. The bishop typically emphasizes that individual grains of wheat had to be ground into flour to make the communion bread and individual grapes crushed into wine, representing the submission and giving up of self-centeredness that is at the heart of Amish faith. The service ends with a ritual of foot washing, following the example of Jesus who washed his disciples’ feet in the manner of a servant. As the congregation sings, members divide into pairs (men with men and women with women) and wash one another’s feet in small tubs of water that the deacon has arranged.
Joining and Leaving
Although children brought up in Amish homes are nurtured in the Amish way and their parents hope and pray that they will profess faith and embrace the church, they are not members of the church until they ask to be baptized. At that point they become members, responsible to live faithfully by the Ordnung and to assist other members in practical and financial ways. The choice to join the church is a major decision and not one to be taken lightly. Since it is bound up with a clutch of other choices—whom to m
arry, where to make a home, and what kind of work one might pursue—the choice for baptism is often made in late adolescence or young adulthood. Those seeking baptism attend a series of catechism classes with the district ministers and are typically baptized in the spring, as part of a regular church service, indoors with water being poured over their heads. Although it is quite possible for someone who was raised in a very different context or religious tradition to join the Amish church, few people have done so.
The Amish view the vows of baptism, made on bended knee before God and to the church, to be the ultimate promise one can make and one with eternal consequences. Despite these stakes—and in part because of them—they also make provision for those who betray their promise and who, despite the best of intentions, at times forget, fall short, or wander from the Amish way. Confession and, if appropriate, restitution to injured parties, is the most common form of discipline and accountability. Confession might be made for sin named in the Bible, such as adultery or filing a lawsuit, or it might be made for expressing pride and self-centeredness through flouting of the Ordnung, such as purchasing some forbidden technology or going to a casino. Minor matters are confessed privately to the ministers, but more serious matters—determined by local custom—involve a public confession in church.
For individuals who refuse to confess, show no remorse, or who obviously wish to break with the church as evidenced by persistent nonattendance at worship or, for example, buying a car and moving out of state, the stakes are clear. Such individuals, after being repeatedly invited to repent and return, are excommunicated. Excommunication is never a surprise and it is quite rare because few people who might contemplate leaving the church ever join in the first place. But when excommunication occurs it is serious. In addition to being denied access to the rituals of the church, such as communion, the person is subject to shunning.
Because the Amish believe that church membership has practical, social implications, leaving the church also has social dimensions. Shunning is the ritualized recognition that a relationship has been broken and that things will not be the same unless the relationship is righted. Shunning does not mean that other Amish cannot have anything to do with the excommunicated person or cannot speak with him or her. It does mean that members will avoid the person in certain symbolic ways, such as not sharing a meal together and not entering into business contracts with them. Depending on the circumstances that surrounded an individual’s exit and excommunication, family, friends, or the individual may feel deeply betrayed. In such situations, the practice of shunning may inadvertently become more exaggerated and bitter. In other situations, the person who has been excommunicated remains on good terms with other Amish people, but still observes the boundaries shunning has imposed in ways not unlike a couple in mainstream society whose divorce proceeding was amiable but who nevertheless adheres to the child custody rules set down by a judge.
Fig. 4.2. Amish Population Growth in North America, 1901–2015 Source: Raber’s New American Almanac, 1930–2015; The Mennonite Year Book, 1905–1960; Amish historical documents.
It is always possible for those who are excommunicated and shunned to rejoin the Amish church. Such cases have occurred, even many years after the original falling out. But those cases are quite rare. Generally, by the time a person has been excommunicated, he or she has considered—often over the course of months if not years—the implications of the choice. Those who leave cite a variety of reasons. For those in middle age, the chief reason is often a desire to be part of a church with a different theological or spiritual emphasis—perhaps one with an evangelical or Pentecostal flavor. For younger people, the lure of forbidden technology or the pursuit of higher education is more often a factor, while in other cases young people who leave are seeking to distance themselves from a dysfunctional or abusive Amish home.
Either way, the number of people who are excommunicated and shunned (that is, who leave after having joined the church) is very small. More common is a young person raised in an Amish home who never requests baptism and gradually drifts away. Such individuals are often said to have left the Amish, but since they were never members of the church in the first place, they are not excommunicated or shunned and are free to visit and share meals with their Amish relatives. Such young people may join another denomination or none at all. Their parents are no doubt disappointed with their choice to forego Amish baptism, but shunning does not complicate the relationship in these cases.
The story of leaving the church is a dramatic one, often full of pain and pathos, and has been the subject of both thoughtful memoires and error-filled exposés. But the larger story is one of children joining their parents’ church and remaining contented and productive members for their entire lives. Nationally 85 percent or more of those born to Amish parents join the church. Almost all of the remaining 10 to 15 percent had never joined in the first place, and only a thin slice had joined and was subsequently excommunicated.6
The retention rate of 85 percent surprises observers who assume that the Amish church would not prove attractive to children growing up with increasing awareness of the opportunities and possibilities available in the wider world. Amish parents profess less surprise, believing that the trade-off for loss of individual freedom is community, security, and purpose. Either way, the dynamics of that decision can be complicated, as chapter 5 explains.
CHAPTER FIVE
Rumspringa: Amish Gone Wild?
“Kate’s like a lot of American teenagers,” remarked Pennsylvania journalist Gil Smart. “She likes country music. She lists her favorite TV shows as ‘One Tree Hill’ and ‘Friday Night Lights.’ And she’s on Facebook, with more than 200 Facebook ‘friends.’ ” What made Kate and her friends newsworthy was a piece of the story Smart had not expected to uncover: Kate was—at least judging by her dress—Amish. Unlike Kate, most of her Amish Facebook friends did not post pictures of themselves in Amish clothes. They appeared in backwards baseball caps and muscle shirts or with jewelry and makeup. They followed celebrities and commented on pop culture. And they sometimes posted selfies with friends at parties in which most people appeared inebriated.1
What is going on here? By 2011, when Smart came across Kate’s profile, Facebook was ubiquitous and claimed half a billion members. But a connection to Amish youth surprised observers and reminded others of similarly jarring news stories in which Amish teens were shown to be doing things that diverged sharply from their parents’ lifestyle. In 1998 when two Amish-reared young men in southeastern Pennsylvania were arrested with intent to distribute cocaine for the Pagans motorcycle gang the story had caused an international media sensation.
These sorts of revelations have made Rumspringa—the Pennsylvania Dutch word for “running around,” which the Amish use to describe teen socializing—one of the most well-known, yet misunderstood, aspects of Amish life. Television reality shows, TV dramas such as Judging Amy, and a 2002 documentary called The Devil’s Playground have all played up the Rumspringa theme, fueling both surprise and puzzlement. Although most of these media representations have been riddled with inaccuracies, America’s confusion and fascination with Rumspringa are understandable. Why do straight-laced parents allow their children this sort of freedom? What does Rumspringa entail, and how does it not become a simple exit ramp out of Amish life?
Teens Gone Wild?
When Amish teens reach the age of sixteen or seventeen they enter a life stage known in Pennsylvania Dutch as Rumspringa, which stretches until baptism or marriage (depending on the particular Amish subgroup). Inaccurately labeled a “time out,” Rumspringa has been depicted as a ritual in which Amish parents send their teens out into the world as a sort of testing to see how many will prove faithful and return. Nothing could be further from the truth. In no way do parents encourage their children to engage in deviant behavior, nor do they send them away. Rumspringa, as we’ll see, is an adolescent rite of passage, and some parents take a more hands-off approach to parenting their teen
s than do others. But no Amish church or household urges their youth to sample the temptations of the world as a means of deciding whether they wish to join the Amish church.
Amish teens do not move to New York apartments or California beach houses, despite what the reality TV series Amish in the City contended. Rumspringa-age youth live at home with their parents and siblings. Their social life is more independent from the rest of their family. They spend weekend evenings with Amish peers of their own age, known as Die Youngie (young folks), rather than with their parents’ friends or their younger brothers and sisters.
The peer group is the focus of socializing during Rumspringa. These teens in Shipshewana, Indiana, spend a summer evening together in town rather than with their parents and younger siblings. Credit: Don Burke
Nor are Rumspringa-age youth breaking church rules or at risk of being shunned. Since they have not been baptized and are not members of the church, they cannot be excommunicated. They have not yet committed themselves to the Amish way as adults. Parents hope and pray that their children will make that choice. But until teens request baptism, they are not bound by the regulations of the church any more than their English neighbors are.
So what is Rumspringa? As a distinct phase in the Amish life cycle, Rumspringa is shaped by a mix of Amish social structure, theology, and tradition. The structure of Amish society includes two principal authorities: the family and the church. During the later teen years, Amish youth live betwixt and between these two authorities. A young person begins to move out from under the authority of his or her parents (following old rural customs in which sixteen-year-olds begin to gain some degree of autonomy), but is not yet under the authority of the church (because he or she has not yet been baptized). These years are a liminal time in which teens have more independence than they have had as children and more freedom than they will have after, presumably, they join the church.
The Amish Page 5
