The Riddle of Amish Culture

by Donald B. Kraybill

  Where does all the money go? Mostly into real estate, business expansion, community needs, loans within the community, mutual funds, and savings accounts.39 Some of the newly rich are building expensive homes by Amish standards that cost upwards of $250,000. Historically the Amish have not invested in individual stocks, but in recent years hundreds of them have invested in mutual funds. One mutual fund manager noted that some of the “bigger business owners leave mutual funds because they want to be more aggressive with their investments. They are greedy and so they go to stockbrokers.” However, not everyone is greedy. An employee of a very profitable Amish business said his boss would not build a new expensive house, “because he thinks it’s not right with so many poor people in the world.” However, the swelling wealth in a small circle may erode social equality over time.

  The office of a sizeable business. The word processor, calculator, and Rolodex symbolize the rational worldview of successful entrepreneurs.

  Will Amish millionaires be content to drive horses and dress in Plain clothing over several generations? Inexperienced in coping with the inequalities of wealth, the church is uncertain how to respond to the new commercial class. In the past, modest profits from farming were reinvested in farming operations and used to help children establish their own farms. Revenues from Amish businesses were typically invested in real estate, used to buy new farms, or contributed to needs within the ethnic community, rather than invested in the stock market or devoured by conspicuous consumption. An Amishman in another settlement describes the Lancaster Amish as being “almost hyper about making money . . . some businesses are very successful and handling a lot of cash and are rich period. This affects the types of houses they build for themselves and for their children, where they travel, where they eat, and what they own.”

  Using outside standards of success, Amish businesses appear to be doing quite well. But success is not a favorite word among the Amish. Indeed, some elders worry that the pursuit of profit may be an ugly worm inside the rosy apple of Amish success. Bishops and businessmen alike fear that in the long run prosperity could ruin the church. Some church leaders believe prosperity is as dangerous as persecution. “Pride and prosperity,” said one elder, “could do us in.” Will the church be able to motivate the wealthy commercial class to use their resources for community enhancement rather than for self-indulgence?

  The occupational bargain that the Amish struck in the 1980s when they left their plows for cottage industries has served them well for a generation. It kept their work within their control and allowed it to flourish in the context of family and community. However, it remains uncertain whether this was a good compromise or a worm that will eat their soul from within over time. Will the transformation of work undermine community stability and erode Amish identity? Furthermore, many of the regulatory concessions that the modern world has made for the Amish—for instance, in schooling and Social Security—were based on the premise that they were self-employed farmers. As they become successful entrepreneurs, legislative tolerance and leniency may also wane.

  CHAPTER 11

  Managing Public Relations

  There’s more tourists than plow furrows, more flies than tourists.

  —Amish farmer

  THE PARADOX OF SEPARATION

  Groups that hope to resist modernization must regulate the interaction of their members with the outside world. This chapter explores the ties and patterns of interaction between Amish society and the larger world. Although the church regulates the participation of individual members in the dominant society, there are also systemic bonds—contracts and patterns of economic exchange—that fuse the two social systems together.

  The Amish have always emphasized separation from the world. This historic religious belief has taken an ironic twist in the throes of modernization, producing yet another riddle. The rejection of mass media, modern dress, higher education, and electricity has widened the gap between the Amish and the outside world. Yet at the same time the Amish are more entangled with the larger economic system than ever before. How is it that the cultural gap widened as the economic systems merged? Moreover, as Amish dependency on the larger society increased, a mutual dependency also emerged. Today they not only lean on the larger society, but it also leans on them. How did the larger society come to rely on the Amish?

  As the Amish modernized their farming, created their own industries, and adopted more contemporary lifestyles, their dependency on the larger society increased. Farmers use the telephone to call veterinarians, to order fertilizer, and to check weather forecasts before making hay. Amish housewives cook with Teflon pans, buy butane gas for their stoves, use disposable diapers, clean with detergents, and buy permanent-press fabrics. Many households depend on income from the sale of quilts, produce, crafts, and baked goods to non-Amish. Amish business owners lean on commercial suppliers for raw materials, the latest machine technology, and the modern transportation system to deliver their products. Because they borrow from commercial banks, Amish fortunes fluctuate as interest rates rise and fall. When milk and tobacco prices dip, Amish profits fall. Business sales vacillate with the costs of transportation, raw materials, diesel fuel, and competing products. In all of these ways, the Amish are dependent on the larger society. Indeed, without these economic ties, Amish society in its present form would collapse.

  The Amish also use the services of professionals—physicians, dentists, optometrists, accountants, lawyers, morticians—as well as those of banks, hospitals, and real estate agencies. They rely less on professionals than Moderns do, but they could barely function without the aid of such experts. Furthermore, the vitality of Amish society is indebted to the technological achievements of the scientific age. Antibiotics and other medicines have cut their infant mortality rate and increased the longevity of their elderly, both of which have contributed to their growth. Artificial insemination of dairy cows, hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, veterinary medicines, pesticides, and the careful management of flocks and herds have all boosted agricultural output. The use of the latest welding, fabricating, carpentry, and manufacturing equipment enables Amish businesses to compete successfully in the broader marketplace. In all of these areas, Amish success hinges on the services and advancements of the larger society. They do not live in a closed society; indeed, they are deeply entangled in the economic systems of American society.

  Ironically, as the systemic links tightened, the cultural gap widened. Amish sages agree that the gulf between their life and that of their non-Amish neighbors is wider today than ever. With the rise of Amish schools in the 1960s, a new generation of Amish grew up without the influence of non-Amish teachers and non-Amish friends. An Amishman described the growing separation between the two cultures: “Oh yes, there’s a stronger separation today, oh yes, oh certainly, and it’s growing faster all the time.” Over the years, the cultural distance between the two worlds has widened. As the worlds pulled apart, the economic ties tightened—all of which produced the puzzle of a separate people who are enmeshed in the modern economy. In short, cultural separation increased, and economic separation declined.

  The Amish use banks and other professional services.

  CIVIC AND SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT

  The Amish have many friendly relationships with non-Amish neighbors. Businessmen deal with a variety of non-Amish clients, suppliers, and professionals on a daily basis. But the relationships, though pleasant and cordial, have limits. They rarely lead to romantic involvements, intimate sharing, or religious cooperation. The church’s ability to regulate attire, control participation in public organizations, and maintain the dialect has reinforced Amish separation from the world.

  Amish participation in outside organizations is selective, informal, and locally based. They usually do not hold public office or join civic organizations such as service clubs, country clubs, Boy Scouts, 4-H clubs, Little League softball teams, or the Red Cross. Membership in professional organizations is also restricted. Amish far
mers are even discouraged from joining the Dairy Herd Improvement Association. Those who do join are careful not to have their achievements publicized. A few business owners are members of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, and a half-dozen or so are members of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau. As noted before, the Amish often join volunteer fire companies in many communities. Fire company benefit auctions are frequently staffed and supported by the Amish in a pleasant partnership with their neighbors.

  Before World War I, an Amishman, in a rare instance, served as postmaster in a rural village.1 However, holding public office is typically taboo because it involves an “unequal yoking” with the larger world. In the first half of the twentieth century, Amish fathers frequently served as board members of one-room public schools. Despite their avoidance of public office and political activity, the Amish are good neighbors who readily assist their non-Amish friends in time of disaster, fire, or illness. They support community benefit auctions, garage sales, and historical celebrations. In one case, an Amishman was appointed to a township planning commission, but such public involvement is rare. Occasionally, special township meetings are held to deal with issues involving the Amish—zoning hearings, road wear from horseshoes, immunization of children, and so forth. An increase in polio cases among the Amish in 1979 threatened a public epidemic, and an outbreak of measles posed a similar risk in 1988. In both instances, Amish leaders cooperated with health officials by encouraging mass immunization. In such ways, they seek to be good neighbors.

  The Amish rarely participate in other civic affairs. Attendance at fairs, amusement parks, carnivals, dances, and the theater is prohibited for church members. However, some Amish youth indulge in these worldly activities before baptism. Occasionally adults, and more frequently youth, will travel to the beach or attend a professional baseball game, tennis tournament, or country music concert. In 1995 the church firmly denounced playing baseball for members; however, before baptism, some youth play on local baseball teams and even wear uniforms. In sum, Amish participation in community affairs tends to be local, selective, and informal. Moreover, they seek to avoid publicity and public confrontation at all costs.

  USING THE LAW

  The Amish want to be law-abiding citizens but are reluctant to use the legal system to protect their rights. Lawyers are readily used by the Amish to prepare wills, establish business partnerships, and handle real estate transactions, but using the law to protect one’s personal or business rights contradicts the humble spirit of Gelassenheit. Filing a lawsuit is cause for excommunication. The Amish are taught to bear abuse and suffer insult rather than to fight injustice through legal means. But as more and more Amish move into business, use of the law becomes ever more tempting. In some instances, non-Amish customers have bilked Amish businessmen, knowing they would not likely sue. Using implicit threats, some Amish business owners have asked their attorneys to write letters to debtors asking for payment of delinquent bills. In other cases, under the advice of their attorneys, Amish have asked dubious clients to sign a “confessed judgement,” which is then filed in the courthouse if products or services are not paid in full. The confessed judgment places a lien against the debtor’s property. Asking a client to sign such a judgment is an implicit threat, but an Amish person will rarely execute such a note or testify at enforcement hearings.

  In other situations, Amish businessmen have asked district magistrates to initiate bad debt collections. The Amish person is named as plaintiff, but this is not publicized. If defendants want to defend themselves at a public hearing, the Amish rarely appear but will ask their attorneys to resolve it in private. Careful not to file an actual lawsuit, some businessmen use the services of attorneys to resolve disputes quietly, out of the public limelight. The growing involvement in business will surely increase the tension between the gentleness of Gelassenheit and the brash realities of the marketplace.

  GOVERNMENT TIES

  The Amish are law-abiding citizens. Church leaders strongly encourage members to obey civil laws. Yet when civil law and religious conscience collide, the Amish are not afraid to “take a stand” and call on their members to “obey God rather than men.” Although they support civil government, they always keep a healthy distance from it. Self-reliance, community autonomy, and the church’s responsibility for the welfare of its members are persistent themes in Amish teaching that have made them wary of government.2

  The Amish view of civil government is ambiguous. On the one hand, they believe the Bible teaches that government is ordained by God. On the other hand, the government epitomizes worldly culture, for it is the formal and legal apparatus of an unregenerate world. The European persecutors of the Amish were often government officials. Government embodies the force of law. When push comes to shove, governments engage in warfare and use capital punishment and raw coercion to impose their will. These methods violate the way of Jesus and the gentle spirit of Gelassenheit. Moreover, because the Amish church regulates much of the conduct of its members, it has little need for external control.

  The Amish have a long history of caring for their own members and thus have little use for Medicaid, Medicare, public welfare programs, and other forms of public subsidy. Tapping into federal programs would, in the long run, erode the base of mutual aid and drain away precious social capital. Such an erosion would weaken the influence of the church. The Amish are adamantly opposed to government “handouts.” Why, they ask, should they be forced to participate in government welfare programs such as Social Security and Medicare when they have cared for their own people for three centuries—long before such programs were ever envisioned by politicians?

  Contrary to popular misconceptions, the Amish do pay their taxes. They believe the Bible teaches Christians to pay taxes and respect government. They pay state and federal income taxes, county taxes, sales taxes, real estate transfer taxes, and local school taxes. In fact, they pay school taxes twice—for Amish schools as well as public ones. Of course, they pay few gasoline taxes. The only taxes from which they are exempt are Social Security and Worker’s Compensation.3

  With the exception of serving on local school boards, the church has forbidden holding public office for several reasons. First, running for office is viewed as self-serving and arrogant, out of sync with the meek spirit of Gelassenheit. Second, holding government office means participating in the state, the most worldly of organizations—an embarrassing violation of the principle of separation from the world. Finally, a public official might need to use legal force to settle public disputes, violating the biblical admonition to not resist evil. In short, seeking, holding, and promoting political office simply contradicts a host of Amish values.

  Voting is considered an individual matter in Amish society. Amish turnout is typically low.

  The Amish attitude toward voting is more tolerant. The church, surprisingly, leaves voting up to individual choice. Those who vote tend to be younger businessmen with an interest in community affairs. The Amish are more likely to cast a ballot in local elections than in national ones. In the 2000 presidential election, the chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Committee was urging the Amish to vote, knowing they would likely vote Republican. Interestingly, the Republican chairman was the great-grandson of an Amish leader involved in an Amish boycott of the East Lampeter School Consolidation in 1937, described in Chapter 7. Some forty years later, the offspring of this leader was hoping the Amish would help to carry Pennsylvania for George W. Bush.4

  It is safe to assume that the Amish voting rate is much lower than the national average. One minister said that he stopped voting after he was ordained to the ministry. Indeed, the Amish National Steering Committee discouraged both voting and jury duty, concluding that “if we are concerned in this line, let us turn to God in prayer that his will be done.”5 While voting has been a matter of individual choice, serving on juries is strongly discouraged.

  The Amish church strictly forbids participation in military servic
e. In fact, entering military service brings excommunication. In the Amish view, Jesus’ command to love one’s enemies and not to resist evil are incompatible with being a soldier. The purposes and techniques of military service violate the very essence of Gelassenheit; obedience to biblical teaching must always transcend civil duty.

  During World War II, many Amish conscientious objectors received agricultural deferments and continued to work on the family farm.6 As the draft continued into the 1960s, some who were ineligible for farm deferments contributed two years of alternative service in public hospitals. However, working in a worldly, often urban environment created serious problems. Explained an Amish spokesman, “Many boys went with good intentions, but having so much idle time they became involved with amusements, with the nurses, or in other ways were led astray.”7 When their service was finished, many no longer wanted to come home, nor could they join the church if they had married a wife of a different faith. To alleviate this, the Amish negotiated an agreement with the Selective Service. Those ineligible for deferments at home could be assigned to farms under the supervision of the Amish National Steering Committee. In fact, it was this problem that led to the creation of the committee in 1966. The end of the draft in 1973 eliminated the problem of military service. Amish leaders continue to stay in contact with Selective Service officials in the hope that, if national conscription ever returns, they will once again be able to find alternative assignments. The church encourages young men to register with the Selective Service on their eighteenth birthday.