The Amish

by Donald B. Kraybill

  A long list of things are considered neutral, meaning that they have little or no moral content or consequence and thus are acceptable. For example, the Amish are not reluctant to own and use eating utensils, soap, spices, shovels, flashlights, and pocket knives. Eating pizza, hunting deer, owning private property, buying and selling with outsiders, and riding on public buses also lie in this amoral territory.2

  The location of a physical item or activity may determine whether it is considered morally acceptable or dangerous. Ornamental Christmas trees have no intrinsic moral value, but they are considered out of place in an Amish home. A minister may speak English in a local restaurant, but preaching in English during a church service would be out of order. Although footwear might not be regulated during the work week, wearing athletic shoes to church would be offensive. Telephones, which some groups accept in the office of a business, are prohibited inside schools.

  The moral geography of Amish life varies by affiliation and local congregation. Moral objects that are accepted by some groups and strictly forbidden by others include attending a professional baseball game, serving as a volunteer firefighter, hiring a truck for business, working for a non-Amish employer, smoking tobacco, affixing LED lights to a carriage, and owning a propane refrigerator, cell phone, bicycle, power lawn mower, or chainsaw.

  The Ordnung: An Oral Map

  Navigating the moral terrain of Amish culture requires a map—in fact, two of them: Scripture and the Ordnung. One member explained that the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:2–17) and Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) “are especially important scriptures” because they “tell us how we should live.” Scripture commands honoring parents, loving enemies, and telling the truth. In addition, it clearly states that God forbids murder, adultery, divorce, fornication, hate, and anger.

  The Ordnung provides guidance on those issues that Scripture does not clearly or directly address.3 Containing prescriptions (what one should do) and proscriptions (what one should not do), this oral guidebook applies biblical principles—especially separation from the world—to everyday issues ranging from education to transportation, from dress to technology. For example, it prescribes how men and women should wear their hair and their general style of dress. It also proscribes owning a television or a car.

  The Ordnung regulates private, public, and ceremonial life by oral tradition rather than by written rules.4 “The people just know it, that’s all,” said one member. Rather than a packet of rules to memorize, it is the “understood” set of expectations for behavior. Outsiders may perceive it as a list of rules, but the Ordnung is organic, malleable, dynamic, and subject to varied interpretation by leaders. Because it is unwritten, it privileges the memory of older people.

  Two Layers

  The Ordnung has two layers: implicit and explicit. The implicit, below-the-surface layer holds the wisdom of accumulated tradition. Old customs provide moral guidance and become the taken-for-granted way of “our people.” “It’s just the way we do things,” said an Amish man. The deeply entrenched practices governed by the implicit Ordnung do not need debate; they are simply assumed as the Amish way. Examples include not wearing jewelry, men growing beards and shaving their upper lip, traveling by horse and carriage, meeting in homes for worship, and singing without instrumental accompaniment. These practices are fairly stable and need little verbal reinforcement. One woman said, “We’re not supposed to wear makeup, but it’s something the bishops don’t even need to mention. I don’t even think they know about makeup. They wouldn’t really know how to talk about it.” Common sense, in the Amish world, dictates that working as a bartender or selling cars so obviously violates religious principles that no reminders are needed.

  By contrast, the explicit layer of the Ordnung is discussed in conversations, members’ meetings, and council meetings. It addresses emergent issues (e.g., the use of cell phones and computers), challenges to long-standing taboos, leisure activities, and other current concerns. As one Amish man said, the explicit Ordnung speaks to “the issues we must face when the taken-for-granted is no longer taken for granted!” As changes unfold in the larger society, the church must grapple with them. Technological innovations such as calculators and embryo transplants in dairy cows may be permitted or forbidden, depending on the discernment of the local district. Controversial issues—installing phones in shops or using rototillers in gardens—may be accepted by default in some Gmays and never even considered by others. In still others, such issues may fester for years. In the end, the explicit aspects of the Ordnung are ratified by the members of each local district and enforced by its leaders.

  Following the Map

  In the same way that all children learn the rules of grammar by listening and speaking, Amish youth absorb the Ordnung—the grammar of Amish life—as they observe adults and hear them talk. The Ordnung becomes the taken-for-granted reality—“the way things are”—in the child’s mind. In the same way that non-Amish children learn that women, rather than men, wear lipstick and shave their legs, so Amish children learn the expectations of behaving “Amish.” In other words, to a child growing up in the world of the Ordnung, wearing a hat or apron wherever one goes is the normal thing to do. The same goes for occupations. For example, asked whether an Amish person could be a real estate agent, a member of a conservative group replied, “Well, it’s just unheard of. A child wouldn’t even think of it.”

  Compliance with the Ordnung varies by role, ritual, and circumstance. The higher one’s level of authority, the more conservative the expectations. Because ministers and their families are expected to exemplify compliance, they are generally held to stiffer standards. After a man is ordained, he will grow his beard fuller and longer, wear a wider-brimmed hat, and drive a more traditional buggy. His wife will wear more conservative shoes, a larger head covering with wider strings, and a plainer-cut dress. And the couple’s children will also feel the social squeeze to comply more fully with Ordnung standards.

  For lay members, the regulations are a bit softer and subject to interpretation by local leaders. Single members and couples without children are granted more leniency than parents, who must model exemplary behavior to their children. Although children are immersed in the Ordnung, it is not until baptism that they make a personal vow to uphold it for life. Thus, even though most unbaptized youth comply, they cannot be held accountable to rules they have not promised to obey. Adults who are traveling or living away from home for a few weeks may enjoy more freedom simply because they are beyond the gaze of others in their community. In general, compliance with dress regulations rises at ritual gatherings—church services, council services, ordinations, and especially communion services.

  Depending on the community, exceptions may be granted to the elderly and those with disabilities or special health problems; for example, the community may allow those needing to operate home medical equipment access to 120-volt electricity from a portable generator or the public grid. Although self-propelled riding lawn mowers are forbidden in most communities, some do permit electric wheelchairs and scooters for the elderly or disabled. Members working for a non-Amish employer or visiting in an English home may watch television or use a computer, something they otherwise would not do.

  Some bishops, either by personal disposition or by local tradition, are more lenient than others in their enforcement of the Ordnung. And of course every congregation has some members who are more devout than others. Those who conform to key visible markers such as dress standards will likely enjoy some “breathing space” in which to maneuver within other regulations.

  The moral guidelines may change as the normative order flexes with new issues and new leaders. Most Gmays are reluctant to revise practices long ingrained in the Ordnung, and because changing the Ordnung is so difficult, Amish people are slow to outlaw things at first sight. If a new practice—for example, the use of LED lights, barbecue grills, or trampolines—is seen as harmless, it may drift into use with little ruckus.


  At the same time, however, the acceptance of a new practice by a progressive group may derail its use by a lower community that wants to distinguish itself from the “worldly practices” of the higher group. One low affiliation, for example, rejected LED flashlights to avoid the path of a more liberal group that had adopted them. Sometimes, rather than overturn old regulations, members devise ingenious ways to bypass them. Traditional groups in upstate New York, when faced with state milk regulations requiring refrigerated bulk tanks, refused to use electricity on their own properties and instead constructed electrified community milk cooling stations on rented, non-Amish land.

  The Ordnung may seem like stuffy legalism even to some Amish people, but for most it is a sacred order that unites the church and separates it from worldly society. One Amish leader said, “A church without Ordnung is just confusion!” An Ordnung is a map that guides members and thus creates order, predictability, clarity of boundaries, and unity in the community. “A respected Ordnung generates peace, love, contentment, equality, and unity,” said one minister. “It creates a desire for togetherness and fellowship. It binds marriages; it strengthens family ties to live together, to work together, to worship together, and to commune secluded from the world.”5 For the Amish, bending to the Ordnung, the community’s collective wisdom, brings divine blessing and the hope of eternal life.

  The customs, regulations, and standards of the Ordnung translate the values of Gelassenheit—humility, simplicity, and obedience—into life-shaping traditions. Most importantly, the Ordnung forges identity by articulating the essence of the word Amish. Some members may not know the reason for a particular practice because its legitimacy lies not in its original purpose but in its entwinement with Amish identity.

  “Our identity, what holds us together,” said an older member, “is based on three things: steel wheels [no cars], German, and plain clothing.” Saloma Miller Furlong notes some additional practices that shaped her Amish identity: “No telephones. No electricity. Getting spanked for disobeying my parents. Working hard. Good cooking and baking. Gardening. Going barefoot in the summer. No hugging or kissing [in public]. Quiet prayer before and after meals. Washing clothes with a gasoline-powered wringer washer. No financial freedom until age 21.”6 The elder’s trilogy of Amish cultural habits—language, dress, and horse-drawn transportation—anchors Amish identity both within the community and beyond. We examine each in turn.

  A Trilingual People

  Language constructs images of reality in our consciousness and defines the “way things are.” It unites those who speak a common tongue and separates them from those who do not. Amish people use three different languages. They speak a German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch; they speak, write, and read English; and they read an older form of German that is archaic in German-speaking Europe.7 They shift from one language to another depending on the mode (speaking, writing, and reading), their linguistic skills, and the cultural context. The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is spoken among fellow Amish, but speakers switch to English when conversing with outsiders. While most Amish are able to understand German when reading the Bible and other religious texts, they read and write mainly in English.8

  Pennsylvania Dutch

  Not standardized and generally unwritten, Pennsylvania Dutch is the primary oral language for all Amish except for a small minority of so-called Swiss Amish who speak a form of Bernese Swiss German.9 The two dialects are so different that when Swiss German speakers and Pennsylvania Dutch speakers meet, they generally switch to English. “It’s like Spanish to us when they talk Swiss so fast to each other. We don’t have a clue what they are saying,” explained a Pennsylvania Dutch–speaking man from northern Indiana.

  Pennsylvania Dutch is not derived from the Dutch language of the Netherlands but is rather a German dialect that evolved in the United States among German-speaking immigrants from the upper Rhine Valley of Germany who settled in southeastern Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century. Only a few hundred of these immigrants were Amish, but by the end of the twentieth century, most of the non-Amish speakers of the dialect had shifted to English, and Pennsylvania Dutch became primarily an Amish and Old Order Mennonite mode of speech.10 The dialect resembles those spoken in the Palatinate region of Germany, near the city of Mannheim. Linguists have long identified regional variations and speech islands within the dialect as it is spoken by the Amish across North America. Speakers occasionally sprinkle English words—such as kite, pencil, pacemaker, tractor, refrigerator, and computer—into their sentences. About 15 percent or less of the Pennsylvania Dutch vocabulary is English-derived, and its core grammatical structures remain Palatine German.11

  Pennsylvania Dutch is the language of family, friendship, play, and intimacy. Most children live in the world of the dialect until they attend school. Although they learn to read, write, and speak English in school, the dialect prevails in friendly banter on many school playgrounds. Most importantly, Pennsylvania Dutch is the language of identity and ethnicity that binds Amish people to a particular community and sets them apart from the English-based, mainstream society.

  English

  English is the linguistic currency with outsiders. The competence of Amish people to speak, write, and read English varies by training, occupation, intelligence, and frequency of interaction with non-Amish people. Many business owners, for example, develop an extensive English vocabulary related to their line of work. They talk about marketing strategies and use legal terminology with ease. But they may stumble when trying to communicate religious ideas in English, underscoring the importance of the dialect in creating and perpetuating a distinctive worldview.

  English is also the default language for writing to other Amish people, whether leaving a note on the kitchen table, sending a sympathy card, or penning a letter for an Amish publication. Some writers occasionally sprinkle German or dialect phrases into their English prose. When writing religious documents, however, leaders typically use German with a smattering of dialect words.

  Reading is yet a bit different. Most printed materials—mainstream newspapers, regional newsletters, periodicals, cookbooks, history, and inspirational books—are read in English. Children use English textbooks in Amish schools. Yet key religious documents, including the Bible, some historical texts, prayers, and hymns, are typically read in German. Almost nothing is read in the dialect.

  The number of English publications produced and consumed by Amish communities has skyrocketed since 1990. These include weekly newspapers, newsletters, other periodicals, songbooks, cookbooks, devotional books, historical accounts, family histories, and memoirs. Many Amish subscribe to their local daily newspaper and to Reader’s Digest, as well as to other popular magazines related to their work and hobbies. The abundance of these materials makes English the default literary language because they far outstrip publications written and read in German.

  Standard German

  If the dialect is the mother tongue and English is the trade language, then old German is the voice of spirituality. The German in Amish religious books and documents reflects the sixteenth-century style of early modern German as the language was becoming standardized for the first time through the influence of Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. Schools teach students to read German in old fraktur script so they can read religious texts. Scripture verses, church regulations, religious booklets, and sayings of respected leaders are usually printed in German. A manual for funerals in one settlement uses English to describe how to prepare funeral meals but shifts to German to delineate the order of service and the suggested hymns.12 Nevertheless, although the Bible, the Ausbund, prayer books, and older religious materials are typically read in German, the ability to speak that language varies greatly.

  Both the dialect and German provide a tangible connection to Amish heritage, but German has the higher sacred status. Nonetheless, a few lay members would prefer if the prayers and hymns in church services were translated into either English or
Pennsylvania Dutch because, in the words of one, “too many young people just don’t know what they’re singing or what the prayers mean.” In more conservative communities, however, this is not a problem because their people have less exposure to the English-speaking world.

  Translations

  Because some people have difficulty understanding German, a growing number of religious publications have parallel columns of German and English on the same page. Many households have a Bible in which Luther’s German translation appears alongside the English of King James.

  Several Amish publishers have produced English translations of religious materials. In the 1960s, Pathway Publishers printed A Devoted Christian’s Prayer Book (with selected prayers from Die Ernsthafte Christenpflicht), as well as translations of the Dordrecht Confession and “Rules of a Godly Life.” In Meiner Jugend, a similar compilation published for youth in 2000, included a new English translation of religious doctrines as well as baptismal and marriage vows. The editor explained that the English translation appears beside the German, not to “replace or supplant the German. Quite the opposite. The English version should be used … to clarify the meaning of the German.”13

  An ambitious translation project to present German and English side by side was managed and published in 2000 (and revised in 2008) by an Indiana Amish woman, Mary M. Miller. Our Heritage, Hope, and Faith is a 570-page compendium of prayers, songs, and material related to religious ceremonies that encompasses the core of Amish spirituality. Miller compiled it because, she says, “We are not as much at home in the German language as our forefathers were. Therefore it takes more of an effort, yes, a real dedication, to keep the true spirit of these songs, prayers, and our German heritage alive. And to do this we must understand what they are saying.”14