The Amish

by Donald B. Kraybill

  Finally, leaders—especially bishops with strong personalities—can sow seeds of discord if they do not yield to fellow leaders or to members of their own Gmay. Some Amish people note that a doctrinal, technological, or dress issue that appears pivotal in a controversy may be a smokescreen for deeper issues—personality conflicts, power struggles, or quarreling of one kind or another among leaders.

  Despite the five factors that sometimes enable division, basic Amish religious and cultural values also restrain it. Patience, yielding to others, and submitting to churchly authority and tradition—not schism—are by far the more typical mode of dealing with conflict. Although formally autonomous, church districts frequently defer to one another, trying to forestall change so as not to offend the sensibilities of more conservative leaders, members, or neighboring districts. Nevertheless, schism has been a part of the Amish experience.

  Two divisions a half century apart produced two new affiliations that have become opposite poles on the Amish continuum in North America. The Swartzentruber Amish are the most conservative affiliation, and the New Orders are the most liberal. These two wingtips of the Amish world—Swartzentrubers and New Orders—represent 7 percent and 3 percent respectively, leaving the vast number of Amish people in the middle.

  Swartzentruber Amish

  The Swartzentruber Amish coalesced in 1913 in eastern Ohio around a particular interpretation of church discipline. Although shunning ex-members remained a common Amish commitment, the manner in which it was carried out had come to vary. Traditionally, anyone who was excommunicated was shunned until he or she repented. For those who refused to recant, shunning was lifelong. This traditional view was known as streng Meidung, or “strict shunning.”

  By 1900, however, many midwestern Old Orders were drawing a distinction between how they would shun members excommunicated for defecting to related Anabaptist churches and how they would shun those excommunicated for major sins or persistent disobedience. In either case, the ex-member had reneged on his or her baptismal vow, but some leaders thought that quietly leaving the Amish faith for a conservative Mennonite church was a less serious matter and that shunning in such situations could cease if the person became a faithful member of another Anabaptist group. When most leaders in Holmes County, Ohio, signaled their desire to relax strict shunning along these lines, Bishop Samuel E. Yoder (1872–1932) balked. By 1917 Yoder’s church district, which upheld strict shunning no matter what the offense, had broken fellowship with neighboring Amish congregations. A group of Amish mediators from Indiana and Illinois were unable to mend the breach. The disagreement over shunning may well have provoked the division, but historical accounts point to other factors that played a key role.15

  Beyond retaining strict shunning, the new Swartzentruber group staunchly refused to alter the traditional Ordnung in any way and soon became known for resisting innovation in household technology, farming practices, dress customs, and worship ritual. This traditional tribe eventually launched daughter settlements in Ohio, Tennessee, and New York; by 2012, it had spread to thirteen states and Ontario.

  New Order Amish

  The New Orders also emerged in Holmes County, though nearly fifty years after the birth of the Swartzentrubers. The roots of this movement go back to the late 1940s and 1950s. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Amish men who were drafted typically declared themselves conscientious objectors and, in lieu of military service, served in Civilian Public Service work camps (during World War II) or as orderlies and maintenance staff in public hospitals and mental institutions, at minimum wage.16 These experiences exposed them to the outside world and in some cases led them to question their religious tradition. Simultaneously, Mennonites and other Protestant revivalists were active in Holmes County and publicly questioned whether Amish church regulations (Ordnung) were a stumbling block to receiving divine salvation. The confluence of these factors birthed the so-called Amish mission movement (discussed in chapter 3) and caused unrest within Amish ranks and an exodus to churches that were more evangelical.

  A number of Amish lay members and a few ministers sympathized with those who were attracted to evangelical religious language and experience but did not want to discard basic Amish beliefs or practices such as horse-drawn transportation, which they saw as a useful discipline for maintaining a simple Christian lifestyle. They began gathering for evening Bible study, and they organized separate youth meetings for their children as an alternative to the sometimes-rowdy Amish youth activities of the time, which could include alcohol consumption and sexual indiscretion.17

  These developments fomented discontent within the Holmes County settlement, both because detractors claimed the reformers exhibited a “holier-than-thou” attitude and also because the settlement was still unsettled from the recent exodus of members spurred by the midcentury mission movement. Cautious voices feared that the cycle would repeat itself. Tensions were such that in 1963, and again in 1965, Holmes County church leaders invited a group of Amish bishops from other states to resolve the differences, but to no avail. In 1966, fellowship between the Old Order church and the reformers broke down, and the Old Orders dubbed them New Order Amish. Forty-five years later, one New Order minister still regrets the label, “because we prefer the name Amish Brotherhood.”

  By 2012 the New Order movement included four subgroups in some seventy districts in twelve states. One of these subgroups allows public utility electricity in homes and businesses. Generally, New Orders have sought to maintain aspects of plain dress, speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and use horse-drawn transportation. However, they all place more weight on the importance of doctrinal belief, personal religious experience, and a more analytical understanding of Christian faith alongside the Ordnung of their church.

  Having largely frozen technological change in 1917, the Swartzentrubers stand in stark contrast to the New Orders. New Order activities, such as Sunday school, youth group Bible studies, and the requirement that teens must be baptized before being allowed to date, as well as conveniences such as tractors in the field, telephones in the home, and airplane travel are all categorically rejected by the Swartzentrubers.

  Symbolic Separators

  Amish groups, like all human groups, erect signs that set themselves apart from each other. “We don’t have ponies or peacocks,” said one woman, noting two distinctions between her conservative church and more liberal ones. The following examples illustrate how the symbolic separators of dress and buggies mark the identities of affiliations.

  Clothing

  A woman’s head covering—the closely fitted cap worn almost all the time—announces its wearer’s affiliation, because the size, style, and number of pleats vary by group. Most Amish women wear bonnets over their coverings in public. The vast majority wear black bonnets, but the Byler Amish women wear brown bonnets. Swartzentruber women wear scarves over their coverings and under their bonnets, and women in the Nebraska Amish affiliation wear large wide-brimmed, flat-crowned straw hats instead of bonnets.

  In change-minded groups, mothers may dress their school-age boys in shirts of various colors, young women have some choice of apron style, and adult women may select various fabrics and colors for their dresses. More conservative communities severely restrict the colors and style of clothing for men and women of all ages.

  The style and size of men’s hats, the color of their trousers, the width of their suspenders, and the cut of their hair reveal their affiliation—and its degree of traditionalism. Even footwear marks church ties. While some groups permit dark-colored sneakers, more conservative ones insist on black leather shoes, with one requiring that all shoes have distinct heels.18 The shirt style—pullover or buttoned—and the number of suspenders function like team uniforms in the sense that they announce the affiliation of the members. Although most men wear two suspenders, Renno Amish men in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, wear only one. And in a few affiliations the men simply button their trousers, using neither belts nor suspend
ers, as a mark of traditionalism. Nebraska Amish men wear white shirts for everyday activities, but in more progressive groups, men have a greater selection of colors for their shirts.

  Buggies

  Carriages also signify an affiliation’s identity. The style, color, and accessories turn buggies into mobile billboards for their specific tribe. In addition, the design of the buggy body, the size and location of windows and doors, and the type of door (sliding doors or roll-up curtains), lights, brakes, dashboards, sun visors, turn signals, wheel type (steel-banded or rubber-banded), and accessories vary from one group to another.

  Several tribes have black-topped buggies, but their distinct body designs, doors, and windows distinguish them from one another. Although members of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania–based affiliation live in several states, they all drive the gray, Lancaster-style buggy, though sometimes with subtle variation in amenities. Most of the Swiss Amish scattered across several states ride in buggies that have no tops or other enclosures.19 Riders sit in the open and shield themselves from rain and snow with large umbrellas—though some Swiss districts allow parents to create small enclosures, called “kid boxes,” to protect young children from inclement weather.20

  Many affiliations place flashing red lights on the backs of their carriages to warn surrounding traffic. The Delaware Amish, however, affix large strobe lights on the tops of their buggies. Swartzentruber carriages, in contrast, sport few elements of self-protection and do not even display the bright orange slow-moving-vehicle triangle that most other Amish buggies bear.21 The carriages of the Swartzentruber and Nebraska tribes carry a kerosene lantern instead of electric lights for nighttime visibility. Even here, there is some difference in practice: one Swartzentruber subgroup’s members place lanterns on each side of their buggies, while members of another faction hang only one light at the back of the left side of the buggy.

  Groups that are more liberal outfit their buggies with accessories that include LED lights, turn signals, axle-driven alternators to charge batteries, hydraulic brakes, windshield wipers, frost-free windows, clocks, speedometers, and various colors of upholstery. One man confided that he has a battery-powered GPS in his buggy “in case my horse gets lost!” These upscale buggies stand in stark contrast to the roofless Swiss and one-lantern Swartzentruber vehicles.

  Although these symbolic separators perform important social functions by marking boundaries and honing identities, some Amish people, especially in liberal groups, question their spiritual value. “I have been taught that we need standards, fences or guard rails to keep our sheep in,” said one man. “But why do we all have different kinds of fences or guard rails? … Didn’t God give us the laws which govern how to build the strongest fences?”22

  The Ties That Break and Bind

  The boundaries between affiliations vary somewhat. Some boundaries are porous, and others are more like stone walls. Some subgroups within affiliations maintain warm fraternal relations with one another, while others do not. Amish people speak about diening with another group, as in “we dien with the Troyer people.” The German word Diener is the term used for a minister. It means “servant,” so to dien with a group means that ministers from both affiliations are welcome to preach (serve) in each other’s Sunday services because the two groups are “in fellowship” and have a spiritual affinity that allows them to collaborate on some level.23

  Ordained leaders of groups that are in fellowship greet one another with a handshake and kiss when they meet, according to admonitions in the New Testament (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20). The kiss is a visible symbol of an ecclesial bond between two affiliations. In addition, tribes that are in fellowship with one another may look favorably on intermarriage among their young people, and bishops may attend or witness ordinations in one another’s congregations. Leaders may also be called in to help mediate disputes in the other affiliation.

  There is no template that prescribes who diens with whom. Typically, groups in fellowship have something in common that draws them together—similar views of shunning, salvation, acceptable household technology, or some other issue. Sometimes the links of affinity are long-standing ones, rooted in church polity. For example, historically, the Lancaster Amish, despite being among the most technologically progressive affiliations, dien with the much more traditional Andy Weaver group, which formed in Ohio in 1955. The common bond between the two groups is their shared commitment to strict shunning, which trumps their sharp differences in the use of technology.24 Not all of the Lancaster districts, however, dien with the Andy Weavers. Although most affiliations share a common understanding of whom they do and do not dien with, final authority to tie or cut bonds of fellowship and to extend or retract invitations to clergy from other groups rests with the local district’s ministers. Asked how his church determines who it diens with, a Swiss minister responded, “I don’t really know. … We would fellowship with a group that keeps the Amish ways … with those that have the same ‘core values’ and keep the Bann.”

  The fellowship relationships are usually symmetrical, but not always. On some occasions a higher congregation will permit a minister from a more conservative group to preach in its church services even though the conservative group would likely not reciprocate. Occasionally, reciprocity happens by mistake. In one case, a minister from an out-of-state New Order church accompanied family members to the funeral of a relative in a much more traditional affiliation. To his surprise, he was asked to preach the funeral sermon. The local ministers knew that the visiting minister was ordained but were not aware that he was from a New Order church. When they discovered it after the funeral, they were annoyed, believing that he should have declared his affiliation and declined to preach out of respect for their more traditional Ordnung. A breach of fellowship can feel especially harsh if a schism occurs within an affiliation and the two new factions break fraternal ties. Such splinters divide families and neighbors, which can create many awkward encounters at funerals, family reunions, and other events.

  As evidenced in the barn-raising vignette at the opening of the chapter, members of groups that do not fellowship together may labor together in a neighborly fashion, employ one another in business, and participate in public events such as auctions. The boundaries and rituals of religious distinction usually become more visible in the context of formal church activities.

  Table 8.2. Growth of Amish Church Districts in Selected Affiliations, 1991–2010

  Different Rates of Growth

  Apart from their different symbolic separators and variation in day-to-day practice, the growth rate of affiliations also varies dramatically, as shown in table 8.2. The growth of church districts in twelve selected affiliations, tracked over a twenty-year period, reveals their rate of expansion. Although the number of districts is not an exact yardstick of population growth, it serves as a proxy—assuming that the number of members per district in each group remained roughly constant from 1991 to 2010.25

  Although the total number of Amish districts in America increased by 103 percent in the two decades, the growth of the twelve selected groups varied from 53 percent to 171 percent, demonstrating dramatic fluctuations from tribe to tribe. The increase of Swartzentruber districts, for example, outpaced that of New Orders by threefold. What is striking in table 8.2 is that the most traditional, sectarian affiliations (Swartzentruber; Adams County Swiss) are growing much more rapidly than their liberal-minded cousins (Holmes Old Order; Arthur; New Order). Several factors may help to explain these different rates. As we show in chapter 9, the most traditional groups have larger families and fewer defections. These groups draw the sharpest lines of separation from the larger world and curb interaction with outsiders. One way they increase separation is by living in remote rural areas with few urban temptations and less exposure to Amish communities that are more assimilated. Furthermore, the most conservative affiliations customarily practice strict shunning, which may deter members from defecting. In any event, the uneven growth rates, if
constant over time, suggest that in coming years the most traditional groups will increase their share of the Amish pie.

  The expanding geographical and cultural diversity of the Amish in America poses a fundamental question: What is the social glue—the secret of their sense of solidarity—that bonds Amish people together despite their vast variety? The answer lies in an interplay of internal and external factors that we explore in chapter 10. Before doing that, however, we trace the factors that are producing their population growth.

  CHAPTER 9

  POPULATION PATTERNS

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  What thirty-four-year-old David Rapinz missed the most when he joined the Amish in Geauga County, Ohio, was his pilot’s license. Giving that up was harder than giving up his TV and car. He tested the Amish waters for four years before kneeling for baptism in 2000. “It was the thing I needed to do in my life,” he said. “It’s not for everybody. … It’s a complete lifestyle change … [but] that’s what I wanted to do. [Until now] I didn’t have a church or anything like that.” Rapinz married an Amish woman with whom he fell in love before he was baptized. He works as a senior advisor at H&R Block, and when he is at the office, he uses a phone, computer, and e-mail account that are owned by his employer.