Why do the Amish fear technology? If left untamed, certain technologies, they worry, will harm their communities by disrupting traditions and bringing foreign values through mass media.”  — Donald B. Kraybill.

Many people affiliate with a particular faith, but very few people – at least people in America – live literally by their religious beliefs. We pick and choose what we wish to accept and discard the rest, usually without consequence.

The result is that many young and even older worshippers in America – people like me – come to see their religions as hypocritical, opportunistic, greedy, or out of touch. The “English” religious institutions, as the Amish call them,  are mostly in decline; a religion that demands little of its followers seems to weaken and fade over time.

Not so of the Amish, whose membership grows and whose ties to their faith deepen grow ever more vibrant.

The fascination of my new Amish neighbors, the Millers,  is that they live their faith quite literally and all day. No shortcuts or exceptions.

They don’t preach to others, proselytize, or recruit members.

They are very aware that I am not a member of their church, but they never show it or seem to judge me for it, if they care at all.

I am different from them, it doesn’t seem to matter. But as I have learned since writing about them,  and all during 2020, being different matters a great deal to many people.

I have talked to them and visited them on and off for several weeks now, and I have never seen them rationalize, apologize, or waver from practicing the founding beliefs of their faith.

Most of us wink all the time at the teachings of faith – we take a drink, are unfaithful, treat people cruelly, forget to care for the needy and the vulnerable. The Amish are the real deal.

I have never witnessed such commitment from people I have come to love and respect, so as a result, they fascinate me, and I want to learn more about them, from their lives, which I can see, and their history, which I can read.

The Millers’ lives are full of sacrifice and grinding work, which they accept without complaint. I see young children work at their chores without complaint or hesitation. They don’t need to be cajoled or bullied into working, they just do it.

The Amish are not saints or perfect; they are good and honest and deeply religious people. Romanticizing people is not the same as understanding them. They are human beings, but their spirituality seems unique to me.

Our country is up to its neck in divisive politics; our people are content to put labels on themselves and others and judge each other by political faith, not spiritual faith or morality.

I have never heard the Amish I know say a harsh, sneering, or nasty word about anyone. There isn’t a day I don’t get messages from people who sneer, are nasty, or cruel. How does that happen?

To understand the Amish better, I’ve begun reading about them as well as visiting them and talking with them – I have a stack of books by Donald Kraybil Simply Amish, John Hofstetter Amish Society, The Amish, and currently, James A. Cates,  a clinical psychologist based in Indiana and author of Serpent in the Garden: Amish Sexuality, penetrating and even-handed look at how spiritually shapes sexuality and culture in Amish communities.

I’ve already got a small Amish library, desecrated by post-its, turned pages, even tissue paper as a bookmark.

Although Cates’s subject matter is the narrowest of these books, his feel for Amish society and culture is broad and very much a part of his book. I’m learning a lot from it.

In Serpent In The Garden, he lists ten religious beliefs that focus on the spiritual foundation of the Amish social structure. They are worth sharing.

Among the many things about the Amish that fascinate me is their indifference to defending or explaining themselves – no Op-Ed pieces, social media arguments, self-promoting Facebook posts, no self-pity, public grieving or lament,  no marketing campaigns, planted Internet tories,  interviews with Oprah, lobbyists in Washington.

Mostly, we learn about them from sensitive and mostly curious and empathetic scholars. Everything we know about them seems to come from outsiders and from what we can see for ourselves. I’m fortunate to have a remarkable Amish family living just down the road.

I read and re-read Cates 10 primary religious beliefs that shape the Amish,  almost all of them them in one way or another almost every day in my neighbor’s lives.

1. We are pilgrims and strangers on a heavenward journey. The Amish use biblical terms to describe their lives. First, “this world” is not their home; their hope lies in a timeless existence in the presence of God. They are not guaranteed an afterlife for being faithful; that is up to God. In their eyes, they are pilgrims traveling through a strange world.
2. We are separate and peculiar people. Because they are transients, they heed the biblical admonitions to “love not the world, neither the things of the world.”
3. God is ominpotent and omnipresent. His eye is quite literally on the sparrow. What outsiders might interpret as passivity or fatalism is, in the mind of the devout Amish church member, unshakeable faith in the infallible wisdom and unfailing presence of God.
4. .To be humble is to model one’s life after Jesus. As recorded in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, his life was one of material modesty, personal deference, and an emphasis on the welfare of others. Unlike many contemporary American Christians, the faithful Amish strive to attain this humility in their daily lives. (A lot of politicians invoke Jesus all the time, I can’t name many who wish to live just like him.)
5. Assurance of salvation is pride. At best, one can hope for an eternity with God. They do not believe they are assured of salvation, which they see as arrogance; they believe in Jesus as their savior and hope for the best. No guarantees
6. Amish practice an adult believer’s baptism. Beginning at age 16, young adults (as they are defined at that age) begin the process of deciding if they will join the Amish. Approximately 85 percent do so. Baptism is the symbolic entry into the church and requires only a confession of faith and a humble promise to comply with the Ordnung, the rules of the faith, so long as physical life endures. The Amish are not a cult, people are free to leave, but the sacrifice is enormous.
7. Significant sins require confession.  Confession can be voluntary, a decision to make a public declaration of a personal struggle (as in Quakerism), or guilty behavior that torments the member. The clergy can also require confession in response to sins uncovered by another.
8. Church Discipline can lead to ex-communication or shunning. In cases where a member is not sufficient contrite, refuses to confess, or has committed a grievous sin, the Church can choose to excommunicate that person. The Ordnung requires that an excommunicated member be shunned to remind others of the broken baptism vow to God and the community.
9.  Closed communion is celebrated in spring and fall.  Members of the Gmay, (twenty-five to thirty-five families compromising the local church district) must be in harmony before the communion proceeds.
10. The Amish are a patriarchal society.  Bishops, ministers, and deacons hold authority within the local congregations where they reside, and husbands/fathers hold authority within the family. Older male siblings have authority over younger siblings.  (To me, this evokes the structure of the Catholic Church and Orthodox Judaism, both ruled by men, and some elements of Evangelical Christianity.)

As I get closer to the Amish families and community organizing around me, I want to understand them in order to be a good friend and good neighbor and also,  because they touch me and fascinate me. I am drawn to their determination and success at learning to live their own peculiar and independent life.

I am mesmerized by their simplicity and ability to turn from the corrosive devices that eat up our own culture under the guise of progress.

In my observation, the Amish do not agonize about their culture, nor do they feel a need to question or defend it. Nor do they ever defend it.  They are completely secure within themselves.

Their gentleness softens their iron beliefs. Like many other religions, they reject homosexuality as a nonnegotiable sin that can never be accepted in their world. There is no feminism accepted in the faith, yet their children are free to make decisions and develop their individuality. I see no fear or anger in them, although I am well aware I’ve not seen but a tiny fraction of Amish families.

But although they reject and shun,  they don’t torture, beat or kill gays, or wish them death or suffering. They don’t lobby to ban them from public places or pass laws restricting them from bathrooms. They are welcome to stay if they refuse their sexuality. They are not considered evil, rather lost.

They do not frighten or harass people or stalk or demonize them, even those they shun and reject. People who leave them are often devastated at being rejected, but they rarely hate the people who pushed them away, at least not according to what I am reading.

Mostly, they say they regret having to leave their communities.

Of course, it is a generalization, but the faith rejects hate, arrogance, war, judgment,  and pride. I may disapprove of some of the things they practice and believe, but it is almost impossible for me to disrespect or dislike them.

Maybe that’s because they don’t disrespect or dislike me for mine. This is the beginning of a journey for me, I will stumble and fall. But I’ll keep on looking and listening.

As a fanatic reader, I have the chance to learn their history. As a neighbor and a writer, I have the opportunity to get to know them.

I am excited and grateful for both.