Amish life
About the Amish
The Reformation
The Amish way of life has its origins in the early 1500s during the Protestant reformation. Martin Luther and John Calvin led movements that broke from the Roman Catholic Church, teaching salvation by grace alone, reliance on the Bible only as their guide, freedom of individual belief, and forming state churches in their respective countries of Germany and Switzerland. More radical reformers broke off from these reformers, calling for greater reforms that at the time led to great suffering and persecution both from Catholic and Protestant churches.
The Anabaptists
A
small group from Switzerland led by Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz recommended
reforms such as baptism of adult believers only, greater separation
of believers from the evils of society, and development of “free” churches
separate from any state control. At the time only newborns and infants
were baptized, and the church and state were intertwined with one state
church only allowed.
These groups were labeled “Anabaptists” meaning re-baptizers, since they were baptizing adult believers who had been baptized as infants in the state church. The state churches saw this as a severe threat to the established social order. Their reaction to these ideas was severe, leading to execution and torture of their leaders and arrest of many of the believers of the Anabaptist churches.
The Mennonites
A priest in Holland by the name of Menno Simon (1496-1561) broke from the Catholic church and become a leader in the Anabaptist movement, bringing unity to the different groups there. He taught re-baptism for believers only, religious tolerance, separation of church and state, pacifism and opposition to holding state office, and opposition to capital punishment. These views eventually led to religious tolerance by the state in Holland in the late 1500s and freedom of worship by the non-conformist movement.
Rather than the violent opposition to non-conformists demonstrated by the state churches, the Mennonites believed in non-violent means to discipline errant believers in the church, such as shunning, where other members would break off communication from the sinner, and banning, where the fallen member would be prohibited from fellowship with body of believers.
The Amish
A
small group within the Mennonites led by Jacob Amman broke from the
Mennonites in 1693. This group lived in Switzerland and along the Rhine
River. They felt that the Mennonites were drifting from their original
teachings. The main issues of the split included frequency of communion
(twice a year instead of once as advocated by the Mennonites), foot
washing which had fallen out of use by most Mennonites and the stricter
use of shunning. Early on attempts to reconcile and re-unit were unsuccessful,
and the two groups have largely remained separate to this day in the US,
although they did re-unit in Europe.
Amish Life today
Beginning in the early 1700s, the Amish began migrating to the United States. They have spread across the Midwest and can be found in rural areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, among others.
The Amish have retained their beliefs in separation from the world as reflected in their close knit religious communities, distinctive style of dress, rejection of owning and using many modern conveniences (like electricity, cars and telephones). Their distinctions include head coverings for the women, beards without mustaches for the married men, horse and buggy transportation, and simple clothes of plain colors – primarily black, blue, and white. They are a hard working, industrious people who continue to have weekly religious meetings in their homes and teach their children in one room Amish schools.