September 9, 2021 - 11:50am
So writes David Larson in Crisis magazine, examining the rapid growth of a community which has doubled in size in just 20 years. There are now 350,000 Amish in the United States, and their demographic growth shows no real sign of letting up.
The Amish are notorious for their restrictive lifestyles, with their communities essentially functioning ‘off the grid’. Having two tweenage daughters and becoming increasingly aware of the sheer evil that is TikTok, this all sounds pretty sensible to me. If only they’d change their rules about booze I might sign up.
Groups like the Amish are notable for their continued growth as a sect, even as wider America has seen a sharp drop in church attendance, particularly amongst the younger cohort. This change has almost certainly played a part in radicalisation both on Left and Right: socially isolated Republicans as well as self-identified liberals are far more likely to find meaning in politics than religion.
Of the historically mainstream Christian denominations in the US, the majority — the Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians — fought brutal wars in the 16th and 17th centuries. Western Europeans eventually grew weary of the endless sectarian violence and the result was liberalism, the idea that the only way to stop conflict was to let people live by their own consciences.
Probably the biggest losers at the time were the Anabaptists, a radical sect from Switzerland whose main attribute was a belief in adult baptism. The Anabaptists were widely hated and persecuted, but this wasn’t totally irrational; when they did manage to take power in the German city of Münster in 1534-5, it ended in a bloodbath.
There, an insane Dutch actor and tailor called John of Leiden made himself dictator, instigating capital punishment for “lying, slander, avarice and quarrelling” as well as adultery, before changing his mind and installing free love and communism — and endless terror.
The Anabaptists were therefore considered a lunatic fringe, although they largely became pacifists; looking for a better life, about 500 of them left southern Germany for North America in the mid-18th century, settling in Pennsylvania, the most tolerant of the English colonies (established by those proto-lefties, the Quakers).
Even in the 21st century groups like the Anabaptists and the Amish have so far resisted secularisation, and modern fertility trends, so their numbers continue to grow at an enormous rate. Demographic projections into the distant future carry huge caveats, but perhaps one day American public discourse will care less about 1776 or 1619 and more about 1534.
Of course such sects all have similar problems, as Eric Kaufmann wrote about in his book on religion and demography. They may have strong social capital within the group, but they play little wider part in society.
A similar dynamic already exists in Israel, where the ultra-Orthodox historically neither worked nor fought in the army, but as they’ve become demographically more dominant have come under increasing social pressure to change. If they do adapt, for the sake of the wider country, it perhaps offers a template for the future of religious America — one in which an obscure religious sect like the Amish goes mainstream — weird as it may well be.
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SubscribeClassic demonstration of how having a vision of the divine (however warped) strengthens a community, where a philosophy of pure materialism (however “compassionate” it appears) will kill you every time.
Munster was a serious outlier. All groups have at least one nutter and depending on whether you approve of the group or not determines whether they’re mentioned.
It’s remarkable that their youth have resisted the attractions of secularism in the last 60 years and stick with their 17th century lifestyle. I imagine this is somewhat due to avoiding the passive media indoctrination of TV and internet. We might learn from them how to rescue our own children from the woke universe!
I have lived around the Mennonites a good deal, they are most of which is good in Western People, they have the Good attributes, and few of the vices, coupled with a ethic of hard work. Also Anabaptist. They will not lie, steal, cheat, and give a very great amount to charity. Every disaster gets a big Mennonite Work Camp of helpers who volunteer to come down and re-build. I worked around them in the Katrina rebuild. They use Machinery, are extremely successful at farming, and in fact anything they do, even do well in Post Graduate University.
Then there are the Hutterites who are also Anabaptist, and for the wild ones from Russia, the Doukhobours who are not Anabaptist but very political and known for arson and marching in the nude to protest.
If the Amish, Mennonite, do take over, the USA will be fortunate indeed.
As a modern Christian, I feel comforted by the presence of those traditionalists who remain in the hinterlands and away from the maddening crowd.
Viewing our American nation as a whole, I am reassured of some grand balance, in which they serve as a cultural counterweight to the genderbenders and the marxbarkers.
On a trans-oceanic flight a week ago, I saw an (apparently) Amish man and his bonnetted wife with their newborn. . . a strangely comforting sight; not as exciting as a sexy girl across the aisle, but certainly a more soothing indicator of at least some classically devout element of our degenerative population.
There are quite a few of them near where I live. I don’t know much about them, except they seem hard-working, bake delicious cakes, and their women are kind and graceful.
And very few are in Prison, which means they must be wrong thinkers, and Equity requires we jail more of them.
Amish with booze sounds rather English to me.
You know while we are at it, we should use Noah Webster’s definition for Anabaptist:
noun
a member of any of various Protestant sects, formed in Europe after 1520, that denied the validity of infant baptism, baptized believers only, and advocated social and economic reforms as well as the complete separation of church and state.
The Amish are the ‘pacifist’ arm of Anabaptists, as are the Mennonites, et al.
Luther, was the pioneer of Anabaptist.
Menno Simons was the poineer of Pacifist Anabaptist;
Jacob Ammon, was the poineer of Amish (he did this by excommunicating all the Mennonites for not believng in the excommunication usage the same way as he interpreted it to be used, to wit: ‘if one leaves the Amish Church’ then such is a heretic.)
It frosts me that these definitions and lies are used to this day, to somehow validate the position of a cult (which is what the Amish are), to live in a make-believe world of readers of sentimentalism, rather than actual discussion of Christ’s teaching of ‘love’, ‘kindness’ and common respect for inherent values of Christ’s teaching.
Secondly, we should do an investigation that goes deeper than the cosmetic visuals of ‘peace and harmony’ as displayed by the Amish’s barn raising events, a retail effort at trying to make themselves look good to the outside world and thus comfort their status quo of being ‘a light to the world’;
If you want to do investigate whether the Amish, et al, are peaceful, harmonious, kind, respectful people, then one should a) ask the for-profit automobile chauffeurs that get to see them upfront and personal;
and, b), ask around, and drive around on a Sunday morning, in Holmes County Ohio, the most divisive inner-schism community in the country, and notice how no one amongst themselves even waves to the other ‘sect’;
and, c), ask the young and growing up teenagers in the same community, as to whether they think their community is peaceful and harmonious.
I cannot stand, these anecdotal journalists who write from a sentimental viewpoint to get a few viewer counts.