The Amish?

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I am simply wondering, what are Catholics views about the Amish? I am currently in an Amish town as I speak. Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL country! I do not agree with some of their (in my opinon) “radical” practices, like no faces on dolls, no electricity, plain old clothing, BUT I do respect it to a degree. I just do not like when they start saying that their way is the most “Biblical,” that electricity is, or could possibly, be sin.

What I DO like is their community with one another. Oh it’s so amazing and friendly! So friendly! How they take care of each other and care not for the government telling them what to do.

Has there ever been a Catholic community like that? And what does the Church say about the Amish?
 
In my whole life, I have never heard of anything being said by the Catholic Church regarding the Amish… I can only guess that they are considered as the rest…“separated bretheren”.

They are an interesting people though. Rather committed to their ways…though there are many of them that are more liberal and modern…in that they use electricity and drive cars, etc.
 
I am not so sure that the Church has any opinion one way or the other. Now, one Catholic (me) does.

Electricity is not a sin. Now, if it causes you to be slothful, it is problematic.

Faces on dolls, who cares.

Now, the life they live is a good example of Christian life UNLESS you break one of their codes. Sepherad had an Amish friend who was shunned. SHe can tell you all about it. That said, they do live a life that is very Christian in nature. Just look at the forgiveness they gave after that school shooting.

There have been lots of Catholic Communities like that. Off the tope of my head, I cannot think of any other than monastic-based ones.
 
The Amish are descended from the Anabaptists via the Swiss Brethren. The essentials of their faith are pretty much all opposed to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Their non-violence is to be lauded, but other than that, I don’t suppose the Church views them as anything but radical heretics (to put it bluntly). Here is how the old Catholic Encyclopedia presents Anabaptist beliefs:
They aimed at restoring what they claimed to have been primitive Christianity. This restoration included the rejection of oaths and capital punishment and the abstention from the exercise of magistracy.
In a more consistent manner than the majority of Protestant reformers, they maintained the absolute supremacy and sole sufficiency of the canonical Scriptures as a norm of faith. However, private inspiration and religious sentiment played an important role among them.
Infant baptism and the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith alone were rejected as without scriptural warrant.
The new Kingdom of God, which they purposed to found, was to be the reconstruction, on an entirely different basis, of both ecclesiastical and civil society. Communism, including for some of them the community of women, was to be the underlying principle of the new state.
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I have a deep respect for the Amish even though I don’t agree with all their beliefs. For instance, if the bible says do not have any image of anything they go all the way and don’t even have pictures. (At least that’s what I’m told). The bible says not to be part of this world and so they isolate themselves. Now take the first instance. Many non-Catholics accuse Catholics of idol worship but they themselves violate the letter by having pictures and have a cross in their church. The JWs in instance #2 want to be seperate but will not go as far as the Amish. The JWs instand give up serving their country, voting (thank goodness), respect in any form for their country. But, they don’t give up electricity, home, car, air conditioning and a job. So the Amish go all the way which earns my respect, while the others straddle the fence.
 
As part of a required course on diversity that I took, I wrote a Fact Sheet on the Mennonites. The Amish are an Anabaptist group that separated from the Mennonites in order to live a stricter lifestyle. During the Reformation, Anabaptists, including the Amish, were persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike.
CCC818 “However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who, at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers…All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church.”
 
ralphinal said:
I am not so sure that the Church has any opinion one way or the other. Now, one Catholic (me) does.

Electricity is not a sin. Now, if it causes you to be slothful, it is problematic.

Faces on dolls, who cares.

Now, the life they live is a good example of Christian life UNLESS you break one of their codes. Sepherad had an Amish friend who was shunned. SHe can tell you all about it. That said, they do live a life that is very Christian in nature. Just look at the forgiveness they gave after that school shooting.
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Here in Ohio we have the largest Amish community in the country. If you ever get a chance you MUST try their food. It’s absolutely amazing. Their pies are heavenly.

Having said that…I have nothing good to say about their theology. Even their pacifistic ways are misguided. The forgiveness they showed after the shooting was awesome, brought tears to my eyes…but unfortunately, they don’t live that Christian attitude out in the world. They stay locked in their communities. It’s inherently the same problem Luther saw with monasticism. It’s easier to stay shut inside one’s own community, alone with nothing but your own thoughts. Then it becomes easy to criticize the outside world and the “evils” of the modern age. “Sanctification” is easy under such conditions. It’s contact with the outside world, the service to neighbor and enemy where true Christian living is, not behind the walls of the monastery or behind the walls of the quaint country farmhouse.

Vis a vie their pacificism…It’s incredibly obnoxious to receive the benefits this country offers and yet refuse to bleed for it.
 
ralphinal said:
I am not so sure that the Church has any opinion one way or the other. Now, one Catholic (me) does.

Electricity is not a sin. Now, if it causes you to be slothful, it is problematic.

Faces on dolls, who cares.

Now, the life they live is a good example of Christian life UNLESS you break one of their codes. Sepherad had an Amish friend who was shunned. SHe can tell you all about it. That said, they do live a life that is very Christian in nature. Just look at the forgiveness they gave after that school shooting.

There have been lots of Catholic Communities like that. Off the tope of my head, I cannot think of any other than monastic-based ones.
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so who is "Sepherad?
 
“Here in Ohio we have the largest Amish community in the country. If you ever get a chance you MUST try their food. It’s absolutely amazing. Their pies are heavenly.”

Oh their baking is to die for. I can’t get enough!! 🙂
 
TriuneUnity said:
Here in Ohio we have the largest Amish community in the country. If you ever get a chance you MUST try their food. It’s absolutely amazing. Their pies are heavenly.

Having said that…I have nothing good to say about their theology. Even their pacifistic ways are misguided. The forgiveness they showed after the shooting was awesome, brought tears to my eyes…but unfortunately, they don’t live that Christian attitude out in the world. They stay locked in their communities. It’s inherently the same problem Luther saw with monasticism. It’s easier to stay shut inside one’s own community, alone with nothing but your own thoughts. Then it becomes easy to criticize the outside world and the “evils” of the modern age. “Sanctification” is easy under such conditions. It’s contact with the outside world, the service to neighbor and enemy where true Christian living is, not behind the walls of the monastery or behind the walls of the quaint country farmhouse.

Vis a vie their pacificism…It’s incredibly obnoxious to receive the benefits this country offers and yet refuse to bleed for it.
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I can see your point. Though it is very peaceful here.
 
“The forgiveness they showed after the shooting was awesome, brought tears to my eyes…but unfortunately…”

Yes, that was beautiful. And while I haven’t been in that situation, I still think I would of been angry. I still think that if he didn’t kill himself, i would of wanted justice. There is a time for justice, to do what is right, to physically fight in order to survive. Sometimes words do not reach another, and we must fight in order to protect life. And that is one of the main points where I disagree with the Amish. But still admire them.
 
You have to respect them for living out their beliefs. They not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. I wish Catholics were as counter-cultural as they are.
 
Claire_from_DE said:
You have to respect them for living out their beliefs. They not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. I wish Catholics were as counter-cultural as they are.
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It would seem much easier to walk the walk when you live together in a big community. I wish other forms, especially Catholics had something like that, minus all the radical points. But overall, a big united family.
 
Claire_from_DE said:
You have to respect them for living out their beliefs. They not only talk the talk, they walk the walk. I wish Catholics were as counter-cultural as they are.
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Every Christian, by virtue of his spiritual rebirth and ingrafting into Christ is counter-cultural. One doesn’t need to adopt invented communal groups to oppose the mindset of the world. Separation from the society is against our mandate to go into the world and proclaim the gospel, baptizing and teaching.
 
TriuneUnity said:
Here in Ohio we have the largest Amish community in the country. If you ever get a chance you MUST try their food. It’s absolutely amazing. Their pies are heavenly.
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Yeah, well I guess there are good and bad cooks in all walks of life. My experience was not so amazing.
 
FindTruth7 said:
I am simply wondering, what are Catholics views about the Amish? I am currently in an Amish town as I speak. Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL country! I do not agree with some of their (in my opinon) “radical” practices, like no faces on dolls, no electricity, plain old clothing, BUT I do respect it to a degree. I just do not like when they start saying that their way is the most “Biblical,” that electricity is, or could possibly, be sin.

What I DO like is their community with one another. Oh it’s so amazing and friendly! So friendly! How they take care of each other and care not for the government telling them what to do.

Has there ever been a Catholic community like that? And what does the Church say about the Amish?
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I don’t know what the CC says about the Amish, but I’ve always admired them greatly. I admire much of their lifestyle, the way they are pacifist, and the way they forgive so readily.

They are, in fact, the only Christian group I have ever felt a closeness to! This is perhaps partly because I judge a person’s Christianity on how they act rather than what they believe.

From the non-Amish Christians, I have encountered much arrogance, bigotry, hatred, hostility, etc…never once from an Amish person.

I used to know a fellow who left the Amish church for 7th Day Adventist, and they shunned him for it. He lost everything he had—his family, his wife, his business…but as he said to us, “I knew that would happen when I made my decision to leave”.

As cruel as their shunning is, its the same basic idea as Catholic and Eastern Orthodox excommunication, and Orthodox Jewish “cherem”.
 
The Pacifist view comes from allegiance to God over allegiance to country. Peace is the will of God. Therefore, they refuse military service seeing the church as “God’s holy nation.”

The Catholic Church has saints, most notably St. Francis of Assisi, who chose to live as pacifists. Sometimes we forget how radically the saints lived their lives. Some lived in the midst of the world and were seen as eccentric. Others chose to live alone in the desert as hermits or in monastic communities. There are covenant communities in the Catholic Church.
 
I grew up around Amish and Mennonites… I have alot of respect for them in some regards… Their carpentry skills are unsurpassed. We used to hire them on our job sites for all our carpentry needs… they were expensive but they were the best. They were honest and hard working too. In the late 70’s early 80’s it was in vogue to hire their young girls to clean your house in the well off burbs near where i grew up…they were good workers, trustworthy, and above all honest if not naive. One of my girlfriends hated them because the Amish girl went to my gf’s mom and told her she saw her with one of those fire things (cigarettes).

My own sister slid her car into a snow bank and got it stuck. An Amish man took her to a pay phone (way before cell phones) so she could call my mom and dad then took her to his place to spend the night and the next morning he took her back to her car and helped her dig it out. My parents didn’t worry at all about her spending the night with strangers because she was with the Amish…

Now I live just north of another Amish settlement… they are known around here for their carpentry (no surprise) and their work ethic. We see them at fast food restaurants when they are out working jobs in our area… it still strikes me as funny to see them eat a Big Mac.

That school shooting was near where I grew up… it didn’t surprise me how they forgave the guy… I think it is very healthy to be quick to forgive… bottling up anger and resentments has been the reason so many have strayed from God.

Do I think their theology is perfect? No, not in the least… I think they are much too harsh with their own. But I am human and I find myself much more harsh with my own too… because I expect them to know better.
 
Amish live near me, I have worked with them in deals and such. They are very strict, some are too radical, like dis-owning someone for having a different barn (this is true, but very hard to explain) and such things.

They are nice people, just different. I like them, they farm like I do.
 
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