Post by Village Idiot on Oct 6, 2006 22:15:56 GMT -5
The Amish, like other folks,are fine, decent people. Like other cultures they have morals, values, and ideals to which they astrive. The school shooting that happened in Pennsylvania is nothing short of a horrific tragedy which has saddened our nation and our world.
It is not the only school shooting the United States has experienced lately, and it's interesting that this latest, and completly awful episode has been termed not as a school shooting, but as the Amish school shooting. Our level of concern for this incident is huge, and it's also piqued our curiosity of the Amish culture.
This whole thing is unedited. I hope is makes sense.
Our interest in the culture has been fed through tons of media footage showing the Amish conducting not only their regular lives, but conducting themselves through the tragedy. We have all viewed scenes of wagons and horses, and heard accounts of the idea of forgiveness which is pervasive throughout the culture.
And indeed, forgiveness is a dominant part of being Amish. Like any other culture, sect, or nationality, though, they are not perfect, and like any other culture, lifestyles vary depending on the rules set by the community.
The basic premise of why the Amish live the way they do comes from the Biblical ideal that to be a Christian we are in the world, but not of[/] the world. They do not use electricity because doing so involves a cable that connects their home to the rest of the world. They do not have phones for the same reason.
Things get sketchy after that. For example, some Amish orders use gas generators in order to have access to electricity, and some orders allow cell phones, eliminating the need for physical cables. Some orders use tractors, some plow with horses. Some drive cars with all chrome removed, some use horses to pull hay wagons which can be heard a mile down the road, as the wagon rides on rims with no tires.
The Amish I am familiar with are a very old order. No gas generators, no cell phones, no cars. In church (held every two weeks in homes) they sing, but only melody is allowed, two-part harmony is forbidden, instruments are out of the question.
Problems arise from such a strict culture, and the problems are revealed through the community's youth. I know of two teenage boys on two completely separate indicents who decided that sunglasses were cool, and wore them. They were kicked out of their homes, spending nights in non-Amish neighbor's barns or homes, eventually finding jobs in the outside world at roofers or carpenters, shunned by their families, drifting away to an unfamiliar world with no support, winding up in jail, trying to survive.
The very Old Order Amish teens lead the lives that some of us would have loved at that age. There is a place near Otter Creek where the teenage Amish hang out on Friday nights and party. They pound down beer, and wind down the night deciding who they are going to bundle with, go to the boys home and proceed in the bundling, under the parents' blessing.
I'm rambling, but saying that as wonderful as the Amish are being made out to be when it comes down to it they are no different than the rest of us. I feel terribly for what the Amish who live in the community where children have been killed, but have a hard time with hearing on the national news that they are a perfect, angelic people. They are no better or worse than the rest of us.
It is not the only school shooting the United States has experienced lately, and it's interesting that this latest, and completly awful episode has been termed not as a school shooting, but as the Amish school shooting. Our level of concern for this incident is huge, and it's also piqued our curiosity of the Amish culture.
This whole thing is unedited. I hope is makes sense.
Our interest in the culture has been fed through tons of media footage showing the Amish conducting not only their regular lives, but conducting themselves through the tragedy. We have all viewed scenes of wagons and horses, and heard accounts of the idea of forgiveness which is pervasive throughout the culture.
And indeed, forgiveness is a dominant part of being Amish. Like any other culture, sect, or nationality, though, they are not perfect, and like any other culture, lifestyles vary depending on the rules set by the community.
The basic premise of why the Amish live the way they do comes from the Biblical ideal that to be a Christian we are in the world, but not of[/] the world. They do not use electricity because doing so involves a cable that connects their home to the rest of the world. They do not have phones for the same reason.
Things get sketchy after that. For example, some Amish orders use gas generators in order to have access to electricity, and some orders allow cell phones, eliminating the need for physical cables. Some orders use tractors, some plow with horses. Some drive cars with all chrome removed, some use horses to pull hay wagons which can be heard a mile down the road, as the wagon rides on rims with no tires.
The Amish I am familiar with are a very old order. No gas generators, no cell phones, no cars. In church (held every two weeks in homes) they sing, but only melody is allowed, two-part harmony is forbidden, instruments are out of the question.
Problems arise from such a strict culture, and the problems are revealed through the community's youth. I know of two teenage boys on two completely separate indicents who decided that sunglasses were cool, and wore them. They were kicked out of their homes, spending nights in non-Amish neighbor's barns or homes, eventually finding jobs in the outside world at roofers or carpenters, shunned by their families, drifting away to an unfamiliar world with no support, winding up in jail, trying to survive.
The very Old Order Amish teens lead the lives that some of us would have loved at that age. There is a place near Otter Creek where the teenage Amish hang out on Friday nights and party. They pound down beer, and wind down the night deciding who they are going to bundle with, go to the boys home and proceed in the bundling, under the parents' blessing.
I'm rambling, but saying that as wonderful as the Amish are being made out to be when it comes down to it they are no different than the rest of us. I feel terribly for what the Amish who live in the community where children have been killed, but have a hard time with hearing on the national news that they are a perfect, angelic people. They are no better or worse than the rest of us.