The Amish Explained

The Amish appear a lot in pop culture, but they're also frequently misrepresented and mythologized. So what do the Amish actually believe and practice?

00:00 Introduction
00:54 Basic Overview
3:16 Origins of the Amish
8:49 Amish "Order," The Ordnung
9:35 The Amish and Technology
11:43 The Amish and Public Life
14:47 Amish Culture and Rumspringa
16:46 Amish Religious Practice
17:29 High-Commitment Communities
18:36 The Amish, Pop Culture, and "Bonnet Rippers"
23:06 Sponsor

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters

[charliemopps]

If you live in an area where there's a lot of Amish, they don't go under the radar at all. They are everywhere, and a huge part of the community. You run into them at the store, on the road, and it's impossible to do any sort of business without running into them because their needs are often unique. Some don't wear the outfit most people are used to, and even work "normal jobs" others are hard-core no-technology and all that. If you want Organic food? or really, organic anything? You can't get any more organic than buying your stuff from the Amish. You want some hardwood for projects? Like walnut? oak? cherry? It's actually pretty hard to find that sort of the thing at the hardware store these days... and very expensive. But every Amish community has a giant, old school, sawmill that runs 24/7 selling that very sort of thing. They buy land/houses, farms... they're often surprisingly independently wealthy. If the Amish buy your house? They pay CASH. So most communities love their Amish folks, though, they don't use modern deodorants and soaps so they often smell bad. But they are also incredibly generous and helpful so, if there's any sort of disaster or problem in the community, the Amish are usually the first people there offering help, prayers, whatever... they'll show up with a dozen very muscular young men and just get to work, because that's what the amish are all about. They are a hard people to dislike.

[davidfulton]

I taught English at a community college in Los Angeles and one semester I had an Amish student on rumspringa in my 101 class. Her "running around" involved wearing make-up, painting her fingernail in all different colors, and dressing like she was in the cast of Godspell! She was a FANTASTIC writer...except... she was evidently never taught punctuation! But she essentially memorized the rules over one weekend! Planned on returning to her community (I guess it was a tiny one in Oregon) after the semester but had always wanted to see what college life was like! As a gift, she made me an apple-peach pie, which was something of a speciality in her community. I remember her bright personality and insatiable curiosity! She wasn't shy at all and enjoyed participating in class discussions.

[Twinkiepower]

I work at a library in Pennsylvania and the popularity of bonnet ripper Amish romance is genuinely astounding. Amish and English alike just want to read the sweet nothings of a strapping young Amish bishop apparently.

[ianbarnard]

thank you for specifying that you weren't paid to promote that store, for a second I was worried Big Amish finally got to you

[grapeshot]

Yep, he said his homies say he looks good in Black, and they're going to party like it's 1699.

[ThingsWeSaidToday]

I grew up mainstream Mennonite, so living fully integrated in society but with Anabaptist beliefs and many life practices, particularly around pacifism, simple living, and mutualism. I'm really impressed by the depth of your research and understanding.
One thing I'd like to add is that one of the other reasons for the split between Amish and Mennonites is around the "halb-täufer" or half baptized. Many anabaptists received help from sympathetic non-church members during persecution, and the question was were these people outside the church condemned to hell or not? Mennonites took the view that they were saved while the amish viewed everyone living outside of the community as part of the "Devil's playground". I think this is also useful in understanding the different mindsets of the communities.

[MrFearDubh]

My father knew a Mennonite man who bought a car (his faith allowed that), but as soon as he owned it, he cut the cable going to the car radio so no one his his family could listen to it. Working in Chicago, I would often see Amish people at Union Station boarding Amtrak trains. Since a horse and buggy couldn’t go super long distances, they make an exception when that need arises. Married Amish men have beards but no mustaches. This goes back to the 17th century in parts of Europe military men had to have mustaches. Having facial hair everywhere except there meant that the Amish were anti-war.

[BenSpectre-ohws]

Years ago, I used to hang out in a Goth club in Detroit. There was a guy who came in on his rumspringa and went wild. He was about six foot five, very handsome, entirely sweet-natured and soon became the darling of the club...in every way imaginable. I always found it funny that he went from one place where everyone dressed in dark clothing to the libertine opposite where everyone dressed in dark clothing.

[mattisvov]

Ah, one of my favorite types of content:
Taking something I had a vague idea about, and giving me a more comprehensive view.

[jogging.around]

At 1:54

Welcome to INTERCOURSE, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

[Florkl]

My family briefly considered joining an Amish community until we realized that us kids would be capped at an 8th grade education, and therefore effectively stuck staying in the community.

[MasterGeekMX]

Here in Mexico there are some menonite communities, specially in the north. It is quite easy to see them selling cheese on the roadside.

[ShayneHeluk]

My grandfathers best friend lived directly next to an Amish community, they had told him that they could use technological equipment, but just not own it. So they would often come over and ask to borrow his power tools and newer farm equipment at times. He was paid back generously though.

[jasonblalock]

OK, the idea of bonnet-rippers being made by, basically, Amish-weebs makes so much sense.

[lpc]

I am infertile from eating scented candles. The

[franks.]

In modern German, "Gelassenheit" means equanimity, even serenity, letting go, and often coolness - but no hint of submission (Unterwerfung) which sounds almost opposite nowadays in its constraint. Yet, apparently there are older meanings of "gelassen" that mean behave, surrender to god, which became that religious technical term. The wisdom here is to stoically accept the constraints - which enriches my naive concept of the word "gelassen".

[donavanlacy]

@ReligionforBreakfast, you nailed this one. Having married a former Mennonite, and having a brother-in-law who is Beachy Amish, I was wondering how correct this video would be, but you knocked it out of the park. Well done! If you're looking for more interesting Anabaptist content, German Baptists and several of the Mennonite communities are very fascinating. German Baptists, for instance, will actually integrate into society, wear modern clothes, and even sometimes attend public school until they are baptized, at which point they adopt Plain Dress and customs.

[thinkfact]

I live in an area where there has been a large influx of Amish people moving to in Maine. It's been pretty fascinating. The individuals that seemed to move away from the core populations in Pennsylvania appear to be a bit more liberal. A number of them keep cell phones, actually a few got in trouble when they did that emergency testing that had everybody's phone go off. Haha. They will regularly buy homes in and around people in rural areas, of course detach them from the grid. But some of them have phones at the edge of their property near the street. And some of them have no problem being driven around by other people for jobs.

The uncle of one of my friends lives near a number of Amish families, and he once had some of the kids over at his house and made them frozen pizzas and it absolutely blew their mind. Haha.

The Amish where I live have a sort of patriarch leader who has a lot of the final say in terms of people's businesses and things. Our community has seen a lot of infighting and it's funny when they sort of break apart, they move to the completely other side of the town. Which of course is like is a 30 minute car drive. But for them it's like a 4-Hour buggy ride. My mother also lives 4 hours away, but by car and it's like at the other side of the state.

They absolutely love love love yard sales. And they've actually been able to be extremely competitive locally as construction firms.

A lot of the older people seem to like them, it reminds them of the old days that their grandparents told them about. But I am a little worried about their growth potentially creating some head bumping, because it has been exponential growth.

But I guess we will see.

[-Thauma-]

Weird Al Yankovic explained it perfectly

[andeve]

There's a really nice Channel 4 series called Living with the Amish where some british teenagers live with the amish (not Old Order) for a while. The friendship between Jonathan and James made me actually tear up.