Old Order Amish in the Modern World

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You’re on vacation in rural Ohio en route to your bed and breakfast when your GPS has lost signal and you take a wrong turn down a dirt road. You start to notice the modern looking farm buildings but there are no power poles with electricity running to these quaint farms. Next thing you know you are being passed by a black buggy driven by a muscular horse and you think to yourself that the gentleman driving with his plain black hat, white shirt, black pants, and a full beard must be from back in time. It all of a sudden arises to you from reading your favorite Amish books by Beverly Lewis that you must be in Old Order Amish country where the society lives in the modern world but not up to modern standards. What has always interested me on the Amish, is the youth’s Rumspringa, the different Amish sects there are, and how there every day life is.
The Amish are Anabaptist which means they have faith in that you can only be baptized when you’re old enough to comprehend what it means and what all it can entail to be a part of the Amish community. Numerous Amish sects do not allow for the teenagers to participate in Rumspringa and those who do, don’t actually “allow” it they just turn a bit of a blind eye towards it, as well as making sure they are still following the guidelines of their Ordnung. Rumspringa is a term used for the Amish that turn a blind eye to the children who are becoming of age which is 16 and up until about 18 and have not yet been baptized into the church. The Ordnung are the rules and traditions that they follow as a society and is a part of their religion. During this time, some of the Amish teenagers will drive a car, see a movie, and try alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and other “worldly” things. But, from some ...

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... the Amish and Mennonite culture. I would love to some day visit a town where the Amish reside and get to know them one on one, which is not an easy thing to accomplish as a “Worldly Englisher”. The plain way of life to me would be interesting to experience one day, and even possibly living in a Mennonite type setting would be enjoyable. Their family life is very much fascinating to me and I think the thing I like the most about it is the simple way of life that they live.

Works Cited

The Beachy Amish Mennonites. n.d. 5th April 2014. .
Wittmer, Joe. Amish Religious Freedom. n.d. 5th April 2014. . http://amishamerica.com/whats-the-difference-between-new-order-and-old-order-amish/ http://www.jamesportmissouri.org/jca_018.htm
http://www.exploring-amish-country.com/amish-rumspringa.html

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