Inside the Amish & Mennonite Community - Full Documentary - Living Plain

at one point in time the Amish and the English weren't that far apart everybody drove a horse's buggy the Amish just kept holding back and you liked it back that's how we want [Music] there's some people that think that we're just in costumes we're just stolen this as a tourist trap they forget that we're just human as well and we're just going about our everyday life we will need to work and Even Heaven you'll have a job you have to hook up four mules with their harness We Believe boys especially and girls they need to stay occupied there's too much idle time nowadays five o'clock you milk the cows and 5 30 in the evening you milk the cows this is where they keep their buggies over Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and they see their older siblings all behaving in a particular way you were going to Amish Church two-hour service no problems they keep themselves distant from certain things in the culture because it corrupts as a sacrifice every day I don't feel as a sacrifice every day I think it's a privilege thank you it's a privilege to restrict yourself uh yeah some people they can't grasp it because they're of the world somebody can go through their life not have any restrictions and be a good human being but at some point they're going to get tempted with something and if they don't have any fences to hold them back they're gonna go for it the principal is there of just because we have the opportunity and the freedom to do these things doesn't mean we should exercise our rights that's right yes exactly that's right tell me about your faith today what you were born into and how that's evolved oh boy it's a good question like an aim for your mouth what if you're gay that's a sticky situation these days isn't it they're not just committing their life to Jesus they're committing a life to one another what does community mean to you that's a hard question to answer because Community has always been Community to me and it's something that we take for granted too much [Music] if somebody has a fire and their Barn burns down that Barn will be up again within a week people drop their stuff and they're going to help it doesn't matter what day of the week it is our faith is believing in living an honorable God-fearing life now so we can be accounted worthy if we meet God the way we think we're responsible for our actions and we're going to be held responsible for it if not now once we die if you'll set a line somewhere where are you going to stop we hooked up to the grid then you'll have electricity throughout the house you have to set a standard I'm a captain car company so January night snowing and you get a call there are a team of conservative men getting on their bicycles yes they either run to the Firehouse Drive ride a bike or a scooter so you have 90 cousins nine zero yes we don't even fully understand our culture but we know enough we don't end the question This Is Us bottom line you could drive buggy you could wear a certain Crews wear a nice straw hat like this with a nice three inch brim on it but if you don't have Jesus in your heart it's meaningless foreign Pennsylvania rich in history and productive Farmland Lancaster was once known as the breadbasket of North America and despite that title being issued during the pre-revolutionary War era a large cohort of its residents have helped preserve its position to this day as a major producer of fruits vegetables and dairy so who are these residents did I give it away this is a Costco and this is a Costco in Lancaster with parking for your horse-drawn buggy end at your local bank and your grocery store and well you get the point Lancaster is home to a massive population of both older Amish and old order Mennonites a population known by many as plain I'll frequently refer to them as such moving forward the plain community's history in America dates back to the 18th century when they fled in droves to avoid persecution in Europe but more on the history later old order Amish and old order Mennonites are remarkably similar from the outside they would drive a horse and buggy they would wear suspenders and get around on bicycles for a really short everyday sort of thing to The Outsider they would look very much like an Amish person but they aren't Amish and what is old water anyway well I'm generalizing a tad here but think of it like a spectrum old order are the more religious or one might seem more conservative among the bunch that Bunch being anabaptists anabaptist means one who baptizes again hence an adult baptism is at the core of their belief system as spoken by a member of the old order Amish church baptism is a personal choice in our community parents are going to try and guide their children in the right direction but they're not going to force anybody to join charge or guilt trip into anybody join the church at a high level religious anabaptists share many principles such as being stewards of the land our method of taking care of the land includes only spraying when we feel we need to pacifism dad would have been drafted he took Co conscientious objector and a general non-conformity to Greater Society the Bible tells us where to be in a world but not of the world you're not part of that culture that's putting their faith in material things and things that can turn us away from our true faith in God and a major misconception regarding anabaptists is degree of Devotion to their Faith remember the Spectrum it's quite expansive from schwarzentruber Amish who go as far as prohibiting modern indoor plumbing to New Order Mennonites who drive cars and check Instagram on their smartphones there can even be slight variations between churches which in the case of Lancaster with such high population density among the plain community may only be miles from one another different Church districts still do stuff a little different some are more lenient some are more conservative we'll get to speak to members across that Spectrum in the coming minutes we'll cover topics from education uh two-room Amish schools where I went attending church they're trying to live the way the early church was in the book of Acts to family and Community Values you love the community it's not hard to make some sacrifices because you're part of that and you have respect for it to dating most people end up dating someone in their youth group to Transportation a half Friesian and a half Morgan to economics people can send their money to them and then get interest off of it and last but certainly not least the why behind so many Traditions that are still carried out today students no more than two inches of rough jarring so you put these on aftermarket deliberately to avoid driving on the road at moments it will feel like we've traveled back in time only to find out we're in Pennsylvania in the 2020s so without further Ado I present to you living plain [Music] foreign the horse is likely a Morgan cross common within the community the gray top and steel wheels signature Lancaster old order Amish headlights are battery powered also common among old order they say a picture is worth a thousand words right to Greater Society perhaps one of the most ubiquitous symbols of the playing Community is the buggy let's start there shall we I spent some time with one of the employees of a buggy shop a 27 year old member of the old order Amish community touring the shop along with a sit-down interview covering a number of aspects of his lifestyle but before we dive in some very important housekeeping and that has to do with cameras the plane Community believes showing yourself on camera or better said posing for the camera is strictly against a Biblical Commandment that is Thou shalt not make unto thyself a Graven image in other words the plain Community believes they are made in the image of God and any image of themselves is therefore an idolization outside of God further images take away from their value sets related to community and humility therefore it's extremely rare the plane Community poses on camera does that mean everyone follows this to a t absolutely not moreover there are a number of photographers that have known community members for years who are welcome to capture them as for the Commandment that would explain why many homes don't have portraits anywhere although this is becoming more common among younger Generations but we won't go there instead this is a common fixture of Plain homes a list of the family members the many dolls you'll find in local stores are faceless for this same principle still don't believe me here's a Virginia ID card with no image and here is the 65-page study the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles ran to determine the practicality of allowing residents to have a state issued ID without a picture at the time of this study in 2018 12 states allowed a religious exemption for state-issued IDs with kentuckies going into effect in 2019 but I digress what does this mean for us well two things one you'll be hearing a lot more from me as I spoke to dozens who wouldn't appear on camera but were chock full of knowledge and two the gentleman at the buggy shop as well as some others in this documentary will not reveal their faces or names you'll hear them as microphones were wired to their collars but you won't see them so let's get to the buggy shop and hear from the anonymous gentleman who will call Mike I was driving mini since I was about seven years old my balance is pretty good anything that could come apart is what we put together perhaps one of the first things to address is why the plane Community still uses buggies cars or Vehicles would give us so much more freedom we would be less of a community because we could go anywhere sounds too simple doesn't it but it truly is as simple as Mike stated you see the adult baptism is a lifelong commitment not just to one's faith and to God but by extension the community and the buggy is a major contributor to that in fact I spoke to one Amish Bishop who said and I quote the purpose of the buggy is to keep us from traveling Beyond 15 miles from our home now do people exceed that absolutely but it's difficult it's cumbersome to have to attack and warm up your horse simply to grab something down the road it's a hassle and a hassle is exactly the point it forces individuals to lean more on their family and neighbors therefore increasing one's time with his or her community in addition others would say writhing a buggy slows down the pace of life and serves as a beacon of their separatism from mainstream society and one old ordered gentleman even pointed out to me that for him it's an opportunity to spend quality time with his wife see most women don't have their own buggies in many cases it's on the men in the family to transport them so if this gentleman's wife needed something from the store he always takes her and values the one-on-one time in these Journeys but more on the buggies themselves buggies vary in shapes and sizes literally depending on the task at hand and not to be underestimated the different settlements you have the spring wagon commonly used on you guessed it Pleasant spring days you have haulers like this the pickup truck of the house for transporting heavy loads many old order Mennonites have a buggy dedicated to Sunday church the Amish don't tend to differentiate a buggy for Sunday but it doesn't stop there then there's different affiliations within the Amish world that vary widely from the gray top Lancaster one to the Nebraska Amish with white tops to the yellow top Byler Amish these are just a few examples so why so much variance there's a lot of communities that started from Lancaster County so they all tend to have the same customs and the same buggies now there's communities all over the United States that did not originate from Mexico county so they had slightly different customs and different buggies Lancaster County and its daughter settlements is the only Amish community that has the great top buggies so you'll see Lancaster County style buggies in multiple States and that means that they started from Lancaster County and while this is true many Traditions are carried over many are not for the very reason a new settlement started in the first place to be different and of course you wouldn't be different if you carried all Traditions over from the prior settlement would you there's people that move out of Lancaster County because they kind of want to be different they have their own ideas they move out and then they try and push their ideas on this smaller community and it's interesting to observe from afar because this only further validates the desire of the plain Community to be different as non-conformists not just different from mainstream Society but within the Amish population themselves they appear to have a desire to differentiate an outward appearance from each other as well but let's get back to the buggy shop Mike showed me several different configurations as most are custom ordered he ballparked a cost of ten to fifteen thousand dollars for a new buggy it's worth noting they're difficult to finance as well because they're not titled like a motor vehicle buggies have several options such as the type of brakes this buggy here has drum brakes we actually do hydraulic disc brakes as well suspension this is a rubber shock so you can either do a rubber shock or a rubber airbag and other features such as heat which Mike has in his buggy powered by propane and the list goes on Lancaster old order Amish have steel wheels even with steel wheels it's surprising that with an undercarriage like this how quiet it is local old order Mennonites use solid rubber like many aspects of plain communities there are exceptions to this locally and elsewhere outside of Lancaster it's common among fathers to purchase used buggies for their sons as a first vehicle in addition because the boys have the buggies it tends to be a responsibility of older Sons in the family who have buggies to provide transportation for their sisters and younger brothers outside City Center Lancaster is largely country roads with speed limits far exceeding that of a single horse I witnessed firsthand the relative speed difference between a buggy and a motor vehicle it's dangerous no doubt and unfortunately numerous accidents have occurred over the years many states have enacted laws such as requiring reflectors and flashers and some have went as far as creating entire manuals for operators to study a few have fought back and among the most conservative cohorts some still use kerosene powered lanterns for headlights regarding the flashers they're typically battery powered as are many of the tools inside this buggy shop you may be aware that most old order Amish do not tie into the power grid this applies that their businesses and homes alike the reasons largely overlap and that is to be less dependent and less connected to Greater Society moreover at home electricity would offer them access to a Litany of technologies that they simply do not want in the house namely TV and internet interestingly batteries weren't always around and it wasn't too long ago the community depended on other forms of power such as propane powered lamps in fact this buggy shop still uses fans powered by compressed air as for tools that batteries simply can't power they depend on diesel generator or propane as both are common at many homes as well but even Amish are going green solar is becoming more and more widely adopted within the community in fact many Amish have gotten into the business themselves and since we're on the topic Wells are widely used for water but we'll get more into equipment at the homestead when we tour an Amish Bishop's property later back at the shop because their service area extends to the outskirts of the county Mike's father hires an Englishman English to the plain Community is any individual who is not their own to pick up and drop off buggies for work they also have a mobile shop where they go on-site to customers homes every Wednesday driven by the English driver this is quite common among both old order Amish and old order Mennonite business owners hiring English for tasks that require a vehicle if you ask any plain Community member how to create a loophole and a directive they'll tell you make it business related nonetheless less there are a lot of rules but we're just getting started at the macro level the rules relating to buggies and electricity Force families to stay local and remain self-reliant if not reliant on each other therefore driving stronger bonds Community is the backbone of their everyday life Mike and I discussed the value of community quite a bit the outside world has nobody that can trust except maybe media family I mean there's a lot of Amish around that don't lock their doors at night or when they go away or whatever we'll go to the store Tire buggy up but it's very rare that anything happens for instance me and one of my friends traveled out to Minnesota here about four or five years ago and we went out with a train and we went through Chicago and when we got in there we kind of wanted to see this year's Tower we met some Amish people from India and I believe we left our luggage with them and went to see the Sears Tower we knew they're Amish and we knew we can trust them it's so ingraining us to be aware of other people to be helped other people rather than just thinking about ourselves there's an elderly couple in our church he has some disabilities he's almost blind and she can't really work and the church supports them pays their household bills pays everything for them so that is your Social Security basically yeah I don't think there's anybody in the community that's going to go hungry the plain Community provides Cradle to grave care for its own they don't have retirement homes instead it's common grandparents live on a smaller adjacent home on the property of one of their children that property may have been their former home which they gifted or sold commonly below market value to one of their married children the Elder generally continue to work as long as their health permits further the community as a whole sees tremendous value in having three generations together on the same property and because they provide a safety net to their own they are exempt from Social Security and Medicare tax provided said members forfeit their right to access these benefits the Elder literally couple Mike mentioned moments ago will continue to receive financial support from the church the church and its fund run largely on voluntary donations or alms from its members which are encouraged to donate about 10 percent of their annual income to the fund but how does the church protect against Free Riders to many Outsiders the financial fund that runs strictly on voluntary donations it just seems right for exploitation why do you believe it works with the Amish in every Church district there is one person that is set up to handle this in our church district has I don't know 30 or 40 families the Deacon in our church is appointed to take care of this you know it's not like everybody has access to this money it's one person out of every district and not only does fund access require approval from the Deacon but because the community is so close knit well you're not going to hide it from your neighbors so we know all our church people on a personal level we can tell how their home life is going we can tell if they're suffering financially guess I could say most of the funds nowadays go towards hospital bills and the playing Community is not immune to Rising health care costs but more and more they are negotiating directly with providers and Hospital groups to provide price transparency to their members and to lower overall costs and they have some advantages and insurance provider doesn't offer such as the fact they pay in cash and in full typically within a week of their visit and if the bills are too great in any one instance the deacons have the discretion to request Community funds which pool from nearby Amish congregations beyond their own and safety net programs aren't the only kind offered within the community there is a older Amish helping hand people can send their money to them and then get interest off of it they invest that or they loan it out to Farmers or people that want to buy a home it's kind of run money Amish now I know we've been with Mike for some time now but there is one more topic that we'll touch on with him and then move on to others and that topic is whether settings when a couple decides to get married the groom informs the Deacon of the church who then formally obtains permission from the bride's parents my sisters get married next week so the customers to visit everybody that was at your wedding that's a lot of people that's a lot of people 400 is generally what gets invited we're getting right into wedding season which is from October to December is full swing and we have 11 weddings in the next month and a half there are some days where there's four or five weddings in the community in a single day yeah weddings are typically held on Tuesdays and Thursdays to create a buffer around Sundays the day of rest outside help is rarely brought in it's more of a community Affair if you catch my drift it's on family and friends to handle setup cooking cleaning Etc there are no wedding gowns veils Rings photographers or florists one might say it's a bit plain and there is no honeymoon at least not in the sense you or I would Envision the bride and groom typically return the next day to help cleanup for the next several weeks the bride and groom pay a number of visits during this time the couple lives at the bride's home until they're ready to move into their own typically the customers to visit everybody and then everybody gives them a gift that's when you do that when you're still living at her parents this is their honeymoon and each time the buggy is full with gifts they unload and continue gifts for the bride are typically something for the home and for the groom something for the barn we've started our household with things that were given to us you basically have the time off to just get to know your wife better and go visit friends and relatives [Music] remember this Mike Falls further to the right of this spectrum this is the side mainstream Society most Associates with the plain community that is to say wearing a straw hat in your horse and buggy tends to be a good giveaway your Amish or are you a Mennonite this is Tony is a Mennonite but he drives a car and has a cell phone well I was raised what I'm going to say is middle of the road Mennonite my parents were raised with a more in a more conservative streak my mom wore a covering and a cape dress when she was a teenager growing up so why talk to Tony well rather than only speaking to the plane community directly why not get another perspective an Insider of sorts who happens to not only live many of the same principles as an anabaptist himself but one who has been around the old order side of the community for years my father's business was he had a truck that had a hammer Mill feed processing equipment on the back of it ever since I was very young if I went with Dad we were spending the most of the day on Amish farms but before we dive into Tony's experiences you might be wondering where does a middle of the road Mennonite Church stand in comparison to its more conservative neighbors there are people that would attend a Mennonite Faith which would have not a problem with a woman Pastor she's called by God she's asqualified as a man given her skill set and there are congregations that would Embrace an alternative lifestyle as well who are we to judge their particular understanding of whether it's their identity their sexuality who are we to say that's definitely wrong you won't have an Amish female Pastor that would be the more conservative side it would definitely say that homosexuality in whatever form is not right we think that's sinful we don't want you negatively influencing our community in that way you need to leave but back to Tony's experiences because of his closeness to the plain Community he's had the opportunity to attend many events such as weddings and church services they take their children to church at an early age there is the expectation that your behavior is going to be like this and you know how kids are impressionable at a young age so they're sitting in church they may not know how to express comprehension that that kid over there looks about my age and that kid is like sitting there all quiet oh all right I guess you know that's the thing to do you know over Sunday after Sunday after Sunday as the children get older and they see their older siblings they see people older than that all behaving in a particular way it's just part of what they learned you will go to Amish church and two-hour service no problems so where does that level of discipline come from at such a young age well Tony spelled it out for us we're all greatly influenced by our environment our peers in other words we learn and adapt from our community and naturally the more conservative ones tend to be less connected with the outside world and therefore more connected and influenced by their own the community is a very important thing to emphasize within the anabaptist end of things the more conservative the group is the more well structured their Community is and to further validate how influential your peers can be Tony shared a recent experience his wife had while aboard a chartered bus from Lancaster full of Amish residents she gets on every her turns and looks at her and some people are nearly glaring at her because they're wondering why are you on our bus the rumor gets started that she must be a relief driver you know for when the other driver gets tired which she is not you're going along with nightfalls without anyone saying anything suddenly the women start taking their cover off because they're not stopping for the night they're just going to sleep on the bus and they all pin them on the on the upholstery the the soundproofing Soft Stuff on the ceiling of the bus and spend time no one says Hey time to time to hit the hay or it makes exaggerated yawns or anything like that just suddenly people are paying attention and suddenly bonnets go up the hats come off well the hats are off already people get blankets out of pillows and silence it's bedtime no one's with a cell phone no one's playing a little little game or anything like that no lights are shining nothing it's quiet and the bus is just rolling down the road and at some point in the pre-dawn darkness someone rustles everyone up at the same time hair gets fixed bonnets put back on and it's just like seamless now before we continue let's clear the air regarding the bus they can't drive a modern vehicle right well they're not driving they're riding okay so the playing Community both old order Amish and old order Mennonites allow the use of modern transportation for certain circumstances as long as they're not in the driver's seat the extreme would be air travel to this day it's rare they fly the exceptions I've heard would be for a medical emergency or a funeral but the community does vacation and there are a variety of private businesses that cater to them because well they don't have a car and won't get on a plane seems pretty simple right for instance there is a private bus that runs twice weekly between Lancaster County and Sarasota County Florida more specifically a community named pinecraft a very popular vacation destination for the greater Amish Mennonite population in addition it's common to travel between communities which if you recall from the map you're not going to get very far with a horse and buggy the bus Tony's wife Road was traveling to a large anabaptist community in rural Wisconsin but what about shorter trips around town or to get to work well the Amish use Uber too have you ever heard of Gogo grandparent while they mostly serve seniors and people with disabilities services like this have become more common within the plain Community because they can order an Uber or Lyft from a landline further when families find a local driver simply someone they can rely on for Local transportation they tend to stick with them many families in the area have relied on the same driver or drivers for decades and there are further exceptions to even being in the passenger seat of the vehicle such as the ultra conservative schwarzen tuber Amish who only use vehicles for emergencies but I digress you'll see this concept of taking advantage of modern technology without owning it in many old order Amish and Mennonite businesses as well I saw some businesses where for example they were in Woodworking and an Amish man would handle all manufacturing but partner with an English man who would handle the call center internet sales and deliveries there was a clear divide in roles and responsibilities but back to Tony I was curious what other experiences he had Through The Years with the plane community and one was particularly moving the tragedy of the nickel mine school shooting was very much of a community coming together you look like you're thinking about it a little bit yeah yeah I knew some of the people [Music] thank you foreign on the morning of October 2nd 2006 an armed man approached a one-room Amish Schoolhouse he ordered all the school-age girls to line up against the wall while letting all adults and later all the boys leave 9-1-1 was dialed and the first state trooper arrived within about seven minutes less than 30 minutes later the man opened fire he shot 10 girls in the end five of which died then as the Troopers made it inside he took his own life the event shook the community to the core not just the Amish but the entire area was shattered it became known locally as the happening but perhaps the most striking part of this atrocity was the response within hours of the shooting a grandfather of one of the victims was imploring others stating quote we must not think evil of this man the shooter's mother immediately thought to move far far away instead members of the Amish community showed up at her home and not only asked her to stay but stated that she too was grieving the loss of a child but it didn't stop there several Amish parents including victims parents showed up at the shooter's funeral and offered condolences to his family the response was so overwhelming that it sparked a national debate with supporters expressing their admiration for the community's willingness to forgive while critics claimed they took the pardon too far what was it about the Amish and their faith that called for this kind of response they asked the father one of these girls how can you forgive for what was done and he said I don't forgive because I feel like forgiving I'm commanded by the Lord to forgive because he asked us to forgive and pray for our enemies he goes his love and forgiveness is not based on feeling it's based on the act of the will this is Gary a retired Methodist Pastor whose church at the time overlapped with the communities of the victims in fact many of Gary's church members were close with many of the victims families some of the members of my church grew closer to them as well through that time Julie and I talked to the wife of that man who shot those little girls and you're saying you spoke to shooter's wife yeah and she said the reason why she believed he had such anger and hostility toward his little girls is that he never got over the fact they lost a little girl they had a little girl that died he never forgave God for taking his daughter away from him she told us that the Amish had asked her to get in touch with her husband's mother to help take care of the one of the daughters that survived the shooting so they asked the man's mother the shooters shooter's mother to come help take care of their one daughter they invited her into their home she lived and survived but she was handicapped if they forgive and they love that makes them different and that makes people wake up and say what's that about them that makes them different the so-called Mosaic law was we don't retaliate worse than what's been given to us but Jesus took it even lot further and says don't like not only are you not to retaliate against evil done against you you return with love and not not evil human beings are very emotional and you can't rely on trust in your feelings so they decide to follow God's word and by following God's word true to their faith the Amish put their emotions aside with responses like Gary mentioned moments ago from a victim's father and I quote love and forgiveness is not based on feeling it's based on the act of the will this is so ingrained as a foundational principle of their faith to not just follow God's word but by following God's word to sacrifice modern conveniences and limit contemporary integration into mainstream Society all in the name of their faith because is for others to witness their faith they have to see it the Bible says too they'll see our witness and they want to know what it is about us that makes us different and then they ask us what it is about us that makes our faith different than the world we live in further I asked a young Amish man what he thought about mainstream society and what we could learn from the Amish this was his response we can all be Amish and of course he would respond this way because if we were all Amish then they wouldn't be different to be clear different doesn't mean better or worse or above or below it's just different what's more there was a phrase that came up repeatedly during my interactions and that was be in the world not of the world but to really make sense of this we need to go back to when it All Began 16th century Europe during the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther an outspoken teacher and monk challenged the Catholic Church's teachings Luther's dissension spurred several other movements among those were anabaptists they believed baptism as an adult was necessary for one to understand the commitment and membership he or she consciously accepts as non-conformists they believed in separation of church and state and refused to support or accept military service the Catholic Church didn't like this and many were persecuted imprisoned and tortured among the most notorious being Dirk Williams as a Dutch anabaptist Dirk was thrown into prison for his beliefs he escaped one night running across a frozen pond where his pursuer a guard fell through the ice Dirk turned around to help him and was later sentenced to be burned alive at the stake Dirk went on to be one of the most notorious Martyrs in the anabaptist faith forgiving and sacrificial love are deeply rooted in the faith and Many religious Scholars point to this practice among others as to why the Amish forgave and welcomed that Shooter's family into their homes and lives but back for a moment to the history a Catholic priest named meno Simmons diverged from the church and created a framework for a new Brotherhood his followers being called menists or Mennonites and as with many divisions more followed among them a man by the name of Jacob Amin amen's followers became known as Amish menonites or Amish perhaps this can explain why separatism with not just mainstream Society exists today but differences between communities as well Martin Luther meno Simmons Jacob Amin they all have a desire to break away it's the foundation of the plain community's faith for example just months prior to this publishing in October 2022 schwarzen Trooper Amish in Ohio refused to put blinking lights on their buggies per a new state law because it was quote too worldly diverging from many other Amish settlements that have accepted such safety requirements further evangelizing is not a part of Amish Doctrine as outward preaching would be considered prideful it is however common within some Mennonite factions to most though the phrase actions speak rather than words or in their lexicon just love your life and let people see the Life of Christ in you is more akin to their MO riding a buggy down a country road with overalls and a three-inch brimmed hat makes one different your curiosity in their way of life and your exploration of that is their way of preaching or projecting to the world their belief system this is their medium of evangelism and you're only further validating your interest by watching this documentary right now this is their application of being in the world but not of the world they are living the gospel but let's continue on with our timeline while persecution continued in Europe across the Atlantic William Penn was busy creating a framework for Religious Freedom and tolerance dubbed the holy experiment in the colony of Pennsylvania many on the other side heard and the migrations began first with Mennonites in the 1600s and Amish in the 1700s and to this day many division continue I don't agree with you and there's other people that think similar to me okay we're gonna go leave and start a new community and that's why you have so many of these different play Mennonite Amish beachy Mennonite John Martin Mennonite and then you have the more Progressive Mennonites ever since we've escaped persecution in Europe with these dividing off into sex has been part of our DNA and at least in Greater Lancaster this is far more common among the Mennonites than the Amish and this brings us to Jill in Lancaster County you would call me a progressive Mennonite so why so much division in short it comes down to different interpretations of the faith the more Progressive there's a understanding of it's not a bunch of do's and don'ts that it's more wanting to really live out your theology in a way that's not just a bunch of rule keeping it's not about the fact that this is the way we dress differently that doesn't make us Mennonite or that's not what our theology is all about showing difference in outward appearance the result of differing in ever-evolving interpretations cause many to leave their congregation and join either a more liberal or more conservative one depending on their preferences a lot of people who went to my church grew up Mennonite left I've attended this church for almost 32 years no one else is there that was there when my husband and I started attending when we were early married [Music] thank you [Music] foreign as a more Progressive Mennonite Jill not only attended public school but is currently pursuing her Masters she drives a car and does not follow a strict dress code and then there is the other end of the spectrum plain Mennonites similar to Old order Amish they ride a horse and buggy and prefer not to pose on camera for most of the viewers out there as Tony mentioned earlier it would likely be difficult for you to tell the difference between they and the old order Amish meet this man who will call James please as an old order Mennonite he preferred not to be identified we started our evening by milking the cows with his children as everything becomes more modern there's less and less physical labor We Believe boys especially and girls growing up they need to stay occupied there's too much idle time nowadays milking the cows is a twice daily routine and in talking with several parents I learned they view it as an opportunity to build responsibility early on with their children further being on the farm teaches them about the cycle of life on a farm you have this cycle you know some of these animals become sick and die there's people in the world that don't want to take their children to a funeral of another person they don't want them to see death well it's a fact of life and if you see it on a farm in an animal it might prepare you more if if they see it in people would you have that conversation with your we do in our circles if it's relatives or family or friends why we take them but it's not just the livestock drive through Lancaster County and you will quickly learn Gardens are everywhere the obvious benefit is producing your own food but James likes his children to each have their own garden further many of his eight children have their own dog to care for again responsibility they're under the dirt they're just freshly planted this summer a neck pumpkin I think they call it it's not mature yet and while touring the garden the girls rode by several times on their very own buggy a mini version with a pony this is a typical summer evening for James's family milking the cows caring for the garden riding the buggy and when the Sun goes down a bonfire large families have a lot of fun on a farm it's a pretty regular thing to have a campfire and we gather around there in the backyard and roast hot dogs and marshmallows and create memories as a Mennonite James does tie into the power grid unlike many Amish but he and the family still have no cell phone no TVs and therefore no video games interestingly he didn't mind if the kids were on camera because they're not technically members of the church this is a position many plain adults take hence why it's not uncommon children are photographed frequently with little parental objection but we'll get more into church membership later James and I finished the evening with a buggy ride it's a metal shoe to keep the hoof from wearing down and you're steering him with these yeah this is how I control him these are the headlights in the front and this is a turn signal or discussion continued Around Church structure we're all one Community here there's 11 Church houses in this Valley here probably about 80 to 100 families there Richard you can go to any church Any Sunday you want it's worth noting this is a bit different than Amish churches of course like much of the information here there can still be a lot of variance between regions Amish churches are broken down into districts with about 30 to 40 families each further every district is led by a bishop above the district is the settlement settlements are made up of several districts think of it like the district is the city and the settlement is the county at different scales of course twice per year is communion where Bishops within a settlement get together to discuss Collective rules and practices generally speaking agreements as to Common practices are made the idea is to make decisions collectively and fairly across a widespread area but Bishops do as Mike mentioned previously have the discretion to slightly alter codes in their District now I've stated Amish churches numerous times but the Amish don't actually have Standalone churches like Mennonites Amish families within their respective districts rotate hosting church at their homes more specifically the bar in your basement Services typically held every other Sunday it takes a lot of preparation to host your entire church district and it's not uncommon days before and after are spent preparing and cleaning up a special buggy called the benchwagon is used to transport Necessities to hold service such as benches among other things you might be wondering why the Amish hosts in homes well it goes back to the early days and the Amish community I think they try to live the way the early church lived during a time of extreme paganism and a lot of idol worship and they were being persecuted for worshiping God only sometimes they had to worship God in secret and in modern times it serves as another opportunity to reinforce to its members how important the home is to your faith by defining it as a place of worship and speaking of worship we're heading to an Amish Bishop's property next I met The Bishop's neighbor Walter foreign friend of the family the bishop would only talk to me off camera but with his Blessing Walter took me around the farm and the barn this field will have corn maybe three maybe four years in a row and then they'll rotate it to something else and all of this is what feeds their animals moments ago we touched on some differences in church structure between Amish and Mennonites while the same applies to equipment you have to hook up four mules with their harness and then hook them up to whatever piece of Machinery he wants to use so he's up at 4 30 in the morning has breakfast later on after he milks the cows he'll go back out and work in the field this is all towed yeah that's tobacco up there I was talking to him about two in the afternoon he says boy I'm a little tired today he said I wonder why this is one of numerous examples where the Amish choose to perform a manual process despite modern conveniences this chart from Wikipedia touches on several pieces of Farm and Home equipment among other things that have varying levels of permissibility between Amish affiliations it serves as an additional illustration around the complexities of the faith one size fits all not in these circles James as an old order Mennonite will use tractors but the tractors need to have steel plates outfitted to the tires why to discourage a church member from using the tractor beyond the field such as for the store as opposed to a buggy and as it relates to short form Transportation James and his family use bicycles as do many old order Mennonites Amish at least in Lancaster still use push Shooters before we move on from the tour one more topic we'll cover and that is milking why because again it is far more manual here if you recall with James machines and electronic devices were everywhere not here they get the milk in buckets full then they climb up here and pour it in there here's what they put the milk in and they carry it jug by jug yep if you didn't know already cows need to be milked every day not doing so can be harmful to their health so seven days a week the bishop and members of the family which by the way includes 31 grandchildren must milk the cows that includes Sunday which is a day of rest but exceptions are made for the cows they don't know any better having said that the actual milk pickup is to be avoided on Sundays if possible as that is considered a business transaction with many of the most conservative requesting their milk to be picked up Saturday evenings as you can see rule keeping is a part of the lifestyle but what happens when some of the modern conveniences so many of us are accustomed to are provided to a plain Community member meet Carl the way you did things the way you dressed maybe the mode of transportation would have been different than where I'm at today Carl was born into an old order Mennonite family so what happened we were kind of on the edge of the community both physically and maybe somewhat otherwise as well right after they were married dad would have been drafted during Vietnam War so he took Co conscientious objector and so they served two years in Allentown working in a home for both older people and children with disabilities and lived in the city I think for two people coming off a rural Farm being dumped into the middle of the city I think they experienced stuff they might not have otherwise and I think it opened their world a couple of things one non-violence or pacifism is as we know an anabaptist principle anabaptists will follow the law as long as the law does not violate their faith if it's the latter they will object as Carl's father did and serve an approved alternate position two Carl was a particularly interesting case because his sister to this day remains old order married with a husband and eight children being that Carl has embraced so many modern conveniences I was curious what he thought about the old order way of life today they're trying to evaluate things as they come out and saying is this good is it not good does it help our community does it not help our community whereas probably most times in in the circles I would be in we just oh cool new smartphone let's see what we can do I don't think some of their Traditions are necessary but yet I think I probably as I've gotten older I can see the value more than I did at 18. if you don't have a screen in your house well then you don't have to worry about trying to control it although Carl left the farm and embraced a different lifestyle many choose not to do you ever think where your life would be now if you didn't grow up in the Mennonite Community I have often thought of that but I was satisfied being a farmer's wife my sisters say they would never want the life I have five o'clock you milk the cows and 5 30 in the evening you milk the cows it's very um structured I just feel like I made a commitment that I'm married to him and I'll help him you know I'm supposed to be his help mate and serving as a help mate is a role she who will call Mary embraced from a young age we were raised that the man is the head of the house so when my dad said something you know that's how it was going to be we couldn't ask well why well when dad said so that's how it was it was nothing to question so then when the woman wears her veil she is honoring Authority that's how I was taught and to this day Mary wears a veil now head coverings vary because of so many nuances I'll just highlight a few Lancaster old order Amish women wear heart-shaped bonnets because jewelry such as wedding rings are not worn a head covering can serve to indicate marital status in a female married Amish men grow beards unmarried do not both Amish and Mennonite men do not grow mustaches as they associate them with military service with clothing colors are limited and at least in Lancaster Mennonite women are permitted to wear patterns while Amish are relegated to strictly solid colors Sunday attire across the board is more formal and within certain sex rules can be even more obscure for example the yellow top buggy Byler Amish where only one suspender so why the rules like others they represent modesty and Oneness within the community and as it relates to home life roles would be considered normatively traditional divorce at least in conservative households is virtually non-existent nor is it even an option in most cases contraceptives are rarely used in conservative homes and children are seen as God's Gift following the biblical edict to be fruitful and multiply six to eight children seems to be the most common range per household in some saying families are large would be an understatement I have 45 cousins on the one side and 45 cousins on the other side so you have 90 cousins nine zero yes and what about education a two-room Amish schools where I went let's just say we just got to eighth grade that was it well you had okay she had fourth through eighth in one room and then the other room had first through third so while she was teaching these you were supposed to be doing your homework or reading one or two room School houses are still very common in the conservative sex of both the Amish and Mennonite Faith many school houses will be comprised of both as the two communities are fairly interwoven in fact it wasn't too long ago English children shared the same schools when the general public still utilized such schoolhouses Pennsylvania Dutch is generally spoken in homes and it's not until children attend school they are formally taught the English language conservatives as Mary mentioned teach only to eighth grade they also have a different curriculum than public schools both tenants were fought and taken all the way to the Supreme Court in Wisconsin versus Yoder where the Court ruled in favor of the Amish the Amish objected to higher education because the values quote are in marked variants with Amish values and the Amish way of life they view secondary school education as an impermissible exposure of their children to a worldly influence in conflict with their beliefs the plane Community doesn't see degrees the same way you or I might for what we do we don't consider a diploma very important we consider it important to educating spiritual things and faith and to mature and make wise decisions in life we're not against people that educate obviously we're glad there's doctors and dentists and so and they obviously have to take schooling right following eighth grade many will pick up a job within the community by learning a trade or supporting a local business but getting back to Mary I asked if she ever had a desire to go back to school and she proceeded to share a story in 1996 we had a barn fire but nobody was hurt so we were thankful we didn't lose any animals or anything lost equipment which can be replaced and the community came and we built our barn and it was like that's why I wouldn't want to move out of my community the fire was on the 12th of October the 20th we had a barn raising the barn was finished by that night I mean we had like 200 people here for a meal there was a neighbor that used us their vacation home from Queens New York they were the type of people everybody needs college education so that day they came and they said well we changed our mind on the education thing because these people have a bit taught more than what any school can teach you it was amazing I will never even get to know everybody Barn raisings are a long-standing tradition that are still quite common in the plain Community barns are not typically insured at least not how you or I may insure a barn their neighbors are their insurance policy and you pay the premium by helping someone else rebuild such actions are referred to as frolics and the barn raising is a beautiful example of the mutual Aid readily provided but it's not limited to Barn raisings adding in addition to your home relocating to the other side of town whatever it is you can depend on the assistance and many here don't just volunteer to help with cleanup but to prevent the barn from burning down in the first place well it's windy today this just monitors all of Lancaster County so this is down in the southern end I'm a captain at the Riverland Valley fire company and one of my brothers also a member there coming up in 20 years this is Anthony Anthony grew up riding a horse in buggy and transitioned to a more liberal Mennonite church only a few years ago the biggest reason was oftentimes during the day not have uh drivers to get the rigs out so we'd have plenty of Manpower but no driver because of the conservative volunteers now since I have a license I can be that asset to actually drive the fire truck I'm just imagining so January night snowing and you get a call you're telling me that there are a team of conservative men getting on their bicycles they either run to the Firehouse ride a bike or a scooter I mean that's those are some of the nodes so you know getting there and with 70 to 80 percent of the volunteers at Anthony's fire department being horse and buggy conservatives his ability to drive the fire truck has become invaluable but getting back to Anthony meet his wife we are what they call the Black Bomb black bumper Mennonites otherwise known as horning Mennonites are a division of Mennonites that Embrace select modern conveniences such as a motor vehicle the name originated when years ago this sect would purchase all black Vehicles then paint over the factory installed chrome bumpers as a representation of modesty ironically and Anthony and I chuckled over this in contemporary times an all-black vehicle may be viewed by many as less modest however like many Traditions these practices are carried on you might have noticed the produce they were packing up farming allows the community to live a level of independence from the world similar to how many Amish do not connect to the power grid in addition like the buggies they believe believe it helps maintain a slower pace of life this particular packing was in preparation for an auction auctions are a long-standing tradition within the faith and serve as an opportunity for the mainstream world and the plain world to interact in a way rarely seen Elsewhere for example it's not uncommon nowadays to see plain folks on cell phones it may be a flip phone or a smartphone with limited capabilities but it's a recent development and exceptions are made because they are used strictly for business purposes typically that cell phone will not live in the home or be shut off upon a rival home in fact I met one buyer who's been coming here for years and recalled the days when phone booths were still common if Ethan needed to get a hold of me he'd call me on Wednesday at seven o'clock and I knew that meant he was at their farm at that designated time and that's when he would make all his calls these booths otherwise known as phone boxes have been used by the plane Community for decades and are deliberately placed outside the home commonly at the end of driveways as many were shared among neighbors by positioning them outside the home it not only made using the phone An Inconvenient activity thereby discouraging its use but also minimize the disruption of family life but back to the auctions they come in a variety of forms from fundraisers to equipment to produce arriving here shortly after Sunrise I was in awe dozens of farmers traveling down every which path in all modes of transportation from tractors to push scooters to bicycles to mules for many this is a family activity requiring a lot of preparation mud sales traditionally held in late winter and early spring as the ground thawed underneath them hence the name were and still are a messy and fun tradition drawing large crowds and being that Lancaster county is the most productive non-irrigated Farmland in all of the U.S produces everything here Springtime you have flowers for Mother's Day summer is fruits and vegetables and Autumn brings pumpkins like a lot of pumpkins buyers too travel far and wide to participate there's people from New York City here there's people from Ohio opportunities like this are fiscally vital to many sellers particularly in the fall as the Harvest wraps up before winter during my visit I connected with a few small businesses that have been regulars for years such as Pete who recently have an issue with some produce he purchased from an Amish gentleman they gave me the Grower's name he was an Amish guy and I called him up and he's like oh he says thank you so much for telling me that he said he said I'll bring you the money tomorrow and you know I really appreciate you telling me about those watermelons and uh you know it's just like the the opposite of what you would think it's a great business to be in to work with guys like that we feel like Facebook makes us accountable but the bishop makes them accountable Beyond Pete I spoke to other buyers that shared his sentiment they prefer working with Amish and Mennonite sellers because they feel they're honest and stand by their product [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] despite the economic influence farming has in Lancaster like many rural regions of the US it's not immune to urban sprawl with the population growing it's forced many in the plain Community to venture into other businesses such as Furniture production construction and quilt making it's not to say these trades are new but they're growing in popularity as many shift away from traditional farming moreover The Limited utilization of advanced farming equipment puts the plain community at a competitive disadvantage but one growing industry that might surprise you is tourism if you ask the plain Community many would say they have a love-hate relationship with tourism particularly in Lancaster County the area serves as a hub with many businesses such as Mike's buggy shop shipping their products to other settlements because of the long-standing infrastructure here for such production therefore when Outsiders think of visiting the Amish or Mennonites where better to go than Lancaster it's truly an industry here with tours food food and experience is abound so why love hate well tourism brings money however that inherently results in more interaction with the outside world something the plain Community would like to limit so it puts them in a difficult situation I visited one such family in the area they used to have a farm but found tourism to be far more profitable and today the farm is used solely to provide tourists with the experience of visiting an Amish farm that experience being feeding animals riding in a carriage and roaming the property during my time there I got to catch up with a father and son both old order Amish and both preferring to remain anonymous we'll call the father Dave and the son Sean foreign ly interested to hear how their peers received their new business model this is a family that on a daily basis has dozens if not hundreds of English as they'd call them immersing themselves in the plain world that's a lot of interaction for a cohort of people that attempt to limit such activity if you're part of the community that loves you and you love the community it's not hard to make some sacrifices because you're part of that and you have respect for but someone has a real big problem with it I would consider going a different route or let's recap for a moment here this is a family that has found financial success in illustrating their lifestyle and yet they'd be willing to give it all up if it offended their church members how many of your neighbors would give up their business if it offended you influences driving decisions here go far beyond the walls of the home church membership is a multi-faceted commitment as Gary the retired Pastor explains they're not just committing their life to Jesus they're committing their life to one another to being accountable to each other and to help each each other in their time of needs that's why the Amish community is out there to help them and so when a marriage is under pressure it's not just the nuclear family that is at risk it's the entire community that will step in to support if you have community and it's a big help to keeping that commitment the phrase it takes a village to raise a child here is taken to heart but let's talk about the adult baptism a principle that is crucial to the plain Community Sean is 19 years old and he's yet to be baptized as I mentioned with James previously until you are baptized you are not technically a member of the church and you need to be a member in order to marry it's an interesting period in the old order Amish life that begins in the mid-teens a period called Rumspringa directly translated as running around rumspring offers adolescents the opportunity to experience the world and all of its vices as they may say so how do you find your soulmate most people end up dating someone in their youth group and what's the purpose of the youth group The Social Network away from everything else for our own youth away from other influences that come with joining youth otherwise but perhaps the more interesting part of this phase in life is the autonomy this is a stage in life when the youth are largely free of church rules and depending on the community in many cases free from parental supervision as well further Amish teens are allowed to have a cell phone drive a car use social media and attend events outside the community this period will effectively continue until the individual either joins the church gets married which would require joining the church or leaves the Amish way of life altogether no strings attached but the moment he or she joins the church those rules are reinstated effectively in perpetuity you're 19 and we talk off camera you have a cell phone yeah you have a driver's license I do yeah you don't have a vehicle I don't but if you decided tomorrow I'm going to join the church then for the rest of your life your phone goes away you never ever drive a car no especially not drive a car and the duration of time one is in a youth group varies so widely Sean said some will join the church before they're 20 even before finding a partner others like Mike from the buggy shop didn't join the church until he got married at 26 and his sister didn't join until 29 when she got married regarding finding a partner it's quite traditional in that the boy virtually always asks the girl out often this might start with offering her a ride home on Sunday evening after youth group they may date for years before he proposes and it's worth stating the Amish date with purpose we don't generally date just for dating if a guy asks a girl for a date he generally has marriage in mind now it doesn't always happen I was dating twice before but our courtship generally is mentally to marriage now I mentioned a moment ago leaving the Amish with no strings attached that is certainly the process in theory but in practice it's going to vary widely for example I posed this question to Dave should one of his children want to leave after a while that we did our job and tell you what's important I'm hoping that they make good choices choices that are based on God's word and I can't keep under my wings forever and that is one position another more extreme one may be a parent telling a child if you leave then don't come back again you will see tremendous variance simply between different households just like in mainstream Society parental choices of one household may be vastly different than others and what happens if you leave after your adult baptism well then it goes well beyond your family and involves the church if someone leaves a church after they are baptized they're put in the ban as we call it it's actually a scriptural they wouldn't be allowed to eat with us or to have direct dealings with us I mean we can talk to them we can treat them like normal people but we're not supposed to take anything off of them or eat with them in some it's a major commitment with consequences should one and leave after joining the church and that's why the decision is not taken lightly and why the youth groups play such a pivotal role in this process it's effectively the Elder saying go out there experience the world get it out of your system and return home and the vast majority do return home the stats are difficult to verify but from the many I spoke to estimates are that 80 to 90 percent return and join the church for life why such an impressive number at one point during production I met a 27 year old old order Mennonite female she wouldn't speak on camera but shared with me her story of leaving home traveling experimenting with drugs only to come to the conclusion that to her there is nothing good the world has to offer that she can't experience at home when I met her she was wearing plain clothing sweeping her driveway with seemingly not a worry at all of course everyone will have a different experience but the popular opinion seems to align with her and that is the vices of Greater Society only take away from their true faith in God and while are those vices well this is again going to vary widely between social groups just like in high school some clicks will just say were more rambunctious than others some Amish teens do indulge in mind-altering substances and even sean acknowledged premarital sex although strictly forbidden and rare does happen among the youth in fact organizations have been set up to help specifically as it relates to substance abuse among the population but overall youth groups are full of more wholesome activities such as Sports board games and singing and it's worth mentioning there are definitely limits in what the youth can do during this period for example Sean's father Dave limits what websites he can explore on his phone in many more liberal Mennonite churches where mobile phones are permitted at any age this process is a bit more sophisticated would leadership either consensually limiting or monitoring phones of its members with tools similar to what employers may use on company devices all this is to say the Traditions live on [Music] hahaha [Music] many in mainstream Society believe as modern technology continues to advance that more members of the plain Community would leave but that doesn't appear to be the case with retention rates remaining extremely high and families averaging six to eight children the population has continued to grow rapidly since their arrival to the United States well over 100 years ago and very few do the reverse that is going from mainstream to plane almost all the growth is from within and as the population grows their footprint continues to expand in the United States and Beyond often this is out of necessity with areas such as Lancaster County Land carrying such a premium that members particularly Farmers have no choice but to move elsewhere with growing settlements in States like Virginia and New York and others choose to leave out of choice either because of disagreements with their church or simply because families want to be further isolated from the influence is a mainstream society and those influences are undesirable by many for example Mike and I discussed the influences of social media today did you have access to social media when you had your cell phone I did I was on Instagram and Facebook I guess the way I look at social media was intended for people to form a community or find a friend or whatever but in this day and it doesn't work that way because social media has become all about yourself it actually has caused a greater Communication Breakdown social media cell phones people being able to text each other rather than talking you know as these children grow up they have a smartphone in their hands from the time they're on a high chair those children are never going to learn communication they're never going to learn to get along with people that's where Society is just losing out you guys don't want any part of it we don't it's an interesting perspective we're in Mike's World accountability in one's actions is inevitable there is no anonymity if you mistreat or deceive a neighbor a business associate or a friend chances are your entire church is going to find out in many instances on social media that's just not the case there's people from all around the world on there that can bully people and mock people and belittle people and nobody knows who this person is I used to watch a lot of YouTube videos on horses and there's a lot of mean comments about horses on YouTube people that have no idea about horses maybe never even saw a horse and I think it's cruel that we're working these animals and that can leave nasty comments on these videos they're not really getting any repercussions from them except maybe more nasty comments back you know on the same video from somebody else that doesn't think the way that is and it's not just fear of punishment it's the impact of your harmful decisions and the undue influence on others not just today but for future Generations the communities are so close-knit that what if I do this and somebody else sees it and they're like it can be like if you screw up then why does that mean for somewhere else the way we think generally speaking is we're responsible for our actions and we're going to be held responsible for them if not now once we die it's not just the here now it's generations to come this is why as technology continues to advance in many cases it actually discourages people from leaving the plain Community because of the fear of what these advances will do for instance while we were milking the cows with James my cell phone rang James and I were mid-conversation and I stepped out to answer the phone when I came back James pointed out he's never owned a cell phone and when he is engaged in a conversation with someone and their phone rings and they step away to answer what does that say about their relationship its interactions like this that at least I can say I hadn't even thought about prior to producing this a few days later I approached an Amish girl on a farm probably in her early 20s I said I'm making a documentary and she interrupted and said what's a documentary technology to them serves little Positive Purpose what's important to them above all is community faith and simplicity the world sees things differently they see a reputation and titles titles don't mean anything to God how many degrees you have or we put prizes at home family and the property family is everything to them the people on this Farm probably don't other than going to the hardware store or something probably only go out twice a week and they will be the first to admit they fall short we have our own issues of course put it this way if you're true to your faith when you lie you confess and you make Corrections and you try to do better none of us are perfect we're human just like everybody else there's good ones and there's bad ones and when they fall short violations are not taken lightly as a population they have to continually interpret the influences of mainstream Society do they Embrace or resist suffice to say by the time this documentary is published it's very possible the Bishops have already modified their governing rules foreign [Music] I think the outside world looks at the way that you live and thinks that it's far too restrictive especially in a country that Prides itself on being we feel living God's laws creates Freedom a different kind of freedom and mental Freedom Americans Pride themselves in their freedom but many of them are in bondage not they're afraid they're living in fear of all these shootings it's not freedom you run a business that has English people coming here six days a week you're learning about your livestock knowing that I'm making these documentary is there anything else that you would want the outside world to know about you and by you that could be in your community that maybe isn't being communicated in the daily visits by outside in a simple nutshell the way me and my wife raise our children is we do this way to honor Lord to deny yourself the pleasures of the world people as a sacrifice every day I don't feel the sacrifice every day I think it's a privilege it's a privilege to restrict yourself uh yeah some people they can't grasp it people that don't have the spirit they will never understand [Music] we believe there's a day coming where God will reveal himself and judge the world according to how they lived and what about us or those that didn't prepare we always have a next Call of the next pleasure but if you have a mindset not to do that you're free of that what is freedom how does freedom Define you everybody has fancies or discipline everybody it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter if you're president United States just an illustration I put it on around the fencing for it all she knows what the fence is and she doesn't come here some dogs are going to attest that fan service the Lord said well my people will be strange in the world that's okay friends we're so different from the outside world it's hard to stand here and explain to somebody how the Amish work because if you've done something since you were a baby and you never had thought about it you've been all these years and then somebody starts asking questions about it you have to really stop and think about some of this stuff why do we do it why is it this way it's just how we've been taught [Music] I don't know if you know the podcast I heard overnight fancy pattern on the on the seats this is like the leather upgrade for cars you do we were taught satisfied with what you have could always be poor ER than what you are so glass half full yeah and that glass is milk you're working till 738 I should be working once a night I should be cashing my pigs so if I wasn't standing in your driveway for the last two hours talking to you guys on Saturday night you'd be castrated [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Our Story TV

Views: 452,338

Keywords: documentary, amish, mennonite, fulldocumentary

Id: FwL_evg5z1I

Length: 80min 23sec (4823 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023