Ten EXCEPTIONS to Amish Rules

[Music] there are certain things or beliefs that essentially all Amish uh agree on for example things like not doing business on Sunday or wearing plain clothing of some kind or not fighting in wars being non-resistant these are things that pretty much all Amish across the board are going to have as part of their core uh tradition belief culture but then there are the exceptions but that doesn't mean that these groups with exceptions aren't Amish they just have a little different way of doing things so let's take a look at 10 things that certain Amish do differently from most other Amish number one church meeting houses so the vast majority of Amish are going to hold Church worship service at their homes and that could be in a large space like a basement uh it could be in a workshop that's been cleared out and you know you have a place for the church benches to be set up uh it could even be in a barn or another structure on the property the Amish generally do not build Church buildings however there is a small minority of Amish who do build church meeting houses one example of such a community would be the group at Somerset County Pennsylvania this is actually the second oldest Amish community in the country they're quite a small group but they do have a number of meeting houses there and that's a tradition that they've had for many years so most Amish believe that a church structure is unnecessary and that's why they use pre-existing spaces that they already have but there are some Amish who through their history through their culture they developed in a different direction and those are still Amish they just do things a little different way Number Two Beards so where do we find exceptions when it comes to beards the common perception is that Amish begin growing a beard once they've gotten married so if you see an Amish male who doesn't have a beard that's an indication that he's not married and in most places that is the case but some Churches have a different custom for example some Amish young men start growing a beard at baptism others will grow a beard after marriage and moving into their own home and you'll also see Amish that are unmarried that have beards the custom being that they would start growing a beard after reaching a certain age for example the age of 40 so in some cases even unmarried Amish are going to sport a beard number three public electricity so the vast majority of Amish will still reject any connection to the electric grid however there's a small minority group of Amish I maybe a percent two% of all Amish probably not even that uh known as The Electric New Order Amish who do permit Public Power connections uh to their homes okay so that would differ from most all other Amish who are going to be using other sources of power in their homes often battery power um but for lighting and things like that many Amish will use fossil fuels uh kerosene uh Napa liquid propane other fuels you can check out the video I did on that topic for more additionally in some communities there have been some exceptions made for uh Public Power to business structures that are owned by Amish business people so you'll see that in some of the more Progressive communities that's if it's not the home uh but you know you may be operating like a even like a tourist business where you need to have Public Power then it might be okay to have a connection to the business or in some cases Amish businesses might lease a building that's owned by a non-amish person that has Public Power connected to it but that's the businesses number four the slow moving vehicle triangle now most Amish uh buggies are going to carry this triangle as a safety feature however among the very plainest Amish there are still groups who reject this Insignia or symbol or whatever you want to call it and sometimes that's the OB objection where they'll say that well this is a man-made symbol or it's a very showy bright symbol that we don't want to have on our bugies some Amish profess that they just want to trust in God and when it's their time it's their time uh the best known group that rejects the slow-moving vehicle triangle is known as the source and troper Amish number five the camera now it's pretty commonly known that Amish do not pose for photographs however if you you know look around and you will find Amish that are seem to be perfectly comfortable posing for the camera uh for example here's an interview with an Amish man named Joseph Yoder which he did for an Illinois television station talking about Amish beliefs I've seen photographs of Amish on numerous occasions where they were clearly posing for the camera the objection there is that posing for photos is a sign of pride in the individual not all Amish necessarily are going to grief agree with that uh you know some Amish do of course pose for their identification cards children of course is another story Amish tend to be more permissive about children in photographs and you know in general certain more Progressive churches maybe more accepting of the camera as well number six alcohol generally the Amish do not consume large amounts of alcohol however there are examples of communities where alcohol use larger quantities and even abuse is not unheard of not uncommon necessarily uh and that would be not just among youth but also among even adults in some cases uh so you know a lot of Amish will maybe consume some alcohol like homemade wine for you know Health purposes wine is consumed in most Amish churches for the communion service um but it's not um it's not I wouldn't call the Amish like a heavy drinking culture in any way but of course there are exceptions to that and you'll see that in some communities number seven raising tobacco now most Amish farmers do not raise tobacco however in the community at Lancaster County and some of its spin-off settlements uh it there is a long-standing tradition of raising tobacco that's not the only community that does it but that's probably the best known one uh and other Amish uh you know some other Amish speak out against this this practice but for those Amish especially in lanaster County where Farmland is so expensive it's an important cash crop number eight no hired drivers so this is an exception because most Amish will hire drivers for longer distance travel for example if you need to you know travel to a wedding out of state maybe your brother or your cousin is getting married two states over you can't you know can't get there by buggy uh there's also regular hiring of drivers for situations where you have a a job site that's out of bugging distance so you know some Amish that work in Pennsylvania dutch markets that may be an hour drive away they need to hire someone for that uh another classic example would be Amish Builders now they they're probably going to have someone on the payroll who drives them to uh you know job site and back um and you also hire drivers for large shopping trips for example large trips to you know grocery stores to Costco to Walmart but uh one part one group in particular does not permit hiring drivers for those kinds of things and that would be the schortz and triber Amish so uh that's more just for a emergency situation in those cases if source and trer Amish want to travel long distances and of course they have the same networks where they have communities and contacts in different states you know far far distances they're going to travel by train or by Greyhound bus typically okay and then figure it out from there number nine uh I call this an exception uh it's volunteer firefighting and this is a tradition or a practice that's seen I would say primarily in Lancaster County uh also some of its sister settlements of heavy Amish participation in the local volunteer firefighting companies uh in and these are these are small community firehouses that are located throughout Lancaster County and even Beyond it um in you know lot of the makeup of those volunteer forces are are Amish or minites are plain people and that's something that's been going on a long time this is what the the mud sales if you've ever heard of those those auctions generate a lot of money for the annual budget for those firehouses now this tradition of volunteer firefighting it's not really something I've seen much of outside of that sort of Lancaster County in that Circle uh of Amish though I mean I'm not saying it doesn't exist but uh this is an example of Civic involvement that's common in this group and you know not to uh just not the same tradition in other places finally number 10 Assurance of Salvation now most Thomas do not profess Assurance of Salvation uh a certainty of knowing uh you know where your where your soul will be when you die uh to give a very a crud description of of the belief but um most Amish will hold what they might call a Living Hope of Salvation uh however the there's a certain group within the Amish known as the New Order Rish churches which do profess this belief of assurance of Salvation and you may also see this belief popping up in in some other churches as well or sympathy toward this belief uh in churches that are not New Order churches so there you have 10 exceptions to Common Amish belief custom tradition in seen in different communities uh those would all be minority practices those churches who do those things are still Amish uh there are just different ways of being Amish these are exceptions to rules exceptions to Norms however you want to call it uh I think it's one of the things that makes you know Amish Society uh very interesting it's there's not you know there are things that unite Amish I met mentioned some of those things at the beginning of the video but there are also a lot of things that have developed in different ways and just reflects the diversity across Amish Society so I hope you enjoyed that if you like the video hit like for me uh hit subscribe to get more videos like this uh let me know in the comments what you thought and I'll talk to you soon

Channel: Amish America

Views: 81,823

Keywords: Amish rules, Amish beliefs, Amish church, Amish technology, Amish transport

Id: blPLyP-5XCQ

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2023