The Amish: How They Survive | Full Movie | Buton Buller

[Applause] hey living without automobiles electricity or many of the modern conveniences most americans take for granted one might expect the amish like so many past utopian societies to soon disappear they've actually survived and thrived and prospered because they have reacted to change by changing themselves numbering only about 5000 in 1900 by the year 2011 they numbered over 260 000 souls in 28 states and one canadian province their population doubles every 20 years yes our system works we have a lot going for it we know it works amish faith and life are deeply rooted in the bible as a man thinks in his heart so easy it's very important to be careful what you read what you watch what you listen to an amish german school teacher and businessman describes what it means to be amish be not deceived god is not mocked for whatsoever you sow you're going to reap they're absolute building blocks that nobody can get around and that's why we do the things we do and keep on doing the things we do there's some people that look at the amish and they romanticize the lifestyle well if that's all there is to it it probably won't hold because you can move to alabama and be a hippie and live like we do that's not what we're about what we are trying to follow is basically the patterns that were set by our anabaptist forefathers in certain areas there and dress uh and in lifestyle if you keep doing some of these things and you adhere to the standards and the and the things that they teach they will help you to create the absence of temptation in your christian life we know that we are sinners we know that we have to be born again we know that we have to accept jesus as our savior about what he saw a spiritual decline among anabaptists jacob amman in 1693 called for a strict excommunication or shunning of wayward church members followers of amun came to be called amish [Music] by resisting change in dress as well as in technological acceptance in the new world the old order amish emerged as the distinctive or plain people with a way of life that ran counter or at least far behind the culture around them loosely organized into some 1900 church districts more than 450 are located in ohio families in church districts take turns hosting the service in their homes a specially designed wagon transports benches and songbooks from house to house the congregation assembles for a service of singing praying and preaching that often lasts three [Music] hours the amish songbook known as the auspin was first published in 1564. sung slowly the songs are passed from generation to generation melodies are embellished in ways that make them all but unrecognizable to outsiders [Music] preachers are determined by the casting of lots when the lot falls on an individual he is called to god's service for life i'm a minister of well i'm really ordained as a bishop i'm the leader of a church group it is a bigger jump from minister to bishop it was from a member to a minister if it wouldn't be for the lord's help i could not do this at all marriage communion breaking bread and wine and and the baptism is the basic students despite what appears to be a strict similarity between the amish they are really quite diverse in their practices in ohio alone there are at least a dozen different types of amish each church district decides on its own oregon or rules by which its members live such rules discourage waywardness every six months the ministers come together and they simply talk about issues and they have a certain core of standards that basically everybody upholds it's unwritten if you have a hundred bishops and they they don't all look alike on certain bylaws and when we try to do as close as we can not 100 you can see that around the core fringe issues arise these issues often relate to technological acceptance how any church group decides these issues may well be determined by the survival needs of its own members they're very connected not only to each other but to society they know what is necessary to do to survive economically a generation ago amish farmers begin to respond to changing agricultural economics by increasing the size of their farms this meant also increasing the number of horses the average farmer needed to work his farm more horses demanded more hay be planted cut and stored resulting in more work than hand labor would allow to keep their farms viable some amish came to accept hay balers powered by gasoline engines but even with this decision difficulties arose some church districts decided that balers should remain stationary later other church districts decided that tractors fitted with steel wheels thereby limiting them to field use and not road use was an acceptable compromise with technology when falling commodity prices and increasing governmental regulation threatened the amish farm survival dictated that the church began to look for additional ways for their families to increase their incomes our army farmers cannot compete in conventional agriculture 40 years ago here in the community we were 90 to 95 farmers today we're less than 10 percent it is making an impact some is positive some is negative there is only so much farmland available it's not something that we can make and we are ourselves part of the problem because there's more of us for the same amount of land and there's also development pressure from the outside land is too expensive to buy purchase and pay for farming so we still have to eat and clothe ourselves and live somewhere so we look to other places for occupation the next best thing to being a farmer is having a small cottage business where you work and create things and and you still have to work [Applause] change comes about out of necessary economic survival mode it varies a great deal as agricultural income declined the amish looked elsewhere for jobs close to home that would not compromise their values 30 or 40 years ago we had hardly any tourists in the area now we have about 3 million a year a lot of the non-amish businesses in the area are tourist related they employ the amish the amish are very good workers and the restaurants they work in the kitchen the bakery waitresses hostesses etc while some amish were finding employment in non-amish enterprises others were starting their own businesses many tourists come to this area to buy amish furniture and all kinds of wood products that they produce and so i think they become actually quite dependent on the tourists they were forced into some other means of providing for themselves rather than going and working for someone else and so with a lot of skilled labor and making furniture they just started on their own and because a couple of them started successfully just kind of had that domino effect men and women alike find employment in an industry that markets solid wood furniture across the nation while some american businesses spend millions of dollars to create brand identity the amish name is so instantly identifiable to most americans that it has become a brand by default some church districts have maintained restrictions that on the surface appear to limit business success but they have allowed members creative ways to deal with such rules for instance the owner of this successful amish manufacturing and retailing business has taken on a non-amish partner who owns that portion of the business that needs telephones and modern offices in this way the amish owner can comply with the rules of his church limiting the use of electricity and other modern conveniences but still run a modern business the manufacturing portion of the business wholly owned by the amish owner still uses equipment complying with the ordinance of the congregation normally this means that a diesel engine supplies air or hydraulic power to operate shop equipment instead of that being a legalistic approach to it it allows them to to remain business people compete with everyone else make a living and survive less than five percent of new amish businesses fail in the first five years the national average stands at about 65 failure rate over the same time period the move from agriculture to business has accelerated the rate at which some amish accept change for the amish balancing family and business interests is something new i want to be a father that family comes first and not business so i'm not looking forward to just expanding and expanding there's just more hassles if i can make it the way it is and make a half decent living i'm satisfied their skill and work ethic make them desirable employees they have a lot of interest in working with their hands they're very good at semi-skilled labor they bring willingness to work willingness to be there on time and they're willing to to do their best they put in eight hours there's very few of them that don't give you eight hours of work there are some things that you put up with that you wouldn't run into you were didn't have amish employees one of the big factors is days off for weddings they have their weddings during the week they like to socialize so if they get invited to a wedding and they like to go they have different holidays they have old christmas which is on january 6th that's a day that they will not work ascension day good friday but then they have no problem working on some other days that a lot of the other people like to take a holiday off while most outsiders may not notice it amish groups even within a local community may be quite different from each other one issue on which many amish disagree is the amount of change to accept to make the road safer for both them and other motorists while many willingly place electric lights and reflective tape on their buggies to make them more visible some of the more conservative church districts continue to view such safety devices as too modern for the amish survival of their community turns on the ability to manage two conflicting forces too much change means they soon become like everyone else too little change and they fail to survive economically the result is an ongoing dialogue with a broader culture that constantly updates what is accepted and what is not accepted when survival is at stake the amish find ways of integrating change but they do it slowly and carefully the amish have found that survival also depends on being good community citizens horseshoes used by the amish to prevent their horses from falling on paved roadways damage roads in ways rubber tires do not since road improvements use funds primarily from license fees and gas and tire taxes some felt that the amish were not shouldering their share of road upkeep after meeting with law enforcement officials we as the amish community agreed that we would once a year voluntarily take up a collection throughout the community so much per buggy this would go to a treasure of our own choosing an amish minute within the community and then we would send that money a percentage to the state a percentage to the county and a percentage of the township where amish resided and then they could use this money for the road maintenance fund uh last year a year ago that raised uh right at a quarter of a million dollars [Applause] the amish believe their community is a gift from god love for god is not separated from love of neighbor and out of that grows community that is it is intensely connected and full of care survival of the community demands that amish see themselves not as individuals but as submissive members of a close-knit christian fellowship relationships and interdependence form the glue that hold the amish community together too much progress would mean amish families would no longer need to depend on each other and the community would begin to disintegrate if there is a tragedy this is a catastrophe when i get up in the morning i don't even bother to think about what will happen in my family if something should happen to me i know they will be taken care of i mean that's just a given [Music] clothing like everything else about amish life is defined by the ordinance of the congregation by adhering to communal clothing styles amish declare their identity not only to each other but to the world around them hats bonnets and styles of dresses and pants while looking similar to the outsider immediately identify the group to which they belong clothing also identifies one's place in the fellowship of believers there are specific dress codes that change as you go through the aging process and each one of those gives you both more respect and more responsibility one of the rites of passages for an amish girl growing up would be the change from what we call the emma schatzly which is the the longer apron that the little girls wear when the little girls get to be 10 11 12 they switch from that into a distinct cape and apron while the amish frequent local grocery stores they raise much of what they need to survive nearly every farm cultivates a vegetable garden that supplies fresh produce for the family some families plant larger gardens and sell the extra produce to willing buyers throughout late summer and autumn in a tight agricultural economy it supplies the family with added cash it also supplies a place for children to learn responsibility here the older children especially the girls meet the public the boys in the family are often responsible to pick and sort the produce and to keep the small farm market well supplied near mount hope an enterprising neighbor has set up a produce auction that aids in bringing together amish sellers and non-amish buyers of garden fruits vegetables and flowers [Music] the amish especially the more conservative make mark at a social event the entire family attends once the hard work of unloading the wagons and open buggies or hacks is done children and even adults reward themselves [Applause] they wait most of the day to watch their own produce sell society's quest for healthy naturally produced food products has worked to the amish's advantage if we work with the way nature the way god intended nature to be we can use natural minerals and put that back into the soil balance the soil minerals and the biological process will flourish therefore everything will be a lot healthier we'll actually be filling the greenhouse with spinach our customers just love the spinach we grew last fall so we'll just fill it with spinach this spring produce production begins early in the spring in a specially designed greenhouse you can do year on production with hardy greens without any heat the history of the amish has always been to work with the land the way god provided the land for us there's a huge shift to the more natural way of farming without using as many chemicals using more grass to feed cattle instead of feeding them as much corn owning an acreage too small even for conventional amish agriculture this family started a csa community supported agriculture basically the consumer comes out and says hey can you produce this food for me here i'll pay you and we'll take that money and we'll put that into getting the process started it enables the farmer to buy the seeds right away with that money the fertilizer the soil program whatever it takes and the farmer will produce that food and the consumer will get a box weekly of whatever the farmer produces for the consumer each customer gets a box and they have a choice of what size box they want so every week if you have 50 customers every week you will deliver 50 boxes during the summer time when we've got melons the melons will be on the side the boxes will be full of smaller stuff and they'll also get a musk melon and a watermelon on the side we can grow anything basically as far as anything that grows in our growing season we work with the way things got designed so it's kind of a free market thing well if the market is here for that kind of product if the people need it if the people want it the amish seemed to be situated very well to produce that kind of a product [Music] one key to amish survival has been the willingness to do hard work amish parents ensure that their children know how to work and appreciate the value of work [Applause] while small they are given small responsibilities as they grow older they become responsible for more involved tasks boys go to work in the fields with their fathers girls are often asked to babysit their brothers and sisters while young gender roles are sometimes blurred young girls as well as boys learn to drive a team of horses in the fields learning to work with horses early breeds confidence so later they will know how to harness the family horse hitch the buggy and travel to town or to the neighbor's house to help with group work later roles become more defined boys begin pitching bundles at around the age of 14 while girls help out with housework and meal preparation amish society is patriarchal in nature only men hold positions in the church levina miller weaver grew up amish amish women though reticent and the public um have a profound sense of both position and place within the community and they have a great deal of confidence and a sense of of assertiveness within that within their context that is honored and respected it's unusual to find an amish girl who is real friendly and open with a stranger so when we have an amish hostess for example and that's an ideal place for tourists to meet an amish person they have trouble smiling they have trouble being really friendly and open to a stranger the woman makes many of the decisions regarding health care and the functioning of the home and that is listened to with a great deal of respect and appreciation from her husband for the amish stewardship of land and resources is a sacred trust you take care of your homes take care of your land because this this is part of god's creation you treat your animals fair and well [Music] young men enjoy a sprightly gated horse that may share a pedigree with winners of some of the nation's top harness races most amish are satisfied with a more experienced less spirited horse that the entire family can drive by retaining horsepower transportation the amish keep alive those businesses that once thrived across america but are now found primarily in areas where amish live and work using the machinery of yesteryear harness makers make both traditional leather harnesses and harnesses using newer synthetic biothane materials the biothane is that has taken over as far as farm harness in this area because it's lighter it's worked doesn't throw a heavy harness on them and the other thing is the biofan they don't have to oil a set of farm harnesses is around 1200 in leather in in the biothane you're talking 8 900. [Music] here in mount hope ohio a thriving horse auction continues to draw amish every month draft horses for field work as well as stylish trotters cross the auction block on their way to amish homes [Music] for a young man a spirited horse and a gadget-filled buggy declares about as much individuality as is allowed in the amish community prize horses may fetch nearly five thousand dollars when you are a christian real christian and you really understand that all creation was was made by god then we have no other option but to treat our animals kindly back when i grew up we broke horses my boys say you don't break a horse you train it and they go at it differently than we did and it works and they they they even go to seminars you know but i know amish boys that grow up and they have they know which end of the horse is which but that is about it amish often gather at events centering on horses an old-fashioned horse pool featuring teams driven by both amish and non-amish offer opportunity for visiting with friends and neighbors while enjoying an old style competition it is an opportunity for amish young people to become acquainted with others their own age from distant communities informal dating may begin at such events love for animals has led some amish families to expand their livestock operations to include exotic animals operators of hunting and game reserves often come here to ohio to buy trophy elk and deer [Music] an amish household is often intergenerational grandparents live with and love their grandchildren to make space a room or entire house will be built on this gross dotty house creates a mosaic of roof lines that express love and concern for the entire family on wash day amish families use a washer from an earlier era long wash lines extend outward from the porch large barns once graced every amish farm to shelter horses used to work the soil and harvest the crops they don't have nearly as large families as they used to have it's an economic thing if you don't have a farm to live on it's more difficult to have a family of eight or ten children [Applause] today on newer amish homesteads one sees many smaller barns designed to match the architecture of the house since the family may no longer be farming a smaller barn is all that is needed to shelter the horse or two the family needs for transportation one does not find the variety of colors many in america use to adorn their houses white is the generally accepted color for an amish home flowers rather than paint add color to a home built simply and firmly inside an amish home is comfortable gas lamps are conveniently located in every room ready in an instant to provide enough light for reading and visiting some amish church districts have not approved the use of propane or gas depending instead on the traditional kerosene lamp for light in this amish home gas also powers both stove and refrigerator love of wood is evident in most amish homes furniture design emphasizes function rather than aesthetics the word of god in german and in less conservative amish homes in english is respectfully displayed more conservative amish homes favor wooden furniture with no upholstery the horse has more impact on where we go on our lifestyle than most even amish people will take for granted it just makes us think different if we want to go to church which is 15 20 miles from here i have to think about this before sunday morning i have to make sure that my horse is shod because i can't put a shoe on him sunday morning i have to make sure that my battery and my buggy is charged so that i have lights not just from here to mount eaton but all the way down there and i have to make sure that my horse is in the barn or will come into born because i can't go out chasing horses on sunday morning and then come sunday morning first thing i have to do is feed my horse before i get my breakfast so that he is ready to go and get him harnessed before i dress for church you can't be ten minutes late and expect to make up for that the first four or five miles you have to pace your horse so that he still can go when you get to mile 15. then when we go home we can't go there and and be there for for uh three hours and head right back he needs a little more time than that so we stay there we visit and socialize when we go to church we can have 30 buggies out here in the parking lot and they all look the same so you don't have one person coming with a cadillac and the other coming with a chevy so you don't have that status thing horse the same way average horse two thousand dollars but when you leave him in the barn still just a horse the buggy has become the most popular symbol of amish limits on participation with the world it is symbolic not only for outsiders looking in it is also symbolic for the amish it makes a clear statement of who they are and for what they stand for the old order amish horse and buggy is the only acceptable form of transportation for going to the church meeting for those choosing to leave the church the horse and buggy are usually the first symbols to fall if you don't have a horse and buggy you're no longer amish then the amish you move to town walk to church put it work on a bicycle have almost no need for a horse and buggy so some of those changes get very close to losing your mode of transportation which identifies you as an amish person when an amish family shops for a buggy they don't go to a large franchise dealership rather they go to one of the many buggy shops scattered across their community where one of their own people preserve a craft mostly forgotten by everyone else here they buy transportation that looks exactly like that of their neighbors their options are few some church districts allow electric lights and hydraulic brakes others do not this buggy contains a convertible back seat that folds down into a bed for sleepy children a five thousand dollar buggy if well maintained will last most of a lifetime if it accidentally upsets in a ditch the few kindly neighbors stopping by to help will have it back on the road in no time buggy building skills attract the attention of collectors and museums it is not uncommon for an amish buggy builder also to restore antique carriages next to the horse and buggy wagons play a central role on amish farms used for hauling everything from harvested grain to livestock to market wagons clearly reflect an amish identity for the more conservative amish groups the wagon rides on steel wheels while amish may not own cars they have no qualms about hiring taxi service from one of their many neighbors who maintain vans just for that purpose a buggy is limited in the number of people it may carry functions attended by the amish where there are no facilities for caring for the horse also create problems other businesses catering to the unique needs of amish living also spring up in this hardware store while amish purchased necessities tourists marvel in amazement at the 19th century products that fill the shelves of a 21st century business the amish place a high value on education they see properly educated youth as a key to long-term survival the purpose of education is to prepare a child to live successfully in the amish community once all amish attended public schools but when school consolidation began removing classrooms from the local community many of the amish objected as a result some districts allowed local schools to remain today many amish children attend local public schools in which their parents have a direct say in their education often mennonites or other teachers sympathetic to amish cultural and religious values staff these schools i'll let you off if you tell noah you're sorry one lesson you'll have to learn in other cases the amish purchased the one-room schools being discarded by the state to use as their own private schools here amish parents can be sure that what the children learn in school is not in conflict with what they are taught at home today one room or newer two-room schools dot the amish countryside where children still walk to school the teacher is usually a young amish woman with basic pedagogical skills while german the language used for all church functions is still taught in these schools many classes are held in english so you read the story in german you answer the questions in english which forces you to understand what you read education is something that is is changing in a way and it's changing because we have gone from a farming community to a business oriented community there are things in school that are being taught that at one time probably would not have been now just take for instance sharp run school last year the eighth grade we had a session where they wrote to five different businesses asking them what are your five main points of of keeping your business going and so this was a real learning experience for them and it was very important to the fact that you know not everybody's going to go out and farm very small percent by the time a male student reaches high school age he joins the family enterprise or a neighboring business as an apprentice having learned basic reading writing and math skills it is now time to learn a craft or trade that will allow him to support a family now understand i don't have a problem with going to college at all i do not want someone taking my appendix out or doing surgery on my heart with an eighth grade education there's a place for it all the way we believe about further education and the way you believe about further education is basically the same we just go at it a little differently you you send your children to school well i have three young men back here that are brothers your way of teaching them welding is that you send them somewhere and someone you or someone else pays someone to teach them these welding skills we do it a little different we bring them here we teach them right here and we pay them while we're teaching them and then by the time they're 20 they're grown men they have a grown man's job and they're making a grown man's money and they're not out trying to find themselves they know exactly where they stand they're never going to be a parasite to society the system works for the girl helping at home prepares her for a life of cooking sewing gardening and child rearing she may also help out in the family business where she meets the public or she may take a job in a local business like one of the specialty cheese operations using milk from amish dairy farms for many years diversification into dairy allowed smaller amish farms to remain viable amish youth often use their team years to explore the world beyond traditional amish boundaries this may take many forms one of which is taking a job in a non-amish business when i was growing up the girls didn't work in restaurants like they do now they may learn to operate cash registers computers and other technologically advanced machinery but always their dress declares their identity as the amish young person approaches the age of church membership and marriage men and women alike make a decision whether to remain amish they are free to leave but if they stay they must give up anything that contradicts the ordnance including their jobs when they are baptized into the fellowship of the congregation in their late teens or early 20s they make a lifetime commitment amish use and pay for modern medical services hospitalizations are common when i came 40 years ago most of the amish did not have hospitalization insurance even if they were employed by an employer who had who would have provided hospitalization insurance they would have opted not to have it and were actually told by the church that they shouldn't have it because the church would take care of them the average amish family is seven children and if you have a baby every year to go in the hospital the cost gets very costly one local doctor working with amish leaders in the state created a birthing center as an alternative for financial reasons this place was built but they also like the home setting without overhead loudspeakers clearing tv radio that type of thing that each family takes care of their own bills if the bill gets too large their local church helps most of them take all the modern medicines that we have except when they know that it's terminal and then there may be quicker to discontinue the medicine the exception would be most conservative group in this area they may refuse modern medicine over the years because of the cost of health care they found out it would be beneficial to have hospitalization so now most of those who work in for employers who provide hospitalization insurance have taken advantage of it while insisting that progress not run away with their community the amish participate and in some cases take the lead in community projects there's been a big change over the years in in the thinking that we are not only responsible to ourself but we are responsible to everybody else in our neighborhood and in the whole world for many years the amish have had a particular concern for the people of haiti each year they organize a benefit auction for development work in this one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere [Music] rituals reinforce the cohesiveness of the amish community weddings draw church friends and neighbors from outlying areas the bride's home provides the setting for a simple ceremony where vows are exchanged and a meal shared with guests guests offer practical gifts useful when establishing a new home if the husband and wife do not live together the way they're supposed to with a good relationship then automatically their prayers are already hindered automatically their children are going to suffer fewer amish leave the church today than in past generations as the church district grows some members voluntarily move to new areas where land is less expensive and the landscape less populated in our area especially we constantly have people branching out and starting new communities constant expansion has proven to be a successful survival technique it has allowed those wishing to explore new horizons both geographically and spiritually and opportunity to do so without leaving the church the most advanced are the king amish and they allow electricity telephones in the house and they can use tractors to farm and they can have computers so if you're an amish person who really feels strongly about needing those that type of technology to survive you can still remain amish but you join the a more liberal sect of the amish [Applause] when a barn burns the amish are not alone rather than negotiating a settlement with an insurance adjuster the amish are surrounded by their community dr wayne weaver who grew up amish describes an amish barn raising within a couple days the truck started delivering the thawed logs to the site they were arranged on truffles in the field across the road they were marked off that peg holes and everything was arranged and i went over a couple days and helped with hammered chisel and then i think it was between a little over two weeks after the barn burned they had the basement back up the raisins started right at daylight and by the time the third lunch the roof would go and that night literally the cattle in the barn [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] friends [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] in death as in life the amish are surrounded by their community the familiar home that sheltered them now provides a place where the entire community gathers to remember the funeral is not a time of despair but of hope a life lived faithfully here on earth will be rewarded in eternity death is simply seen as one of the many rhythms of life a time of leaving this temporal existence here on earth for the eternal home god has prepared for the faithful loved ones will be reunited for eternity in the presence of god [Music] uh the amish survive because they choose to by minimizing their use of technology they retain control of their lives and their communities if they wouldn't change at all they would have a difficult time surviving the amish individual exists as part of a larger christian community a community whose preservation is more important than the material wishes of each individual by strict adherence to the traditions of the past and by continually revising how those traditions impact their present lives the amish ensure their future survival there's a real fine line between how much change do you assimilate into your culture and still remain amish [Music] that looks like fun hats and bonnets horse-drawn buggies and clothing all combined to form an identity that says we will not be seduced by the fast-paced life that most americans take for granted [Music] is [Music] yes our system works we know it works [Music] just beyond this [Music] all day

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 1,553,986

Keywords: Christian Video, Christian Film, Christian Movie, Religious Movie, Film, Movie, Entertainment, Feature Film, Vision Video, The Amish: How They Survive Movie, The Amish: How They Survive Full Movie, The Amish: How They Survive documentary, The Amish: How They Survive, Amish documentary, full documentary on the Amish, Buton Buller documentary, Buton Buller

Id: 2Fv2FuFcByU

Length: 51min 27sec (3087 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021