Downturn forcing Amish to be more Amish

I have alway admired the Amish and the Mennonites. They live by the old ways. Meaning before you and me were born. Living of the land, making thier children do chorus (heaven for bid we as white folks do that).We could learn alot from them.

I'd just like to point out that that Amish does not equal Mennonite. They are two completely separate cultural groups.

The writer is getting the Amish and Mennonites confused. While they look and act the same to most of us "English" they do have somewhat different beliefs and ways. Oh, don't forget the Hutterites, they are doing the same things.

Amish and Mennonites are completely different. You might as well call Christians and Muslims the same so we know you don't know a lot about the subject matter so one wonders why you are writing about it in the fitst place. Secondly to the person interested in living the old ways there is a reason that we switched to modern ways is because they are much easier to survive in. As I was raised on a farm and interested in history I can attest that the old ways involved hard work like you can't imagine overlayed with the constant fear of hunger.

Lastly while I personally have no experience with Amish or Mennonites I do have a lot of personal experience with Hutterites and I find their culture leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It is difficult for me to objectively view a culture that only allows education to the chidlren's 15th birthday as per provincial law and not one day longer, that cuts off all outside communication (no tv, radio, computers or any type of news/ communication with the outside world is allowed), and has women as a second class citizens with less rights then men within their culture (men eat first, women are segregated at church and every women is given the role of finding a husband and raising a family with no other careers possible). The entire society is based on denying its citizens any knowledge of the outside world and thus it does not give its citizens a choice.

You wonder how we can fix this. The answer is easy. We no longer allow them to have their own separate schools. Thats right, simply having a generation of hutterite children that are not held completely separte will lead to the modern reforms that occured in our culture over the last 100 years that they have not experienced yet.

Author you want to write an interesting article look at the plight of young hutterite girls right here in Canada.

While the Amish and Mennonites are completely seperate, one must admire their lifestyle. I too was raised on a farm and never had to worry about hunger. Yes, their lifestyle is a lot of hard work, but our ancestors did not have a free ride either. We have become a race of sloth looking for the easiest way out. Hard work never hurt anyone. We have lost so much and really gained little. Today there is a lack of so many traditional values, no longer is there any respect for each other.
My Mothers' family were Pennsylvania Dutch. We were taught to treat each other as we would like to be treated and to be of help where needed. Although I know little of the Hutterites, would you also have all seperate faith schools closed? Does that not become a Dictatorship? It is easy to sit on the outside looking in to find fault with any one religious sect. With the economic downturn are we all not living just a little differently? Perhaps a little.

Christians and Muslims are the same in my opinion, except for a few name changes, and some of the pomp and pageantry. The correct term is Old Order Amish Mennonites, as opposed to Amish Mennonites, which are another club, there are some 30 different kinds (Reform Mennonites, Russian Mennonites, etc.) at last count.
For those who might be interested, one of the main claims to fame for Mennonites is that they do not make a change unless there is unanimous consent. I guess you know the odds of a group of people agreeing, so the only option is to split off from the original group.
Kind of interesting though the old orders drew a line in the technological sand and said the struggle for survival is OK but only to this point, it might have been genius if everyone had bought in.

Joanne the comparasin between most religious sect schools and Hutterian schools is a little misleading. First off Hutterian schools never have more than around 30 students as each colony must split before it reaches 120 people. How many religious schools have you run across that the government will continue to fund that only have 30 students? Secondly Hutterite children have 2 schools that they go to. They start religous school at 4 years of age and up till 15 go to it for 1 hour before regular school so having them attend regular schools would in no way reduce their access to quality religious education as their regular school exactly follows the provincial outline.

It is interesting that you would consider closing their schools a dictatorship. A dictatorship is where people are not allowed to dissent or choose their government. On a Hutterite colony as a woman you would have no say in the operation of the colony and would be a second class citizen not allowed to dissent or even vote in so it would be living in a dictatorship. Your only option would be marriage and child rearing. Closing a school in no way limits the Hutterites ability to dissent or choose the government system they live in so it isn't a dictatorship. At worst you could label it giving the students the opportunities they deserve and at best you could be liberating them from lifelong imprisonment where they don't know they are imprisoned.

To answer your last item I have spent a fair amount of time around several colonies, have seen the inner workings and would consider a couple of Hutterites friends but as a modern person it is difficult to reconcile the deliberate attempts to keep thier chidlren from learning and interacting with the outside world.

When I was growing up some Hutterite boys came over one night and played hockey with us. The next day their preacher burned their skates.

The Amish and the Mennonites are not different. They are the same. The have the same churches and follow the same traditions with the same foundations. I read comments on how they are so different and the author has it all backwards and wrong. They are of the same genre.
Now, having said that.......there are different flavours of Mennonite. Some are very modern, and some live in the Hutterite colonies......where again they are very modern, but have traditional values. The Amish is a regional Mennonite know more to the United States Pennsylvania area that have renounced the modernization that alot of Mennonites have, hence the distinction. There are various types of Mennonites from the extrme Huldeman to the Hutterite.
The Amish is a Mennonite and has the same founding member.....Menno Simons, a fallen Catholic priest from Holland.
I am Mennonite.

If nothing else the comments point out that religion is more closely related to government than faith.
It would seem that all "great " religions were started by a tear away who rebelled against the strictures of the system and then imposed new ones.
I believe the saying that matches is that the more things change the more they stay the same.
I knew a guy who heard God talk to him from the bottom of an empty Jack Daniels bottle but Danielism only has a small following and they are known as drunks.

"I knew a guy who heard God talk to him from the bottom of an empty Jack Daniels bottle but Danielism only has a small following and they are known as drunks."

Not to be confused with "Budhism"..........the following of Budweiser.

My Amish uncles, aunts and cousins that live in the United States are sure going to be upset when they read that they are not Mennonites. My brother's wife who left an Amish community and now lives in Southern Manitoba in a traditional Mennonite community sure is going to shocked to learn that their is no relationship between Mennonite and Amish..........might just throw a fit, tossing her head covering and plain black dress into the street in frustration.

I live in small southern On town, the Amish here are Mennonite that point is definite. But here they are very industrious, many have their own business, own trucks to run those businesses but are not able to drive them, they have cell phones...which again they are not supposed to have due to religious beliefs. They hire people to drive them, they have a party night on Sunday nights...and I must say they have been in some serious accidents because they are impaired and sometimes pass out while driving their horses, they cannot be charged with any driving offences as the buggies are not considered a licenced vehicle.
Most of the Amish here are not hurting for money, they are busy people and while a blind eye is turned on how they do business for the most part they are financially well off.

I grew up hutterie my parents are still hutterite i find it hard to get a job without a degree, But remember where can you get a job nowadays any way i know lots of people with big degrees and work on the drilling rigs as labours. The hutterites live a life style not much more. And their are a few with grade 12 their schools are pretty modern from when i grew up any questions about the hutteries no hesitate to ask.

Perhaps the lesson is we don't need all the stuff we buy which means we don't have to work so much, which means we'd have more time with our children and families. North America's biggest addiction is busyness. What would happen if we all slowed down enough to ask ourselves some hard questions like, Why am I working so hard? What don't I want to feel? What happens if I feel sad? Will it last forever? Why am I not happy?

I think the Amish do know something about emotional richness. So could we, if we just slowed down.

"The Great Higher Plane People."

:)

Wow it looks like people really need to read up on their religion. Amish is an offshoot of Mennonite. Mennonites were started by Menno Simons NOT a fallen Catholic priest but one who believed that the Catholic church was wrong in certain interpretations of the Bible. Menno Simons was part of the Protestant movement of that time.. along with many other men. Jakob Ammann was an Elder of the Mennonites group but wanted to stay more traditional than what the Mennonites were doing. Basically same group.

Aside from that whole thing, it looks to me like the article really has no point. "I'd tell you but I'm not Amish". What were you getting at in writing the article anyways? In showing us how people are simplifying and going back to basics? Sure, that's great. Maybe next time do some research and give us something helpful to read.