Who are the Amish?

The Amish comprise a sect of Anabaptists founded under seventeenth century leader Jacob Amman, and are among the most socially conservative of those known as the “Plain People”, which also includes Mennonites and Brethren. Virtually all of them live in rural agricultural areas, in relatively isolated areas of twenty-five different states, with the largest populations concentrated in Ohio and Pennsylvania. They are recognized for their uniformly plain and somber clothing, horse-and-buggy transportation, and shunning of virtually all technology and the outside world.

Each Amish community differs in some very minute, yet significant, ways from one another. Examples include the technologies which may or may not be used and under what circumstances; in which particular types of books members are allowed to read; in how much contact is allowed with outsiders from the “English world,” and so forth.

Generally forbidden items include television, film, radio, VCRs, CDs, DVDs, and the Internet, although some communities accept limited use of computers, cars, electricity, and telephones (especially cell phones), usually for business use. When technologies are accepted, it is invariably to enable the Amish to better serve their God, as they believe that they are to use technology when they can control it, as opposed to feeling that it controls them.

The following brief definitions may prove helpful with understanding the relationship between the Amish and other similar peoples:

• Plain People: members of any of various Protestant groups, especially in the United States, who wear distinctively plain clothes and adhere to a simple and traditional style of life excluding many conveniences of modern technology.

• Amish: of or relating to a strict sect of Mennonites who were followers of Amman and settled in America chiefly in the 18th century.

• Brethren: members of various sects originating chiefly in 18th century German Pietism.

• Mennonite: a member of any of various Protestant groups derived from the Anabaptist movement in Holland and characterized by congregational autonomy and rejection of military service.