EPISODE 720 — WHAT THE AMISH BELIEVE ..based upon Skeoch family visits to central Ohio in 1990s NON CONFORMITY
EPISODE 720 — WHAT THE AMISH BELIEVE ..based upon Skeoch family visits to central Ohio in 1990s,,, NON CONFORMITY
alan skeoch
January 2023
What do these Amish people believe? Are horses part of their beliefs? NOT IN THE LEAST. Horses help keep them away from us…you and me
are the problem, We are dangerous/ As the loom of history proves. We did terrible things to them back in the 16th century. They have not forgotten.
We may have been forgiven. These Amish people just want to live their lives SEPARATE from us.
Back in the 1990’s we spent several week ends in central Ohio near Zanesville and Norwich.
Helen and George Richie invited us to their annual Farm Show which featured ancient machines
and long forgotten rural skills.
Just to get there we passed through countryside dominated by Amish people, (an Anabaptist sect.)
Their farms were magnificent. Each blade of grass in place. Each animal healthy. Each Amish
simply dressed in dark clothing with broad straw hats. Women in long cotton print dresses and black
bonnets. The Amish were friendly but at the same time distant. Mysterious to us because we did
not know much about them…except that they seemed to want to avoid the trappings of modern society.
They preferred to use horse rather than tractor.
On one farm I noticed a fairly modern hay bailing machine being pulledby horses…maybe a three
horse hitch of lake Clydesdles. This machine was made to be pulled by a tractor not by horses.
Then we began to see more and more horse drawn machines.
Was the horse part of Amish religion? What was the Amish reiigion ? What did these people believe?
Why were they so ’stand offish’? Friendly to a point.
The Amish cannot be easily understood. Their history began deep in the 16th century when Europe was
undergoing religious reassessments triggered by Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli.
Infant baptism was one of the central issues. Europeans , most of them, believed in infant baptism.
What is baptism?
‘A public declaration: Baptism declares that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. It is a public confession of your faith in, and commitment to, Jesus Christ.’
So most Christians get their children baptised as soon as possible. But not all do this infant baptizing. In the 1520’s,, a long long time
ago, an offshoot of the Protestant Reformation was adult baptism. Infant baptism was questioned.
the issue of baptism a threat to most Europeans whether Protestant or Catholic.
Best to stamp out the new religious concept of adult baptism. Right? How could Anabatism be stopped? By removing the Anabaptists
seemed the right answer. So Anabaptists were driven underground. Secret meetings in private homes rather than big curch
buildings. If caught the treatment was ruthless. More than 1500 were killed. Anabaptist males wee burned to death . Women were drowned.
Adult baptism seemed sensible to me. Maybe because I was not baptised as an infant. My brother was baptised as an infant.
Why not me? Why Eric and not Alan? Simple explanation was that dad did not have time for baptism. He had horse races to attend.
Bets to place Wiin,Place or Show. No time for baptism or church for that matter. He just did not think baptism was important even if
I should be daned to a place like Purgatory for my eternal life.
So I eventually got baptised as an 18 year od adult. Thought about it, Thought about a lot of religious beliefs that did not make
much sense. I think the minister that baptised me would have preferred that I was an infant.
PACIFISM
This engraving appears often in Amish history…same engraving done many times. Some deep meaning is here. What? (Your turn to answer)
Have you ever heard of Dirk Willem? You will shortly.
The Amish take their religion seriously. They take Jesus seriously,. They take the Bible seriously. They believe we should
“Love thy neighbour as thyself” They believe the Golden Rule makes more sense. “Do unto others as thy would do nuto you.”
They reject violence. In a violent situation the Anabaptist “turns the other cheek”. They practice brotherhood…..sisterhood. They are
Pacifists. Love thine enemies . Their pacifism was a threat! Why? (you answer that)
If you want to understand the Amish there is one print that appears constantly. It is the case of
Dirk Willem who was burned to death early in the years of Anabapttist persecution.
THE PRINCIPLE OF NONCONFORMITY
DIRK WILLEM SAVES HIS ENEMY….WHAT IS HIS REWARD?
“How many Anabaptists died during the sixteenth century persecution in Europe? No one knows for sure. What is certain is that at least 1,500 were cruelly tortured and killed. For the most part these were peaceful citizens who did not believe in war and who became the forerunners of today’s Mennonitesand Amish. The main complaint of the authorities against them was that they did not believe infant baptism had any value. They chose to be re-baptized as willing adults.
Although no other charges were proven against them, they were sentenced to death. For the men death was usually by fire; for women it was by drowning. Many Anabaptists proved to be so bold in their final testimony for Christ that authorities began to clamp their tongues before leading them out to their execution so that they could not speak up and win more converts.
One of the Anabaptists who died in flames was Dirk Willem. His story is particularly touching, because he forfeited a real chance to escape when he turned back to help one of his pursuers.
Dirk was captured and imprisoned in his home town of Asperen in the Netherlands. Knowing that his fate would be death if he remained in prison, Dirk made a rope of strips of cloth and slid down it over the prison wall. A guard chased him.
Frost had covered a nearby pond with a thin layer of ice. Dirk risked a dash across it. He made it to safety, but the ice broke under his pursuer who cried for help. Dirk believed the Scripture that a man should help his enemies. He immediately turned back and pulled the floundering man from the frigid water.
In gratitude for his life, the man would have let Dirk escape, but a Burgomaster (chief magistrate) standing on the shore sternly ordered him to arrest Dirk and bring him back, reminding him of the oath he had sworn as an officer of the peace.
Back to prison went Dirk. He was condemned to death for being re-baptized, allowing secret church services in his home and letting others be baptized there. The record of his sentencing concludes: “all of which is contrary to our holy Christian faith, and to the decrees of his royal majesty, and ought not to be tolerated, but severely punished, for an example to others; therefore, we the aforesaid judges, having, with mature deliberation of council, examined and considered all that was to be considered in this matter, have condemned and do condemn by these presents in the name; and in the behalf, of his royal majesty, as Count of Holland, the aforesaid Dirk Willems, prisoner, persisting obstinately in his opinion, that he shall be executed with fire, until death ensues; and declare all his property confiscated, for the benefit of his royal majesty.”
The cost of being different
Although martyrdom had largely ceased by the end of the 16th century, descendants of the Anabaptists continued to experience other forms of persecution. Mennonites in the Netherlands, for example, could not proselytize and were forced to meet in “hidden” churches. In the territories of southwest Germany, Mennonites had to pay a special “recognition tax,” they could not enter the professions, and they generally could not own property. And the Brethren met with hostility from state church authorities from their beginnings in 1708.
This situation changed dramatically in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries as waves of Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren began to migrate to the United States and Canada. Lured by the promise of cheap land, economic opportunities, and religious freedoms, descendants of the Anabaptists gradually established flourishing communities. Here they were free to build their own meetinghouses and to practice their faith on the same footing as their Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed neighbors.
No longer persecuted by a hostile world, Anabaptist groups in America were now challenged to define the boundaries between the church and world in a more self-conscious way. Although not all groups agreed on precisely where those boundaries should be drawn, several themes emerged. Most Mennonite, Amish, and Brethren groups, for example, emphasized the virtue of Christian humility—expressed in simple speech, reticence to self-promote, and reluctance to define Christian faith in the sharp-edged language of doctrinal orthodoxy.
Most groups also developed standards of dress—emphasizing simplicity, modesty, and uniformity—as a way of reinforcing the boundaries of group identity. Over time, the Amish maintained these visible markers of nonconformity more rigorously than did the Mennonites and Brethren. But all three groups struggled throughout the 19th and 20th centuries to retain a clear sense of separation from the world.
The principle of nonconformity has been tested most sharply during times of war. Mennonites and Amish have been especially hesitant to serve in the armed forces or to support the war effort, in the conviction that Christians are to demonstrate God’s gracious and generous love to all people.
CONCLUSION
NOW I can send some delightful pictures taken in central Ohio. Now you have some understanding of the Amish.
