Plain people
Encyclopedia
Doctrine of separation
The doctrine of separation, also known as the doctrine of non-fellowship, is a belief among some Protestant religious groups that the members of a church should be separate from "the world" and not have association with those who are "of the world". There are many scriptures in both the Old...
and simple living
Simple living
Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want...
, including plain dress
Plain dress
Plain dress is a religious practice in which people dress in clothes of traditional modest design, sturdy fabric, and conservative cut. It is used to show humility and to preserve communal separateness from the rest of the world. It is practiced by some Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, Mennonites,...
. These group include Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
; Old Order
Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonites is a branch of the Mennonite church. Although the term strictly refers to one particular group, it is often used to refer to those groups of Mennonites who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology.-Overview:...
, Conservative
Conservative Mennonite Conference
The Conservative Mennonite Conference is a Christian body of conservative evangelical Mennonite churches.-Background:The first American settlement of the Amish Mennonites — who separated from the main body of Swiss Brethren and followed Jacob Amman — was in Berks County, Pennsylvania, around...
and Old Colony Mennonite
Chortitza
Chortitza Colony was a Russian Mennonite settlement northwest of Khortytsia Island and is now part of Zaporizhia, Ukraine. Chortitza was founded in 1789 by...
s; Old German Baptist Brethren
Old German Baptist Brethren
Old German Baptist Brethren descend from a pietist movement in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, when Alexander Mack founded a fellowship with seven other believers. They are one of several Brethren groups that trace themselves to that original founding body...
; the Hutterites; and Old Order River Brethren
Old Order River Brethren
The Old Order River Brethren is a small Christian denomination with roots in the Mennonite church and German pietism.This body began about 1778 in Pennsylvania. It shares an early history with the Brethren in Christ Church. A group of brethren near the Susquehanna River that had separated from the...
; and at one time Quakers, the Brethren in Christ (BIC), Shakers
Shakers
The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, known as the Shakers, is a religious sect originally thought to be a development of the Religious Society of Friends...
, Dunkards
Church of the Brethren
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination originating from the Schwarzenau Brethren organized in 1708 by eight persons led by Alexander Mack, in Schwarzenau, Bad Berleburg, Germany. The Brethren movement began as a melding of Radical Pietist and Anabaptist ideas during the...
and Moravians. A small number of Quakers still practice plain dress.
Customs of plain people include:
- Plain clothes, usually in solid, normally dark colors.
- Plain church buildings, or no church buildings whatsoever.
- A utilitarian view of technology, similar to the precautionary principlePrecautionary principleThe precautionary principle or precautionary approach states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those...
of technology in that unknowns should be avoided, but the emphasis was on the results in the eyes of God. If they were unsure of how God would look upon a technology, the leaders of the church would determine whether it was to be avoided or not. The degree to which this principle was supported varied among the congregations, but in general, the Amish people believed that the Mennonites had not done enough to separate themselves from the rest of the worldWorld (theology)-Christian views on the World:In Christianity, the concept connotes the fallen and corrupt world order of human society. The world is frequently cited alongside the flesh and the Devil as a source of temptation that Christians should flee...
.
Origins
The MennoniteMennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
movement was a reform movement of Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
origins based on the teachings of Menno Simons
Menno Simons
Menno Simons was an Anabaptist religious leader from the Friesland region of the Low Countries. Simons was a contemporary of the Protestant Reformers and his followers became known as Mennonites...
1496–1561, and the 1632 Dordrecht Confession of Faith
Dordrecht Confession of Faith
The Dordrecht Confession of Faith is a statement of religious beliefs adopted by Dutch Mennonite leaders at a meeting in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, on April 21, 1632...
. The Amish movement was a reform movement within the Mennonite movement, based on the teachings of Jacob Ammann, who perceived a lack of discipline within the Mennonites movement by those trying to avoid prosecution. Ammann argued that prohibited that.
William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
, having experienced religious persecution
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....
as a Quaker, offered asylum to others who were suffering religious persecution, an offer that many followers of Jacob Ammann accepted, starting with the Detweiler and Sieber families, who settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania
Berks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...
, in 1736. Many of them settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
, which offered some of the most productive non-irrigated farmland in the world. By 1770, the Amish migration had largely ceased.
Religious practices
Plain sects typically have a BishopBishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
presiding over one congregation. Some meet in church buildings, but most sects meet in members' homes. Services are normally held in a language closely related to Palatinate German
Palatinate German
Palatine German is a West Franconian dialect of German which is spoken in the Rhine Valley roughly in an area between the cities of Zweibrücken, Kaiserslautern, Alzey, Worms, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Speyer, Landau, Wörth am Rhein and the border to the Alsace region in France...
, with extra vocabulary. Bishops are commonly chosen by lot as a reflection of God's will. While the Bishop tends to be influential, he tends to rule by building consensus rather than by issuing edicts.
Nowhere is the Bishop more influential than in decisions concerning the Ordnung
Ordnung
The Ordnung is a set of rules for Amish and Old Order Mennonite living. Ordnung is the German word for order, arrangement, organization, or system. Because the Amish have no central church government, each assembly is autonomous and is its own governing authority...
. The Ordnung is a largely unwritten code of behavior, covering such items as clothing, vehicles, and the use of technology. The Ordnung varies slightly from congregation to congregation, though is in essence the same. Violations are not considered sins, although wilfulness is considered to be a serious violation of the faith. The Bishop leads the congregation in changing their Ordnung over time. The Bishop may also grant exemptions to the Ordnung. In one instance, one farmer was granted permission to buy a modern tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
since he had arthritis and no children to help him harness horses.
Trends
The Old Order Amish are among the fastest-growing populations in the world. They prohibit the use of contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
and have low infant mortality
Infant mortality
Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births. Traditionally, the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea. However, the spreading information about Oral Re-hydration Solution to mothers around the world has decreased the rate of children dying...
rates. The average Amish woman can expect to have at least seven live births. Other plain sects with the same or similar doctrines can be expected to have similarly explosive growth.
Despite this, the Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
, which includes Amish and Old Order Mennonite, are expected to become a smaller percentage of the population as the sects respond to high prices of farmland by spreading out all over the United States and internationally, and the English population spreads out from Philadelphia into suburban and rural areas. Donald Kraybill believes there are plain sect communities in 47 states.
Among people at least five years old living in Lancaster County
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...
in 2000,
- 89% spoke English at home;
- 7% spoke Pennsylvania Dutch;
- 4% spoke Spanish.
Most plain sects do not admit children to their church, and impose no sanctions on those who do not join, but shun
Shunning
Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or mental rejection. Social rejection is when a person or group deliberately avoids association with, and habitually keeps away from an individual or group. This can be a formal decision by a group, or a less formal group action which will spread to all...
those who fall away from the church once becoming a member. Among Old Order Amish, teenagers who are not yet baptized are not bound by the rules and go through a period of rumspringa
Rumspringa
Rumspringa Pronounced A- generally refers to a period of adolescence for some members of the Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, that begins around the...
, often with certain amount of misbehavior that would not otherwise be tolerated.
Health
The Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
generally do not proselytize and discourage intermarriage. Because of close consanguinity
Consanguinity
Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person...
, certain genetic problems occur more frequently. Dr. D. Holmes Morton
D. Holmes Morton
D. Holmes Morton is an American physician specializing in genetic disorders of Old Order Amish and Mennonite children. In 1989 he established the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pennsylvania to focus on these diseases....
has established the Clinic for Special Children to study and treat families with these problems.
The plain sects typically prohibit insurance, and they assist each other charitably in case of sickness, accident, or property damage. Internal Revenue Service Form 4029 allows one to claim exemption to Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
taxes under certain very restrictive conditions, and members of the plain sects neither pay the taxes nor receive death, disability and retirement benefits from social security.
See also
- Christian headcoveringChristian HeadcoveringThe Christian headcovering is a veiling worn by various Christian women from a variety of traditions. Some cover only in church or while praying; most never cover their heads all the time. They refer to 1 Corinthians 11, or to custom, as the basis for their practice...
- Fancy DutchFancy DutchThe term Fancy Dutch or Gay Dutch refers to the Pennsylvania Germans who do not belong to the Anabaptist churches. They, unlike the Amish, Dunkards and the Mennonites, who were considered sectarians, did not wear plain clothing, nor did they refuse to fight in wars...
- Peace ChurchesPeace churchesPeace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches: Church of the Brethren, Mennonites including the Amish, and Religious Society of Friends and has...
- Testimony of SimplicityTestimony of SimplicityTestimony of Simplicity is a shorthand description of the actions generally taken by members of the Religious Society of Friends to testify or bear witness to their beliefs that a person ought to live his or her life simply in order to focus on what is most important and ignore or play down what...
- Tolstoyan movement
Further reading
- Donald B. Kraybill, Carl Desportes Bowman. On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University PressJohns Hopkins University PressThe Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The Press publishes books, journals, and electronic databases...
, 2002. ISBN 0-8018-7089-5. - Donald KraybillDonald KraybillDonald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost living expert on the Old Order Amish....
, Puzzles of Amish Life. ISBN 1-56148-001-0. - Stephen Scott, Why Do They Dress That Way?. ISBN 1561482404.
- Amelia M. Gummere, Quaker: A Study in Costume. ISBN 0405085850.
- Stephen Scott, An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups. ISBN 1561481017.
- Margaret C. Reynolds, Plain Women: Gender and Ritual in the Old Order River Brethren. ISBN 0271021381.
- Charles D. Thompson Jr., The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge. ISBN 0252073436.