Reply to Anyone former Amish or date/marry someone who was Amish?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How much more Amish can you get than the ones in PA? Granted, I'm thinking of the ones north of Harrisburg and farther north. They have no modern conveniences at all, so what is the variation between those and the Ohio Amish?[/quote]

Very possible that northern PA has more conservative Amish, I don't know. I'm thinking of the Lancaster Amish who use refrigeration, have electricity in their barns (to reduce fire risk), use gasoline-powered motors, and so on. I read an article once on Lancaster Amish who have cell phones, but only charge them in the barn or in a non-Amish neighbor's house.

Where I grew up, in Holmes County Ohio, the Amish didn't even use buttons on their clothes. They fasten them with straight pins, because buttons are a military decoration. Mustaches are similarly considered military (you ever see an 18th century German general without a walrus mustache? :)) which is why they wear just the beard. They only attend their own schools, usually one-room schoolhouses. Their schools go up to about 12 year olds, occasionally 14, but not all kids go that long. They learn some English in school, but they rarely become fluent.

Interestingly, they are all about modern medicine. As I understand it, the test for allowing any "modern" convenience is, does it bring us together as a community of God, or drive us apart/ allow distances to form? (And, secondarily, how does it square with our principles? This is where the appearance elements come in-- modesty, head covering, no buttons, etc. Also, why they do not attend public schools, because (among other things) that would mean paying taxes, which means supporting the military.)  By not having electricity, they are all on God's schedule, dawn to dusk, and they're all in it together. But by accepting modern medicine, they are able to stay healthy and work and care for one another, the way God intended. I kind of like that; they could just as easily have said that illness or death in childbirth is God's will. [/quote]

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