Amish America

Trading a pilot's license for a buggy: an Amish convert's story

Kudos to Matthew for the link to a story about a Geauga County, Ohio man who joined the Amish in 2000. 

David Rapinz adopted the lifestyle around a decade ago.  He met an Amish woman, Martha, who 'took a chance on him before his baptism', and later married her.  Rapinz found beards, horses, and the Pennsylvania Dutch language all a bit unwieldy at first, but looks to be getting on alright with all three these days.  Read more about him in this News-Herald article.

Geauga Buggies

One of the most intriguing parts of the article is a comment from Donald Kraybill, who claims that conversions tend to happen more in Ohio than in other places.  "Here in eastern Pennsylvania, in the large Lancaster settlement, I only know of two cases in the 20th century."       

Kraybill does not know why.  Anyone have any insights or just plain guesses?

Rapinz's story got me thinking about some of the joiners I've bumped into over the years.  Of all the Amish converts I've met or heard of, only two come to mind that came from a foreign country (not counting those from Canada or children adopted from Latin America). 

There is a fellow living in Indiana who joined the Amish after coming to America from Germany twenty-odd years ago.  Another, in Ohio, once called Great Britain home.

The Indiana fellow still speaks English with a strong German accent.  I imagine Pennsylvania Dutch wasn't as difficult for him to pick up, though.  Any readers know of any other modern-day converts from abroad?

How to Join the Amish: The Step-by-Step Guide

Atlee Miller, an Ohio New Order father of ten, tells you how to do it at amish-heartland.com.

In a nutshell:  come live with us, go to church, get a job, learn Pennsylvania Dutch, do all this for a year and then get educated in the ways of the church, and finally, get voted in by the church.  Voila.  It's that simple. 

Simple but far from easy.  A handful have done it, but not without sacrifice and struggle.  Why do they go through with it?  'A woman', joked one Amishman I know.  'That's usually what's involved.' 

Bonus:  Click for what the Amish think about outsiders wanting to join, and a bit about a few real-life converts.

So you want to join the Amish

One thing that sets the Amish apart from many Mennonite groups, and for that matter most other religious bodies:  they don't recruit.

Amish typically neither condemn nor encourage attempts to join.  They may seem a bit discouraging towards the idea.  If the subject comes up, usually you hear something like 'if you don't grow up Amish, it's really hard to do it.' 

Occasionally, you run into an Amish person with a name that just doesn't 'sound' Amish.  That's often a clue.

It frequently happens that non-Amish who join stick it out for a little while but leave when the novelty wears off.

I've only met a very few that have joined, and that's out of literally (literally literally) thousands of families met while selling books in their communities.

I regret not having a chance to get down to the nitty-gritty about it with the joiners (What's it like?  No, what's it really like?  What do you miss most?).

One was a teacher.  Another works in a factory.  A third, fairly fresh convert raises and sells mums.  He supposedly fell for an Amish lass while on a visit to the community. 

Asking another 'native' Amishman in his community about the newbie, I was told, almost wink-wink jokingly, that he seems to be doing alright (so far), as if the underlying idea was 'is he gonna make it?' 

But this guy, and the other people around him were supportive as far as I could tell.  In fact, the outsiders who have joined and 'survived' seem to garner a bit of extra respect.

Apparently, one way it works for interested parties is that you first come to live and get put to work for a certain length of time, just to see if you can hack it on that end.

Then there are the teachings and language to pick up.  Amish adolescents readying themselves for baptism normally attend prep courses led by church ministers.   

One New Order couple I met had adopted five non-Amish children.  They found a Pennsylvania Dutch tutor to teach the kids the native tongue.  I suppose that would come in handy for non-Dutch adult converts as well. 

Some converts are from similar-minded faiths such as this Mennonite -background fellow, which may make it easier, but others come from different branches of Christianity.

The teacher-convert was apparently originally Catholic, as was well-known Amish historian David Luthy, whom I often mention in this blog. 

Apparently this teacher-convert said he found living without a car to be the most difficult.  That's not surprising.  For me, I think car and electric would be the hardest.  Clothing, hairstyle, hard physical work I'm pretty sure I could swing.

But that might be looking at it the wrong way.  One Amishman has suggested that seekers approaching the Amish solely through the lifestyle angle--the buggies-and-beards rustic appeal of it--are missing the point.   

The whole idea is not to live in a strange cultural world for it's own sake.   By itself, that gets you nowhere.  Rather it's all about living what the Amish feel is most important:  the words and teachings of Jesus Christ.