Jun 28 2008
Amish feel gas price sting too–Really!
The last people on Earth untouched by the scourge of high gas prices. That horse-drawn lifestyle must make for easy living in times such as these.
Nonsense.
The idea that the Amish don’t notice the price at the pump is a fable for tourists and Sunday drivers.
Just ask the Amish.
“It’s getting high,” one Amish farmer said as he took a break from working in an alfalfa field in Lower Chanceford Township. The farmer would not give his name.
“I hope the price comes down soon,” he said.
The price of gas? From a bearded man sitting on a tractor pulled by two horses?
As the man spoke, the sputtering hum of a gas engine sounded in the field behind him. Another farmer led a team of horses.
They dragged a tractor with a gas-powered engine that mowed a 4-foot-wide stretch of alfalfa.
The Amish can operate gas engines, so long as they don’t propel a vehicle, the farmer by the road said.
That $3.97-a-gallon gas costs him the same as you.
Read about it here.
[From me]
I didn’t realize they could use any engines. What is the difference between having an engine power a vehicle vs. farm machinery? I wonder if they can use a generator to power their Alpine stereos on their horse and buggies?
What do you think?
10 responses so far
A number of years ago, I visited Amish country–Lancaster, PA. I visited a number of their homes–they sell fruits, vegatables, and quilts. As I walked into a back room the shop/house, I could feel “cool” air blowing. I thought, “What is that?” I turned the corner and saw a fan blowing cool air. I looked to see where the source of power was coming from, it was a standard 12-volt car battery!
So…no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no driving automobiles, but a fan run by a battery is okay! At the same shop, I saw, as I was leaving, a boy climbing down a telephone pole. They can also have a phone, as long as it isn’t inside the house.
Wonder how Jesus feels about splitting hairs like that?
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..If I Could Learn to Laugh Like This!
Gosh …. it’s almost like they have Baptists writing their rules there, isn’t it?
Bob Cleveland’s last blog post..I Got Your “Flip” Right Here, Pal……
Bob…now you’ve to meddling!
Too many of us resemble that remark!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..If I Could Learn to Laugh Like This!
I can’t touch the authenticity of the Amish when it comes to living out my faith. I won’t be critical of them or begrudge them a gas engine or a fan.
I can’t help but admire them. I wish more of us fundamentalists took some lessons from them.
So Hugh are you saying there is more than one way to heaven? The Amish need the gospel just as you and I did. Their faith is built on works, that is nothing I want to emulate.
Debbie Kaufman’s last blog post..Whaaat??
They are anabaptists and serious about their faith. I see nothing works related in them. They take Romans 12.2 far more seriously than most christians I know. They consistently model the Christian faith, so yes, I find much to emulate in them.
Hugh, what are you basing your comments on? Their “religion” is very works based…not so much salvation based…
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..If I Could Learn to Laugh Like This!
I once lived near Amish country and had some former Amish people as acquaintances while living there. I found out that there are different “grades of Amishism.”
There is like a ladder of progression among some. For example, you may have one who has nothing modern. The next group may have some modern conveniences (phone, electricity, etc) The next may have a car but it must be all black. The next may have a car with some chrome. Get the picture? Sort of like the Pentecostals and Charismatics. (That is not a judgment but a comparison). Does this muddy the waters or help clear it up?
Bill(cycleguy)’s last blog post..A Scary Study-Part 2
Steve, you’ve called me out and made an assertion without offering a shred of evidence to support your blanket condemnation of folks in the anabaptist tradition of the Christian faith. I want to believe you’re better than that. Bash the Mormons all you want, but if the anabaptists aren’t brothers, then nobody is.
In response to your challenge, like most anabaptist groups, the Amish follow the Dordrecht Confession. You can link to it here: http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/D674.html. The whole point of the anabaptists was that the other protestant reformers didn’t go far enough. Believer’s Baptism was the mark of a personal faith to follow Christ. The Amish are completely within this legacy.
The well known public part of Amish practice is “how separate should Christians be from their culture”? My church deals with it too, we just accept cars, electricity, ipods and blogs.
I go to church with people who argue the following and suspect that most folks reading this board do the same.
1. Can a Christian go to a rated R movie? Can a Christian go to a movie at all?
2. Can a Christian drink beer? Can a Christian drink wine if a doctor says its ok for your heart.
3. What kind of music can a Christian listen to?
4. What kind of clothes are ok for a Christian girl to wear?
5. Can a Christian get divorced? Are they still in good standing with their church if they do?
6. Can a Christian woman work outside the home? If so, can she make more money than her husband? Can she have a higher education than her husband? Can she teach a Sunday School class with adult men in the room?
Before ANYONE has the right to condemn the Amish, we need to do a LOT of studying.
Much of their “rulebook” is not, and never has been, and has never been said to be, Biblically based.
For instance, the issue with buttons on the coat has nothing to do with the Bible. It has everything to do with a decision to not be like the soldiers who attacked them. They use “pride” as a connecting sin because they felt the soldiers were prideful, but that’s not quite the real reason. It’s something close to “honoring the ancestors who died…”
For another instance, they MUST wear beards but never moustaches. (The men, anyway…) Again, a distinct determination to not be like the proud officers of the armies or police who hauled them off to punish them for their faith.
We laugh at their “hypocrisy” regarding gasoline and electricity. Many of them do as well, especially since there are many different levels of the Ordnung. Each group has its own bishops, who decide what is contained in the Ordnung for THAT group. No other group is controlled by THAT group’s Ordnung. Ring a bell? Anything like autonomy of the local church….???? Their primary concern with gasoline and electricity is not “sin.” They don’t call them “sins”. The “sin” that would be attached to this would be rebelling against the authority over them - which they have AGREED to submit to - and doing something that is not allowed by that authority. Those in authority are very concerned about separation from culture, but also very concerned about dependence on Englishers. Their way of life is very precious to them, and many Englishers intrude in a very wrongful fashion.
Cars are not sinful, but they compromise the persons devotion to the Amish way. They don’t mind to ride in them, quite even like them, often use taxis, BUT!! owning one is a break with the Amish WAY. It’s only sinful because it’s rebellion against “those in authority”.
There’s a lot more to the Amish than just a “legalistic religion”. Many are truly seeking God but have no way to escape the system they are in without destroying family relationships. As well, they have MUCH wrong information coming to them, and a bunch of Southern Baptist know-it-alls who stand around and laugh at every hypocrisy they catch them in, just because they’re too stupid to trust Christ.
Visit http://www.mapministry.org/ . Take the “Pray for 7 Forever” challenge. Get on your knees every day for seven Amish people who a missionary has given YOU to pray for. Care about them. Love them. Desire their salvation. Study them. Read all of Beverly Lewis’ books. Yeah, they’re Christian romance that makes all the modern day know it alls puke, but they reveal a side of that culture that we NEED to know if we’re going to discuss these beautiful people.
Let’s stop criticizing. These people need Christ. In a Calvinistic theology, the “moment of decision” or the “decisional conversion” is called into question anyway. Who are we to say that someone who trusts Christ enough to live their life isolated from culture is “unsaved”? Based on my limited exposure, it is unlikely that most of them truly understand the gospel, but how great a shame would it be for Christians to write these people off as doomed simply because of the lifestyle they are born into?
We have so little concern for people.
I’m such a hypocrite, because tomorrow I’ll make a mockery of these very writings as I live my life with my family and coworkers withoutt showing the concern that I insist we should show to the Amish.
God, have mercy on me and change my heart and my ways.
Y’all DO visit the link and learn. It’s a shocking world.