What's new
By:
Filters
Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Opinion of Amish

Whats your opinion of the Amish?

  • Have full respect for them

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Like them

    Votes: 17 100.0%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Think they are strange

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    17
Ok, so you're probably going to think I'm really evil, but hear me out. I live right in the middle of amish country, ohio. Nearly all my neighbors are amish, and I am related to some through my step-dad. There are good and bad sides to them. The good? The world saw, when they forgave that man for the horrible crimes he committed. The bad? Hypocrites! Not just, OH, Fanny may wore bright red! But in how they live. Cell phones, laptops, radios, hand-held tvs. If you can hide it, they have it. They act really pious, as if we are evil for not wearing their clothing and swearing off man-made things.(even though they secretly use them too) My mom used to haul amish, and they treated her like scum. They would call, and rudely TELL her when she was to pick them up, and where she was taking them, adn without warning her ahead of time, would spend the whole day doing whatever (shopping, visiting), Or she would show up to their house and they would come to the window and motion for her to wait, and, the time I was with her, a half an hour later, they finally came outside and got in the car. The thing is, it was 0 degrees out and they spent that half hour sitting around, talking. We had to keep the car running to keep warm, and we had warned them that we were in a hurry because we had church as soon as we dropped them off at home. They drive up and down our roads (dirt road, with some chip and seal) breaking it up with their buggy tires, and refuse to help pay for repair. They take their buggies/tractors/bikes and ride where ever in the road they want,(such as right in the lane) with no care to cars or their own safety. The bike riders will swerve right in front of you, and the buggies and tractors don't get over enough for us to safely pass them, thus causing traffic jams. It's just simple common courtesy things that make them hard to live with.

Now, I am definitely not saying that they are horrible people or that I am in any way better than them, I'm just saying that what was shown on the news were their true colors, but what I see in day-to-day life, well...
 
Oh, did I mention their biased, racist way of thinking? Christmas, last year at my amish relatives ended with a bad taste in all our mouths. Let's just say that a certain degrading name came up in a not so funny joke about those of mexican-descent, accompianied with the n-word, and I got up and walked out as everyone exploded in laughter. This is also something I've found true to the amish community as a whole. (with exceptions, of course)
 
There are bad Amish and good Amish just like there are bad Catholics and good Catholics.
 
.

The Amish are subject to sin just like the rest of us. They are not any better or any worse than any of us. They have their secrets stuffed into their closets just like any others who are not amish. Yes, I saw that new report about them inbreeding too much and now many of them have birth defect problems that are more prevelant within thier communities. I posted the news story a while back in the current events thread but no one responded to it. Anyway, I've also seen news reports on them where rape and incest, and wife beating, and all kinds of "things" that happened which one wouldn't think of them to do. They are "people" just like we are.

They are people with assorted behaviors same as the many who are not amish. Thing is they are better at keeping things hidden from "society". One of the differences is that their rules of order to maintain their society are strict in comparison to those who are more liberal in their code of social ethics. No difference. Puritan's aren't always as pure as they appear to be to those who are not a part of their community...Why do I say that? Because we are Humans, and all humans are sinners that are in need of a savior!
They are people... period. They are tempted by sin just like the rest of us are tempted to sin.

The question may as well have been this; What do you think of the monks, or the buddhists, or the nuns, or sister Teresa or missionaries who have given up the pleasures of certain material goods in order to serve the Lord in some other remote parts of the world outside of "normal" society?

.
 
Possibly a good reason why Christians today aren't more successful at evangelising the world is because most are not willing to sacrifice their comforts. When Jesus told one rich man to sell all he had and follow him, the man wasn't willing to do that. Of course, the man was asking about salvation, but that also applies to Christians. Many of us today aren't willing to do that either. When God's people stop thinking of "self" and start thinking about the lost and doing God's will, only then will we be successful at doing His will. That's not easy for us to do.
 
Relic said:
.

The Amish are subject to sin just like the rest of us. They are not any better or any worse than any of us. They have their secrets stuffed into their closets just like any others who are not amish. Yes, I saw that new report about them inbreeding too much and now many of them have birth defect problems that are more prevelant within thier communities. I posted the news story a while back in the current events thread but no one responded to it. Anyway, I've also seen news reports on them where rape and incest, and wife beating, and all kinds of "things" that happened which one wouldn't think of them to do.
.
Click to expand...

I have never stated that the Amish are perfect, satan will always find a way to sneak into peoples' lives.
The Amish church does not permit wife beating or any of the things you listed above, infact a member could be completely excomunicated for life if the crime they comitted is serious enough.

When you say they suffer from the effects of inbreeding you forget to mention that the major defects occur in small settlements, e.g Swatzentruber Amish.

If you want to you can PM me with any further questions.
 
Amish said:
I have never stated that the Amish are perfect, satan will always find a way to sneak into peoples' lives.
The Amish church does not permit wife beating or any of the things you listed above, infact a member could be completely excomunicated for life if the crime they comitted is serious enough.

When you say they suffer from the effects of inbreeding you forget to mention that the major defects occur in small settlements, e.g Swatzentruber Amish.

If you want to you can PM me with any further questions.
Click to expand...

Please don't misunderstand me. I wrote, "many of them". I did not insinuate it to be "all of them", and I did not state which ones were suffering with these maladies. Just made comment to the fact.

Also, wife beating and the other assaults I wrote about are, of course, not permitted in any community anywhere in the United States of America nor is it permitted in many other countries. The fact that "some" Amish men have been exposed for doing so is proof enough to show they are "people" not much different than anyone else. The point I was making is that they keep secrets and stuff things in the old proverbial closet no different than anyone else.

The news report I saw about rape, incest (a brother raped his sister) and the wife beating was revealed because one women that left the community decided enough was enough and so she decided to prosecute her brother and take him to court. He was sentenced to jail by the 'secular" community, but the amish community in which he belonged, of course, they forgave him even though he went to jail to serve the sentence the judge assigned to him. But ironic, she was the one who was not forgiven by the community for sqealing on her brother and exposing the skeletons in some of their closets, out in public. They wer ticked at her for taking it to court and said she should have spoken directly to them. But she told the new reporter that they wouldn't have done anything but to tell her well, those things happen, we just have to forgive. She knew it would be stuffed into the closet no different than the other offenses she knew about. The woman who spilled the beans on her brother added, in her testimony in court, that many of the women in that particular community of Amish kept silent about such things as incestual rape and wife beatings because they were afraid to speak out about it.
Hey, Facts are facts. Just proves the Amish are people no different than any one else. Like I wrote earlier, Skeleton's are in the closet's of many people, of whom, others wouldn't suspect.

The Amish are no different than anyone else. They are in need of a savior just like everyone else. Just because they vow to not get emersed into the "material" world doesn't mean they don't have secrets such as those presented here.

I am not dishonoring them for their choice of lifestyle. What I am doing is just saying.... they are no different than any other human being who is subject to the whiles of the devil. We all need a savior! And we all need to pray the Lord keep us from harm.
Sadly, being fallible human's that we all are.... We all are subject to falling prey to certain sin, and we all must be diligent each and every minute lest the devil gain ground. We each have our own sins to deal with. And we each must daily carry our own cross and follow Jesus. We all need to put on the whole armor of God.

No offense or misunderstanding as to the intentions of the Amish. They, because of being Amish, are not given any more of a headway than we are given. God is no respector of persons and God is not going to judge them because they chose to stay away from electricity or not use cars or some material thing that would in fact help make their life easier. It's the love of materialism that God sees and judges. The Amish people are no different than we all are. We all need to pray for the Lord to keep us safe from transgression and to keep our "hearts" pure.

Sorry if you are offended because the news report opened the door to someone's closet and revealed what was within. The woman who got raped by her brother had every right to reveal the offense. Amish or not, she had every right to expose the sin. Things happen even in what appears to be the most perfect of situations. So much of what is written in our bible even shows us that. Even King Solomon's son raped his sister and wanted to kill his father. Does that make the whole family or community from which that insident happened marred? NO! Fact is, bad things happen to good people and bad things happen in good places, and good things happen to bad people and good things happen in bad places. Satan is not picky! However, God shows us all how to get through and overcome in order to gain victory over all that bad things that happen. He promised to see us "through" difficult situation and to overcome them. This is earth... not heaven. Those who are living on this earth but are not OF the earth are still subject to attcks from the devil. Amish not excluded. And guess what.... even the best of the best have been gone through some really tough times because of a person they thought to be saintly did a 180 degree turn on them and commited a crime against them. That's life. We pray for protection, but we also pray for the Lord to see us "through".

The Amish are no better than anyone else. they are just different in their own choices of what material things they allow into their lives. Some more than other, some none at all. That doesn't mean they are more perfect than anyone else.

Seriously, I mean no offense to you by asking this next question, but why would I want to PM you to ak you questions you about the Amish? Are you the expert on the affairs of every single one of them? I doubt it. They are no differnt than any other human being who is seeking to follow Jesus Christ.

God bless us all.

Peace.


.
 
A Tampa Bay area TV station does a segment in their news reports called "What's Right With Tampa Bay". The feature is designed to bring a little good news in the middle of all of the bad news.
This evening, the day before Thanksgiving, they did a report on Yoders Restaurant in Sarasota Florida. Yoders is an Amish Restaurant that is known for their homemade pies. Today is their busiest day of the year.
The station did not provide a link to their story ~yet~ but if they do I will post it.
It was a great story, very possitive, and a great plug fot he Amish!
 
As promised, here is the link to the "Pie Lady" story.

dinnerfor2.gif


http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/page ... geId=1.1.1
 
From the website posted by someone earlier:

If a person is baptized into the Amish church and later leaves the church or is excommunicated, they have no hope of attaining Heaven.

:o

Sounds cultist to me...no one holds the Keys to the Kingdom but God!

I know a Baptist minister who was excommunicated from from the Amish after being born again.
 
Amish, I don't know what Church you are refering to. But if you are stating such here, you are becoming a false teacher, I do not appreciate false teachers. By all means please tell me how a Baptist get's to Heaven? Or how a Non-denominational Church get's to Heaven? See in order to join a Church as one I just mentioned, you must 1st and foremost state that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and have been baptized by showing a certificate of some kind. If you can not, or do not have a certificate of baptism, you must be baptized at the church you are willing to join. If you ever leave the Church, they may ask for reasons, and they keep you in prayer. NO WHERE EVER do they say if you leave this Church you can not get to Heaven!!!!! EVER!!! If your Church teaches that, then I'm not looking at your Church, but YOU!!! You will be accountable one day, not your Church when you stand before Him. You are the one that is gullible to stay at a Church that teaches such heresy. Don't come here and claim other Churches do the same thing without showing any evidence or what Church(s) you are talking about, or you will be eaten alive by Bibical Truth... One way to Heaven and that is through the Blood of Jesus Christ alone.. No Church is going to get you there, no wagon, no train, no bus, no car or truck its nothing but the blood of Jesus..


What Can Wash Away My Sin... Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus
 
I was trying to make a point by saying that it's not just my church that believe that they are right.

Also, not all Amish districts believe that only they will get into heaven.
Some (including me) believe it depends on the individual person.
 
Amish said:
I was trying to make a point by saying that it's not just my church that believe that they are right.

Also, not all Amish districts believe that only they will get into heaven.
Some (including me) believe it depends on the individual person.
Click to expand...

Please enlighten me. What must I do to be saved according to your beliefs?
 
Amish are a Mennonite sect.

I used to belong to a (modern) Mennonite church (which left the denomination because of its increasing liberal-ness) and still have one friend who is what I affectionately call a "buggy person" - she uses the term "plain Mennonite" and says that if she lived in Pennsylvania, she would probably be called "Amish". She uses the word "plain" to mean something along the lines of "unadorned".

My friend drives a horse-and-buggy, sells pies, wears a headcovering with a bow under the chin, etc., but has a telephone and natural-gas ovens. She is a wonderful, wonderful, unusual woman, who, incidentally, has never married, and she is very teachable - right now she is attending a weekly home-group led by a mutual friend of ours. She doesn't speak with the "charismatic" lingo - isn't even aware of most of it, but I would say that she is spirit-filled, and her main gift is prophecy.

But this gal is, as I said, unusual. The main problem I see in conservative and "plain" Mennonite/Amish culture and doctrine is the widespread belief that it is prideful (ie: sin) to have assurance of salvation. What I see is a very strong spirit of religious pride cloaked in the sheepskin of false humility - people seem to be eager to say that they don't know whether or not they (or even a recently-departed brother or sister in the Lord) will go to Heaven. My husband's way of saying this is that many Mennonites are missing their helmet of salvation. Because they are unsure of their salvation, they resort to legalism - as if they had to appease some kind of beast rather than simply reflect the glory of their Father. Sad.

Anyhoo, I voted that I "like" the Amish, because of my friend. I don't have anything against them - I just think that many of them, particularly those in leadership - need to be restored to grace and re-helmeted.

blessings
tal
 
Lord Jesus,

I pray that you teach these brothers and sisters in Christ that knowing the truth is not prideful. To know, believe, and understand the gospel contains no more pride than knowing how to bake a pie. Bless them with assurance, in Jesus name. And also give them the assurance that you have saved the souls of those of us who are less conservative than they. They will know we are Christians by our love.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top