What specific event precipitated the Amish refusal to adopt any new technology ?

The Amish want to be separated from the outside world in order to practice their religious beliefs without interference. They don’t see technology as evil, and will take up certain aspects of it as necessary. For example, a disabled person who is Amish would be allowed to use a motorized wheelchair. The Amish may adopt other forms of technology on a case by case basis. Generally, this is done by petition to the bishops, who discuss it and then decide yes or no.

For example, in terms of the telephone, the Amish believe that by bringing the outside world into the home, it is an intrusion into the privacy and sanctity of the family, and interferes with social community by eliminating face-to-face communication. Some groups ban the phone altogether, while others choose to have a community phone outside, to be shared by all who live near it.

The Amish live by a set of rules called the Ordnung. The Ordnung is intended to ensure that church members live according to the biblical Word of God. It is decided upon within each community as a whole, so some Amish groups are more conservative than others. The Ordnung attempts to prevent pride, envy, vanity, laziness, and dishonesty, and is designed to guide Amish behavior into being more Christ-like, thus defining who they are. It intends that they be separate from the world and different from the world.

Basically, as new technology comes along, each community assesses its worth to the community and looks to see if it helps the Ordnung to be maintained. If it has little worth or if it brings in the outside world too much, then that bit of technology is refused.

In retrospect, my sinking all my savings into the creation of an Amish chat room website was a bad idea.

@Darwin Great answer. It was really interesting to learn.

@Darwin I have always wondered if the Amish still exist in Germany as they do here in the US? They are originally from Germany aren’t they? Is Amish synonomous with Pennsylvania Deutsch/Dutch?

I am very interested in the Amish community and so, although I have nothing to add here at the moment I will continue to follow this question for more GA’s like @Darwin.‘s

@JLeslie – There are no longer any Amish in Germany, although there are still Mennonites and various groups of Anabaptists. In addition, the Amish are part of the “Pennsylvania Dutch” but not all of them by any means.

Here is a nice summary of the history of the Amish, the Mennonites, and the Brethren. They left Europe (Germany, Holland and Switzerland specifically) because of persecution. Most of the Amish went to the New World, leaving only a few behind. Eventually those few joined with the Mennonites, so today there are no Amish in Germany.

The link above says specifically:

“Most of the members who remained in Europe rejoined the Mennonites. Few Amish congregations existed by 1900. On 1937-JAN-17, the last Amish congregation—in Ixheim, Germany—merged with their local Mennonite group and became the Zweibrücken Mennonite Church. The Amish no longer existed in Europe as a organized group.”

The Pennsylvania Dutch are made up of a mixture of German, Swiss, and French Huguenots who arrived in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. They mostly came from the part of Germany called the Palatinate. It includes people of various religious affiliations, most of them Lutheran or Reformed, but many Anabaptists (Amish and Mennonites among others), non-Christian, and non-religious as well.

In some areas today, people reserve the term “Pennsylvania Dutch” for the Amish mostly because the descendants of the rest of the Pennsylvania Dutch consider themselves simply Americans. They no longer speak any form of German and have gone into all different fields of endeavor, while the Amish have maintained their separateness. However, technically the term includes all of the immigrants from from various parts of the southern Rhineland, Palatinate, the southern part of Hesse, Baden, Alsace Switzerland, and Tyrol Austria to Pennsylvania (although some went to other parts of the US, too).

So, there you have it: no, yes and no, and sometimes.

@Darwin Thanks. I find it interesting that here in the US the Amish were able to maintain their separatedness (sp? Real word?). I worked with a woman who was PA Dutch, but she had left, all of her siblings stayed, she did go back and visit her family sometimes, but I think she implied (this is a long time ago) she was supposed to have been shunned, but I guess her family was still willing to include her.

@JLeslie – The Amish work hard to maintain that separateness.

@Darwin more of a comment on how the US allows separation of church and state and the right to pursue life as one wants.

We don’t typically kill folks who want to run their church a different way. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, a lot of governments in Europe did. That’s why they left.

I don’t think it was events. The reason is their belief system.

@Darwin They didn’t only settle in the US but there are many of them that live in Canada also. My husband used to be Amish and it seems like they know less about their ancestors and stuff than we do because i’ll ask him questions like where they are from and stuff like that and he just has no clue. lol :)