Amish and Mormon

Ibrahem Adam Abukoush

Amish and Mormon

        The Amish have felt pressure from the modern world to adapt to our society that we live in today. The belief of the Amish is that the church is always first and family is second. The Amish raise sons and daughters for the lord and they all want to live through Christ teachings. The Amish try to do the best they can to serve god in hopes they are worthy enough for salvation. The attempt to reconcile their religion with modern day society is a tall task for the Amish. The reason for this is that technology advancements that non Amish take part in is still seen as taking away from what the Amish believe in. The Amish see others as weak because they are dependent on these technologies even though it can save a vast majority of time from the labor that is done. In attempt to make life easier, the Amish hold a vote that needs to be passed to see if the new technology is worth adapting to. However, we see the Amish changing occupations from farm workers to now working in factories. The issue is that the Amish believe that working in the farm and being in touch with the soil is the closest you can be to god

        The church is the one who gives boundaries for how you can interact with the world. They believe this keeps the tradition alive and the church attempts to make individuals feel guilty for what they want. The church believes this keeps the Amish from discarding the faith. The contradictions that are apparent is that each church holds 25-30 families who can set their own rules and guidelines. The bigger contradiction here is that even without technology, there will always be gossip and problems but in a different way. According to the documentary, the families stated that church is where all the small talk happens and everyone is in everyone’s business still. This may come a different way because there is no technology, but in reality, the Amish still go through the same struggles as Americans.

        Education is a major key that many Americans do not want to overlook when it comes to the Amish. In the Amish culture, children do not have schooling past 8th grade. Many Americans look down upon this stating that school prepares these children for the real world. The response of the Amish was “Which world”. This means that the Amish believe that the most important values you learn are at home working with the parents. The Amish do not want the children exposed to the different views of the world, the Amish want their children sheltered. Religion plays a huge part in this. How the Amish contradict American society is because the Amish want the children to be educated but only enough to get through the life which they see as a small step compared to eternity. There is an example in the documentary for work vs. education. One children left school at 8th grade in hopes of owning the farm one day and the neighbor stayed in school and ended up planting pipe as an engineer in southern America.