The Amish Way by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher
Book: The Amish Way by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, David L. Weaver-Zercher
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the twenty-mile trip by horse and buggy on one of the coldest days of winter. When we expressed surprise at taking such a chilly journey, she said simply that their friend was recovering from cancer and needed visitors.
Expressions of care often come from beyond the local church district in the form of card showers. Contributors to Amish newspapers encourage readers to write—or in some cases, send money—to cheer ill or lonely people. “Let’s have a thinking-of-you shower for Enos Yoder. He will be seventy-four March 15. He cannot do anything and has many long days,” began one request. “Let’s have a get well or whatever-you-wish shower for Mrs. Andy L. Hershberger,” urged another. “She had hip replacement surgery. Let’s fill her mailbox.” 6 These showers generate scores of cards from people, many of whom the recipients will never meet because they live outside the community or state, but who reach out to fellow church members with concern and care.
What About the Wayward?
The practice of mutual aid has a flip side. The Amish, like anyone else, face the challenge of betrayal, disobedience, and offense. Coping with disobedience requires a different set of religious habits than mutual aid—rites that include confession, discipline, and shunning, all of which remind members of their spiritual responsibility to and for one another. The practice of shunning may seem harsh to outsiders, but the Amish see mutual aid and church discipline as two sides of the same coin. Both involve reciprocal relationships of accountability and respect, and both sustain community.
All human communities experience broken and tense relationships from time to time. Some twenty-first-century Americans choose anonymity, avoidance, and distance to cope when conflicts arise. Moreover, privacy fences and automatic garage doors allow people to bypass their neighbors, and career changes and divorce reflect a cultural impulse to start life again. The Amish, bound in close relationships, cannot easily move away or avoid conflict. Disagreements must be addressed head-on, often publicly and in the church. And those who betray their vows to the community are not ignored.
Amish churches deal with violations of the Ordnung through confession and, in some cases, discipline. If the social shaming of discipline does not change an offender’s attitudes and behaviors, the church may excommunicate and subsequently shun the person. 7
Members often initiate private confession, going to a church leader to confess violations of biblical teaching (theft, fornication, lying) or of the Ordnung (owning a computer, filing a lawsuit, flying in an airplane). Depending on the nature of the transgression, the church official may offer loving counsel and close the matter. In other cases, he may require the individual to make a public confession, either sitting or kneeling before the entire church. The church will “subpoena” the wayward who do not come forward voluntarily, and ask them to appear before the Gmay to confess or at least explain their behavior, noted one Amish man.
Although bishops, ministers, and deacons oversee the process, discipline involves the entire Gmay during the occasional Members Meetings that follow Sunday-morning services. After the benediction, the bishop dismisses all the children and unbaptized teens, leaving sixty or so adult members. Then the work of community discipline and pardon begins.
Drawing on Matthew 18:15-20, the Amish see this task as one of the church’s key responsibilities. In some ways, this authority parallels that of a Roman Catholic priest, who can pardon a repentant parishioner of sin, but the Amish believe that Matthew 18 authorizes the entire church to make decisions about membership that are binding on earth and endorsed in heaven.The sacred nature of the church’s decision making is underscored in verse 20 where Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered together
Expressions of care often come from beyond the local church district in the form of card showers. Contributors to Amish newspapers encourage readers to write—or in some cases, send money—to cheer ill or lonely people. “Let’s have a thinking-of-you shower for Enos Yoder. He will be seventy-four March 15. He cannot do anything and has many long days,” began one request. “Let’s have a get well or whatever-you-wish shower for Mrs. Andy L. Hershberger,” urged another. “She had hip replacement surgery. Let’s fill her mailbox.” 6 These showers generate scores of cards from people, many of whom the recipients will never meet because they live outside the community or state, but who reach out to fellow church members with concern and care.
What About the Wayward?
The practice of mutual aid has a flip side. The Amish, like anyone else, face the challenge of betrayal, disobedience, and offense. Coping with disobedience requires a different set of religious habits than mutual aid—rites that include confession, discipline, and shunning, all of which remind members of their spiritual responsibility to and for one another. The practice of shunning may seem harsh to outsiders, but the Amish see mutual aid and church discipline as two sides of the same coin. Both involve reciprocal relationships of accountability and respect, and both sustain community.
All human communities experience broken and tense relationships from time to time. Some twenty-first-century Americans choose anonymity, avoidance, and distance to cope when conflicts arise. Moreover, privacy fences and automatic garage doors allow people to bypass their neighbors, and career changes and divorce reflect a cultural impulse to start life again. The Amish, bound in close relationships, cannot easily move away or avoid conflict. Disagreements must be addressed head-on, often publicly and in the church. And those who betray their vows to the community are not ignored.
Amish churches deal with violations of the Ordnung through confession and, in some cases, discipline. If the social shaming of discipline does not change an offender’s attitudes and behaviors, the church may excommunicate and subsequently shun the person. 7
Members often initiate private confession, going to a church leader to confess violations of biblical teaching (theft, fornication, lying) or of the Ordnung (owning a computer, filing a lawsuit, flying in an airplane). Depending on the nature of the transgression, the church official may offer loving counsel and close the matter. In other cases, he may require the individual to make a public confession, either sitting or kneeling before the entire church. The church will “subpoena” the wayward who do not come forward voluntarily, and ask them to appear before the Gmay to confess or at least explain their behavior, noted one Amish man.
Although bishops, ministers, and deacons oversee the process, discipline involves the entire Gmay during the occasional Members Meetings that follow Sunday-morning services. After the benediction, the bishop dismisses all the children and unbaptized teens, leaving sixty or so adult members. Then the work of community discipline and pardon begins.
Drawing on Matthew 18:15-20, the Amish see this task as one of the church’s key responsibilities. In some ways, this authority parallels that of a Roman Catholic priest, who can pardon a repentant parishioner of sin, but the Amish believe that Matthew 18 authorizes the entire church to make decisions about membership that are binding on earth and endorsed in heaven.The sacred nature of the church’s decision making is underscored in verse 20 where Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered together
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