It's interesting how much we hear about the Amish. I'm guessing it's because it's been primarily an Eastern U.S. kind of thing and a lot of the media is that way.
Here, we have Mennonites, which aren't necessarily related, but who are definitely in the same vein as far as hard work, successful businesses, family values, etc. They also dress like they're from a different era.
The one main difference is, they're okay with technology. They drive cars, and live in modern homes.
When it flooded in a nearby town, the Mennonites were out helping people with their flooded out basement and other parts of their home. They didn't help the tavern, though. :) Those guys were on their own.
I think it's great when any people live their religion, rather than spend more time giving it a bad name. That's an amazing statistic of retention for the youth, too. It can be really scary out there, especially when so many have so little of a moral compass, or anything other than themselves to cling to.
At the same time, society could use more interaction with people of strong ethical and moral faith. Somehow being in the world and not of the world is the better balance, but I don't know that striking it is all that simple. Many of us have a hard time doing that.
howdy today sir Glen! yes sir, well and the Amish want to be left alonge, our general society could learn alot from them but they shun interaction most of the time, can't really blame them though.
I think they are such a blessing to this country though. Many people think that they are just Old Testament followers but all of them that I know of our very modern in their teachings and are Christ followers and born again.
With our farm operation in Kansas we worked beside many Mennonites and they were excellent with the latest and best equipment, they also were expanding like crazy and if you were at a land auction and they wanted a piece of land you could forget it because they would pay anything for it, they are loaded with cash.
their church is their bank like the Amish. very interesting comparing the two groups, both believe in spiritual priority but one goes high tech and the other no tech and their approaches work for them and they both thrive.
strange though, I don't think they like the West Coast!
Well, that's a funny thing about the Amish. They want to be left alone, but they don't just sell goods within their own communities, so they're not completely isolationists. I can understand the wanting to be left alone part. I want to be left alone, too. :)
Yeah, the Mennonites all seem to be pretty industrious. I've ran across one or two who actually left the religion, though. Don't know enough about their situation, why, or so forth, and didn't have any reason to fault them for it, either. Seemed in the one or two chances I had to observe them (since I wasn't really interacting), they still seemed like decent folk, which is a plus, too.
I don't know enough about Mennonite doctrine to say what they believe that way. I just know they're not keen on a lot of things that we do as a matter of course, like having pictures taken of them, which I guess has a graven image base, but I wasn't clear as to how that applied if you weren't worshiping it.
Anyway, as you said, we're pretty lucky as a nation to have them, and I'll throw in anyone else who actually tries to live a Christ-like life, living among us.
good day to you sir Glen! From what we saw in Ohio, and being in the real estate business we worked with a number of them to purchase properties to invest in, they were buying rental homes and units, they are very savvy business people.
And of course their entire farming operations were geared toward supplying health food stores like the one we shopped at, the meats, eggs, produce, fruit and especially their wines(which are the best!)
So very modern and commercialized when it came to running their businesses. they make tons of money too. cheap labor, no insurance or union dues to pay, low overhead. But their home lives are a different matter.
I haven't heard that the Mennonites didn't want their pictures taken but they are similar in their beliefs to the Amish, at least in many ways.
Now that I think of it, there were some who were a little more strict about that than others. It was a couple of older business owners starting a restaurant, and I wanted to feature them in the newspaper. They declined and then told me why. A while later, there was another story with someone else, and they were okay with it. So it may have been individual interpretations of the faith, or different teachings within strains.
Well, it sounds like the Amish got it right if they have no insurance or union dues to pay, and low overhead. I guess if the labor is being done by them, their families or others in their community, cheap labor might be compensated in other ways. Sounds like the perfect set up to me.
I think I've had some kind of pie or pastry, which I really liked, but now I can't remember what it was. I know both the Amish and Mennonites are highly regarded here for all they do. I'm not sure where the Amish goods came from, though, since I'm not aware of a community around here.
Okay, looks like they're within fifty miles of here maybe. Hard to tell. Since they don't use the internet I'm relying on third party sites and they seem to be all over the place with their information. :)