God Above Everything
- The Amish believe that their religious faith and their way of life is eternally intertwined
- Amish have a collectivist society
- Put God and the community before the individual
- No competition or desire for wealth should be present in the Amish community
Family
- Amish have large families
- On average, each family has 7-8 children
- In addition to the nuclear family, each Amish community functions as a supportive family
- Close-knit community who support each other
Obedience
- The Amish see obedience as a virtue
- Not supposed to challenge, just mindlessly accept church authority
- Should be obedient to God, the Amish church, and the parents
- Gelassenheit
- Important principle of the Amish
- Idea that a believer should surrender to God by living in a way that God and the Amish church would approve of
Separation
- Amish live apart from the outside world
- They believe that salvation will only come from living in a virtuous community
- Ways the Amish gain separation:
- Don’t own modern technology
- Have their own education system
- Speak their own language
- Wear distinctive clothing
- Marry among their community
Simple Living
- Farming
- Central to Amish way of life
- Tilling the Earth is a way for the Amish to feel closer to God
- Have most productive and stable agricultural societies in the United States
- Don’t use modern technology
- Believe that the modern world is full of too many distractions that rip the family apart
- Believe that people become too materialistic, losing sight of the greater purpose—to achieve salvation
Education
- Believe in pursuing a life of goof rather than a life of intellect
- Schools consist of one-room schoolhouses
- Children stop attending school at the age of 13 (around 8th grade)
- Believe that education can make a person prideful
Forgiveness
- Have deeply ingrained habit to forgive
- In 2006, a gunman entered an Amish school and shoot 10 girls, killing 5
- The gunman then killed himself
- The Amish expressed forgiveness to the killer and his family
- They even attended his burial service
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