Amish religious practices
In Old Order Amish services, scripture is either read or recited from the German translation of Martin Luther.
[4] The majority of Old Order Amish congregations do not have church buildings but hold worship services in private homes.
[5] In addition, the early Anabaptists, from whom the Amish are descended, were religiously persecuted, and it may have been safer to pray in the privacy of a home.
Conflict resolution, gossip, grudges, neighborliness, all work to cement relationships vastly different than the socially mobile Protestant church culture.
[citation needed] Congregations meet every other week for the entire Sunday at a member family's farm.
In intervening weeks, time is available to visit a Sunday with family, neighbors, and friends in and outside the congregation of their residence and membership.
[citation needed] Each congregation's leadership is made up of one of the members serving as bishop, one as the deacon, and one as secretary.
[citation needed] Two key concepts for understanding Amish practices are their rejection of Hochmut (pride, arrogance, haughtiness) and the high value they place on Demut (humility) and Gelassenheit (calmness, composure, placidity), often translated as 'submission' or 'letting-be'.
The Amish's willingness to submit to the "Will of God", expressed through group norms, is at odds with the individualism so central to the wider American culture.
The Amish anti-individualist orientation is the motive for rejecting labor-saving technologies that might make one less dependent on the community.
Modern innovations like electricity might spark a competition for status goods, or photographs might cultivate personal vanity.
[7] Reflecting the principles of peace and nonresistance, Amish Anabaptist religious beliefs do not permit the filing of lawsuits (cf.
[15][16] Both out of concern for the effect of absence from the family life, and to minimize contact with outsiders, many Old Order Amish prefer to work at home.
The decorative arts play little role in authentic Amish life (though the prized Amish quilts are a genuine cultural inheritance, unlike hex signs), and are in fact regarded with suspicion, as a field where egotism and a display of vanity can easily develop.
Groups in fellowship can intermarry and have communion with one another, an important consideration for avoiding problems that may result from genetically closed populations.
This form of discipline is recommended by the bishop after a long process of working with the individual and must be unanimously approved by the congregation.
Generally, the Amish hold communion in the spring and the autumn, and not necessarily during regular church services.
Their children are expected to follow the will of their parents on all issues, but when they come of age, they must choose to make an adult, permanent commitment to God and the community.
About five or six months before the ceremony, classes are held to instruct the candidates, teaching them the strict implications of what they are about to profess.
Conversion to the Amish faith is rare but does occasionally occur as in the case of historian David Luthy.
