Wednesday, July 06, 2016
"We Believe": history of Amish and Mennonite faiths, and the "morality" of watching the outside world
The 17-minute film “We Believe”, shown at the Mennonite Information Center on Highway 30 just east of Lancaster PA, directed by Joel Kauffmann, gives a
history of the Amish and Mennonite faiths as they evolved in Europe in the 17th
century after the Protestant Reformation and major crackdown by
governments.
The movements arose from the Anabaptists, who believed in
adult baptism upon profession of faith (part of the modern mainstream American
and Southern conventions).
The first settlement was near Philadelphia around 1689. The Mennonites and Amish developed a very
personalized faith. In the early 19th
century, both groups could live off the land in Pennsylvania with little
attention to the outside world. With
wars and modernism, the old order Amish took the position that they should live
on faith alone, without technology, and even without more than an eight grade
education in some groups. The Mennonites were more accepting of modernism, and
participating in the larger world.
For me, interest in the outside world, and a belief that it
matters, has always been a big issue in my relations with other people.
I got there too late for the tour of the Tabernacle model.
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