The Amish Cook from Oasis Newsfeatures

Here is another episode of Amish in the News Videocast This week features some interesting stories: an arrest in a buggy-hijacking incident, a study showing the rapid growth of the Amish church, weather in Amish country, and upcoming events, so check out this week's broadcast by clicking here.

I am going to take a break next week from the newscast so I can evaluate it.  The past few weeks have just been a test-run. If I bring it back I'd really like to do so with some graphics, better music, guests, etc.  Soooo, if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear from you.  Otherwise, stay tuned!

CAPTION: a photo supplied by Channel 4 of the British rumspringa series.

SIGH…I’m really, really, really perplexed at what the mainstream media’s fascination is with the Amish youth behavior known as “rumspringa.” The media in the USA is frequently showcasing rumspringa, even doing a dopey reality series about in a few years ago. This past weekend, England jumped on the bandwagon when Channel 4 ran the first installment of a series that follows the lives of several Amish teenagers plucked from their pastoral USA lives and plopped into Great Britain. And then I received a call from a Japanese television station the other days asking me all sorts of questions about rumspringa because THEY wanted to do a similar series.  20 years ago, when I first started editing The Amish Cook, barely anyone outside of the Amish had even heard the term "rumspringa"

I know this is repetitive for some, but we have a lot of new people to this site. Rumspringa, in its current form, is a media confection and concoction. Rumspringa used to be a relatively little-used term to describe the behavior of SOME Amish teenagers as they sort through whether they wish to remain Amish or not. Some Amish teens know, without a doubt, that they want to join the church as adults and they go through their adolescence with little rebellion or problems. Some Amish teens, uncertain of what faith they wish to ascribe to as adults, go through short, or prolonged, periods of indecision or "rebellion." (really, the preceding sentences could be used to describe teenagers of ANY culture or creed) The "rebellion" may be as mild as going to a few wild parties or be as drastic as shedding traditional Amish clothing, getting a drivers license, job, and an apartment. The mainstream media is correct that Amish parents generally do give their children a wide berth during this period. Amish parents want to feel that their children chose their faith on their own and didn't have it forced upon them.

Mainstream media, for reasons that escape me, have latched on to scraps of what rumspringa was and have created in its place something artificial and untrue. The media version of rumspringa is that somehow all Amish teenagers are REQUIRED to go through rumspringa and this just isn’t the case. It’s as if an Amish teenager wakes up one morning when they are 15 or 16 and scream "let's party!!" and then go running wild through the countryside. This just isn't true. As I described above, "rumspringa" (a German word roughly translated as "running around") is a very individual behavior and, as noted, many Amish teens don’t go through it at all.

That’s the reality of rumspringa.  I think I probably rained on the parade of the Japanese TV crew.

This is a fascinating - and for me - timely study.  I didn't really need a study to tell me this info, but the specifics are fascinating.  The results of the study by esteemed Elizabethtown College Amish expert Donald Kraybill: the Amish population is growing and expanding to other states. Anecdotally I've seen this myself witnessing the establishment of Amish settlements in places I would have been surprised about 20 years ago: Mississippi, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and the list goes on.  The study also now puts Pennsylvania back ahead of Ohio as the state with the most Amish.  Click here to read more about the study.  For registered users of amishcookonline I will emailing you all in the next day or so some "news" of mine that really ties heavily into this study.  So stay tuned.

According to the study the Top 12 largest Amish settlements are:

1. Lancaster County, Pa., 29,535

2. Holmes County, Ohio, 29,510

3. Elkhart/LaGrange, Ind., 19,180

4. Geauga County, Ohio, 12,410

5. Adams County, Ind., 7,200

6. Nappanee, Ind., 4,920

7. Arthur, Ill., 3,920

8. Daviess County, Ind., 3,665

9. Mifflin County, Pa., 2,760

10. Allen County, Ind., 2,735

11. Indiana County, Pa., 2,395

12. New Wilmington, Pa., 2,285

I have been to all of the settlements but two: New Wilmington, PA and I don't know that I can county Daviess County because my visit was so fleeting years ago.  I was surprised Kalona, Iowa; Harmony, Minnesota, or Rexford, Montana did not make the list.  Also no Canadian settlements made the list, I thought perhaps Kitchener might make the cut.  How many of the above settlements have you been to?

An article in the Fremont, Nebraska newspaper featured a headline this morning which definitely had me raising my eyebrows.  The headline:  "Amish Women To Speak About Their Mission Work."

In actuality, these women are members of the Amish-Mennonite faith which is a wonderful church but they have some distinct differences from the Old Order Amish.   A member of the Old Order Amish church would not be permitted to attain higher formal education and stay within the church.  Actually, that isn't completely true.  An unbaptised Amish teenager could go on to high school and even college and then decide to be baptised back into the church but such an occurrence would be exceedingly rare for a variety of reasons.

Anyway, one of the Amish-Mennonite women is a medical doctor, so she has an extraordinarily unique perspective to offer.  It's too bad the newspaper didn't dig a little deeper in fleshing out the personal stories of these women instead of printing a canned press release.  Click here to read more and if you are around Fremont, Nebraska, you should consider going to the program!

Another topic of interest today: ELEPHANTS,  Read this interesting article from a well-known elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.  You wouldn't think the lives of Amish people and elephants would intersect, but they do in the South's largest plain settlement around Ethridge, Tennessee.  I have not been to Ethridge although I probably will travel there in the near future, it's a quite interesting, very conservative, settlement I have heard.

A site regular emailed me this ad. 

This is as large as I could reproduce it here, but hopefully you can see it.

It appeared as a full-page advertisement in a local magazine of coupons that a lot of people here in Southwest Ohio receive in the mail.  I must admit that I have never seen an ad quite like this one.  Although unlike the ubiquitous ads for those absurd Amish heaters I think this ad could be plausible and credible. Disclaimer:  I have no experience with this company, so I am not endorsing them at this time.  But the full-page ad touts “5 Crews of Amish craftsmen available at all times.” 

The ad then mentions how they build pole barns, roofs, sheds, etc.  The number listed is a Dayton, Ohio one.  I think it is quite possible that this non-Amish owner contracts with Amish craftsmen from either Belle Center, Ohio or Berne, Indiana (both within 90 minutes of Dayton) or possibly even Wayne County, Indiana (only an hour from Dayton) to do these jobs.  If he does, I think it’s probably a brilliant marketing move.  The fact is that Amish workers are known for putting out very good product.    And while a full-page ad advertising this is a little kitschy (in my opinion), the ad doesn’t seem to be too distasteful. Even the photo included is a lot more respectful than many I have seen in ads that show full facial features, etc, which usually goes against Amish beliefs.   Upon doing some research the contractor does have an A+ rating from the local Better Business Bureau.

My only caveat and caution is that some businesses here in SW Ohio knowingly or unknowingly lump the more ubiquitous German Baptists in with the Amish and the religions are totally different even though they share common plain appearances.  I’ll try to get some more info and report back here.  Meanwhile, if anyone has hired this company, let us know what your experience was!