The Amish people, are you serious?

I think you have misconceptions on the way that Amish live, and your certainly not alone. They are vastly misunderstood. I live in a heavily Amish populated area, have worked with, and employed some of them. The Amish are far more up to date than most people realize.

First of all, the Amish don't shun children, and they rarely shun anyone any longer. Shunning is a practice that they use to limit contact with a former Amish adult if the person decides to leave the Amish faith after they have joined the church. If a person leaves the faith before they join the church, they are not shunned. They must leave the household, but family and friends still keep in close contact with them. Any Amish person that has left the faith is always welcomed back into the faith if they decide to return to it, whether they were shunned or not.

The Amish strive to live an independent and devoted life. They are non-violent pacifists, they are excellent stewards of the land, and they are proponents of alternative energy sources (wind, solar). So why exactly do they deserve your ridicule? If I were you, I wouldn't condemn them on a one or two hour incomplete or inaccurate documentary I saw once.

I grew up in a farming community where half the farmers were Amish. I still live there and still have Amish neighbors. I have yet to see or hear about any of them shunning their children unless the child grows up and leaves the Amish community....which isn't any more harsh then what most non-Amish parents do to their kids nowadays. If you witnessed first hand how happy they are with their lifestyle you wouldn't question it. They are more equipped to deal with harsh times and a failing economy then you will ever be.

And no they do not live in a socialist community. Each family has a telephone and electricity...they just don't have the phone inside the house and don't use the electricity unless it's an emergency. Just because they are a separate community living inside another community doesn't mean they're socialists.

Your question doesn't make much sense. The Amish have just as much right to follow their conscience as any other Americans. I know of some conservative (and liberal) parents and siblings who have basically "shunned" their relations because of political or religious reasons- some one marries a Hindu or Buddhist, or starts voting Republican, for example. So I don't think the Amish are a cult- you're just a bigot.

They didn't choose it any more than most people choose their religion.

It's like any religion or culture. If you tell someone the same thing every day for the first 10 years of life, that becomes their "normal". Other cultures and religions appear weird or even ridiculous to those who were raised outside that religion.

If you were raised with chickens in the house, and all your neighbors had chickens in their houses also, you would think people who had no chickens were weird.

The beauty of the Amish people is that they are often excluded from being forced to carry health insurance, retirement accounts etc. Why? Because the community itself pays for all the needs of its members.

Funny, that's what the Amish say about us. Take drugs, shoot each other, 15 year olds heading to an abortion clinic and fund a government that promotes nannyism instead of personal growth & responsibility. "How can they live like that"?

What I say.......the biggest critic needs to start with the self before criticizing others.

Yet when your lights go out and no one can afford to pay the energy cost, you will wish you had paid a little more attention to the Amish.

You act as this doesn't happen in other cultures. Look around the world, there are numerous cultures that disown or shun family and friends that do not follow their view of the world.

I would much rather see Amish people practicing their religious freedom which forbids pre-marital sex rather than see muslims practicing their religious freedom which condone" honor killing " of teen daughters by fathers who believe they have " dishonored " their families + condones stoning adulterous women to death + condones marrying 12 year old child brides.

You sound like you have no understanding of the Amish whatsoever.