Originally Posted by
GeneticFlea
well to add to this discussion, I grew up and am a practicing mennonite. In all honesty thats not as wierd as it sounds, as the majority of Mennonites, live and work exactly like every other group of people in the States. Its more like baptists vs lutherans than like the amish. But thats us modern Mennos, there still plenty of Conservative mennonites out there. I went to a small mennonite school (eastern mennonite university) in the Shenadoah valley of Virginia, gorgeous place with plenty of us bikers! In fact did you know floyd landis of Tour de France fame is from a Mennonite family?
IF you ever want to see tons of amish and mennonites bike, go to Sarasota Florida. Its sort of their version of vacation mecca. They get bussed down in lots from Ohio and indiana to bike and wear cape dresses on the beach. And earlier posters were right, the friendliness and eagerness to help people of the Amish is amazing. There was an NPR story comparing the Amish/mennonite house building efforts vs Habitat for humanity after Hurricane Katrina, and the summary was that the amish had nearly trippled the number of house habitat had built for families. Not to toot my peoples horn or nothing, but the mennonites loom larger than their small numbers should dictate in international peace and disaster relief efforts. Check out Mennonite Central Committee if you want to see all the programs theyve got their hands in.
We all may believe what we will, but its hard to argue that the faith of the amish and mennonites really makes possible their simple lifestyles, good deeds, and tireless work ethic. Most of them arent even thinking about peak oil or global warming and look at the good their lifestyle can do!
ok off my soap box now
Lancaster, PA = Best pies in the world!
What's up Conrad
This is Jules
(I go to the same college he graduated from and we're also second cousins. This is common with Mennonites, if you meet another menno you know you're at most 2 degrees away from them by either blood or some other association)
Anyway Amish theology is a little wacky but they have a lot going for them in terms of sustainable lifestyle, moral living (not just the kind of "moral values" that republicans try to get voters with) and so on. Respect them.
And it's been said before but there's all kinds of Amish and conservative mennonites with all kinds of slightly different intricate codes of what they can do. Some can play on game boys for instance (I saw it). Mennonites in general tend toward biking for utility if not pleasure, partly because we're stingy and partly because it's environmentally friendly.
And yeah, Amish inbreed sometimes...six-fingered kids are more common among them than general population. It's because if you're Amish you can't marry outside the community, and you marry who's there. most of us regular mennonites probably have some of that in our family history somewhere...