Reclusive Amish community goes forth and multiplies

UNITED STATES:The cloistered Amish community is one of the fastest-growing religious groups in the US

THE RECLUSIVE Amish community, who dress in 19th century clothes, travel by horse and buggy and speak a dialect of German, live in stark contrast to the mainstream of contemporary American culture. Far from being a relic of a bygone age, however, the Amish are among the fastest-growing religious groups in the country, almost doubling in numbers over the past 16 years.

The population growth is so dramatic that the Amish have moved far beyond their traditional communities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana to settle in 28 states, including those as distant as Colorado, Arkansas and Maine. Virginia's Amish population has increased by 400 per cent since 1992, Kentucky's by 200 per cent and Montana's by 150 per cent.

Very few people convert to the Amish faith, although converts are welcome if they are willing to accept the conventions of the community and learn the German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch. What lies behind the population growth is big Amish families, which average five children, and the decision by more than 85 per cent of young adults to remain within the faith.

From the age of 16, young Amish are allowed to socialise with their friends at weekends and to sow modestly wild oats in a process known as Rumspringa that lasts until they get married - or until they reach their late twenties. At 18, they are free to visit the outside world before deciding if they want to be baptised into the faith but 85 per cent choose to remain within the community.

Amish who marry outside the faith are automatically excommunicated, a rule that further boosts the group's retention rate.

The migration from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, where two thirds of the Amish still live, is driven partly by the search for cheap farmland where families can pursue their traditional lifestyle, using horse-drawn ploughs and avoiding some modern technology such as televisions, phones and computers.

Although the Amish do not own cars and refuse to draw electricity from the public grid, they accept lifts and use taxis and are happy to use power tools, electrical farm equipment and other technological innovations.

In recent years, the Amish have also been in demand as construction workers and furniture-makers, partly because of their high standard of craftsmanship and solid work ethic. Another attraction, however, is the fact that Amish subcontractors seldom employ anyone outside their own family so they pay no health insurance or unemployment benefits, keeping prices down for themselves and their non-Amish contractors.

The Amish migration across the US has not been without its problems, however, as communities unfamiliar with their customs struggle to accommodate them. Accidents involving cars and horse-drawn buggies are a twice-weekly occurrence in Pennsylvania and they have spread to other states, partly because some Amish resist bright safety markings and rear lights on the basis that they are too gaudy.

Wisconsin, where Amish numbers have doubled to more than 15,000 since the early 1990s, has seen a series of clashes between the community and local authorities over everything from hunting gear to livestock registration.

Two Amish brothers in Wisconsin's Clark County were recently fined $143.10 (€96) each for not wearing orange safety clothing while deer hunting. The brothers, who wear traditional black hats and dark trousers, argued that their faith forbade them to wear bright clothing but the judge ruled that nothing in the Amish code obliged them to hunt deer.

Another Amish man was fined $10,000 for failing to get a building permit because he said conforming to the state's uniform dwelling code was against his beliefs.

And a case is pending against a number of farmers who are refusing to register their farms because they fear it could lead to individually registering their livestock, a move they associate with "the number of the beast" in the Book of Revelation.

Wisconsin courts have generally taken an indulgent view of Amish infractions, seeking compromise rather than confrontation rather as the Amish themselves contrive to remain in touch with the modern world while living apart from it.