Plain People
Content
Plain people
• Reformed Mennonites
• Orthodox Mennonites
• Old Colony Mennonites
• Hutterites[1]
• Old German Baptist Brethren
• Old Order River Brethren
A small number of Quakers still practice plain
dress.[2][3][4] The Shakers also dressed plain, but
today there are almost no Shakers left.[5]
2 Plain customs
Customs of Plain people include:
• Plain clothes, usually in solid, normally dark colors.
• Plain church buildings, or no church buildings whatsoever.
• A utilitarian view of technology, similar to the
precautionary principle of technology in that unknowns should be avoided, but the emphasis was on
the results in the eyes of God. If they were unsure of
how God would look upon a technology, the leaders
of the church would determine whether it was to be
avoided or not.[6] The degree to which this principle
was supported varied among the congregations, but
in general, the Amish people believed that the Mennonites had not done enough to separate themselves
from the rest of the world.
An Amish family.
Plain people are Christian groups characterized by
separation from the world and simple living, including
plain dress. Most Plain people have an Anabaptist background with the exception of the Old German Baptist
Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. All but the Old
Order River Brethren are of German, Swiss German and
Dutch ancestry.
1
Plain groups
3 Origins
Notable Plain groups are:
The Mennonite movement was a reform movement of
Anabaptist origins begun by Swiss Brethren and soon
thereafter finding greater cohesion based on the teachings
of Menno Simons 1496–1561, and the 1632 Dordrecht
Confession of Faith. The Amish movement was a reform
movement within the Mennonite movement, based on the
teachings of Jacob Ammann, who perceived a lack of discipline within the Mennonites movement by those trying
to avoid prosecution. Ammann argued that Romans 12:2
prohibited that.
• Old Order Amish
• New Order Amish
• Beachy Amish Mennonites
• Old Order Mennonites
• Conservative Mennonites
• Conservative Mennonite Conference
1
2
7 SEE ALSO
William Penn, having experienced religious persecution
as a Quaker, offered asylum to others who were suffering
religious persecution, an offer that many followers of Jacob Ammann accepted, starting with the Detweiler and
Sieber families, who settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1736. Many of them settled near Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, which offered some of the most productive non-irrigated farmland in the world. By 1770, the
Amish migration had largely ceased.
4
Religious practices
Plain groups typically have a bishop presiding over one
congregation (Amish) or over a district (group of congregations) (Old Order Mennonites). Mennonites mostly
meet in church buildings, but most Amish meet in members’ homes. Services among Amish and Plain Mennonites are mostly held in Pennsylvania German, a language
closely related to Palatinate German, with extra vocabulary. Bishops are commonly chosen by lot as a reflection
of God’s will. While the Bishop tends to be influential, he
tends to rule by building consensus rather than by issuing
edicts.
Most Plain groups have an Ordnung that among other
things regulates clothing. The Ordnung is a largely unwritten code of behavior, covering such items as clothing,
vehicles, and the use of technology. The Ordnung varies
slightly from congregation to congregation, though is in
essence the same. Violations are not considered sins, although wilfulness is considered to be a serious violation
of the faith. The congregation can change the Ordnung
if there is am majority to do so. Exemptions to the Ordnung can be provided. In one instance, one farmer was
granted permission to buy a modern tractor since he had
arthritis and no children to help him harness horses.
5
Trends
Despite this, the Pennsylvania Dutch, which includes
Amish, Old Order Mennonite, and Conservative Mennonites are expected to become a smaller percentage of
the population as the sects respond to high prices of farmland by spreading out all over the United States and internationally, and the English population spreads out from
Philadelphia into suburban and rural areas. Donald Kraybill believes there are Plain sect communities in 47 states.
Among people at least five years old living in Lancaster
County in 2000,
• 89% spoke English at home;
• 7% spoke Pennsylvania Dutch;
• 4% spoke Spanish.[8]
Most Plain sects do not admit children to their church,
and impose no sanctions on those who do not join, but
shun those who fall away from the church once becoming
a member. Among some groups of Old Order Amish,
teenagers who are not yet baptized are not bound by the
rules and go through a period of rumspringa, often with
certain amount of misbehavior that would not otherwise
be tolerated.
6 Health
The Pennsylvania Dutch generally do not proselytize
and discourage intermarriage.
Because of close
consanguinity, certain genetic problems occur more frequently. Dr. D. Holmes Morton has established the
Clinic for Special Children to study and treat families
with these problems.[9]
The Plain sects typically prohibit insurance, and they assist each other charitably in case of sickness, accident,
or property damage. Internal Revenue Service Form
4029[10] allows one to claim exemption to Social Security taxes under certain very restrictive conditions, and
members of the Plain groups neither pay these taxes nor
receive death, disability, or retirement benefits from social security.
7 See also
• Christian headcovering
Amish women at the beach, Chincoteague, Virginia.
• Fancy Dutch
The Old Order Amish are among the fastest-growing
populations in the world. They prohibit the use of
contraception and have low infant mortality rates. The average Amish woman can expect to have at least seven live
births.[7] Other Plain sects with the same or similar doctrines can be expected to have similarly explosive growth.
• Haredi Judaism
• Peace Churches
• Testimony of Simplicity
• Tolstoyan movement
3
8
References
[1] Hostetler, John (1997). Hutterite Society. The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0-8018-5639-6.
[2] Savage, Scott (2000). A Plain Life: Walking My Belief.
Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-43803-5.
[3] Cooper, Wilmer (1999). Growing Up Plain Among Conservative Wilburite Quakers: The Journey of a Public
Friend. Friends United Press. ISBN 0-944350-44-5.
[4] Quaker Jane website
[5] The Shaker Manifesto. N. A. Briggs, Publisher. 1878.
[6] Zimmerman, Diane (2000). Holding the Line: The Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns
Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6375-9.
[7] Meyers, Thomas J. (1990). “Amish”. Global Anabaptist
Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
[8] United States Censues, 2000, Population and Housing
Profile: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
[9] Kate Ruder, Genomics in Amish Country Genome News
Network, July 23 2004
[10] Internal Revenue Service Form 4029; Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and
Waiver of Benefits
9
Further reading
• Donald B. Kraybill, Carl Desportes Bowman. On
the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-80187089-5.
• Donald Kraybill, Puzzles of Amish Life. ISBN 156148-001-0.
• Stephen Scott, Why Do They Dress That Way?.
ISBN 1-56148-240-4.
• Amelia M. Gummere, Quaker: A Study in Costume.
ISBN 0-405-08585-0.
• Stephen Scott, An Introduction to Old Order and
Conservative Mennonite Groups. ISBN 1-56148101-7.
• Margaret C. Reynolds, Plain Women: Gender and
Ritual in the Old Order River Brethren. ISBN 0-27102138-1.
• Charles D. Thompson Jr., The Old German Baptist
Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia
Blue Ridge. ISBN 0-252-07343-6.
10 External links
• GAMEO: Plain People
4
11
11
11.1
TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
Text
• Plain people Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain%20people?oldid=648316210 Contributors: The Anome, Roadrunner, Docu,
Cherkash, JASpencer, Steinsky, DJ Clayworth, OrbitalBundle, Engel5, Metron, GK, Darrelljon, PatGallacher, Dangerous-Boy, LeoO3,
Wachholder0, Eldamorie, Gurch, Ahunt, Hairy Dude, DMahalko, Hydrargyrum, Nirvana2013, SmackBot, Stettlerj, Portillo, JonHarder,
LadyofShalott, TheEditrix, Alphageekpa, KnoxSGT, Arb, Dalliance, Awien, Yunfeng, Mtarr, 1549bcp, Squids and Chips, Mikeatnip,
One more night, Alex.muller, ClueBot, Jdb00, Solar-Wind, Jeremiestrother, Addbot, The masters servant, Sumbuddi, KamikazeBot,
Jim1138, Surv1v4l1st, Kwiki, Einie101, EmausBot, Alexander Roumega, Chorkman, Erik Wesner, Helpful Pixie Bot, Juro2351, Swissbro,
Jp2thegreat and Anonymous: 32
11.2
Images
• File:AmishFamilyNiagaraFalls.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/AmishFamilyNiagaraFalls.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Where next Columbus? using
CommonsHelper. Original artist: Original uploader was Gilabrand at en.wikipedia
• File:Femmes-Amish.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Femmes-Amish.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Pasteur
• File:Wikiversity-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Wikiversity-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Snorky (optimized and cleaned up by verdy_p) Original artist: Snorky (optimized and cleaned up by verdy_p)
11.3
Content license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
• Reformed Mennonites
• Orthodox Mennonites
• Old Colony Mennonites
• Hutterites[1]
• Old German Baptist Brethren
• Old Order River Brethren
A small number of Quakers still practice plain
dress.[2][3][4] The Shakers also dressed plain, but
today there are almost no Shakers left.[5]
2 Plain customs
Customs of Plain people include:
• Plain clothes, usually in solid, normally dark colors.
• Plain church buildings, or no church buildings whatsoever.
• A utilitarian view of technology, similar to the
precautionary principle of technology in that unknowns should be avoided, but the emphasis was on
the results in the eyes of God. If they were unsure of
how God would look upon a technology, the leaders
of the church would determine whether it was to be
avoided or not.[6] The degree to which this principle
was supported varied among the congregations, but
in general, the Amish people believed that the Mennonites had not done enough to separate themselves
from the rest of the world.
An Amish family.
Plain people are Christian groups characterized by
separation from the world and simple living, including
plain dress. Most Plain people have an Anabaptist background with the exception of the Old German Baptist
Brethren and Old Order River Brethren. All but the Old
Order River Brethren are of German, Swiss German and
Dutch ancestry.
1
Plain groups
3 Origins
Notable Plain groups are:
The Mennonite movement was a reform movement of
Anabaptist origins begun by Swiss Brethren and soon
thereafter finding greater cohesion based on the teachings
of Menno Simons 1496–1561, and the 1632 Dordrecht
Confession of Faith. The Amish movement was a reform
movement within the Mennonite movement, based on the
teachings of Jacob Ammann, who perceived a lack of discipline within the Mennonites movement by those trying
to avoid prosecution. Ammann argued that Romans 12:2
prohibited that.
• Old Order Amish
• New Order Amish
• Beachy Amish Mennonites
• Old Order Mennonites
• Conservative Mennonites
• Conservative Mennonite Conference
1
2
7 SEE ALSO
William Penn, having experienced religious persecution
as a Quaker, offered asylum to others who were suffering
religious persecution, an offer that many followers of Jacob Ammann accepted, starting with the Detweiler and
Sieber families, who settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1736. Many of them settled near Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, which offered some of the most productive non-irrigated farmland in the world. By 1770, the
Amish migration had largely ceased.
4
Religious practices
Plain groups typically have a bishop presiding over one
congregation (Amish) or over a district (group of congregations) (Old Order Mennonites). Mennonites mostly
meet in church buildings, but most Amish meet in members’ homes. Services among Amish and Plain Mennonites are mostly held in Pennsylvania German, a language
closely related to Palatinate German, with extra vocabulary. Bishops are commonly chosen by lot as a reflection
of God’s will. While the Bishop tends to be influential, he
tends to rule by building consensus rather than by issuing
edicts.
Most Plain groups have an Ordnung that among other
things regulates clothing. The Ordnung is a largely unwritten code of behavior, covering such items as clothing,
vehicles, and the use of technology. The Ordnung varies
slightly from congregation to congregation, though is in
essence the same. Violations are not considered sins, although wilfulness is considered to be a serious violation
of the faith. The congregation can change the Ordnung
if there is am majority to do so. Exemptions to the Ordnung can be provided. In one instance, one farmer was
granted permission to buy a modern tractor since he had
arthritis and no children to help him harness horses.
5
Trends
Despite this, the Pennsylvania Dutch, which includes
Amish, Old Order Mennonite, and Conservative Mennonites are expected to become a smaller percentage of
the population as the sects respond to high prices of farmland by spreading out all over the United States and internationally, and the English population spreads out from
Philadelphia into suburban and rural areas. Donald Kraybill believes there are Plain sect communities in 47 states.
Among people at least five years old living in Lancaster
County in 2000,
• 89% spoke English at home;
• 7% spoke Pennsylvania Dutch;
• 4% spoke Spanish.[8]
Most Plain sects do not admit children to their church,
and impose no sanctions on those who do not join, but
shun those who fall away from the church once becoming
a member. Among some groups of Old Order Amish,
teenagers who are not yet baptized are not bound by the
rules and go through a period of rumspringa, often with
certain amount of misbehavior that would not otherwise
be tolerated.
6 Health
The Pennsylvania Dutch generally do not proselytize
and discourage intermarriage.
Because of close
consanguinity, certain genetic problems occur more frequently. Dr. D. Holmes Morton has established the
Clinic for Special Children to study and treat families
with these problems.[9]
The Plain sects typically prohibit insurance, and they assist each other charitably in case of sickness, accident,
or property damage. Internal Revenue Service Form
4029[10] allows one to claim exemption to Social Security taxes under certain very restrictive conditions, and
members of the Plain groups neither pay these taxes nor
receive death, disability, or retirement benefits from social security.
7 See also
• Christian headcovering
Amish women at the beach, Chincoteague, Virginia.
• Fancy Dutch
The Old Order Amish are among the fastest-growing
populations in the world. They prohibit the use of
contraception and have low infant mortality rates. The average Amish woman can expect to have at least seven live
births.[7] Other Plain sects with the same or similar doctrines can be expected to have similarly explosive growth.
• Haredi Judaism
• Peace Churches
• Testimony of Simplicity
• Tolstoyan movement
3
8
References
[1] Hostetler, John (1997). Hutterite Society. The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0-8018-5639-6.
[2] Savage, Scott (2000). A Plain Life: Walking My Belief.
Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-43803-5.
[3] Cooper, Wilmer (1999). Growing Up Plain Among Conservative Wilburite Quakers: The Journey of a Public
Friend. Friends United Press. ISBN 0-944350-44-5.
[4] Quaker Jane website
[5] The Shaker Manifesto. N. A. Briggs, Publisher. 1878.
[6] Zimmerman, Diane (2000). Holding the Line: The Telephone in Old Order Mennonite and Amish Life. Johns
Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6375-9.
[7] Meyers, Thomas J. (1990). “Amish”. Global Anabaptist
Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
[8] United States Censues, 2000, Population and Housing
Profile: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
[9] Kate Ruder, Genomics in Amish Country Genome News
Network, July 23 2004
[10] Internal Revenue Service Form 4029; Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and
Waiver of Benefits
9
Further reading
• Donald B. Kraybill, Carl Desportes Bowman. On
the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-80187089-5.
• Donald Kraybill, Puzzles of Amish Life. ISBN 156148-001-0.
• Stephen Scott, Why Do They Dress That Way?.
ISBN 1-56148-240-4.
• Amelia M. Gummere, Quaker: A Study in Costume.
ISBN 0-405-08585-0.
• Stephen Scott, An Introduction to Old Order and
Conservative Mennonite Groups. ISBN 1-56148101-7.
• Margaret C. Reynolds, Plain Women: Gender and
Ritual in the Old Order River Brethren. ISBN 0-27102138-1.
• Charles D. Thompson Jr., The Old German Baptist
Brethren: Faith, Farming, and Change in the Virginia
Blue Ridge. ISBN 0-252-07343-6.
10 External links
• GAMEO: Plain People
4
11
11
11.1
TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
Text
• Plain people Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain%20people?oldid=648316210 Contributors: The Anome, Roadrunner, Docu,
Cherkash, JASpencer, Steinsky, DJ Clayworth, OrbitalBundle, Engel5, Metron, GK, Darrelljon, PatGallacher, Dangerous-Boy, LeoO3,
Wachholder0, Eldamorie, Gurch, Ahunt, Hairy Dude, DMahalko, Hydrargyrum, Nirvana2013, SmackBot, Stettlerj, Portillo, JonHarder,
LadyofShalott, TheEditrix, Alphageekpa, KnoxSGT, Arb, Dalliance, Awien, Yunfeng, Mtarr, 1549bcp, Squids and Chips, Mikeatnip,
One more night, Alex.muller, ClueBot, Jdb00, Solar-Wind, Jeremiestrother, Addbot, The masters servant, Sumbuddi, KamikazeBot,
Jim1138, Surv1v4l1st, Kwiki, Einie101, EmausBot, Alexander Roumega, Chorkman, Erik Wesner, Helpful Pixie Bot, Juro2351, Swissbro,
Jp2thegreat and Anonymous: 32
11.2
Images
• File:AmishFamilyNiagaraFalls.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/AmishFamilyNiagaraFalls.jpg License: CC BY 2.5 Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Where next Columbus? using
CommonsHelper. Original artist: Original uploader was Gilabrand at en.wikipedia
• File:Femmes-Amish.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Femmes-Amish.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Pasteur
• File:Wikiversity-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Wikiversity-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Snorky (optimized and cleaned up by verdy_p) Original artist: Snorky (optimized and cleaned up by verdy_p)
11.3
Content license
• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
