An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community

Chapter 3 Coping with Church Schism

a฀฀chapter 3฀฀a Coping with Church Schism Let’s face it, when a church splits, there’s bound to be hard feelings. —An Old Order bishop G iven that church schism inevitably involves hard feelings and even divides extended families, we would expect it to have farreaching social implications. To what extent do the differences between Amish affiliations shape social life in the Holmes County Settlement ? At least one scholar has noted that the Amish affiliations “have regarded each other with suspicion” and “have focused mostly on their differences.”1 This chapter explores three areas—mission work, rumspringa , and excommunication and shunning—in which religious affiliation strongly shapes attitudes and patterns of participation. Light That Makes No Noise: The Debate over Missions and Proselytizing One of the most pervasive features of religious movements around the globe is their proselytizing orientation. Most communities of believers are marked not only by internal symbols and rituals of bonding but also by an explicit attempt to project their worldview outward and convince others of the rightness of their position. For Christians, a key teaching is a passage in the Gospel of Matthew, in which the resurrected Jesus instructs his own disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). Known as the Great Commission, this directive is usually interpreted as applying to all Christians around the world. For most of their history, however, the Amish have been squarely at odds with the proselytizing impulse, favoring an inward orientation that eschews evangelism and activist concern for the spiritual state of the world. Instead, they have preferred to take the course of embodying the life of Christ in their everyday actions. “We don’t feel that going into all the world and baptizing people is imperative,” commented an Old Order bishop. “It’s more the idea that wherever you find yourself, you try to propagate the truth. That puts mission work in a little different light.” The Amish Mission Movement It thus comes as a surprise to many who are aware of the traditional Amish position to learn that around the middle of the twentieth century, some Old Order Amish started a “mission movement,” one that significantly re-shaped the discourse and practice of outreach. Although many Amish were involved, an outside “catalytic figure” named Russell Maniaci pulled them together by organizing the First Amish Mission Conference in Kalona, Iowa, in 1950. The aim of this gathering was to “surrender the desires of security and stability in exchange for going into the world as missionaries and service workers.”2 As this movement formed organizational structures and funding mechanisms , including the first full-time Amish mission workers in Gulfport, Mississippi, it was met by skepticism and resistance from other Old Order Amish, who feared it would lead to acculturation and the loss of Amish identity. Traveling Mennonite tent evangelists added to the growing tensions, as did the preaching of David Miller, the Old Order minister known as “Oklahoma Dave.” According to Nolt, how one responded to this “pulpit pounding” charismatic preacher became something of an “ecclesiastical litmus test” among the Amish.3 In spite of a backlash, advocates of the mission movement moved cautiously forward, holding conferences , distributing a newsletter called Witnessing, and venturing into several mission projects that required automobiles and challenged other standards of the Amish church as well.4 Eventually, the influential leaders ฀ a฀coping with church schism a฀ 59 60฀ a฀an amish paradox a฀ moved out of Old Order circles and into Conservative Amish Mennonite Churches or Mennonite congregations. Confirming the predictions of Old Order skeptics, their moves were accompanied by the purchase of cars.5 The mission movement had lasting effects on Amish identity, however . Today Amish involvement in Christian outreach and relief beyond the confines of the Holmes County Settlement is surprisingly common. Yet the patterns of Amish involvement in mission work are by no means uniform. Church districts take different stances on the validity of proselytizing and outreach and the form they should take. In addition, since Amish outreach usually involves piggybacking on the efforts of Mennonite , Brethren, or Beachy Amish organizations, it reflects the fault lines in a much broader Anabaptist debate over the meaning of the Great Commission . The Role of Affiliation in...