17.

Staying in Touch

Telephones are not allowed in the home in most Old Order Amish communities. The Amish believe that phones, like cars, are not wrong in themselves, but that easy access to them is destructive to the family and church.

Telephone calls intrude on the life of a family and often waste time, the Amish believe. Moreover, phones create a symbolic link to the world in the same way that electric lines do, and they invite many temptations that could otherwise be avoided.

Permissible Uses of Phones

Although having a phone at home is prohibited, most groups allow limited use of Alexander Graham Bell’s invention. Amish people use pay phones. In addition, they make calls on the phones of non-Amish neighbors, although church leaders have admonished that this be restricted to emergencies, such as calling a doctor or veterinarian, or giving a death notice.

Some neighbors have installed phones in their garages especially for the Amish to use. Each user keeps track of long distance calls and pays the owner of the phone.

In most Amish settlements, a non-Amish person or organization has agreed to receive emergency calls, especially death notices. Many of these contact people are funeral directors. Others operate taxi services for the Amish; some are simply owners of local businesses, or even work for the police department.

Though telephones are forbidden in the home in most Amish communities, neighborhood phones placed in a shed or barn are widely permitted (top). The bill is shared and long-distance calls are listed in a notebook. The use of public telephones (bottom) is allowed by every Amish group.

This neighborhood phone booth is located in Ohio. In some Amish communities, telephones are permitted in places of business or in sheds adjacent to shops.

In a number of communities, several Amish families share a phone in a centrally-located shed or at an Amish school. Thefts of these community phones were common in Holmes County, Ohio, for a time. The solution was to put locks on the phone sheds and issue keys to each subscriber.

Business Phones

For people in business, living without a home phone poses special difficulties. Because of this, some districts in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Geauga County, Ohio, allow telephones for members who have home businesses. It is usually required that these phones be in a separate shed or building, however, not in the house or shop.

Some Amish businesses have telephone numbers listed in phone books and in advertising. In certain of these cases, amplified bells for incoming calls are allowed.

A few Amish groups permit farmers who do not operate other businesses to have phones in their barns or outbuildings. A handful of groups allow telephones in the home.

Because the Amish have few other means of communication, the arrival of the mail is an important event.

Cell Phones and Computers

The popularity and common acceptance of cell phones in the non-Amish culture have presented unique problems for Amish people who run businesses and even for farmers. While some communities have allowed members to use payphones when they need to make a phone call, payphones have virtually disappeared in many places. Computers and the Internet are tools that most non-Amish enterprises need to do business, and the same is becoming true for Amish business owners.

A 2014 article in Lancaster Online reported that digital technology was becoming, if not permitted, at least tolerated. For example, they find that “An Amishman looking for replacement parts for machinery these days is likely to no longer find them in printed catalogues. The Internet is often his only source.”

Some Amish businesses have created websites and installed land lines in the basements of their homes to help run the business.

It is not surprising that, like their non-Amish peers, cell phones are ubiquitous among Amish teenagers. Lancaster Online reported that some teens use them only for phone calls, but some have connections to the Internet. The teens interviewed in the article said that the phones are not officially permitted in any of their churches. The issues raised by digital technology have been divisive in some congregations.

Amish leaders and parents are concerned about how teenagers may be using phones with Internet access and that the portability and compact size of cell phones makes them easy to hide. Further, as more and more Amish, whether youth or adults, use cell phones every day, Amish leaders find it difficult to prohibit them, resulting in “acceptance by default,” according to Erik Wesner, creator and writer for the website Amish America.

So the once unthinkable sight of an Amish person talking on a cell phone is increasingly common. Once they get over their shock at the sight, the question most non-Amish have is, “How do the Amish charge their cell phones without electricity?” According to Wesner, most use diesel generators, often an acceptable power source because there is no connection to the public grid.

Some Amish use solar energy to recharge batteries. Some homes also use solar power to run small appliances in the home or for lights on buggies, according to the 2014 Lancaster Online article, which said solar power is a “hot-button item.”

Correspondence by Mail

The Amish rely heavily on the U.S. and Canadian postal services. Personal communications and business transactions that many people would handle by phone are carried out through the mail by the Amish.

Many Amish participate in circle letters, in which people of similar interests, occupations, or situations (such as widows, teachers, or harness-makers) correspond with one another. Typically, a person receives a packet containing letters from each person in the circle. The receiver takes out the portion he or she had written for the last round and adds a new letter, before sending the whole batch to the next person.

Newspapers and Magazines

Numerous periodicals report news from Amish communities throughout North America. The oldest weekly “correspondence newspaper” is the Budget, which was established in 1890 in Sugarcreek, Ohio. It started out as a local newspaper but soon became wider in scope because of its inclusion of letters from far-flung Amish and Mennonite communities.

The letters contained in the Budget are of a very folksy nature and include reports on weather, visits, illnesses, accidents, and church services, as well as births, deaths, and marriages. Little news of national importance is mentioned except that which directly affects the Amish and other plain people.

Die Botschaft (German for “The Message”) is published in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and is almost identical to the Budget. Contrary to what its name might suggest, nearly all its contents are in English.

Die Botschaft was started in 1975 for those who wanted a paper with letters from only horse-and-buggy groups. The Budget contains material from both horse-and-buggy and other plain groups. Some writers send duplicate letters to both papers.

An Amish person probably writes more letters than the average North American. Amish families typically subscribe to several newspapers and magazines.

The Diary is a monthly Amish magazine. It is similar to the Budget and Die Botschaft, except that it categorizes news according to subject (births, deaths, marriages, etc.) and includes serial stories and historical articles.

Pathway Publishers of Aylmer, Ontario, produces three magazines very popular in many Old Order communities. The largest magazine by circulation is Family Life, a general interest publication containing religious articles and other material relating to the Old Order way of life. Young Companion focuses on youth, while Blackboard Bulletin addresses issues important to Amish schools and teachers.

The 1990s saw the emergence of a host of new periodicals, most of them published monthly, that focused on singular topics such as parenting, raising children with special needs, homemaking, and teaching. Quarterly and bimonthly publications also appeared carrying articles on business, farming, exploring nature, and buggy building.