Scott, they are hard for me to figure out too, and I've been living around them for 53 years. I understand there are different "types" of Amish. The ones I've met have all been kind and gentle people. The Old Order Amish are pretty strict about lifestyles. I worked with a guy who was thrown out of the church for buying a pickup truck.
Years ago I worked for an electrical contractor, and we wired a lot of houses being built by Amish for "English" (non-Amish) people. The Amish did everything except plastering and electrical work. They had a crew of somewhere between 4 and 8 men working in the development, and two had driver's licenses. One was the owner's son-in-law and I think the other was a fellow that did the plumbing.
I helped a plasterer do a new house for one of the Amishmen and it was really odd to stand in a brand-new empty house and not see electrical outlet boxes. REAL Amish don't need electricity. Phones were used, but the phone was not located in the house - it was in a small building at the edge of the property, cleverly disguised as an outhouse. Recently a friend who frequents an Amish-owned store told me he saw the old Amish owner pecking away at a laptop and using a cell phone.
Years ago I was told the Amish were making an effort not to become "worldly". This was supposed to be the reason they didn't want utility lines connected to their houses, they use buttons but not zippers, no rubber tires and other such things that make us non-Amish say "Huh?"
There are other religious groups that appear to be Amish to outsiders. Anyone wearing a straw flathat is Amish to the tourists that invade us. There are River Bretheren, Mennonites and others. Some may own cars, some not. Others feel it's OK as long as the entire car is painted black - chrome and all.
I have a sister-in-law whose parents were both Amish in their younger years, but decided to leave the church. After 40 years, they had some relatives who would not sit at their table at reunions, etc. This is the one place where the Amish aren't always kind and gentle. They practice "shunning". If the circumstances surrounding your leaving the church are nasty, remaining members are not permitted to communicate with you. There was a famous (at least locally) case near here 20 or 30 years ago where some poor Amish guy offended the elders, was excommunicated, and even his wife and children couldn't have contact with him. The guy ended up filing a suit, fought them in court. I forget how it ended up.
A bud has an Amish neighbor who kept a tractor in the barn and ran it to generate power for his refrigeration on a dairy farm. That was somehow OK, but it was absolutely verboten for him to use the tractor to till or harvest. It's OK to have a gas/diesel-powered piece of equipment like a sickle bar mower or baler, as long as you use horses or mules to pull it.
All this reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a few months ago, and those of you living in tourist areas may identify with "Welcome to Lancaster County. Now go home"..............chim
