Amish Stereotypes

In the 1500s, after Martin Luther broke off from the Catholic Church, more people wanted to create their own reformed church (Nolt 11). Some of these people, called the Anabaptists had created their own church that had to meet privately in order to escape persecution. Eventually this group of people would split off into Mennonites and Amish communities. To this day, the Amish have stayed humble in their spiritual lives, while outsiders still see them as ‘weird,’ since they do not fit in. The Amish people have a wide sense of spirituality, which is difficult to comprehend as an outsider; therefore, outsiders meaninglessly apply stereotypes to the Amish to try to understand their lifestyle. Jakob Ammann was the founder of the more devout group

Even though these are accurate representations, does not mean every single person with a bonnet on is from an Amish community. Some Mormon women wear bonnets and modest clothing, but a bystander might assume they are Amish. Isolation is a part of the traditions, but it is mainly to help them be focused in their religion and stay away from negative distractions and influences from the outside world. In some Amish settlements, tourists can go visit to buy homemade food and handmade furniture and accessories. When people visit these sites, it seems like most of them treat the Amish vendors as if they are an exhibit at the zoo. The ignorance of outsiders strays them away from treating the Amish with respect and understanding that they should not take pictures without asking them first. Some settlements allow outsiders to take pictures of their people such as Wayne County, Ohio (Nolt

In the Netflix Original, Orange is the New Black, inmate, Leanne comes from Amish background. In a flashback, she is shown on rumspringa partying a little too hard with the American teenagers and other members of her church. She ends up going back to the church, but she hides her bag of drugs and English belongings in a field nearby, which FBI agents later find. They use her to help them catch the elders’ children who are running a rumspringa cartel. After she assists the FBI in this task, her community shuns her since she ‘turned’ her back against the church. Her mother does not understand this since shunning is supposed to help people find their way back to the church and she did not stray away to begin with. She then runs away because she cannot stand watching her parents struggle with her shunning. Even though this is an exaggerated scene, the interesting part is that when Leanne is going through baptism, she states, “The others think that we are in prison, but this is where I am