{"id":35331,"date":"2023-10-25T03:48:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35331"},"modified":"2023-10-31T13:48:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:48:31","slug":"amish-culture-prizes-peace-%e2%88%92-but-you-wouldnt-necessarily-know-it-from-a-stop-in-amish-country-tourist-towns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/amish-culture-prizes-peace-%e2%88%92-but-you-wouldnt-necessarily-know-it-from-a-stop-in-amish-country-tourist-towns\/","title":{"rendered":"Amish culture prizes peace \u2212 but you wouldn\u2019t necessarily know it from a stop in Amish Country tourist\u00a0towns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Susan L Trollinger<\/a>, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio\u2019s Amish Country, located in the northeastern part of the state, draws over 4 million visitors<\/a> every year \u2013 second only to Cedar Point amusement park as the Buckeye State\u2019s most popular tourist attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October, with its cooler temperatures and spectacular colors, is the region\u2019s peak month for tourist traffic. Hundreds of thousands of tourists descend on the area in the fall to shop for Amish-made furniture, enjoy buggy rides and visit small towns that many Americans romanticize as bucolic escapes from the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what will they find in the shops that line the main streets of towns like Berlin, Sugarcreek and Walnut Creek? Among other things, a plethora of items that feature Christian nationalist<\/a> motifs, intense patriotism and ominous suggestions of violence \u2013 all antithetical to the core values of the Amish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality is that Amish Country tourism has long been at odds with the plain and simple life of the Amish \u2013 a discrepancy at the heart of my 2012 book<\/a> \u201cSelling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A life apart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Descended from Anabaptist immigrants who fled religious persecution in Europe, the Amish typically live in rural areas where they seek to live a different sort of life<\/a>, resisting aspects of contemporary American culture that undermine their commitments to church, family and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
An Old Order Amish couple drive their buggy through an intersection in Berlin, Ohio. Susan Trollinger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To live at a slower pace, they drive horse-drawn buggies instead of cars. To pursue their calling to follow Jesus rather than chase personal ambitions, they stop school after eighth grade<\/a>. To avoid the distractions of consumer culture, they prohibit TVs and internet connections in their homes. And to keep themselves humble, they yield to communal rules about dressing plainly, living in modest homes and keeping their businesses small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeking to follow Jesus, they embrace nonviolence and find inspiration in the story of a 16th-century Anabaptist<\/a>, Dirk Willems, who was imprisoned for his faith. He escaped, but because of his commitments to love his enemy, he turned back when he saw that his captor had fallen through the ice. His captor survived to witness Willems being burned at the stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of their deep commitment to separation between church and state<\/a>, the Amish refuse to swear oaths, receive Social Security benefits or join the military. That\u2019s why you won\u2019t see an American flag in an Amish school or hear Amish students recite the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Amish brand\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet tourist towns capitalizing on what has become the \u201cAmish brand<\/a>\u201d are full of gift shops selling merchandise you would not expect to find in an Amish home \u2013 Uncle Sam cutouts, Mickey Mouse yard flags, ornate lace curtains and Elvis Presley figurines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of rhetoric and religion<\/a>, I\u2019ve long been curious about Amish Country tourism, since it seemed \u2013 at least on the face of it \u2013 to have so little to do with the Amish themselves. \u201cSelling the Amish<\/a>\u201d was my attempt to explain why many Americans found Amish Country so compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My answer was that Amish Country tourism afforded visitors a nostalgic experience of a \u201csimpler time\u201d when Americans could imagine that they were in control of technology; that men were \u201cmen\u201d and women were \u201cwomen\u201d; and that families sat down to Mom\u2019s home-cooked meal every evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region\u2019s tourist towns play into this nostalgic desire that visitors have for a future that resembles an imagined past. In that imagined future, they would, like the Amish, escape cultural forces that they think have compromised America\u2019s ability to be the Christian nation<\/a> it supposedly once was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A glimpse of real life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since 2008, I\u2019ve taken students from the University of Dayton to the Amish settlement located in Holmes and Wayne counties in northeastern Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A Swartzentruber Amish farm in Wayne County, Ohio, where tourists can purchase homemade treats and handwoven baskets. Susan Trollinger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the course of the day, we visit a two-room school run by New Order Amish, whose rules for daily life are among the least strict among the Amish<\/a>. Then we\u2019re off to a candle shop owned and operated by five Old Order Amish sisters, followed by a visit to a Swartzentruber Amish farm. The Swartzentruber are among the strictest Amish groups. In the small shop located between the house and a woodworking shop, a young woman sells woven baskets, homemade preserves and wood furnishings crafted by her father. We also enjoy meals and conversation at two Amish homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the stops we make are part of the tourism industry<\/a>. And many Amish make their living from that industry, whether they are crafting solid wood furniture, serving diners in Amish-style restaurants or preparing hotel rooms for guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, the Amish don\u2019t own the big Amish-style restaurants or gift shops or hotels. And because I want my students to have conversations with the people they have been studying, we spend very little time in these tourist towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was invited to present a paper last summer on Amish Country tourism \u2013 an update of \u201cSelling the Amish,\u201d as it were \u2013 I was obliged to spend some time in those tourist towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guns and crosses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What I saw blew me away. There I was in the heart of the biggest Amish settlement in the world<\/a>, when measured by the number of congregations. This area is home to nearly 40,000 Amish<\/a> people deeply committed to pacifism: people who would rather suffer solitary confinement and reduced rations<\/a> \u2013 as some did during World War I \u2013 than participate in \u201cthe war machine,\u201d and who would never sing the national anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Store<\/a>
Beverage containers and coffee mugs for sale in Berlin, Ohio, on May 30, 2023. Susan Trollinger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet, I saw the Stars and Stripes everywhere: on T-shirts, ball caps, decorative wreaths, candles and, perhaps most strikingly, wooden crosses. There were concrete statues of soldiers kneeling at crosses, patriotic bunting and images of the Founding Fathers, with facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence, the Ten Commandments and the Pledge of Allegiance nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large display in one Berlin shop featured merchandise from \u201cHold Fast<\/a>,\u201d a company whose website says its merchandise is designed \u201cfor freedom loving Americans who want to see Biblical values preserved and are taking a stand and letting their voices be heard.\u201d Flags figure prominently across the merchandise, along with messages like: \u201cOne nation under God. Psalm 33:12. Hold Fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was even more taken aback by home decor items announcing that the \u201c2nd Amendment is my gun permit,\u201d along with thermoses challenging government authorities to \u201ccome and take it\u201d \u2013 \u201cit\u201d being a gun \u2013 and coffee mugs that listed gun calibers (.22, .380, 9 mm, .40, .45) and proclaiming, \u201cAll faster than dialing 911.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amish Country tourism has never simply been about the plain and simple life of the Amish. But these days, sites that fuse Christian symbols and sacred texts with a brand of nationalism that celebrates masculine bravado, guns and the military marks a further and dramatic remove from the character of Amish life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, if one ventures down a back road and ends up behind a slow-moving buggy, or ducks into an Amish-owned shop selling bulk foods, handmade brooms or half-moon pies, they can still encounter a people whose life is wildly at odds with so much that characterizes mainstream America today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan L Trollinger<\/a>, Professor of English, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Susan L Trollinger, University of Dayton Ohio\u2019s Amish Country, located in the northeastern part of the state, draws over 4 million visitors every year \u2013 second only to Cedar Point amusement park as the Buckeye State\u2019s most popular tourist attraction. October, with its cooler temperatures and spectacular colors, is the region\u2019s peak month for tourist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[14750,5365,10194,1829,14749,2495,2687,6610,10499,492],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35331\/revisions\/35405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}