Does anyone happen to know whether or not the Amish typically vote in elections? Do they read newspapers? I've always wondered about these facets of their relationship to the "real" world.
The way I've heard it, they usually don't vote unless there is an issue that affects them directly. But during the 2004 election Bush was seen stumping in Amish neighborhoods and some of them voted for the first time.
Does anyone happen to know whether or not the Amish typically vote in elections? Do they read newspapers? I've always wondered about these facets of their relationship to the "real" world.
There's a great deal of variation. Some churches allow voting, it's becoming more common as they are coming under pressure from various local laws that make their lives more difficult. It's the same with newspapers though that may be more of an individual conscience thing. They have their own paper called der botshaft, I may be wrong on the spelling. I'm not sure how often it comes out. Writers from most Amish communities contribute allowing everyone to keep up with what's going on. There's an English paper called the budget which does the same thing.
One note on language. Depending on where the group originally came from, they speak either PA dutch or what they call swiss. The languages are similar enough that they can speak to each other, but different enough that members of both groups have told me that it's difficult. Since they both are corruptions of the original languages, there is no standardized spelling. There has been a PA dutch Bible put together but it's not popular. They use a German Bible for church and the preaching is done in German. Not everyone is fluent in German but they try to teach it.