Half-Amish
Last week a truck driver tragically struck a horse-drawn buggy in western Kentucky killing a three-year-old Amish girl (Read the story here.) Even though the driver was under the influence and clearly exhibiting reckless behavior, in the minds of many in rural Kentucky, the tragedy serves as further evidence of the need for Amish communities to accept certain regulations for their own safety.
In fact, just last month, the Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld a state law that requires all slow moving vehicles to display an orange triangle reflector. Amish men in Graves County argued that such a law discriminated against the Amish and violated their religious beliefs (Read a summary of the case here. Click the icon at the end of the story to read the ruling in its entirety.).
For those who have grown up in the modern world—and especially for those who have experienced a near-miss with a black buggy at night on a dark county road—the resistance of certain Amish groups to regulations ensuring their safety seems silly at best and suicidal at worst. Of course, the Amish movement is founded upon the principle of resisting change. They split from the Mennonites in 1693 due to the movement’s drifting from the teachings of founder Menno Simons, and they have been resisting change for over four-hundred years.
To their credit, many people are beginning to appreciate their way of life anew. While American society is suffering a hangover from industrialization—especially the industrialization of agriculture—the Amish have resisted modern plagues of obesity, entitlement, and laziness by clinging to the old ways of hard work.
However, a close investigation will demonstrate that in many Amish churches the gospel of grace has been lost completely. Their Arminian doctrine and militant resistance to worldliness—neither of which are essentially dangerous—have bred to produce a legalism in which even the smallest infraction may result in loss of salvation.
Now, many fellow Baptists may scoff at the legalism of our theological cousins, but, as Jesus warned, by focusing on the speck in their eye we will miss the log in our own (Matt 7:4). I am afraid that our uncritical acceptance of new technologies is as dangerous as the Amish’s rejection of them. Just as they endanger their children by rejecting certain good technologies like triangle reflectors, we endanger our own children by uncritically accepting technologies.
New technologies have many great benefits, which marketers widely advertise, but we should not fail to assess the risk. Evangelicals have long criticized the content accessed by new technologies, but the dangers of the television, computer, smart phone, and other devices goes beyond content alone. Technology affects our entire being—physical, emotional, spiritual, social, etc. That perpetual screen in front of our faces turns us into the slug-like, lazy, emotionless, socially-isolated humans in Wall-E. The unhindered use of technology makes us sub-human by crushing our ability to relate to creation, to one another, and most importantly to God.
Children are especially vulnerable to these dangers because of their inability to discern what is good for them. Just as a child will choose sugary foods and candies over a healthier supper, children will use technology to their own detriment, and of course we should not be surprised because we parents do the same thing.
It is better to be what my wife calls “half-Amish.” We must adopt a critical approach to technology that accurately assesses the benefits and the risks. While doing so we must resist the temptation of an Amish-like legalism by recognizing that a critical approach will result in different decisions for different people. The important thing is that we make such decisions and resist the pull of modern culture to destroy our humanity.
