Are the Amish a cult?

rsc2a said:
You claimed you were going to educate me on the Amish...even suggested I make a thread for you to use. I'm waiting...
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You couldn't even have the intellectual honesty to admit that one of the core tenets of cults (mind control and psychological manipulation), so why should I waste my time?
 
ALAYMAN said:
rsc2a said:
You claimed you were going to educate me on the Amish...even suggested I make a thread for you to use. I'm waiting...
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You couldn't even have the intellectual honesty to admit that one of the core tenets of cults (mind control and psychological manipulation), so why should I waste my time?
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No. I'm just certain you had no idea what you were talking about. Do you have any other basis, perhaps something consisting of actual facts? You claimed you were going to educate me on the Amish. I'm still waiting...
 
rsc2a said:
No. I'm just certain you had no idea what you were talking about. Do you have any other basis, perhaps something consisting of actual facts? You claimed you were going to educate me on the Amish. I'm still waiting...
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Like I said about your obtuseness on the shunning matter, I have pearls, but ain't gonna let oinkers rend them.
 
ALAYMAN said:
One of the most important techniques of a cult is to alienate its members from outside influence in order to manipulate and control what information they have available to them.  In that vein, they typically have an 8th grade education, and are shunned for the most simple violation of their ordung's rules. 
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Hm. Sounds like indy-fundy Baptists to me.
 
ALAYMAN said:
rsc2a said:
No. I'm just certain you had no idea what you were talking about. Do you have any other basis, perhaps something consisting of actual facts? You claimed you were going to educate me on the Amish. I'm still waiting...
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Like I said about your obtuseness on the shunning matter, I have pearls, but ain't gonna let oinkers rend them.
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Let me give you a bit of background: I grew up in Amish country. My parents get their vegetables from the same Amish family every summer. Another Amish family built a house a quarter mile from the family church. I saw Amish folks nearly every day. My brother actually hit one of their horses with his truck. My stepmother has assisted them in the hospital. My parents frequently use Amish labor when they are doing construction. Furthermore...

...my wife went to Amish school through the fourth grade. Most of her friends growing up were all Amish. She tells me stories about going over their house to help hoe corn and wearing her dress, apron, and head coverings. She can still recite verses in German from her school days. Her brother went all the way through the eighth grade. His best friends grown up were Amish. Her sister through the sixth grade, and some of those friends are still among her best friends. Another brother did not attend Amish school (they were being home-schooled by this time), but some of his closest friends are Amish. He is over their house probably once a month spending evenings (or the night) eating and playing games. My wife's family attended the Amish church for nearly a decade. We had Amish people at our wedding. Her father was a factor in the splitting of the Amish community which is why she also knows Amish folks another hundred miles away. When we go out to her families, we often visit some of her pseudo-Amish to Amish friends. My wife was invited to attend an Amish church service not two weeks ago. Some of her mother's best friends are Amish. Most of her 11 children were delivered by Amish midwives. She knows many others.

....so please, please educate me on the Amish and why they are a cult since you specifically asked me to create this thread for that specific purpose ::)

(Or the other option is that you could admit that you were just running off at the mouth and didn't know what you were talking about.)
 
FSSL said:
I don't know, but Rumspringa sounds like a blast! :D
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If you can find it, check out a 2002 documentary titled Devil's Playground. Rumspringa isn't exactly the uninhibited free-for-all it's cracked up to be amongst the "English."
 
rsc2a said:
Alayman has decided to school me about the Amish. He's claimed the Amish are a cult, so I'm interested in his justification for this statement.

Alayman?
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One of my closest friends was raised Amish. His father and brothers and grandfather were all leaders in their community. He says that maybe 1 or 2 people out of 100 are probably genuine believers, but overall, they are just legalists who believe that their superior form of living will get them to heaven.  To answer the question is not easy.  There are many many individual communities, and they do not communicate like a denomination. So, it is hard to lump them together.
 
Torrent v.3 said:
He says that maybe 1 or 2 people out of 100 are probably genuine believers, but overall, they are just legalists who believe that their superior form of living will get them to heaven. 
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So they're basically fundamentalists without electricity? 

 
The family of one of the people I worked with left the fold. The story sounded pretty traumatic, fleeing in the night, husband and wife carrying young children across a field, older children following. Very little in way of clothes, no toys, no keepsakes..  The other family members chasing them trying to keep them from leaving.

Present day, they are shunned. Dead to their families. No grandma or grandpa, no cousins, no nieces or nephews. No communication by any means. When they have gone to visit, they are not even acknowledged.

Sounds much worse than IFB, and to many here, IFBdom is a cult..... So using their own logic, guess that would be a yes.
 
Some posters have spoken of the culture, dress, mode of transportation, shunning practices and vegetable distribution of the Amish.  What does that have to do with their souls?  The OP asked, "Are the Amish a cult?"  If they add or subtract anything from the gospel, then they are teaching a false gospel.  Quite simple.

Ephesians 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
1 Peter 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.


 
This story is off-topic.

A major interstate passes through our area and we see Amish and Mennonite families as they pause on their travels.  While at a McD's near the interstate, an Amish woman in her late 20's stood by the soda machines and observed my sons, grand daughter and I as we ate.  When I approached the soda area for a refill, she quietly asked me if I would assist her.  Apparently, she had no idea how to milk that soda cow. 
 
qwerty said:
The family of one of the people I worked with left the fold. The story sounded pretty traumatic,...

Sounds much worse than IFB, and to many here, IFBdom is a cult..... So using their own logic, guess that would be a yes.
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and...

JrChurch said:
Some posters have spoken of the culture, dress, mode of transportation, shunning practices and vegetable distribution of the Amish.  What does that have to do with their souls?  The OP asked, "Are the Amish a cult?"  If they add or subtract anything from the gospel, then they are teaching a false gospel.  Quite simple.
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Yes, "indy-fundy" Baptists are of da debil I tell ya.  We could talk about Pensacola's dress standards, Vineyard's and Schaap's potty mouth in the pulpit, or Jack Jr's divine blasphemy, the KJVonly kooks like Anderson, and a host of other cultish behavior all day long, but you go goring an ox of my spouse, and well, well, well, you're talkin' bout good sincere devout people just tryin' to live out their pious Christian virtues the best they know how.  Nevermind the incest, rumspringa, authoritarianism, shunning, pelegianism, legalism, replacement of the Bible with traditions of men, etc, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
 
[quote author=ALAYMAN]Yes, "indy-fundy" Baptists are of da debil I tell ya.  We could talk about Pensacola's dress standards, Vineyard's and Schaap's potty mouth in the pulpit, or Jack Jr's divine blasphemy, the KJVonly kooks like Anderson, and a host of other cultish behavior all day long, but you go goring an ox of my spouse, and well, well, well, you're talkin' bout good sincere devout people just tryin' to live out their pious Christian virtues the best they know how.[/quote]

Pretty much. Seems like the word "cult" is being selectively applied here.

[quote author=ALAYMAN]Nevermind the incest...[/quote]

Clearly have no idea what you're talking about again.

[quote author=ALAYMAN]...rumspringa...[/quote]

Do you actually have a point here?

[quote author=ALAYMAN]...authoritarianism...[/quote]

You really have no idea how Amish communities are structured, do you?

[quote author=ALAYMAN]...shunning...[/quote]

Oh yeah....when you do it, it's "church discipline". When they do it, it's a sign of a cult.  ::)

[quote author=ALAYMAN]...pelegianism...[/quote]

So now everyone not from a deterministic belief system (e.g. Calvinist, Lutheran, Thomist) is a member of a cult?

[quote author=ALAYMAN]...legalism, replacement of the Bible with traditions of men, etc, ad nauseum, ad infinitum...[/quote]

I thought you wanted to discuss the Amish, not the IFB.
 
JrChurch said:
This story is off-topic.

A major interstate passes through our area and we see Amish and Mennonite families as they pause on their travels.  While at a McD's near the interstate, an Amish woman in her late 20's stood by the soda machines and observed my sons, grand daughter and I as we ate.  When I approached the soda area for a refill, she quietly asked me if I would assist her.  Apparently, she had no idea how to milk that soda cow.
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That lady was definitely an outlier. The Amish still go to Wal-Mart. They'll eat at fast food restaurants. They will go to hospitals. They will use phones (even if they don't own one themselves). Some use generators for various things. Others will use air-driven tools for construction (although they don't own them).
 
Timothy said:
Amish come in different stripes. Just like IFB.
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No, no, no, no.

Amish are pure as the driven snow lily-white sincere godly Christians, and IFBs are, as I've already said, of da debil.  Get with the FFF program man!
 
ALAYMAN said:
Timothy said:
Amish come in different stripes. Just like IFB.
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No, no, no, no.

Amish are pure as the driven snow lily-white sincere godly Christians, and IFBs are, as I've already said, of da debil.  Get with the FFF program man!
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Not that I want to be Amish - but I did consider joining a Mennonite Church awhile ago after we left our IFBx Church. Our children go to a Mennonite Summer Camp ... really nice group of people. One must remember, not all "plain people" are Amish - some are just Mennonites living a simple life. In that case, they believe in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
 
Timothy said:
Not that I want to be Amish - but I did consider joining a Mennonite Church awhile ago after we left our IFBx Church. Our children go to a Mennonite Summer Camp ... really nice group of people. One must remember, not all Amish are Amish - some are just Mennonites living a simple life. In that case, they believe in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
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Yeah, I have no doubt that there are born again people in Churches of Christ, Mennonite, Catholic, Amish, and all sorts of non-Baptist denoms.  I never implied or explicitly stated otherwise.  rsc2a is just doin' what he does, being Captain Obtuse.
 
[quote author=ALAYMAN]Yeah, I have no doubt that there are born again people in Churches of Christ, Mennonite, Catholic, Amish, and all sorts of non-Baptist denoms.  I never implied or explicitly stated otherwise.  rsc2a is just doin' what he does, being Captain Obtuse.[/quote]

No...you specifically stated that the Amish are a cult. Then you told me that you were going to "educate me about the Amish". So far I've seen nothing but inaccuracies and outright falsehoods from you as far as they are concerned. Probably because you weren't aware of my background concerning the Amish (thus the reason I said you were running off at the mouth).
 
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