One of the ways the Old Order Amish stay tethered to their simpler, slower pace is by refusing to own automobiles. Notice the word is refuse to own, not use. There is a distinct difference in the two terms.
📋 Reasons the Amish Don't Own Cars
The Amish fear that owning automobiles would tear apart the fabric of family and community life in much the same way it has for non-Amish America. Suburbs now spread out like thin pancake batter on a hot griddle far from cities People are disconnected, neighbors don’t know one another like they used to. By refusing to own cars (besides saving a ton on gas and insurance!), the Amish are making a statement about community and connection. Churches stay close-knit geographically because everyone needs to live close to one another when a buggy is your main mode of transport. Like with many technologies, however, the Amish have made compromises to adapt to the changing world around them.
🚗 Reasons The Amish Will Ride In Cars
The reality is that to attend a wedding or funeral far away, a horse-and-buggy is impractical or impossible. So the Amish will hire non-Amish drivers to take them places out of range for their horse-drawn buggy.. This can get pretty expensive and actually can offset the savings of not having car payments and insurance, depending on how many times an Amish person needs to hire a driver throughout the course of the year.
In some smaller generally more conservative Amish settlements hiring a driver is still a relative rarity. In larger Amish areas it can be a weekly or even daily occurrence. In these communities the Amish often maintain a list of “Amish taxis”, non-Amish drivers who make their living driving Amish people around.
While outsiders may roll their eyes or whisper “hypocrisy” at this practice, it still – in the eyes of the Amish – beats owning a car. By hiring a driver an Amish person can at least exercise a measure of control over how much the outside world encroaches on their existence.
🚌 Buses and Vans
Other modes of long-distance travel that are acceptable to the Amish include trains and buses. Airplane travel is generally not permitted, but some Old Order Amish, however, will fly to their destinations if the needs are urgent and faraway. In the far-flung Amish settlements of St. Ignatius and Rexford, Montana, air travel is relied on from time to time to visit family out east. So a theme you’ll read in many of these posts is also prevalent with this issue: since it’s impractical to totally shut-out certain technologies, the Amish will do what is in their minds the “next best thing” and that’s keep it at arm’s length.
I've seen many Amish passengers on Greyhound over the years and 15-passenger vans are also popular. Amish families are large enough, you'll sometimes find families pool funds to charter a deluxe motorcoach bus to go places.
And the Pioneer bus line that connects Amish Indiana and Amish Ohio with Pinecraft, Florida is especially popular with Amish during the winter. Often the bus is full.
🏎️ Do The Amish Ever Drive Cars?
Things are beginning to slowly change in regards to automobile ownership. A group of Amish known as the "Lobelville Amish" in Tennessee have one or two people in the community that can drive and they, as a group, own a van. The thinking here is that owning a vehicle and having a couple of people in the church who can drive it actually increases their self-sufficiency. No more "Amish taxi drivers", etc. Yet because not everyone can drive, there is still a reliance on horse-and-buggy.
This is a trend I think that you'll see more and more of: a slow-embrace of automobile ownership among the Amish so that they don't have to rely on outsiders.
🚜 Amish Using Tractors as "Cars"
In some Amish settlements, a tractor can serve as a de facto "car." A tractor goes a little faster than a horse, doesn't require feed, can go longer distances, yet a tractor - like a horse-drawn buggy - still comes with limits on distance.
The tractor was originally adopted in some Amish communities (Garnett and Partridge, Kansas; Oakland, Maryland) for farming reasons, but it didn't take long for Amish to realize that the tractors were handy for running quick errands into town.
👨💼 Amish Business Ownership of Cars
The Amish will also draw a distinction between owning a car for business and home-life. Some Amish churches may look the other way if a vehicle is owned for the purposes of business. The Amish are a very entrepreneurial and capitalist church and they don't like to be put at a disadvantage. This is from a Michigan NPR report:
Wayne Helmuth, like most Amish, doesn’t drive a car. He does have a horse and buggy, but he only really uses that when he goes to church. If Helmuth is really in a bind, he’ll actually hire someone else to drive him around.
Helmuth’s helper in the shop, Noah Yoder, grew up in a very strict Amish sect in Tennessee that would not allow Amish families to hire a driver and they would not allow electricity, but the Amish in Rosebush are less rigid, and today Yoder has a cell phone and drives a white minivan.
👨💼 Mennonites and Cars
The Mennonites fall under a much broader theological umbrella. There are Old Order Mennonites and they generally are like the Amish and don't own automobiles. But there are some conservative Mennonite sects that dress plainly but they do own automobiles.
🙋 FAQ Amish and Cars
No, the vast majority of Amish do not drive cars. There are exceptions, and most find it permissible to ride in cars, but not drive or own them
There are no Old Order Amish churches that allow automobile ownership, there may be some that turn a blind eye to owning a car for business reasons.
🗝️ Key Point
The Amish draw the distinction between owning a car and using a car. Owning would undermine Amish cultural cornerstones of community and church. Simply using a car, or riding in a car driven by a non-Amish driver is a considered compromise that allows the Amish to function more efficiently in the 21st-century world
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