Hollywood and television routinely portray all Amish people as alike. They ride in black horse-drawn buggies and don’t own motor vehicle; the men wear beards and funny hats; the women wear plain dresses down to their ankles and with long sleeves; they all farm or make furniture; they live without electricity. Many people’s images of the Amish come from movies like “Witness” starring Harrison Ford as a big city detective who takes refuge with an Amish family and falls in love with their daughter (1985). And then there are the numerous Christian Amish romance novels packing the shelves of Christian bookstores. And then there are the television documentary shows about the Amish practice of “Rumspringa” which always focus on the Amish adolescents and early adults “partying.”
But not all Amish are alike. In fact, there is at least one denomination of Amish that uses electricity, drives motor vehicles, and owns cameras and computers (but not televisions or radios). They don’t fit the Hollywood-television-fiction stereotype of “the Amish.” They are called “Beachy Amish Mennonites.”
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