Nuff respects to de Amish Community

Foh weeks now ah promising to big-up de Amish Community. Ah never paid much attention to them until ah saw de news way ah disturbed man invaded an Amish Community School and massacred ah set ah kids, young females. Then is when ah went to de web to search foh info on de Amish.

De first thing that caught me was de way the men dress and de way dey look, I saw ah photo of an Amish man riding ah horse drawn carriage in de funeral procession, every thing about him reminds me of Pah Nay-knee my maternal grand-father.{{more}} Actually his grand-parents were among the poor whites who came across from Bo-bathe-us ah couple hundred years ago, and their ancestors originally came from either England, Ireland or Scotland.

In SVG dey settled at Dorsetshire Hill that became ah community of all whites, “whitey-Beer-jons”. Dey were self-reliant, dey farmed and fished and never mixed, generation after generation was white; my mother was one who broke the rule, she got me ah black dad. Of course dey were two sets ah whites in SVG, de rich Plantation owners and de poor whitey-Beer-jons who can be found all over, Mount Pleasant in Bequia, Grenada, TnT and elsewhere. In TnT dey call de poor whites “Pauper-Johnny”!

But de Amish Community in de USA originally came from German stock and like de folks from Dorsetshire Hill in some respect, dey make ah very interesting study. Dey are professed Christians de Anabaptists, dat’s Christians who believe that Baptism should accompany confession of faith, in keeping with the story of de Eunoch and Phillip. De Amish follow ah very simplistic approach, ah mixture of Spirituality and Fun-dah-men-tell-is-him. No Church building, dey believe de people is de Church so dey worship in homes; funerals in homes, weddings in homes.

Education beyond Grade 8 is not encouraged and de school is usually ah small, one room building.

Ole fashion dress, ole fashion looks; men wear dark colours, women in long sleeves, bonnets and aprons; married women wear white prayer covering, ah single woman wears black, tek note single fellars; anyhow dey do not encourage marriages outside de faith. And whereas our women wear only white wedding dress, de Amish brides wear either blue or purple outfit. Women are also buried in dey bridal outfit. Ah wonder what colour dress someone like Lie-Za who got no married to get, will be buried in.

Excellent farmers, in fact farming is dey survival, but yuh won’t see many if any automobile or farm tractors at all in ah Amish camp. No electricity, no radio, TV, computer, no telephone in de house. No cameras, no photos; photos would be in contravention with de second Commandment, no idols, no images. In spite ah the absence ah all these technological updates, de Amish is self-reliant and independent. Dey produce everything dey need. Dey pay taxes, do not collect Social Security, no pension, no unemployment, no welfare, no insurance and de likes. Dey have dey own mutual fund foh health benefits foh members. Dey share one another’s burdens and debts and deaths too.

Here’s one foh teenagers that will drive Pastors Frederick, Clarke and Daniel crazy: De Amish Rumspringa, ah period allowed to teenagers to “runaround” have ah fling and get ah taste ah de world. At some point during de Rumspringa dey will decide whether dey want to stay with de worldly things or give informal consent, if dey decide to be baptized. Strangely though over 80 percent of the youths usually return to de Amish rigid way of life and get baptized.

Their church structure is simple: ah Bishop, his assistant ah Minister, ah full Deacon and ah Deacon. No position foh Women, dey must remain silent in Court oops Church. What was undoubtedly de high point ah de Amish faith, de test ah dey Christianity, took effect last month when dey were confronted with ah killer, Roberts who murdered five innocent children, young girls and wounded several more and then turn de gun on himself. Dey were saddened but in their time of grief dey prayed foh forgiveness foh that man and comfort foh his family. In fact when Roberts, who was not Amish, was buried, dey were at de funeral with his wife, more dan fifty percent of those who attended Robert’s funeral were from de Amish Community. Wow!

What’s in this story foh us Christians, those of us who ask foh forgiveness morning noon and night, but in our own hearts we have no room foh forgiveness, no room foh reconciliation. We pass verdicts and pronouncements to kill and destroy lives and say it’s God’s words.

We seek power to deliver but we destroy, we divide, we victim-eyes, we deceive and con-dem. We go to de end ah de line to get even with people just because dey share ah difference ah opinion with our way of thinking.

Oh how ah respect de Amish and thank them foh giving me ah lickle reminder to “forgive those that trespass against you” and “do good to dem that hate you”.