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Summary
- Old Order and New Order Amish do not connect their homes to public utility lines; the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites, who drive cars, do use grid power.
- The Amish do not regard technology as evil in itself. They limit it to protect family and church life and to keep the separation from the world they read in Romans 12:2.
- Amish communities decided against the grid as it reached rural areas in the 1920s and 1930s; the Lancaster County Amish had rejected it by 1920.
- Batteries, gas lamps and refrigerators, diesel-driven air and hydraulic power, and small solar systems supply much of the power Amish homes and shops use.
- Rules differ by affiliation and church district; the most conservative groups light their buggies with kerosene lanterns and run shop machines by belts.
- Most Mennonites use electricity. Among horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, the Groffdale Conference has it in its homes and the Stauffer Mennonites do not.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and Steven M. Nolt, The Amish (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), chapter 17, “Technology.” Excerpt published by NPR, 30 August 2013. https://www.npr.org/2013/08/30/217269706/read-an-excerpt-the-amish
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, “Technology.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/cultural-practices/technology/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Diversity.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/social-organization/diversity/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Regulations.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/cultural-practices/regulations/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Mennonites.” https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/religion/mennonites/
- Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, “Old Order Mennonites (Horse-and-Buggy),” tables updated November 2024. https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/files/2024/11/OOMs_horse-and-buggy_VA_updated_11-2024.pdf
- Erik Wesner, “Do the Amish use electricity?” Amish America, citing Donald B. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture, 2nd ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), pp. 198–202 and 208–210. https://amishamerica.com/do-amish-use-electricity/
- “11 Questions on Amish Beliefs,” Amish America. https://amishamerica.com/beliefs/
- Scripture quotations from the King James Version: Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 6:14.
