Get the popcorn! It's drama time!
Oh my there are so many myths and misconceptions about the Amish here. I guess "legends" could be another category we could list. Many of the myths you hear of online actually started in Ethridge. The best myth known today is that the Amish believe the camera will "take your soul" as this myth seems to be originated here.
Does the camera take their soul?
No, The Amish believe that nothing can separate the soul from the body until death. The origin of this myth had come from a man who left the Amish on bitter terms and told a few people this myth that started telling the people who went on the Amish Wagon Tours. This spread they myth to lots of people who trusted the tour guides and it stuck. Just ask the Amish adults to explain their belief and they will tell you they discourage photos and video as it creates a graven image that may get worshiped. Some Amish adults take the myth and tell their children that the camera takes their soul so they will hide when they see it. I go into detail in my premium course here.
They marry early to their first cousins!
Nope, The Amish may all have similar names but not be kin to each other. The Amish go to church in homes that belong to other members of their church district. Parents hope their kids marry within their church district or close by. So when a Yoder marries another Yoder they may not be even close to being related, but to us "English" people, we hear it as the same. The Amish also can't marry until they join the church through baptism so this takes a while so they must be at least 18-19 before they can even get baptized so marriage will have to follow. So I believe you can rely on the answer that the Amish do not marry close kinfolk and they do not marry their kids off when they are still kids.
Rumspringa is all about the party!
No again as Rumspringa means "to run about" and this is for teenagers who have completed school and are in their apprentice years before joining the church. After their 8 grades of school they enter an apprenticeship where they learn a trade. During this time they are also in lessons for baptism. The Amish believe there should be a period of time the person can taste of the world so they know what they are rejecting in their baptism order.
You cannot freely choose God and renounce the world if you don't know what they are rejecting so these youth can go into the world and not be under church discipline or get in trouble with their parents. So they are allowed to "run about" but they must still obey the rules of the house their parents teach them and do chores as expected. The TV shows make this time out to be a constant party but this is far from the average Amish youth experience.
Don't tell the bishop! He might shun me!
True! The bishop may take an offence before the church and call on the congregation to shun or ban the person for a time period or forever! Sometimes the ban is so bad that the person is considered spiritually dead to them as the person did something to get them shunned forever. The Amish believe the church is what gives you salvation and baptism into the church saves the person so to remove yourself after baptism or get in trouble and be cast out and shunned is to lose your salvation and therefore be worse than the unbelievers.
The men run everything so they are mean to the women!
This is also true that the men run everything, but they also must love their wives like Christ loved the church so they are not allowed to be all that mean to women. A lady could stand up in church and tell the congregation that her husband is beating her or the kids and the minister and bishop call the man out and scold him or look into the matter. The men are a bit more rough than the English men as "to spare the rod is to spoil the child" The Amish also withhold love from their older children so they may one day cling to their spouse for the love they never got from their parents. The Amish men are the managers of their homes and every major decision must be made or pass through them so it is easy to label the men as power hungry authoritarians.
Puppy mills and horse killings
Here is where the TV is back to leading us to believe all the Amish are just blood thirsty killers again. The truth is that there are some Amish who just mean to animals. To my knowledge there has never been an Amish puppy mill or Canadian horse killing market in Ethridge. There was a man years ago who was turned in by locals to the animal welfare league. They went by his home and seen he just had a lot of dogs. The Amish do have the idea of the "beast of burden" as each animal was made for man by God as man is above the animals in their belief.
Which garden do I spray?
This is not a myth but is a misconception. The myth is from the English who believe the Amish wont eat from their large gardens because they spray them with lots of chemicals. They think the Amish know that it will poison the English and make us sick. The truth is more about economics than anything. The Amish may plow a smaller garden to keep vegetable plants they like but may not sell well. The larger gardens are usually planted with cheaper seeds in varieties they know sell better at their stands. The Amish famers will actually spray their small garden if they spray as they don't want the bugs to eat their crops. The larger garden cost a lot to spray so they would lose money if they sprayed it so they generally leave it alone.
* If you are hunting vegetables and don't want anything sprayed on them then you would need to talk with the Amish man to see if he sprayed anything on his crops. Some Amish will spray like crazy while some wont spray at all.*
The Amish must make everything they use.
This is not true, the horse parking at Walmart should tell you that they shop locally just as much as we do. The Amish see it as economic and a better use of time if they can just buy something cheaper than they can make it. The Amish find thrift as important to their way of life so if they need a pineapple or bananas they can just buy what they could never grow. They also buy medication, bandages, fishing and boating goods, home supplies, baking goods, and many other things at area stores.
The Amish pay no taxes!
Also not true. The Amish do pay many of the same taxes we do! In many places they can get a tax exemption but in most places they pay sales tax, land tax, business tax. However they do not pay wheel tax as this goes only for motor vehicles and also exempts car haulers, trailers, or other things we pull behind a vehicle. At the end of the year the Amish will pay more out of pocket than most English people since most of them have lots of land and have many more kids. They also don't send their kids to public schools so any tax that goes to schools, the Amish pay twice. Once for the tax and another for their teacher as the school teacher in their Amish schools are paid for by the community.
Conclusion:
There are so many Amish myths, misconceptions and legends. Unfortunately the non Amish population has believed so many of these myths that they take as fact. If anyone doubts me on these topics, I do ask them to inquire at any local government facility, general store manager, or Amish man. The Amish women usually say you would need to talk with an Amish man so I am sending you to ask them. This is the end of module 1 so move onto module 2.