Why the Amish Are Leaving — Every Rule Behind It, Drawn and Explained
Drawn Theology
107 views
The Amish are not leaving their faith. They are leaving because of it. Farmland prices explain why a young Amish family cannot afford Lancaster County. Nine rules explain why that family cannot simply rent, commute, or move alone, and why whole church districts are planting new settlements instead.
The buggy: an Amish family may ride in a car, but may never own one. A horse covers five to ten miles an hour, and that radius holds church, school, family and work.
The house church: no church buildings. A district meets in members' homes every other Sunday, twenty to forty households at most, and divides when it grows. In the year to 2026 the Amish added 171 new districts.
The eighth grade: school ends at eighth grade, upheld by the Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). Work stays on the land, or close to it.
Separation: "Be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). Some families leave Lancaster to keep the tourists and the traffic at a distance.
No insurance: after the IRS seized Valentine Byler's plough horses in 1961, Congress exempted the Amish from Social Security in 1965. The church is the safety net, so families move in groups.
Five children: about 421,200 Amish in 2026, doubling roughly every twenty years. Lancaster farmland averaged $29,320 an acre in 2021. Forty-three new settlements were founded in a single year, and none closed.
The Ordnung: the unwritten order of each district, with no central authority and more than forty affiliations. Some settlements are founded to live by a different one.
Adult baptism: chosen, not given. About 85 percent of Amish young people join the church.
And shunning: the avoidance Jakob Ammann insisted on in 1693, following the Dordrecht Confession of 1632. The rule the Amish were named for is a rule about leaving the church. What is happening now is the church itself, leaving together.
0:00 The Buggy
1:53 The House Church
3:50 The Eighth Grade
5:27 Separation
6:52 No Insurance
8:27 Five Children
10:05 The Ordnung
11:30 Adult Baptism
13:01 Shunning
14:34 The Bridge
Sources: Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College (Amish Population Profile 2026; Amish Studies FAQ; Organization); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972); IRS Form 4029; WITF, "A squeeze and a vision", 26 Aug 2019; LancasterOnline, "Land in demand", June 2022; Rohrer and Dundes, "Sharing the Load: Amish Healthcare Financing", Healthcare (2016); Amish America; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Dordrecht Confession (1632), Article 17.
You do not have to share a single one of these rules to see what it costs to keep them.
Drawn Theology draws what the texts and traditions describe, exactly as they describe them, and says so when they do not.
Why the Amish Are Leaving — Every Rule Behind It, Drawn and Explained
Drawn Theology
107 views
The Amish are not leaving their faith. They are leaving because of it. Farmland prices explain why a young Amish family cannot afford Lancaster County. Nine rules explain why that family cannot simply rent, commute, or move alone, and why whole church districts are planting new settlements instead.
The buggy: an Amish family may ride in a car, but may never own one. A horse covers five to ten miles an hour, and that radius holds church, school, family and work.
The house church: no church buildings. A district meets in members' homes every other Sunday, twenty to forty households at most, and divides when it grows. In the year to 2026 the Amish added 171 new districts.
The eighth grade: school ends at eighth grade, upheld by the Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972). Work stays on the land, or close to it.
Separation: "Be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). Some families leave Lancaster to keep the tourists and the traffic at a distance.
No insurance: after the IRS seized Valentine Byler's plough horses in 1961, Congress exempted the Amish from Social Security in 1965. The church is the safety net, so families move in groups.
Five children: about 421,200 Amish in 2026, doubling roughly every twenty years. Lancaster farmland averaged $29,320 an acre in 2021. Forty-three new settlements were founded in a single year, and none closed.
The Ordnung: the unwritten order of each district, with no central authority and more than forty affiliations. Some settlements are founded to live by a different one.
Adult baptism: chosen, not given. About 85 percent of Amish young people join the church.
And shunning: the avoidance Jakob Ammann insisted on in 1693, following the Dordrecht Confession of 1632. The rule the Amish were named for is a rule about leaving the church. What is happening now is the church itself, leaving together.
0:00 The Buggy
1:53 The House Church
3:50 The Eighth Grade
5:27 Separation
6:52 No Insurance
8:27 Five Children
10:05 The Ordnung
11:30 Adult Baptism
13:01 Shunning
14:34 The Bridge
Sources: Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College (Amish Population Profile 2026; Amish Studies FAQ; Organization); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972); IRS Form 4029; WITF, "A squeeze and a vision", 26 Aug 2019; LancasterOnline, "Land in demand", June 2022; Rohrer and Dundes, "Sharing the Load: Amish Healthcare Financing", Healthcare (2016); Amish America; Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Dordrecht Confession (1632), Article 17.
You do not have to share a single one of these rules to see what it costs to keep them.
Drawn Theology draws what the texts and traditions describe, exactly as they describe them, and says so when they do not.