After reading the first line of
The Amish Charter by John A.
Hostetler, one line clearly jumped of the page. Holster states in his essay, "We turn now to the moral principles of the contemporary Amish community. By moral we mean that which is considered right and wrong, and the principles for which life is worth living." His statement sparked a train of thought. Is the moral line between what is right and what is wrong clearly drawn in modern society? With the vast amounts of different beliefs, ideas, and opinions in the world, the line between what is right and what is wrong could change. I mean, who really knows, who can really determine, the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Some societies find it offensive when women walk out of the house without being covered from head to toe while some nudist colonies, however, demand the shedding of all clothes(
eww just a thought.. I have read that people take vacations or trips to nudist colonies, just to visit. I would find a vacation like that to be unsanitary due to the overwhelming amount of "bare bottom" that could have possibly been resting in the places that I would possibly be sitting in.) In most cultures, the act of killing another human being is considered morally wrong, but in some war-torn nations, children are born with machine guns in their hands.
Hostetler's statement makes me wonder about the Amish community. Do they live their lives in a simplistic manner, without the use of electricity, higher schooling, etc, in order to maintain a moral value system? Are they preventing the blurring of the line between right and wrong by not allowing the usage of modern outside technology? Is the modern world that I live in corrupting my moral beliefs? Am I just crazy for assuming all of this? If any of my assumptions are correct, I have gained a whole new respect or the Amish.
Wishing I knew How to Churn My Own Butter,
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