The Amish in America
Posted by tom | Jun 7, 2007A great first day at The Amish in America: New Identities and Diversities, hosted by The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College. To name a few things:
1. connected with GCC alum Loyal Hall (2000). We had the opportunity to chat about urban ministry (he lives in Lebanon, PA), share pictures of our kids, and set-up a lunch appointment for tomorrow.
2. attended the first screening of the new documentary Amish Backroads to Heaven which had the most direct footage of Amish which I've seen and significant interview time with Don Kraybill, Elizabethtown College, and Steve Nolt, Goshen College.
3. talked with the director of Amish Backroads to Heaven and I'm in the process of securing a copy of Amish Backroads to Heaven to share at the upcoming faculty conference.
5. discussed the relationship of faith-vocation with several nurses.
Time to rest up for tomorrow (note: the house is quiet as Theresa, Hayley, and Ellen are camping out in the yard tonight). Expect thoughts on the below items and more in the next several days: group decision making, communal structure, the idealization of Amish (the Arcadian myth), the value of having models to live up to, one's whole life expressing one's faith versus conversionism, the complexity of the simple life, wide is the road that leads to destruction, Mission to Amish People (MAP, Joe and Esther Keim) . . .
