"We Vote on Our Knees"

A very interesting piece from Religion News Service on Republican efforts to get the Amish to the polls, largely based on appeals to conservative stances on abortion and gay marriage:

The Amish, as well as their spiritual cousins the Hutterites and Old Order Mennonites, have long resisted political involvement as a way to “not be conformed to this world,” as the Apostle Paul wrote. But in recent years, Republican-touted issues involving “traditional family values” have found a receptive audience in some of those groups, whose religious and cultural beliefs emphasize family and community.

And it seems to be working in part:

Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites are members of a Christian movement known as Anabaptism, which emerged out of the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th centuries. Some conservative groups, known as Old Orders, have largely avoided political involvement, while many members of others, such as Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Brethren, have become voters and office holders.

“Who’s going to vote them in if we Christians don’t?” said Joel Decker, a member of Starland Hutterite Colony in Gibbon, Minn., who plans on voting in his second presidential election next month.

“I’m ultraconservative in the political arena,” he said.

Some aren’t biting though:

But other Old Order groups seem to be adhering closer to traditional beliefs. Amos Hoover, an Old Order Mennonite member and historian in Pennsylvania, said he has not seen increased interest in voting in his church.

“We discourage voting and try to take no part,” he said. “We try to pray every Sunday for the government.”

That was echoed by Steve Hofstetter, principal of an Indiana school affiliated with the Beachy Amish, a more progressive Amish branch. “We would pray for those who are voting,” he said. “We vote on our knees.”

Full article here.

(via Get Religion)