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Ask The Amish will be a new section of the Remnant’s Walk with reprint articles and letters from the Amish community from a publication called “Family Life”, which started back in 1967. Some original authors are listed in the publication, some are not. If there is an author listed, they would be listed at the end of the article with an original publishing date. Some Amish chose not to put their names on articles they write.

The heritage of our church decisions

Our Amish churches everywhere use rules of conduct or Ordnung to maintain uniformity in the church, and to keep unwanted practices out of the church. There are people who label all such as man-made rules, and say they are wrong and detrimental to the church. But we believe one of the points that has enabled the Amish to hold to non-conformity is discipline. To have discipline, we must have standards. If we rebel against the standards decided by the church, it is evident that something is wrong in our heart.

Each restriction we have is the result of some problem or misuse the church faced at one time. When we face new problems, we must make decisions whether we want to act on them or not. When I was a boy, there was no rule against watching or owning a television set, for the simple reason that there was no television. A hundred years ago there was no Ordnung against short dresses because at that time it was the practice among all women to wear them floor length.

For myself, I prefer to go by the collective decisions that have been handed down to us over many generations. Is there not a real danger that if we throw out what we have inherited from our forebears, we may be missing something we will not be able to replace?

                                                          (“Now That I Think Of It”, D. Wagler, 04-91)

Photographs

The question was raised about having knickknacks, images, and photographs since Exo 20:4 seems to forbid them. Also, against Images.

It is inconsistent for us plain people to have small figures, knickknacks, or photographs standing around. I think we have plenty of scriptures against these so that we don’t need to make Exo 20:4 say something it was never meant to say. Exo 20:4 is talking about making images for idol worship, and then, praying to them. I’m afraid if we try to apply this verse, we are bound to contradict ourselves.

If this verse is forbidding all images and likenesses and photographs, then we should not use coins with images engraved on them, or postage stamps with pictures on them. We also should not allow an x-ray to be taken, for this is nothing else but taking a photo of our body structure. Worse yet, we should not allow our children to make any picture at all. Even a simple drawing of a cat would be wrong, for certainly it is making a likeness of something.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I also think it is wrong to have images, knickknacks, and photographs. I believe we should all work harder to keep our houses plain and simple and consistent with our dress. I have written this because I feel that only harm and frustration can result from giving a wrong reason for holding a right belief.

                                                                                   (“What Do You Think”? 2-71)

No Graven Image

Perhaps it is time for us plain people to examine our position concerning pictures and photographs. Why do we feel as we do?

When we plain people are asked why we are opposed to the use of photographs someone often comes up with the verse from Exodus 20, the second of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not make onto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

However, does this verse really fit when applied to having our pictures taken? The answer is neither a simple yes or no, or perhaps it is both.

If we mean in a literal way, the answer is no. The verse does not apply because the verse said that we should not make a graven image of likeness of anything, period. It doesn’t say, “Thou shalt not make a photograph of a man’s face, but to trace the outline of a child’s foot is all right.”

Of course, we make likenesses in other ways. Taken literally, the verse would not allow us to take a blue print of a house, our children should not make a picture to color, and Family Life shouldn’t print a picture on its cover. Or does the verse just mean photographs taken with a camera? We still would have problems. Does that mean we would not object to having our portrait painted, which often looks nearly as true-to-life as a photo? Does it mean we should not permit X-rays to be taken, which are photographs of internal parts of our bodies? If pictures of people’s faces are wrong, why do we use things with such pictures every day, on our money and coins, and on our postage stamps.

So, if we answer in a literal and direct way, we would have to say no, the second commandment is NOT talking about snapshots. (If it were, what were the poor people supposed to make out of it for the thousands of years before the comparatively recent invention of the camera?

Maybe someone will say Exo 20:4 means a graven image, a likeness carved or molded, with a 3- dimensional effect. But that wouldn’t even include photographs.

However, if it is understood in an indirect way, yes, the plain people’s traditional opposition to photographs and their tendency to be camera-shy can be connected with the commandment against idolatry. Taken in this indirect way some of the things that appear inconsistent in our stand begin to make sense. That will explain why we are not alarmed by the toy cow in our child’s play box, or the picture on the postage stamp, but try to look the other way when somebody tries to hold a camera up in front of us.

We believe that posing for photographs is part of the world’s mis-guided emphasis on glorifying the outward person. The Bible tells us that it’s the inward man that is important (1st Pet 3:3-4). Fixing up our hair, wearing jewelry, bright colors, fancy clothing, these are the world’s ways of drawing attention to the beauty of the created.

Yahweh wants us to honor the Creator, not the created. The world put’s a lot of emphasis on a pretty girl or a handsome boy. As believers we should work against this kind of thinking. A person’s facial features should not affect our opinion of a person’s worth or value.

Thus, we believe that letting ourselves get involved in the world of photography leads us away from humility, not toward true humility. We already have problems with too much emphasis on dress and finery at weddings and such occasions. Going to a photo studio to have such occasions recorded in a permanent visual record only increases this temptation toward false values and unchristian adornment. We have enough pride in our hearts without feeding and encouraging it by doing things that tend to increase the temptations.

There’s also the stewardship question. Photography is expensive. Once a church becomes involved in it, there seems to be no end to the sums that can be spent for equipment and film. All this to attempt and make permanent what Yahweh has decreed shall pass away.

In conclusion then, if we take the second commandment directly and literally, it doesn’t make sense to apply it to our opposition to cameras. But taken in a more indirect way, things do begin to add up. We don’t want to emphasize the outer self, lest we do it at the expense of the inner being. We don’t want to exalt self, lest we rob the Creator of His glory.

It follows then that we are not opposed to the graven image in the toy box; few people are tempted to hang their hearts on a child’s toy. That explains why we make the difference between the photograph of our backbone, and one of our faces. No proud grandfather has been tempted to impress people he meets by pulling from his wallet X-ray photos of his grandchild’s spinal column! (This is also why some church groups allow snapshots to be taken when requested by the government for their files, photos not kept personally.)

No, let us not slip gradually, bit by bit, into the ways of the world, that lead into an emphasis on pride and personal vanity. When we are gone, let us not be remembered buy how broad our noses were, the height of our brows, or the angle of cheekbones, but by what truly matters, the lives we have lived and the examples we have left.

Dust we are and to dust we shall return. Why frame and embellish and hang on the wall pictures of this house of clay in which we live? Let us beware, lest we permit self to be exalted, becoming unto us a graven image.

                                                                                                          (E. Stoll, 03-87)