Those Amazing Amish Trivia Quiz

Answer: Baptism

To become an adult member of the Amish community a young adult undergoes baptism. While many other Christian churches baptize their members as babies, the Amish church waits until adulthood, believing that it is not until this age that a person can make an informed decision. Trine immersion refers to baptism by immersion three separate times, which symbolizes the belief in the concept of the Trinity. Baptism may also be performed by pouring rather than immersion.

Answer: They are held in the members' homes

Religious services are held weekly or bi-weekly and rotate from home to home. Most Amish homes have one room with walls that can be moved to enlarge it. The Amish, as a rule, do not have any kind of separate church or temple. This is just one of the many practices designed to encourage the closeness and identity of each congregation.

Answer: The set of rules that govern Amish life

The Ordnung is the set of rules followed by the Amish that rules all facets of their lives. Because each assembly is separate, each has its own set of rules. These rules are usually unwritten and are passed on verbally and by example. The word comes from German and loosely translates as discipline, rule, or order.

The Ordnung creates boundaries, and helps to provide the powerful sense of group identity which governs all aspects of Amish life.

Answer: Songbook

The Ausbund is credited as being one of the oldest songbooks in continual use. The hymns it contains are hundreds of years old and were all written by Amish forefathers. The book does not contain any musical notes and the melodies are passed down from one generation to the next. Most of these songs are about the singer's faith in God and the condition of human suffering.

The use of an organ or of any musical instrument is not permitted and is looked at as worldly and irreverent.

Answer: Mennonites

The Amish are an ethno-religious group that is often considered to be related to or descended from the Mennonite church. Both are considered to be Anabaptist denominations which are a group of Protestant Christian churches that came about in the 16th century.

The term Anabaptist refers to the rebaptism of adults who had been baptized while they were babies, a practice seen in the Roman Catholic Church. While the Amish and the Mennonites are similar, the Amish follow much stricter rules and have not urbanized nor integrated themselves into mainstream culture in the same fashion as the Mennonites.

Answer: Florida

Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have significant populations of Amish communities as does the state of New York. There are also populations in Ontario, Canada. While there are small populations in a dozen other states, the vast majority of Amish are found in the rural areas of these states. Each community is slightly different from the rest, but the differences are very minor.

Answer: Shunning

Shunning is when the community deliberately avoids someone in an effort to get them to change a behavior which is not accepted. Because the Amish do not have much significant social contact with outsiders, being shunned by the community can be very painful. It is, usually, the last step before excommunication.

Answer: Divorce is forbidden and formal separation is very rare

The Amish believe that marriage is sacred and divorce is forbidden. Very rarely separation is allowed and only under the most dire circumstances. Infertility is looked at as "the will of God". Divorce will cause excommunication for both parties. It is common for someone whose spouse has died to remarry.

Answer: False

The Amish are a Christian denomination and do use the Bible. They usually use the German Martin Luther Bible. When using an English Bible they generally use the King James translation. Many of the Amish speak a dialect known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch. Each community has its own dialect that is usually a mixture of old Dutch and German. Most Amish are also fluent in English and speak this language anytime outsiders are around.

Answer: False

While the Amish religion does have bishops, ministers and deacons, they are all men. That rule did not change at all in the 20th century. Gender roles are very separate and strictly enforced. Unlike many other Christian denominations which have eased their rules on the involvement of females in religious matters, the Amish have not followed suit and are unlikely to do so anytime in the near future.