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but I have had Jehovah's Witnesses darken my doorway. Word to the wise, do not engage JWs in conversation, do not offer to buy a copy of the Watchtower, do not allow them to remain long on your property. They are truly one of the more obsessed of the Christian sects around.
By the way, the Amish are not Mormon...totally different world and way of viewing faith. Amish are old-school German Protestant sect who settled primarily in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa...although I have heard that groups of them settled in other states.
They refer to themselves as "plain folk" and live in a style that one would associate with the end of the 19th century. For the most part they are hard-working, devout, pacifist people who believe in minding their own business so much that they isolate themselves from what they view as the evils of modern society.
The most strict Amish believe that they should not use modern (i.e., 20th century) appliances. Therefor, you will not find cars, TVs, radios, telephones, washers, dryers or refrigerators in their households. They maintain their own system of schools and generally get around on horse and buggies.
But the encroachment of modern life is inexorable and most of even the strictest sects are seeing a weakening in the resolve of members of the younger generations. As a matter of fact, not too long ago three young Amish men were convicted of conspiracy to distribute PCP and cocaine in connection with a local motorcycle gang in Lancaster, PA. Most social historians who have studied them believe that we might see the eventual dying out of the Amish as a distinct community within the next century.
By the way, around here they are referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch. This comes from when the sect first settled in Pennsylvania...because they were Germans they were referred to as Pennsylvania Deutsch, which was mangled by the locals into Pennsylvania Dutch.
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