Bending Traditions to Avoid Breaking the RulesThe Arthur, Illinois Amish

When the people of the Amish faith fled religious persecution in Europe and arrived in Pennsylvania about 1727, they came not to start a new life, but to preserve the old ways of living and farming.1 However, the reality of the outside has crept into their sheltered culture in the form of land shortages and higher prices for that land which does exist. These pressures, coupled with the all too constant awareness of the world outside their culture and its many changes and advances, have caused a weakening in some of the once strictly held traditions. From the outside, it appears that modernization has not changed their way of life. However, upon closer examination, one can see the exceptions and changes which the church has approved. These decisions for change were not made lightly, but there was little else that could be done. As contradictory as it may seem, part of the outside world had to be allowed to come in if the Amish way of life was to remain in existence