While the Amish commit themselves to tell
the truth, they do not believe in taking oaths,
nor swearing on the Bible. Kendra said they are
incredibly patient, incredibly trustworthy people.
“Because the Bible says, ‘Let your yay be yay and
your nay be nay,’ you don’t have to say, ‘So help
me God.’ If I say I’ll be there at 8 p.m. I’ll be there,”
Kendra said.
It probably comes to no surprise that the Amish do
not believe in divorce.
“Marriage is a lifetime commitment. You can’t take
a ring off when you go to town, or you can’t take
a beard off when you go to town. Like a wedding
ring, the beard is an outward display of a personal
commitment. But there’s little divorce in the Amish
community.”
Kendra admits that even in the Amish community,
there can be marital and family problems, and the
church has adapted. “Sometimes you just live with
who you’re married to. It was a number of years ago
that they started seeking counseling, that counseling
is not considered a bad thing anymore. Not every
marriage is perfect, but if you do get divorced, there
is no remarriage.”
Another belief that might be misunderstood is
taking photographs of the Amish.
The Bible says you should make no graven image.
The Amish believe that if you take a picture, a posed
picture, and then you frame it, you may begin to
give it a lot of attention. It has a place of prominence.
So don’t ever ask an Amish person to pose. But if
you snap a casual shot, most of them don’t have
any issue with that whatsoever. But that’s why they
don’t pose for pictures because they don’t want to
become an image or an idol.”
The Amish also do not participate in or purchase
insurance.
“They take care of each other,” explained Kendra.
“You’re responsible for 20 percent of it and then the
community takes care of 80 percent.”
This doesn’t only apply to barns and homes, but
health insurance. If there is a medical challenge, it’s
the same thing.
“For example, if someone had an operation last
week, a medical board from the church would go to
the hospital and negotiate a cash price. There are 25
families in each church district and there’s a little tin
bucket at the back of the room where they put the
money. If they don’t get enough, then they go to the
neighboring churches.”
48 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • January/February • 2022
Kendra said that many people are surprised that
so many Amish youth return to the church after
rumspringa, but the majority do.
“There are so many beautiful things, like the
shared responsibility within the community,” she
said. “I know that if I were Amish, when my tomatoes
came in, my mom and my sisters and my aunts
would all come over and help me do tomatoes.
Then later in the week, we would go to my mom’s
house and everybody would do her tomatoes.
When there’s a baby or a wedding, we would get
together and make a quilt, or we would put up
pickles. It’s what we do as a community.”
Pickles, huh? On second thought, maybe Amish
life and the beach go together like pickles
and ice cream. That doesn’t sound so bad.
Kendra Cross has her toes in the sand half of the year
when she visits her home in Sarasota.