- What a way to get busted for being naughty.
On October 4, your phone went off — loudly. As long as your phone was turned on and wasn’t completely disconnected from the network, you received an emergency alarm.
It was all part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) nationwide test. Based on the horrendous screech my phone made that scared my dog, the system works well.
In some cases, it worked a bit too well. Enter the Amish.
In case you’re not aware of the Amish, they’re a traditional Christian church whose members seek to live without modern conveniences. That means no cars, tractors, or even electricity.
Also, absolutely no cell phones.
There have, however, been reports that some Amish men have gotten themselves in hot water with their community. Somehow, the FEMA emergency alarm began sounding across multiple Amish farms.
The men had acquired contraband cell phones that went off at the same time as every other phone in the country. Since the Amish don’t really follow the news, the phones’ owners had no idea the alarm was about to happen.
As a result, they have now been officially shunned by their communities. They’ll just have to make amends for their misdeeds and return to a life without cell phones.
Help from the Outside
But how did the Amish manage to get the cell phones? Surely someone in their community would’ve noticed if they rolled up to a T-Mobile store or something in their horse-drawn buggy.
Well, when there’s a will, there’s a way. The most common method is for the Amish to ask one of the community’s ex-members to get them a phone.
One of those ex-members is Eli Yoder. The ex-Amish has helped several of his former brethren acquire phones.
“Over the years, there’s been quite a few Amish men that reached out and wanted phones. So whenever they request to have a phone, I’ll do everything I can to try to get them a phone,” Yoder said according to The Independent.
“Not always can I do so, but in some circumstances, I have been able to get them a phone.”
Following October 4, however, Yoder got some unpleasant news.
“Three of [my friends] replied back to me today and said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna have to lay low for a while, I just got shunned,’” said Yoder.
“I said, ‘How’s that happened?’ They said, ‘That emergency alert that went off? Yeah, we had our phones on vibrate, and it still went off.’”
One friend definitely managed to screw himself over. The community elders had come to his house to discuss shunning for other reasons — and then his phone started blaring.
Yeah, that didn’t really help his case.
So You Got Yourself Shunned
So, the men are now shunned. What does that mean exactly, though?
Shunning is one of the most serious punishments the Amish can dole out on a person. You have to know a bit about how their lifestyle works.
To the Amish, family and community are the center of their lives. They do many things together as a group, be it tending to the fields, building houses and barns, or gathering for worship.
Shunning severs that link between an Amish member and their community. The shunned individual may do business with other Amish, take rides or eat with them, or even give gifts to another Amish.
In other words, shunning bans the person from all Amish communal activities.
It’s a big deal because it’s very, very hard to live in an Amish community without the support of others. That’s particularly true for the people who have lived the Amish way all their lives and rely completely on that communal order.
Yet, the shunned person isn’t completely abandoned. Others may still talk to them and will come to their aid if in a serious emergency.
Shunning doesn’t last forever, either. The shunning period usually goes on for a few weeks, and the shunned is expected to make amends for their misdeeds.
As long as they do so, all will be forgiven and they’ll be welcomed back to the community. After all, if there’s one thing the Amish are the masters of, it’s forgiveness.
Varying Rules
The Amish people’s focus on community is also why they ban cell phones. They believe modern technology makes life too easy.
With all our modern conveniences, we don’t have to rely on other people as much. To the Amish, that’s no good as they want to keep their insular communities closely-knit and free of outside influences.
Yet, the Amish are not a single unified group. Each community has its own rules and some have — perhaps begrudgingly — accepted some technology into their lives, if only out of necessity.
Many Amish communities do have a telephone but as with everything else, it’s a communal one. Members of the community aren’t supposed to have one for themselves.
Some groups may allow personal phones, but they may be flip phones that can’t connect to the internet. Still others might be OK with a smartphone — but they’d better not catch you browsing social media.