NEWS STORY: Republicans Target the Amish in Battleground States

c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It has been said that the Old Order Amish pray Republican even if they don’t vote Republican. But with the presidential race remaining tight in the final days before the Nov. 2 election, GOP campaign organizers in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania are hoping to turn Amish […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It has been said that the Old Order Amish pray Republican even if they don’t vote Republican. But with the presidential race remaining tight in the final days before the Nov. 2 election, GOP campaign organizers in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania are hoping to turn Amish social concerns into real support for George W. Bush at the ballot box.

The Amish, as well as their spiritual cousins the Hutterites and Old Order Mennonites, have long resisted political involvement as a way to “not be conformed to this world,” as the Apostle Paul wrote. But in recent years, Republican-touted issues involving “traditional family values” have found a receptive audience in some of those groups, whose religious and cultural beliefs emphasize family and community.


In Holmes County, Ohio, home to the largest concentration of Amish in the world, Republicans have been talking about abortion and homosexual marriage.

“We have been trying to inform the Amish of these issues in the election and the candidates and let them reach their own decisions,” said county Republican Party chairman Rob Hovis. “It’s a more conscious effort this time by far (compared with 2000).”

Those efforts have included placing voter-registration materials in workplaces employing Amish and meeting with influential Amish businessmen and bishops. In Pennsylvania, Bush this summer met with Amish in Lancaster County, another location heavily populated with Amish and Mennonites.

“As we see this probably will be a close (presidential) election, we have intensified efforts to reach out to a number of groups, including the Amish,” said Mark Pfeifle, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s voter mobilization program.

That’s not appreciated in some quarters. Sociologist Donald B. Kraybill, an expert on the Amish, said they are being exploited.

“I think the Republicans have been using the words abortion and gay marriage to frighten the Amish,” he said.

It is difficult to gauge the success of recruiting efforts. “You can’t quantify it until Election Day,” Pfeifle said.


But it is apparent inroads are being made. Amish newspapers have urged readers to cast ballots, and more members are registering to vote. “I just know they have taken more of an interest,” said Reese Malott, voter registration clerk in heavily Amish LaGrange County, Ind.

Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, expects a higher percentage of Amish to vote in this election but estimates it will remain in single digits. Nevertheless, he said, Amish leaders are concerned.

Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites are members of a Christian movement known as Anabaptism, which emerged out of the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th centuries. Some conservative groups, known as Old Orders, have largely avoided political involvement, while many members of others, such as Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Brethren, have become voters and office holders.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

“Who’s going to vote them in if we Christians don’t?” said Joel Decker, a member of Starland Hutterite Colony in Gibbon, Minn., who plans on voting in his second presidential election next month.

“I’m ultraconservative in the political arena,” he said.

But other Old Order groups seem to be adhering closer to traditional beliefs. Amos Hoover, an Old Order Mennonite member and historian in Pennsylvania, said he has not seen increased interest in voting in his church.

“We discourage voting and try to take no part,” he said. “We try to pray every Sunday for the government.”


That was echoed by Steve Hofstetter, principal of an Indiana school affiliated with the Beachy Amish, a more progressive Amish branch. “We would pray for those who are voting,” he said. “We vote on our knees.”

As part of their civics studies at his school, students are not taught to vote. “We are citizens of a different world and just passing through,” Hofstetter said.

Meanwhile, many mainstream Mennonites are active in politics, even on Capitol Hill. Republican Jerry Moran, part of the Mennonite Brethren, the second-largest U.S. Mennonite denomination, represents western Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. Several states have Mennonite legislators, and at least one church member has served as governor. Many more hold local positions.

Even though part of that religious stream, history professor Roth has chosen not to vote, despite his keen interest in politics. As a teenager, he campaigned for George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. But Richard Nixon’s landslide victory left Roth disillusioned and seeking explanation and comfort.

“When I discovered that there were things in my own (religious) tradition that gave language to my disappointment, I employed them,” said Roth, who has never voted. “I need to keep the outcome of any given political process in perspective. The kingdom of God does not hang in the balance of any earthly election.”

But he is not critical of those who do vote, noting that his parents voted and that his oldest daughter plans to vote in her first election this fall. “It’s not as if there is a pristine Anabaptist witness,” Roth said.


His position, however, is not a retreat from the world, Roth said. For example, he has been involved in his neighborhood association, Parent-Teacher Organization and community development efforts. This fall he is participating in the local Citizens Police Academy, becoming familiar with his city’s police work.

“I love America,” Roth said. “I believe that democracy and the Constitution and the religious opportunities Anabaptists are afforded are good things.”

“There are ways of giving political witness that are truer to our deepest identity than the electoral process.”

MO/JL END RNS

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