———————————————————————-

Wonderful discussion here, Cecelia. And thanks for inviting me to post.

I receive hundreds of letters each week from readers who share “the draw” to my Amish novels, so I understand why your blog is so popular, as well. It would appear that what has been lost to us as modern people (“fancy folk”) and what the exotic and cloistered society of the Plain has to offer those caught up in the frenetic “English” world is a slower (happier?) pace of life, an ability to thrive on face-to-face relationships (as opposed to cyberspace relationships such as IM, FaceBook, SecondLife, texting, and email, etc.), and the Amish are masters at the art of conversation!–as well as a yearning in readers for a sense of belonging. Community is core and key to the Amish fiction appeal, I believe. So many people seem lost and what Amish settings and characters offer is literally a “place to belong.”

My own particular interest in the Amish people comes from my family heritage…my maternal grandmother having experienced a heart-breaking shunning that lasted her entire life (from age 17 onward), when she opened her heart to a relationship with the Lord Jesus and married a ministerial student (outside the Plain community). This man became my grandfather (Omar Buchwalter) and he and my courageous grandmother Ada Ranck Buchwalter pastored churches in WA, FL, and later returned to their homeland of Lancaster, PA, where my mother and her 8 siblings grew up. Because of Ada’s bold move toward a personal relationship with Christ, I am one of the many benefactors on the whole vast side of Ada’s and Omar’s family tree. THE SHUNNING, which has been said to have launched an entire genre for inspirational women’s fiction, was published in May 1997 and I’m told has presently sold upwards of 1.3 million copies.

All of that to say, there is truly an amazing draw to Amish fiction currently and has only recently become noted by CBA publishers and others outside the Christian booksellers industry. Many view this genre as a way to interweave spiritual themes in a natural way, without being accused of having a platform or being preachy. The simple truth of Amish fiction is that they embrace the Sermon on the Mount literally (thus the reason the Nickel Mines bishop led the way and offered forgiveness following the Amish schoolhouse shootings). They take what Scripture they are permitted to read “straight up,” without parcing, studying, or memorizing it. Please remember I’m talking only of the original settlement of Old Order Amish in Lancater County, PA, where I was born, grew up, and know (and have lived with) many Old Order Amish families. There are other Amish communities where their church ordinances reflect a more liberal Anabaptist approach to Scripture, similar to some Mennonite groups, and are not reticent about saying they are “saved” or accept the assurance of salvation by grace. The vast majority of Lancaster County Amish would not declare such a thing, viewing it as the heighth of pride (one bishop said, “If you say you’re saved, then you most certainly are not.”)

Just a few of many of my observations over the many years of my close ties to PA Amish.