Religion vs smoke alarms

[Gob]

One Amish community in a northerly part of the state of New York is finding modern building regulations are encroaching on its way of life.

In June 2007, St Lawrence County's assistant public defender, Steve Ballan, got a call from his boss. A bunch of Amish men are in trouble, he was told. They need a lawyer.

Although the Amish had moved up to this remote part of northern New York State 30 years earlier, they had kept themselves to themselves and Mr Ballan had had little to do with them.

But when he met with Andy Miller and the five other Amish men charged with contravening state building codes, he was certain that the town's building inspectors had violated America's first and greatest constitutional amendment - the right to worship freely.

What had provoked the inspectors to issue Stop Work Orders was the Amish men's refusal to install smoke alarms in their newly built houses.

In court and in broken English - their first language remains a German dialect - Andy Miller explained that it would be against their Christian beliefs to have something so modern in their homes.

It did not wash with the judge. Miller and the other Amish men were fined.

They refused to pay - pointing out that that would imply they had accepted that obeying God's laws was wrong - and how could God be wrong?

Mr Ballan persuaded the judge to stay the case and contacted a religious liberty law firm that has taken it to federal court, where now it sits waiting to be heard.

The 250,000 Amish in the US have been making accommodations with modernity ever since the industrial revolution - when our life and Amish life parted company forever.

But in this rather drab corner of New York state, compromises are unacceptable.

That is because the Amish up here are a small and deeply conservative sect called the Swartzentrubers who came to the wilds of the North Country to lead a life separate from the evils of the 21st Century - one that reflects the Amish mantra of "being in this world but not of this world".

But, it seems being as far north as it is possible to go before you hit Canada is not enough for the Swartzentrubers.

Recently, their church elders attempted to separate themselves still further. Swartzentruber dairy farmers must now transport their milk to a central collecting point so their families avoid contact with the lorry driver.

Last year their children were barred from entering Canton, the local town - for fear of being corrupted.

It is true, Canton is home to a university campus but it is a private college, tucked away on private land. There is not much action on a damp Thursday night in this part of the world.

And two years ago the Swartzentrubers fought the local authorities over their refusal to fix orange hazard triangles on the back of their traditional horse-drawn buggies.

In other states the Amish had accepted the move as a sensible safety measure but the Swartzentrubers saw the triangles as an ungodly and garish adornment.

Their stubbornness paid off - Swartzentruber buggies remain triangle-free. And now there is the bickering over smoke alarms.

I met one of the rebels, Mose Miller. He is short and squirrelly with a raggedy red beard.

We talked at his doorstep with his nine children looking on. It was cold: -15C (5F). Most of the kids were in bare feet.

Their clothes were roughly sewed together - like Victorian patchwork puppets.

Their hands and faces were grimy with dirt from the farmyard.

Lizzie, his eldest daughter, showed me round their home. There were two bedrooms for the children - wooden pallets and old blankets served as beds.

They hand-pumped water for washing, and there was an outdoor privy. The fire they cooked on prompted me to ask Mose about the smoke alarms.

"I use this," he said pointing at his nose, "or him," and his finger pointed upwards. "I don't need a devil on the wall to tell me if my house is burning."

I asked him what would happen if he did not wake up and all his children were burned to death.

"If God does not wake us, well, that must be part of his plan," Mose told me.

His eyes twinkled as he spoke and I had an overriding feeling that Steve Ballan, the lawyer, was on to something. Thirty years ago no-one had smoke alarms. We changed, not the Amish.

The chances are Mose and his recalcitrant friends will win their battle - they usually do.

Less clear is how this 19th Century enclave will retain its unique identity.

The North Country may be remote but there is a brisk trade in mobile phones among Amish teenagers - the internet and all the perils it presents for these deeply religious people are now ever-present.

Perhaps, in the end, court cases and the internet do not really matter.

As Mose politely led me back to my car, he turned to me.

"We're just pilgrims and foreigners, just passing through," he said. "This life is just a speck in the sand, compared to eternity."

David Belton has made a documentary about the Amish for PBS. You can find out more at their website.

How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:

BBC Radio 4: A 30-minute programme on Saturdays, 11:30 BST.

Second 30-minute programme on Thursdays, 11:00 BST (some weeks only).

Listen online or download the podcast

[Grim Reaper]

"If God does not wake us, well, that must be part of his plan," Mose told me.

Perhaps God's planned involved using a smoke detector to wake them up.

[Lord Jim]

I think this is a silly position for them to take, but I really don't see where the state has a compelling interest here that should trump the free exercise of religion.

I would also think that a home that has no electricity, (which presumably these don't) runs a fairly low risk of fire...

[Scooter]

I would imagine that a house constructed of wood in which open flame is used for cooking and heating, and candles or oil lamps for lighting, would be a prime candidate for a fire.

And I think there is plenty of precedent that says that, whatever adults may choose for themselves, they are not allowed to put their children at risk in order to satisfy the dictates of their religious beliefs.

[BoSoxGal]

I would also think that a home that has no electricity, (which presumably these don't) runs a fairly low risk of fire...

Spoken like someone who has zero experience with wood heat and wood stove cooking.

[Lord Jim]

Spoken like someone who has zero experience with wood heat and wood stove cooking.

Well except for the fire place and an occasional camping trip, you're right, I've been fortunate enough to avoid those sorts of primitive conditions....

[dales]

You do b-b-q doncha, Jim?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I wonder if there are any statistics on house fires within this community. Perhaps they could put up the alarms and refuse to purchase batteries?

[Crackpot]

Fire alarms are required to be hard wired. Batteries are only backups and the screach like the dickens when the battery is dead/dying

[Joe Guy]

How do you hard wire a smoke alarm at an Amish house?

[Crackpot]

That is the problem

[BoSoxGal]

Fire alarms are required to be hard wired.

Not according to the NY residential smoke/CO2 alarm requirements I was able to Google.

Can you provide your source?

[Crackpot]

Those are our new construction reqirements in my county if not state. I'll defer to the local reqiurments in this case. (nothing quite as annoyng as chaning a fire alarm battery in the middle of the night (because thats when they always run down) wile being brraged with obnoxious beepng the entire time when your head is less than a foot from the speaker

[BoSoxGal]

NY code allows an exception to a hard wire requirement in new construction if the structure isn't hooked up to a commercial source of electricity.

The batteries shouldn't be an issue if they're being replaced regularly, which is best practice.

[loCAtek]

...and the Amish code on batteries? I don't recall they even using them.

[BoSoxGal]

Read the OP.

Spend a lot of time living with the Amish? What's your recollection based on?

Hint: they're not all the same - some sects have embraced limited use of electricity and telephones.

[loCAtek]

Read the OP.

Spend a lot of time living with the Amish? What's your recollection based on?

Hint: they're not all the same - some sects have embraced limited use of electricity and telephones.

Very Well;

That is because the Amish up here are a small and deeply conservative sect called the Swartzentrubers who came to the wilds of the North Country to lead a life separate from the evils of the 21st Century - one that reflects the Amish mantra of "being in this world but not of this world".

[BoSoxGal]

So you understand now that the whole point of this thread is a story indicating that that particular Amish sect rejects any technology, including smoke alarms whether battery or electrically operated - right?

Good.

[loCAtek]

Right

One Amish community in a northerly part of the state...

[BoSoxGal]

Technology
Many outsiders mistakenly think that the Amish reject technology. It is more accurate to say that they use technology selectively. Televisions, radios, and personal computers are rejected outright, but other types of technology are used selectively or modified to fit Amish purposes. Amish mechanics also build new machines to accommodate their cultural guidelines. Moreover, the Amish readily buy much modern technology, such as gas grills, shop tools, camping equipment, and some farm equipment.

The Amish do not consider technology evil in itself but they believe that technology, if left untamed, will undermine worthy traditions and accelerate assimilation into the surrounding society. Mass media technology in particular, they fear, would introduce foreign values into their culture. By bringing greater mobility, cars would pull the community apart, eroding local ties. Horse-and-buggy transportation keeps the community anchored in its local geographical base.

Most Amish groups forbid using electricity from public utility lines. Electricity from batteries is more local, controllable, and independent from the outside world. In some settlements, for example, Amish use batteries to power lights on buggies, calculators, fans, flashlights, cash registers, copy machines, and typewriters. Solar energy is sometimes used to charge batteries, operate electric fences, and power household appliances.

Amish use of technology often perplexes outsiders. Why would God frown on a telephone? What sense does it make to keep a tractor at the barn but not take it to the field? Is it not inconsistent, if not outright hypocritical, to hire non-Amish drivers but refuse to own cars? And what could be the difference between 12-volt electricity from batteries and 110-volt current from public utility lines? These distinctions may look silly to an outsider, but within the context of Amish history they are important cultural adaptations that have helped to slow the pace of social change and keep worldliness at bay.

The Amish seek to master technology rather than become its slave. Like few other communities, they have shown the tenacity to tackle the powerful forces of technology in order to preserve their traditional way of life.

more on the Amish