Shooting in the Amish school

[Whickerman]

Ok, I expect a backlash, but this is a genuine question. Allowing that the victims of the shooting in that Pennsylvania school were Amish, is it not a slight double standard that they used a telephone and modern ambulances?
Not saying whether i think it's right or wrong, but other faiths, eg Jehovah's Witnesses go to court to prevent potential life-saving procedures being carried out (blood transfusions being a case in point)

[rom]

I get what you are saying
but would it not be different in a siege type hostage situation? when your instincts kick in and you want to save your kids from being shot?
also not sure how strict they are compared to jehovahs, i mean jehovahs say that god thinks these things are wrong? is that what the Amish believe aswell? i am not sure
all i know is that it was a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to them all

[WaldoMcFroog]

Not all Amish reject things like telephones by any stretch of the imagination. There's a general overview here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5400 904.stm

Anyway, from how I read it, the teacher called the police, they would have arranged the ambulances.

[spudqueen]

I don't think that they reject modern society as much as we think. The Amish may not own cars but they do not mind someone giving them a lift in one, some of them even order taxis. Also, they may not have telephones in their homes but there are telephone boxes in their communities for emergency use.

[juddlinski]

'double standards'. Yeah, I bet that was foremost in their minds.

[admarlow]

well Im sure they still pay tax so they are entitled to use the services that the taxes pay for, i.e. police etc.

[sp1814]

Also, I believe that their rejection of modern life isn't based on religious observance, it's more to do with their way of life. If you live in a small community, you don't actually need the stuff that we can't do without.

Horrible news story. Really, really, really horrible.

[jno]

Yes, I think their objections to much of the modern world are to do with culture (and bad memories of oppressive societies they've lived in) more than with obeying scriptural commandments. I think they used ambulances but refused to go in police helicopters.

[mimififi]

If we all only used the roads for ambulances, fire engines and police cars and general emergency use instead of all the unnecessary activities we use our cars for, think how quickly we would see the police or paramedics in times of need and the speed at which they could get to us.

As other's have said, they reject modern living in a general way and to differing degrees from indivdual to individual.

I m just glad that the police did get there quickly. According to news today, what the guy had planned was far worse than what he actually did after being disturbed by the police.

I also think that it is a credit to Amish community that they did accept help in the extroadinary circumstance. JWs as you have pointed out, don't step down or act sensibly when the situation is dire, whereas the Amish community, while the intricacies of modern living are not their personal lifestyle choice, they had an extreme situation, and behaved sensibly and called in the appropriate forces. Not a double standard, just very sensible.