[caseyohara]

This is interesting:

"This was a crisis. Without electricity, the Amish couldn’t store milk, and the church was adamant that Amish were not going connect to the local electric company. Finally a solution was found. It was decided that diesel generators could be used to power the refrigerators. This decision allowed the Amish to continue their tradition as dairy farmers without having to use public electricity."

So the Amish are allowed to use electricity, just not from the public grid? Generators seem like a weird loophole to their own rules.

[s1mon]

If you think this is weird, wait until you see the convoluted/clever things that some Jewish people do to work around the sabbath.

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/13/721551785/a-fishing-line-enci...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat_elevator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_mode

[flyinghamster]

> So the Amish are allowed to use electricity, just not from the public grid? Generators seem like a weird loophole to their own rules.

That depends greatly on the congregation. Each congregation sets its own rules on how to deal with technology. "Not inside the home" is a very common technological limit. Cell phones might be stored in a shed, fed by solar chargers, for use out in the field. A workshop might have electricity from a wind/solar installation or even a diesel generator, but not the attached house.

[userbinator]

If they are against centralisation, that makes sense; but then, unless you drill your own wells and refine the crude yourself, you're still getting fuel from someone else.

[labawi]

I think it's against against dependence. You can choose who you buy your diesel from, and you store a however big tank of diesel you deem appropriate. In stark contrast to a powerline.