The Hutterites (click here for pics)

One of things I love most about America is that it is a place of incredible diversity, both geographically and culturally. To many, the Mid-West is a region largely characterised by religious and political conservatism, yet, at the same time, traveling around, visiting bars and living life as a harvester, I've found there to be no shortage of zaniness.

This aside, everything closes on a Sunday for church in the morning which is usually followed by a buffet lunch with the family at one of the local eateries. It seems, for many people, regardless of how crazy you act during the week, you show up for church on Sunday.

I had a really interesting experience the other day, visiting a local Hutterite colony just outside of Faulkton. This particular colony has about 150 people and is one of about 120 in the US and about 500 throughout the world. Similar to the Amish and Mennonites they're of European origin. This Christian sect was started by a guy called Jakob Hutter in Austria during the 16th century. They hang onto a lot of this heritage, speaking high and low German.

In my ignorance, seeing them around town, I lumped them into a 'sort of Amish' category. Certainly they resist the excesses of the modernism, however, at the same time, they are not anti technology, as long as it helps them to further their self-sustaining lifestyle e.g. they had a huge mould to create cement walls for their buildings as well tractors for harvest etc.

They will do as much as possible themselves, making them incredibly practical. For instance one of the tractors we saw they built themselves rather than buying one new. We're not talking a little dicky machine either, the one we saw could have rolled off the John Deere production line this year. They school their own inside the colony - 8 till 5 six days a week until the age of 15 when they are taught a trade in order to contribute to the community. No one earns a wage. The money they earn through crops is spent on those essential items needed by the community.

Life for them is about serving God and others rather than furthering the individual self (based on a passage in Acts 2). They lead a humble lifestyle, best expressed through their clothing, which they make, the men generally getting around in long sleeves shirts, black slacks and suspenders and the women in long dresses which cover their ankles and bonnets. Fellowship is a major focus of their lives and therefore you won't find TVs ipods etc.

It's amazing to find a community like this in a country so well know for its excesses. Leading such a lifestyle would require an incredible amount of discipline and such a community has a lot of positive attributes (especially with regard to the service of others). However, this said, I think that problems can arise when people try to be so counter-cultural. I've heard that a few of the younger members secretly trade items with people outside the colony for things like ipods (one hopes they are happy within the community). I've heard that many ex-Hutterites tend to swing to the other extremes of life when the leave. There's also the obvious question about in-breeding.

It's raining today, hence the cultural lesson brought to you by Wheat & Chaff...I found my visit pretty interesting.