Don’t be fooled by the flowing white locks of his beard – Max Carter, director of the Friends Center and campus ministry coordinator, is absolutely not Amish. Though the values of the electricity-shunning sect inspired his writings published in the October-December issue of the periodical Fruit of the Vine, Max is a resolute Quaker. “The reason people confuse the Amish and the Quakers so much is because the Amish look like the way Quakers used to look like” Carter says of Quaker identity, one of the major issues he approaches in the essays.

In the seven short essays, Carter draws on his experiences taking Guilford students in his IDS 405 Communities class to Lancaster County, Pa. He focuses on issues of forgiveness, identity, community, boundary markers and “negotiation with modernity.”

He continues to take his Quaker Communities and Commitment classes on annual sojourns to Amish communities in southern Virginia and Iredell and Yadkin counties in North Carolina. These trips began in the early 90s and have continued since. Students split wood and help clean up the communities. Some have even helped to raise barns, but they focus more time on understanding the Amish way of life.

“It’s not so much work projects anymore as it is getting acquainted with the community and learning about their way life, their philosophy, their application of their principles” he said of student visits to Amish communities.

“I realized that they are just like us but a little more spiritual” said junior Brittany Varner, who visited an Amish community in Parkersburg, W. Va., with an FYE class. She described the experience as wonderful and the people as “extremely welcoming.”

The community is home to an exotic bird sanctuary run completely without modern technology. By capping education at the eighth grade, retaining a traditional German language, maintaining strictly uniform dress codes, and of course limiting the use of technology, Amish communities such as Parkersburg are able to keep a distinct identity.

Carter finds the clarity of Amish boundaries refreshing in modern society, where he sees basic values of simplicity, integrity, community, peace and equality dissolving. He feels some technologies, notably cell phones and the Internet, can demean communities by reducing human contact and isolating people.

“We ‘moderns’ tend to accept new technology without question” he said. “What we fail to do is to investigate what impact it’s going to have on quality of life – on core values.”

A simple walk through the quad or the cafeteria confirms the consequences of new technology. The clattering of keys and the trill of ringtones are rapidly replacing face-to-face conversation. Carter also finds that these devices tend to replace other core values such as commitments to simplicity and non-violence.

On the dissolution of simplicity, Carter says, “(In a) consumer economy, how do we respond to the terrorists? Go shopping!”

On popular culture’s response to violence, Carter says, “You gotta pack heat! Peace is for wussies.”

In order to address these woes, Carter espouses a probationary approach to accepting new technologies, rather than accepting them without discrimination. Despite this wariness, Carter believes that technology can be beneficial if approached correctly, and so does not shun it completely. Annual trips to Amish communities help to expand upon these principles and allow students to reevaluate how they use technology.