Wall Street Journal Article: Hutterite Colony Allows Technology -- for Work
A few months ago I got a call from a reporter at the Wall Street Journal who said that she was interested in writing a story about Hutterites and Technology... Mainly Texting..
We visited several times on the phone and her editors approved her coming to Montana a few Sundays back. We went to the colony where I was raised, and hence the story below was born...
This Story was written by Elizabeth Holmes of the Wall Street Journal and can be found on the front page of the Tuesday, September 4, 2007 edition.
View The Photos From The Story (Most of the people in the pictures are my family and the first little girl in the first picture (the really cute one) is my niece ..my lil' angel Chubba aka. Katrin)
Picture number 5 is good ole pops ... My Father... and NO he had no idea he was going to be in the paper. He does not like the idea at all but ah well, there is nothing he can do about it.
I would like to add that some of the people in this story, are upset with some of the personal information that is shared.... I personally think it is no big deal but unfortunately some people have blown this whole thing out of context. WOW! Big Surprise... lol.. (I know only a select group of people will understand what I mean by that and we will leave it at that)
One more sidenote: To those people who think this story is pointless, please focus your attention on the important things in life and not petty little things like a Hutterite being featured in the Wal Street Journal... Like I told my sis, "You have accomplished something that most people can and will never do in their entire lifetime, so appreciate your 15 minutes of fame and do not let the dream-stealer's and naysayers get to you"
--------Here is the story--------
For Montana Sect, Cellphones Send Mixed Message
Hutterite Colony Allows Technology -- for Work; Elsie Asks, 'How r u?'
By ELIZABETH HOLMES
September 4, 2007; Page A1
MARTINSDALE, Mont. -- Elsie Wipf lives a simple life, picking vegetables, sewing clothes for her brothers and sisters and butchering chickens. She also goes to church every day and knits slippers in her spare time.
That is, when she isn't sending her friends text messages, like "btw how r u 2 day."
The 35-year-old Ms. Wipf, who got her first cellphone three months ago, is a Hutterite. The roughly 49,000 members of the Anabaptist Christian group, living in colonies in the northern U.S. plains and in Canada, are related to the Amish. They strive to live lives built on faith and family. They grow their own food, make their own clothes and shun many practices of the outside world.
But unlike the Amish, who live mostly unplugged, the Hutterites embrace technology -- as long as they feel it improves their colonies. Farming equipment is allowed, for instance; TV sets and other entertaining electronic equipment aren't.
Now that cheap cellphones have come to rural areas, the question is being asked throughout the roughly 470 Hutterite colonies: Are cellphones useful? Answers differ. A colony outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, allows just five cellphones, and they are shared by 126 people. The Warden Colony in Washington bought its combine drivers Bluetooth wireless headsets to talk while tilling the colony's 25,000 acres.
In Martinsdale, cellphones are dividing families. Ms. Wipf says that she sent more than 150 text messages in the first two days after she got her phone -- much to the consternation of her father. His opinion matters greatly: He is the head preacher of the colony. "It's against our rules," Ms. Wipf explains.
Hutterites, named after Jacob Hutter, who was burned as a heretic in 1536, had for years banned conventional telephones. Many homes didn't even have indoor plumbing. But although Hutterites still speak in their own German dialect, their colonies have changed with the introduction of advances like tractors and automobiles.
Cellphones have had a different effect: The array of available devices with different accessories goes against the communal colony dynamic. Features such as cameras and Internet access -- which are banned or severely restricted in nearly all colonies -- open up a tantalizing window to the outside world.
"They can phone whoever they want," says a colony elder, "and have somebody pick 'em up and go places where they shouldn't go."
In this 48-year-old colony, 120 miles northwest of Billings, the 141 residents are members of the Lehrerleut branch, the most conservative of the four types of Hutterites. The neutral-colored metal buildings, including four apartment complexes, a church and barns for hogs, chickens, cows and turkeys, dot a small section of the 15,000 acres of hilly farmland. Each of the 29 families got individual land lines for the first time in November.
Cellphones began to appear here nearly a decade ago and have slowly made their way into the hand-sewn pockets of the residents. Between cellphones provided by the colony and those supplied by outsiders, a total count is hard to come by (it's somewhere between six and 30, depending on whom you ask). Just six of the phones are paid for by the colony; the rest are spirited in by residents.
Paul Wipf, Elsie's father, carries one of the colony-sanctioned cellphones. He uses it to do business. But Mr. Wipf, 67, says cellphones in his colony have gone "too far." They can be a distraction and -- of great concern -- a link to the outside world that makes leaving the colony easier. Mr. Wipf has yet to enforce strict rules on "illegal" cellphones or discipline users, because, he concedes: "I don't think we'll ever get rid of them."
The most obvious threat cellphones pose is to productivity. The sprawling farming operation turns out 19,000 pounds of milk to send every other day to Meadow Gold Dairies and tons of potatoes that it sells each year to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The fear is that more texting will mean less working.
Ms. Wipf carries her cellphone most days as she does her chores. She keeps it out of sight, tucked safely into the folds of her long skirt. Weeding a row of beets by herself in the 11-acre vegetable garden gives her a chance to get in a few text messages.
Over the course of a month, Ms. Wipf sends hundreds of text messages, occasionally exceeding her allotment of 1,000. Alltel Corp. is her service provider. She texts mostly within the colony but also sends messages to friends and family elsewhere. "She's constantly on the cellphone and not doing what she's supposed to be doing," said Mary Wipf, her mother, one Sunday recently. Elsie laughed off the jab as she jumped up to get a glass of water for her brother.
Cellphones also upset a social order that blurs differences between individuals. The Hutterites' communal lifestyle means everybody owns everything, and nobody owns anything. They wear the same garb, eat together in one dining room and live in cookie-cutter apartments. The colony elders distribute things by family, from handmade furniture to Haagen-Dazs mint chip ice cream.
To pay for cellphones not provided by the colony, Hutterites seek outside help. Ms. Wipf's cellphone, an LG AX-490, was furnished to her by a brother who left the colony more than a decade ago. Other women tap their ex-Hutterite boyfriends who have left the colony to earn money and live on their own. The beckoning oil fields, where many of the teenage boys go, pay as much as $40 an hour, according to one Hutterite. Typically, they come back to the colony after a few years to get married. Some of their new discretionary income pays for their girlfriends' cellphones.
The setup allows men to stay in contact with the colony and gives the women a peek at life on the outside. Rita Wipf, a colony resident, has such a boyfriend outside who pays for her cellphone. She sends more than 1,600 text messages a month, including a recent one to her best friend, Elsie Wipf (no relation), that read like a typical young person's lament: "[It] is so boring here at home." The 28-year-old believes cellphones are a natural addition to the colony. "As the world changes, we change, too," she says.
Men in the colony who want cellphones use work connections with non-Hutterites to get them. Several years ago, Mike Kleinsasser, the colony's electrician, grew tired of standing in line to use the community's only phone, tucked inside an elder's house. Mr. Kleinsasser asked an electric-company representative for one -- and had a cellphone within a week. "If you're a businessman, you have to have one," he says.
For teenage boys, cellphones can be a pathway to life outside the colony. Carnie Wipf, Elsie's 18-year-old nephew, watched many of his friends take off for the oil fields and, thanks to his cellphone, got blow-by-blow accounts of their adventures going to movies, watching TV and buying clothes. He knew he could have a job waiting for him and that he could make $22.50 an hour -- more than five times his monthly allowance in the colony.
So, last April, Carnie Wipf hitched a ride into Billings with other colony members. In town, he split from the group and said he would find his way back. That night, he used his cellphone to call his mother and tell her he had left the colony, with no immediate plans to return. Would he have left without a cellphone? "The honest truth, I'm not sure," Carnie said.
Carnie, whose late father was a blacksmith at the colony, cuts steel at a local manufacturer and delivers pizza at night. He misses calving and harvesting but finds comfort in his friends, all of whom are ex-Hutterites with cellphones. He uses his cellphone to call his mom every day. "She wants to know, 'How is life on the outside?' and I tell her, 'Going real well.' "
But he adds: "The grass is not as green as I figured it would be."
---------------- End of story --------------------
Additional Side Note: As a side note to this story. I pay for 4 of the cells phones that my family has. I started the Hutterite Store on this blog (still in infancy) to help pay for the costs..
My sisters are kindly asked to knit at least 2 pairs of slippers per month in exchange for the luxuary of their cell phones.... umm... they are a little behind right now with their knitting.. lol
We visited several times on the phone and her editors approved her coming to Montana a few Sundays back. We went to the colony where I was raised, and hence the story below was born...
This Story was written by Elizabeth Holmes of the Wall Street Journal and can be found on the front page of the Tuesday, September 4, 2007 edition.
View The Photos From The Story (Most of the people in the pictures are my family and the first little girl in the first picture (the really cute one) is my niece ..my lil' angel Chubba aka. Katrin)
Picture number 5 is good ole pops ... My Father... and NO he had no idea he was going to be in the paper. He does not like the idea at all but ah well, there is nothing he can do about it.
I would like to add that some of the people in this story, are upset with some of the personal information that is shared.... I personally think it is no big deal but unfortunately some people have blown this whole thing out of context. WOW! Big Surprise... lol.. (I know only a select group of people will understand what I mean by that and we will leave it at that)
One more sidenote: To those people who think this story is pointless, please focus your attention on the important things in life and not petty little things like a Hutterite being featured in the Wal Street Journal... Like I told my sis, "You have accomplished something that most people can and will never do in their entire lifetime, so appreciate your 15 minutes of fame and do not let the dream-stealer's and naysayers get to you"
--------Here is the story--------
For Montana Sect, Cellphones Send Mixed MessageHutterite Colony Allows Technology -- for Work; Elsie Asks, 'How r u?'
By ELIZABETH HOLMES
September 4, 2007; Page A1
MARTINSDALE, Mont. -- Elsie Wipf lives a simple life, picking vegetables, sewing clothes for her brothers and sisters and butchering chickens. She also goes to church every day and knits slippers in her spare time.
That is, when she isn't sending her friends text messages, like "btw how r u 2 day."
The 35-year-old Ms. Wipf, who got her first cellphone three months ago, is a Hutterite. The roughly 49,000 members of the Anabaptist Christian group, living in colonies in the northern U.S. plains and in Canada, are related to the Amish. They strive to live lives built on faith and family. They grow their own food, make their own clothes and shun many practices of the outside world.
But unlike the Amish, who live mostly unplugged, the Hutterites embrace technology -- as long as they feel it improves their colonies. Farming equipment is allowed, for instance; TV sets and other entertaining electronic equipment aren't.
Now that cheap cellphones have come to rural areas, the question is being asked throughout the roughly 470 Hutterite colonies: Are cellphones useful? Answers differ. A colony outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, allows just five cellphones, and they are shared by 126 people. The Warden Colony in Washington bought its combine drivers Bluetooth wireless headsets to talk while tilling the colony's 25,000 acres.
In Martinsdale, cellphones are dividing families. Ms. Wipf says that she sent more than 150 text messages in the first two days after she got her phone -- much to the consternation of her father. His opinion matters greatly: He is the head preacher of the colony. "It's against our rules," Ms. Wipf explains.
Hutterites, named after Jacob Hutter, who was burned as a heretic in 1536, had for years banned conventional telephones. Many homes didn't even have indoor plumbing. But although Hutterites still speak in their own German dialect, their colonies have changed with the introduction of advances like tractors and automobiles.
Cellphones have had a different effect: The array of available devices with different accessories goes against the communal colony dynamic. Features such as cameras and Internet access -- which are banned or severely restricted in nearly all colonies -- open up a tantalizing window to the outside world.
"They can phone whoever they want," says a colony elder, "and have somebody pick 'em up and go places where they shouldn't go."
In this 48-year-old colony, 120 miles northwest of Billings, the 141 residents are members of the Lehrerleut branch, the most conservative of the four types of Hutterites. The neutral-colored metal buildings, including four apartment complexes, a church and barns for hogs, chickens, cows and turkeys, dot a small section of the 15,000 acres of hilly farmland. Each of the 29 families got individual land lines for the first time in November.
Cellphones began to appear here nearly a decade ago and have slowly made their way into the hand-sewn pockets of the residents. Between cellphones provided by the colony and those supplied by outsiders, a total count is hard to come by (it's somewhere between six and 30, depending on whom you ask). Just six of the phones are paid for by the colony; the rest are spirited in by residents.
Paul Wipf, Elsie's father, carries one of the colony-sanctioned cellphones. He uses it to do business. But Mr. Wipf, 67, says cellphones in his colony have gone "too far." They can be a distraction and -- of great concern -- a link to the outside world that makes leaving the colony easier. Mr. Wipf has yet to enforce strict rules on "illegal" cellphones or discipline users, because, he concedes: "I don't think we'll ever get rid of them."
The most obvious threat cellphones pose is to productivity. The sprawling farming operation turns out 19,000 pounds of milk to send every other day to Meadow Gold Dairies and tons of potatoes that it sells each year to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The fear is that more texting will mean less working.
Ms. Wipf carries her cellphone most days as she does her chores. She keeps it out of sight, tucked safely into the folds of her long skirt. Weeding a row of beets by herself in the 11-acre vegetable garden gives her a chance to get in a few text messages.
Over the course of a month, Ms. Wipf sends hundreds of text messages, occasionally exceeding her allotment of 1,000. Alltel Corp. is her service provider. She texts mostly within the colony but also sends messages to friends and family elsewhere. "She's constantly on the cellphone and not doing what she's supposed to be doing," said Mary Wipf, her mother, one Sunday recently. Elsie laughed off the jab as she jumped up to get a glass of water for her brother.
Cellphones also upset a social order that blurs differences between individuals. The Hutterites' communal lifestyle means everybody owns everything, and nobody owns anything. They wear the same garb, eat together in one dining room and live in cookie-cutter apartments. The colony elders distribute things by family, from handmade furniture to Haagen-Dazs mint chip ice cream.
To pay for cellphones not provided by the colony, Hutterites seek outside help. Ms. Wipf's cellphone, an LG AX-490, was furnished to her by a brother who left the colony more than a decade ago. Other women tap their ex-Hutterite boyfriends who have left the colony to earn money and live on their own. The beckoning oil fields, where many of the teenage boys go, pay as much as $40 an hour, according to one Hutterite. Typically, they come back to the colony after a few years to get married. Some of their new discretionary income pays for their girlfriends' cellphones.
The setup allows men to stay in contact with the colony and gives the women a peek at life on the outside. Rita Wipf, a colony resident, has such a boyfriend outside who pays for her cellphone. She sends more than 1,600 text messages a month, including a recent one to her best friend, Elsie Wipf (no relation), that read like a typical young person's lament: "[It] is so boring here at home." The 28-year-old believes cellphones are a natural addition to the colony. "As the world changes, we change, too," she says.
Men in the colony who want cellphones use work connections with non-Hutterites to get them. Several years ago, Mike Kleinsasser, the colony's electrician, grew tired of standing in line to use the community's only phone, tucked inside an elder's house. Mr. Kleinsasser asked an electric-company representative for one -- and had a cellphone within a week. "If you're a businessman, you have to have one," he says.
For teenage boys, cellphones can be a pathway to life outside the colony. Carnie Wipf, Elsie's 18-year-old nephew, watched many of his friends take off for the oil fields and, thanks to his cellphone, got blow-by-blow accounts of their adventures going to movies, watching TV and buying clothes. He knew he could have a job waiting for him and that he could make $22.50 an hour -- more than five times his monthly allowance in the colony.
So, last April, Carnie Wipf hitched a ride into Billings with other colony members. In town, he split from the group and said he would find his way back. That night, he used his cellphone to call his mother and tell her he had left the colony, with no immediate plans to return. Would he have left without a cellphone? "The honest truth, I'm not sure," Carnie said.
Carnie, whose late father was a blacksmith at the colony, cuts steel at a local manufacturer and delivers pizza at night. He misses calving and harvesting but finds comfort in his friends, all of whom are ex-Hutterites with cellphones. He uses his cellphone to call his mom every day. "She wants to know, 'How is life on the outside?' and I tell her, 'Going real well.' "
But he adds: "The grass is not as green as I figured it would be."
---------------- End of story --------------------
Additional Side Note: As a side note to this story. I pay for 4 of the cells phones that my family has. I started the Hutterite Store on this blog (still in infancy) to help pay for the costs..
My sisters are kindly asked to knit at least 2 pairs of slippers per month in exchange for the luxuary of their cell phones.... umm... they are a little behind right now with their knitting.. lol
Labels: cell phones, elizabeth holmes, elsie wipf, hutterites, jerry wipf, martinsdale colony, text messages, texting, wall street journal article
posted by Jerry Wipf at Tuesday, September 04, 2007 | 19 Comments Links to this post
