How about if we update our images of the Amish?

Stereotypes begin with at least one element of truth -- or, perhaps, semi-truth. But that one element then gets inaccurately and unwisely attached to every member of a group even though that winds up making things look much simpler than they really are.

Any time you hear someone say or assume that "all (fill in the blank) people" think or act in a particular way, you can be sure you're hearing bogus information.

All of that sprang to mind recently when I read this intriguing piece about the Amish and how they live today. What's your stereotype about people in the Amish tradition? That, in terms of technology and modern conveniences, they're stuck somewhere back in the 1800s, right? (Sort of like what you see in this photo?)

Well, guess again.

Lauren Pond, the Marty Center's digital media and communications manager at the University of Chicago, writes that on a visit to Amish country in northeast Ohio, "what really caught my eye were the dozens of Amish men and women I saw tooling around on electric bicycles, often with children in tow. You read that correctly: electric bicycles.

"My disbelief inspired me to do further research and start work on a journalistic project about the Amish use of technology, through which I have learned that life among the so-called 'plain' people is far from simple these days."

You can read for yourself about her findings, but the central point is that Amish people and their practices come in a wider range than you might imagine. And they've been quite innovative about how to adapt to modern technology while still holding on to their foundational religious beliefs and practices.

What is it about your ethnic group, say, that people get wrong because they buy into stupid stereotypes? Or about followers of your religious tradition? In those categories, I personally deal with what people think (too broadly) about Swedes, Germans and Presbyterians. To say nothing of Missourians, who over time, have elected both Claire McCaskill and Josh Hawley to the U.S. Senate, just to prove our radical inconsistency.

Just as the Amish aren't all alike, the same is true of followers of any religion. But perhaps the larger truth to draw from this is that there are myriad ideas about who God is. And as soon as you think you have God fully defined and locked up, you can be sure you're not just wrong but really wrong.

The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians (4:7), said this (in the old King James version) about human understanding of divine matters: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 

That's a good way to think about what we think we know about others -- and what we think we know about God. We are called, in other words, to be what the late theologian and author Shirley C. Guthrie called "modest theologians." (And most of us have a lot about which to be modest in this field.)

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CONDEMNS ALL OF US

Hey, fellow Missourians: Did you notice what our state government did in our name a few days ago? Executed a man named Brian Dorsey, who, many testified, was rehabilitated. I hope all of you were appalled and have complained. About what? Perhaps this article by a death row pastor will open your eyes to the inhumane, expensive, no-good-results system of capital punishment that's still allowed in Missouri and some other states. And here's a recent column I wrote about another pastor who ministers to the condemned. Please let your voice be heard so we can stop this barbarity. Also: I just learned of an upcoming press conference at noon on Tuesday, April 16, by a group called "Jews Against Gassing" to protest Louisiana's use of gassing as an execution method. You can watch the press conference live when it's streamed here.

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P.S.: The annual AIDS Walk KC, to support the AIDS Service Foundation, is coming up on Saturday, April 27, and I plan to walk, as I have for most of the 30-plus years of the walk. I'd love your support. You can donate here. And thank you.