Amish Country: Lightning Rods, Faith, and Franklin
- Andrew Cross
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
More Than Buggies and Barns
Just a short drive from the buzz of Philadelphia, the landscape shifts. Horse-drawn buggies replace cars. Rolling farmland stretches to the horizon. You’ve entered Amish Country - an area often romanticized for its simplicity, but rich with complex stories of faith, resilience, and resistance to modernity.
Most visitors come for the homemade food, handcrafted furniture, or pastoral charm. But one of the most compelling tales we share on our private Amish Country tours involves a surprising clash between tradition and science - and it starts with Benjamin Franklin.
The Lightning Rod Controversy
In the mid-1700s, lightning was a deadly and mysterious force. Fires sparked by lightning strikes devastated cities, farms, and churches alike. Enter Franklin, ever the innovator, with his new invention: the lightning rod. By redirecting electric charges harmlessly into the ground, Franklin offered a revolutionary solution to a very real danger. Scientists and city dwellers celebrated it. Churches even debated whether to adopt it to protect their steeples.
But the Amish, guided by deeply held religious beliefs, approached the device from an entirely different angle.
To them, lightning wasn’t just weather - it was the will of God. Trying to deflect or control it could be interpreted as interfering with divine judgment. Installing a lightning rod wasn’t seen as pragmatic - it was seen as prideful.
Faith Over Fire
Even as Franklin’s invention gained acceptance throughout the colonies, many Amish communities chose not to install lightning rods, even on barns and homes in vulnerable areas. That choice wasn’t ignorance - it was theology. It was humility in practice, a deliberate refusal to assert human will over God’s.
Interestingly, this tradition still holds in some parts of Amish Country. While others have adapted to include subtle modernizations, some homes still forgo rods as a quiet declaration of spiritual obedience over physical protection.
The Bigger Picture
On our private tours through Amish Country, we explore more than surface-level charm. We talk about how one small invention sparked a centuries-long conversation about the limits of science, the reach of faith, and how different communities respond to change.
Because in a world built on slow living and deep conviction, even a bolt of lightning can be a matter of theology.