I love the paradox of this title. There is great complexity behind the façade of the simple Amish life.
Frequently I'm asked about the Amish Anabaptist heritage. Amish and Mennonite are religious cousins - both coming from this 16th century European movement. At that time, Anabaptism was a radical Protestant departure from the dominant Roman Catholic Church, where the bishop was both the secular and spiritual ruler.
One Anabaptist thrust was separation of church and state. "State" meaning secular government and "Church" meaning the assembly of the redeemed. Well, that didn't go over. Anabaptists were persecuted, tortured, and terrorized by Roman Catholics and some Protestant states.